For all the criticism that the Swans Academy has attracted over the last decade, it's still yet to produce a premiership. In fact, 2024 is the first year that a northern team has won the flag since the northern academy draft access was established in 2013 and that became inevitable because we had a northern team playing another northern team in the GF for the first time. The northern teams actually have a poor 1-6 win loss record in grand finals since the northern academies were established. Plus, the team with less academy players (Brisbane - 3) beat the team with more academy players (Sydney - 5) on Saturday.
Brisbane didn't win the flag because they had a few academy players in their team on Saturday. They won the flag because they drafted very well with players like Rayner, McCluggage, Lohmann, Starcevic etc and traded in some very good players like Neale, Dunkley, Cameron, Ah Chee, Zorko etc as well as Daniher through free agency. Additionally, they got lucky with the father-son rule netting them Ashcroft and Fletcher, but that's just how it goes in the AFL and other teams have experienced that like Collingwood with Darcy Moore + the Daicos brothers so there's nothing questionable there for the Lions.
The stats suggest that the Swans can't be so reliant on their academy moving forward. They need to draft, trade and use free agency well because that appears to be the bigger factors when it comes to building a premiership side. The same can be said about the Suns who have had some academy success in recent times, but have no significant results to show for it and are now finally prioritising recruiting mature players from other clubs.
Brisbane didn't win the flag because they had a few academy players in their team on Saturday. They won the flag because they drafted very well with players like Rayner, McCluggage, Lohmann, Starcevic etc and traded in some very good players like Neale, Dunkley, Cameron, Ah Chee, Zorko etc as well as Daniher through free agency. Additionally, they got lucky with the father-son rule netting them Ashcroft and Fletcher, but that's just how it goes in the AFL and other teams have experienced that like Collingwood with Darcy Moore + the Daicos brothers so there's nothing questionable there for the Lions.
The stats suggest that the Swans can't be so reliant on their academy moving forward. They need to draft, trade and use free agency well because that appears to be the bigger factors when it comes to building a premiership side. The same can be said about the Suns who have had some academy success in recent times, but have no significant results to show for it and are now finally prioritising recruiting mature players from other clubs.
