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Thread: They are at it again. GWS under the pump

  1. #13
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    This whole debate comes up because GWS had the temerity to win one game fairly easily as the other team (Hawthorn) puts in a shocker, as all teams do from
    time to time. It shows yet again how Melbourne centric the AFL really is. And how little it takes to unsettle the natural order down there. You'd think GWS had won three consecutive flags. Right now, they are 4-and-2, a game behind us, a game ahead of Melbourne & Port. That is a long way from being a dynasty!
    It's not just onfield. Perhaps the Vics missed the story about the poll GWS did of their members that showed for 38% of them GWS weren't even their first team.
    My family and I are part of that 38%. We go to games out at Spotless because we want to watch footy when the Swans are playing away and there is no line at the bar.
    A dynasty? Might be a little while I reckon.

  2. #14
    Go Swannies! Site Admin Meg's Avatar
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    Unfortunately on this occasion Eddie does have a valid point. I agree with MB and RS above, the Riverina should not be an academy zone. The preferential drafting of Riverina boys, who have grown up surrounded by AFL development opportunities without need of the GWS academy, is damaging the raison d'�tre for the northern academies.

  3. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meg View Post
    Unfortunately on this occasion Eddie does have a valid point. I agree with MB and RS above, the Riverina should not be an academy zone. The preferential drafting of Riverina boys, who have grown up surrounded by AFL development opportunities without need of the GWS academy, is damaging the raison d'�tre for the northern academies.
    I flip flop between agreeing and disagreeing. The raw draft figures over the past 15 years or so indicate that the southern parts of NSW (including the ACT that some throw into the Riverina debate) have NOT been a hot bed of AFL talent. However, the sheer number of high quality prospect that have emerged from the Giants' zone last year, this year, and look like emerging in the near future, aren't really within the spirit of what the Academies were really setting up to achieve and they do put the development / draft equity balance well out of whack.

    I can even see why other clubs are miffed at the Swans getting Heeney and Mills in successive years, but it's too soon to tell if this is just a fluke or whether they are the frontrunners of more to come - "more" being not just draftable talent (which is one of the aims) but the absolute top end talent.

    I think the whole competition needs to take a long hard look at why such a vein of talent has suddenly emerged from the Riverina in such a short period of time since the Giants' academy has been established. It suggests an enormous neglect of a region for the previous decade and a bit.

  4. #16
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    I think the biggest problem is not Riverina but the fact that most of the kids go to a Melbourne school steeped in aussie rules culture and that GWS need not pay anything for their training.

  5. #17
    Go Swannies! Site Admin Meg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lwjoyner View Post
    I think the biggest problem is not Riverina but the fact that most of the kids go to a Melbourne school steeped in aussie rules culture and that GWS need not pay anything for their training.
    But are the two factors inter-related? A boy from Newcastle is not likely to go to a school in Melbourne where Aussie rules is the main game.

  6. #18
    Go Swannies! Site Admin Meg's Avatar
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    Andrew Pridham has raised the temperature by calling Eddie an intellectual pygmy on Twitter!

    GWS Academy debate: Eddie McGuire branded intellectual pygmy by Andrew Pridham

  7. #19
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    And to think I bought raffle tickets to help pay the wage of Paul Roos when he ran the Academy. Now that he has fulfilled his go home desire he falls into line with the AFL clique in Melbourne. What a change from a man who championed his team in 2005, and stood up to the establishment who claimed we played ugly football. To think he took up the job at the Academy, because he deeply believed in establishing/developing players/game north of the border through acadamies. Or did he? He has always been the master of double speak (probably, look) or hollow speak, and I have had great respect for him as our coach and his knowledge of the game, but he may be very well selling out his long held principles to become one of the love children of the establishment. Could his long term aim be to become a commissioner or higher.

  8. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meg View Post
    Andrew Pridham has raised the temperature by calling Eddie an intellectual pygmy on Twitter!

    GWS Academy debate: Eddie McGuire branded intellectual pygmy by Andrew Pridham
    Meg, what no one is saying about Hawthorn's loss is that they had a number of players out. What it did show is that their older players may be losing their dominance through father time and that their much vaunted depth may not be there. Hartung was to be their next dominant mid, but he was dropped for the game. Maybe they "retired" a couple of players a year too early.

  9. #21
    Never thought I'd be saying this, but Paul Roos has lost my respect.

    Going to the Dees for money was a blow, but I still respected him. This has just sealed the deal.

  10. #22
    McVeigh for Brownlow Site Admin RogueSwan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bloodsbigot View Post
    Never thought I'd be saying this, but Paul Roos has lost my respect.

    Going to the Dees for money was a blow, but I still respected him. This has just sealed the deal.
    He should now better. I can only hope the comments are out of context ... maybe?
    "Fortunately, this is the internet, so knowing nothing is no obstacle to having an opinion!." Beerman 18-07-2017

  11. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meg View Post
    Unfortunately on this occasion Eddie does have a valid point. I agree with MB and RS above, the Riverina should not be an academy zone. The preferential drafting of Riverina boys, who have grown up surrounded by AFL development opportunities without need of the GWS academy, is damaging the raison d'�tre for the northern academies.
    I don't think the Riverina should be in there either. But I'll be furious if this falls further towards another attack on the academy model more broadly - for as we have seen with Mills and Heeney, it is working and doing its job to bring additional talent into the draft pool.
    "You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."

  12. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by RogueSwan View Post
    He should now better. I can only hope the comments are out of context ... maybe?
    I don't know that Roosey has ever said anything in context.

    I have no problem with Roos going to Melbourne for money, but he may be better keeping his gob shut lest he be labelled a hypocrite.

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