Originally Posted by
dejavoodoo44
Yes, I agree with pretty well all that's been said above. That is, while there may be the occasional success story, with a kid who wasn't originally all that keen on AFL eventually being drafted, the real winners here will be the Victorian clubs. Especially the folks who by their incessant whining about the success of the northern academies, motivated the AFL administration to fix a problem that didn't actually exist.
To examine this, it's probably best to look at why the academies were set up in the first place. My understanding of this, is that there were two main reasons for their establishment. Firstly, it was to encourage kids to play Aussie Rules, in areas where other football codes have been traditionally dominant: mainly rugby league in NSW and Qld. And secondly, by boosting the number of kids being drafted from NSW and Qld, it was hoped that it would the four clubs from these areas would be less vulnerable to the return home problem; where a proportion of draftees only spend a couple of homesick years in Brisbane or Sydney, and then decide that they want to go back to where they were brought up.
So to me, both these issues are irrelevant when it comes to setting up academies in Victoria and the NT. That is, kids brought up in these places, already have every incentive to play AFL, as it is the dominant code. In Victoria, for instance: the media coverage is massive compared to other sports; the majority of people follow an AFL side; more juniors play the code than any other sport, and the attendance at matches is far greater for Aussie Rules. So if you're a kid with a bit of sporting skills, who has recently migrated to Melbourne, then Aussie Rules is the obvious sport for you to play if you want to fit into your new environment.
And with our code enjoying all these advantages, I don't think it's necessary for the administration to hand over a large wad of cash to the likes of Hawthorn and Collingwood, so they can do missionary work in areas such as Gippsland and Fitzroy.
I also think that the situation is just as silly in the NT. Perhaps the best way to comment on this, is to look at the Tiwi Islands being handed to Essendon. While some will say that this will encourage indigenous kids to take up AFL, I don't really see how. That is, Aussie Rules already does seem to be the dominant code. There is a very healthy and passionately supported local competition. The Tiwi Bombers play in the NT competition. And with Maurice Rioli, Michael Long and Cyril Rioli, it's possible that the Tiwi local competition has supplied more Norm Smith medallists than any other local competition. So once again, I don't think it's a situation where a Victorian club has to come in and convert the locals. What it will do however, is tie the Tiwi's best future prospects to Essendon. And with the carve up of the NT between five Victorian clubs, it now does seem to mean, that these clubs have been arbitrarily handed almost exclusive rights to many future indigenous draftees. Whereas NSW and Qld clubs will now have limited access.
And I don't think that this will do anything to fix the return home problem: in the case of NT players, there is no NT AFL club to return home to; while with Victorian players, Victoria already supplies the most number of draftees, so the Victorian clubs are already the ones who benefit most from homesick players returning home.
So anyway, I think the whole exercise is a reward to whining Victorian clubs, who will be granted cut price access to many highly promising juniors, in order to fix a problem that didn't actually exist.
Bookmarks