News Under 18 Football Competition Revamp - What's the Impact for GWS Academy?

[Giant Strides]

So, massive revamp to the Victorian TAC Cup comp, adding in teams from the northern clubs plus NT & Tasmania. These clubs/states unaware of the plan until recently (that never bodes well!). No detail provided - so will be interesting to see what transpires and how GWS & other northern clubs need to operate, and whether it's a fair model.

Overall, it may be a great step forward, but IMHO depends on how it is administered. In TAC Cup, the metro teams are much advantaged against the country teams, and I suspect for similar reasons GWS may be disadvantaged in this. Our academy kids are scattered across a vast area, and bringing them in to fly around the country each weekend may be problematic (much as they rotate coming into our NEAFL team). And that's the second big issue - we rely on our academy kids for NEAFL, so this may well destroy our NEAFL team's competitiveness unless we can institute something along the lines of the discussion earlier this year.

We will just have to wait and see.
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl...nior-football-revolution-20180817-p4zy1g.html

The TAC's 26-year hold on the AFL's premier under-age competition will come to an end this year as the game embarks on a junior football revolution. The league has engaged influential agent and TLA boss Craig Kelly to fully commercialise the under 18s as it moves towards a national competition and begins a transition into an under-19 contest. In 2019 teams representing Sydney, GWS, the Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast and the Northern Territory will take part along with the reformed Tassie Mariners. All of these teams will be allowed to field up to six under-19s in a bid to equalise the competition.

Under plans revealed to Fairfax Media, Kelly's TLA will re-design the staging of all the major football events held by the 12 Victorian elite under-18 teams in a bid to improve the quality of the less professional clubs' jumper presentations and best-and-fairest functions, as well as creating a national apparel standard. TLA will also oversee a revamped digital and social media platform with all games to be streamed live and more matches televised. Kelly has long told the AFL it has not fully explored the commercial opportunities of its elite talent pathway, nor run a fair contest given the poorer resourced country teams in comparison with metropolitan clubs.

As recently as Thursday, the AFL's northern clubs had been unaware of plans to introduce their academy teams into the previously all-Victorian 12-club competition. It is understood Sydney, the Giants, the Lions and Gold Coast, along with an under-age Northern Territory team, will learn the details in the coming weeks of a proposal to play six games each in their first season as part of the new fixture.

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

a proposal to play six games each in their first season as part of the new fixture.

So no chance of playing in the finals. Hmmmmm.... let’s invite these other teams to join, we just won’t let them have any chance whatsoever of winning it.

What’s the point again?

 

[dlanod]

So no chance of playing in the finals. Hmmmmm.... let’s invite these other teams to join, we just won’t let them have any chance whatsoever of winning it.

What’s the point again?

Do you really remember who won the TAC Cup last year, let alone five years ago?

It's always been all about getting drafted, and the more exposure the NSW and Qld kids get the better it is for them.

I think the travel thing is an issue that needs to be addressed (hehe it probably won't be) but getting these kids an extra six games in front of draft watchers is a great thing for them and a good thing for footy in NSW in general - more exposure = more draftees = more interest in AFL (and hopefully = more go home factor in our favour eventually ).

 

[fridgeman]

Until the structure is confirmed with dates it would possibly take away access to the academy kids for the NEAFL teams which I can see the clubs being against unless they change the rules in ages and numbers of non aligned players and then it could also effect the other clubs in the comp who pick up Ex academy kids
Just some of the possible negatives and playing cynic and conspiracy theory being that it is being designed by vics I am sure they will ensure they get the greatest benefit

 

[Colonial]

I've been an advocate for a national under 18s and reserves for a while.(its my usual argument regarding the southerners hate of academies)

So cant really see a downside here.

More opportunities for the kids in NSW and Qld is always a good thing.



Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

Do you really remember who won the TAC Cup last year, let alone five years ago?

No, but the kids who played in it do.

I remember every grand final in every competition at every age level I’ve ever won. (Admittedly, it’s not many, but still....) I’m proud of the achievements from a personal and team point of view - nobody else who wasn’t involved in the win remembers, why would they? But I/we do, and that, quite frankly, is all that matters.

What’s the point of entering a competition if you have no chance of winning it.

You play the games to get to the finals, you play the finals to get to the granny - that’s the motivation. Dead rubbers mean nothing, and are often played accordingly - and every game these kids play will be a dead rubber.

You know the saying - you’ve got to be in it to win it - we’ll in this case even if you are in it, you can’t.

 

[dlanod]

"Hey kids, would you rather have a better chance of making it into the AFL or not take part in the competition at all?"

 

[Giant Strides]

I tend to agree with Ichabod. The comp should either be full, or just omit the extra 6 teams and leave it as a purely Victorian competition. With the Div 2 championships effectively 5 of these games, would that be subsumed (i.e. just 1 extra game), or is it the champs + 6 games (in which case why not just play 5 extra games?). Need to see the detail - perhaps it will surprise - but at the moment it just smacks of being something primarily aimed at Vic interests.

 

[Determinant]

I don't mind the idea, but with some of the above reservation.
1. Do it in full or don't bother, all teams travelling
2. The academy kids have been a significant presence in our NEAFL team, learning our style, players staff etc
3. Those kids already play in front of our recruiters all the time, this is simply sending our talent to Melbourne so they don't have to travel to see the kids play, how VFL.