Originally Posted by
unconfuseme
The exposure to NEAFL for Sydney AFL is a great concept that the AFL has stuffed from day one!!
Yes, the combination of the 2 AFL club academies and exposure to the NEAFL competition, will ultimately strengthen the quality of AFL in Sydney.
Most of the players who attend the academies or go to the NEAFL clubs will cycle through fairly quickly, and end up back in lower divisional competition. They are already bringing best practice coaching, training and conditioning regimes to their teams and clubs, a lot of whom have been stuck in a time warp for the past 40 years!
However, the whole premise of 2 Sydney CLUB teams competing in the next level competition was flawed from the outset. It is elitist, and does nothing to maximise support for the NEAFL. It is also detrimental to the structure of Sydney Club AFL.
Firstly, to think that the other clubs could retain ambitious quality players and stay stable and strong or better yet grow, was just fantasy.
This is naturally going to undermine smaller weaker clubs (see Campbelltown as a current example, are their talented u/18s who are being forced to play in a weak first grade side now, going to be able to resist the offers they will receive next season?)
The answer is two teams, equally funded by the AFL, closely affiliated with the Swan's and GWS and their respective zone senior clubs, with qualifying restrictions ensuring that they are made up of the best emerging talent from the clubs in their own pathways.
This could at least then be supported by ALL Sydney Clubs and supporters, and be aspired to by all players as a potential pathway to higher levels.
I would much rather see a 19 y.o. ex Penrith junior, who just missed being drafted, playing for say, ?The GWS Midgets" in the NEAFL, and likewise an ex St George junior with "The Sydney Cygnets" ... you would then see TRUE support for these teams from their grass roots clubs ... be buggered if I'm interested in watching SU play ECE regardless of who is playing for them, but I would go to support and watch the Cygnets smash the Midgets!!!
I'm sure it would also generate interest from the Swans and the Giants, as they will get a chance to monitor not just youngsters, but also mature aged players from their zone who may have otherwise "slipped through the cracks".
If these entities are not redefined, I reckon it will only be a few years and we will see SU and ECE fielding multiple teams in each division, and a lot more struggling one and two team clubs out in the suburbs who are forfeiting every other week ? I can?t see many of those supporters or volunteers gravitating to the ?super clubs? ? more likely to just drift away from the code!
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