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  1. #1

    Swans Academy Talent

    Here is an article that refers to Nick Blakey but is primarily about another promising Swans Academy player who is a year behind Blakey and has just been selected for the AFL Academy, Josh Rayner: Josh makes top grade for AFL Academy - sydneyswans.com.au.

    I can't recall hearing much about him but given the track records of other Swans Academy graduates who have gone on to the AFL Academcy (Heeney, Mills and Blakey is there now) it bodes well for another graduate to get selected down the track. I hope there are many more to follow, not just first round picks either.

  2. #2
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    He's got a decent pair of thighs on him for a 16 year old! It's good that the academy is finally producing some taller players of potential draft quality. The Lions have done fantastically well with tall timber through their academy (Andrew and Hipwood just for starters), and even the Giants have picked up a handful and passed in the draft on just as many.

  3. #3
    A big pair of mitts on him too holding the Sherrin.

    Josh could be the third draftee out of the powerful Willoughby/Mosman combine as a further indication that the heartland of the game in Sydney is really in the North and East.

    I'd be interested to hear of Barracuda's opinion of the draft talent in the three to four years below this year's crop which appears to be quite disappointing from a draft level whilst at the same time doing very well in the Academy series. Young Barling is yet another Willougbhy junior on the radar as well and is in Rayner's year.

    You'd hope that a good spread of draftees through the rounds will appear over time. We'll need to let the odd one go and I have no problem with that as long as we get the one we really want.

  4. #4
    Regular in the Side crackedactor's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by liz View Post
    He's got a decent pair of thighs on him for a 16 year old! It's good that the academy is finally producing some taller players of potential draft quality. The Lions have done fantastically well with tall timber through their academy (Andrew and Hipwood just for starters), and even the Giants have picked up a handful and passed in the draft on just as many.
    He looks pretty solid for a 16 year old. Can be a bit of a worry. I remember in the 1990s (I think) when Richmond choose Banik as number one draft pick. When he was a failure ,they conceded he was too big and strong for other 16 year olds, and that is why he dominated that age group, however as he grew older and other kids became bigger players, he no longer could dominant a game with his size and strength. Not that's a hard and solid rule as displayed by Dusty Martin.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by crackedactor View Post
    He looks pretty solid for a 16 year old. Can be a bit of a worry. I remember in the 1990s (I think) when Richmond choose Banik as number one draft pick. When he was a failure ,they conceded he was too big and strong for other 16 year olds, and that is why he dominated that age group, however as he grew older and other kids became bigger players, he no longer could dominant a game with his size and strength. Not that's a hard and solid rule as displayed by Dusty Martin.
    The late bloomers can often be the best but then again some players are stars from an early age.

    I would actually support delaying the draftable age by a year, let kids finish their education without the added stress of getting drafted. Not sure what the replacement would be, making the TAC, WAFL and equivalent comps go to Under 19s perhaps.

    The current system suits us though. We have stated that we are taking a "less is more" approach to our Academy kids in their final year of school. Now, I'm sure this is genuinely done with a view to their overall welfare but the cynic in me says that perhaps our kids realise they have that second pathway through the Swans and perhaps become a little less footy focussed in their final year of school and thereby fall down the draft order. Not that they become slack in their footy, it just takes a slightly back seat for a period.

  6. #6
    Rayner & Barling will be our best prospects for the '19 draft followed by Nicholas Brewer as well. Midfielder.

    http://aflsj.com.au/delahunty-rayner-selected-for-nab-afl-academy-3/

    NAB AFL Under 16 Championships - M.afl.com.au

    No Cookies | Daily Telegraph

  7. #7
    That photo certainly makes him look like a big unit for a 16yr old.

  8. #8
    I put this link in the trading/list/drafting thread but I'll add it here

    https://m.facebook.com/plugins/video...xt=0&width=560

    They had Rayner at pick 20.

    The top 20 as Future Stars put it:

    1. Noah Anderson (Oakleigh)
    2. Emerson Jeka (Western Jets)
    3. Matthew Rowell (Oakleigh)
    4. Hayden Young (Dandenong)
    5. Deven Robertson (Perth)
    6. Jack Mahony (Sandringham)
    7. Kysaihah Pickett (WWT Eagles)
    8. Liam Delahuntly (Coolamon)
    9. Jamieson Rossiter (Eastern Ranges)
    10. Luke Jackson (East Fremantle)
    11. Cameron Taheny (Norwood)
    12. Sam Flanders (Gippsland)
    13. Karl Finlay (Norwood)
    14. Mitch Fitzpatrick (GC Academy)
    15. Anthony Davis (Claremont)
    16. Dylan Stephens (Norwood)
    17. Caleb Serong (Gippsland)
    18. Jared Dakin (Launcestin)
    19. Dylan Williams (Oakleigh)
    20. Josh Rayner (Willougbly)

    Unsure who else is an academy as information about NGA's is hard to find

  9. #9
    Go Swannies! Site Admin Meg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boddo View Post
    Unsure who else is an academy as information about NGA's is hard to find

    Isn't it just. And to date very little publicity about the NGAs.

    I doubt many AFL fans actually know they exist. As an example, when I was in Adelaide for the Crows match I mentioned them to my relatives (some Crows supporters, others Port supporters) and they all looked blank.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meg View Post
    Isn't it just. And to date very little publicity about the NGAs.

    I doubt many AFL fans actually know they exist. As an example, when I was in Adelaide for the Crows match I mentioned them to my relatives (some Crows supporters, others Port supporters) and they all looked blank.
    And if you hang out on the Draft and Trading forum over on BF, barely a month goes by without someone starting a new thread whinging about why every club can't have their own academy. One Essendon fan, who clearly is fairly knowledgeable, commented that the Bombers are likely to get far more "hits" from their Tiwi Islands zone than the Swans have gotten, to date, from their NSW zone (in response to a fellow Bombers fan complaining how advantaged we've been to secure Heeney and Mills and how our academy will be an ongoing structural advantage to the Swans).

  11. #11
    Go Swannies! Site Admin Meg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by liz View Post
    And if you hang out on the Draft and Trading forum over on BF, barely a month goes by without someone starting a new thread whinging about why every club can't have their own academy. One Essendon fan, who clearly is fairly knowledgeable, commented that the Bombers are likely to get far more "hits" from their Tiwi Islands zone than the Swans have gotten, to date, from their NSW zone (in response to a fellow Bombers fan complaining how advantaged we've been to secure Heeney and Mills and how our academy will be an ongoing structural advantage to the Swans).
    The whinging part doesn't surprise me at all (but pleased to hear there is one Essendon supporter providing some balance).

    I've had exactly the same sort of exchanges on 'The Roar' a few times with posters complaining about the Swans' Academy. I've generally given up on posting comments there (waste of time, sadly not a true discussion site). But I will be back with a few choice comments when the NGAs' start flowing through with priority picks!

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by liz View Post
    And if you hang out on the Draft and Trading forum over on BF, barely a month goes by without someone starting a new thread whinging about why every club can't have their own academy. One Essendon fan, who clearly is fairly knowledgeable, commented that the Bombers are likely to get far more "hits" from their Tiwi Islands zone than the Swans have gotten, to date, from their NSW zone (in response to a fellow Bombers fan complaining how advantaged we've been to secure Heeney and Mills and how our academy will be an ongoing structural advantage to the Swans).
    I'm a huge fan of the Academy system as anyone on here would know but I also recognise that the system is for the good of the game first and foremost.

    The Academies first and foremost are there to grow the player talent and fan engagement of the GAME.

    With the two new teams the AFL needed to find an extra 90+ players ready for the AFL system. With an average player life of 4 years that is an extra 22 players of AFL standard per year in addition to what was being produced before. Quite a huge increase required for the quality of the product to not be affected.

    Now let's assume the wells in the TAC Cup, WAFL etc are being drained to full capacity. That means we need to find 22 new players a year from new areas which from my perspective are from one of the four following areas:

    * Non AFL regions - NSW from the Riverina up and all of Queensland
    * Minority groups that currently feel not engaged with the game (e.g Indians, Asians, Sudanese)
    * Areas that are massively unprivileged from a socio-economic view (e.g. they may be football areas but there are social and economic reasons that stunt football development)
    * Overseas

    Remember we are talking incremental here. Based on the drafting to date we are getting nowhere near that number of extra kids from the academies

    Point 1 is covered by the Academies. Now I suspect the AFL would like to keep the clubs out of it and fund it completely (thus not giving us any direct advantage) but they know that in the short to medium term for the Academies to work there must be a pathway to local clubs. If there isn't then they won't win the talent war for good young kids. So they have to give us that advantage which of course has been watered down (fairly IMO) but still is worthwhile. I also think the AFL recognised that the additional teams would place a huge strain on the new markets (as has been graphically shown in Qld as I believe the Suns have taken huge chunks out the Lions) and that the Academies needed to produce local kids for community engagement etc but fundamentally I think increasing the player pool is the main driver behind their existence.

    Ignoring Point 4, Points 2 and 3 are covered by the NGA imo. Now there isn't any real reason why the AFL couldn't fund these areas directly and there is no reason why the clubs should get access. But I think, and I am sure it is a minority view here, that I am happy for those clubs to have access to their zones, for the following reasons
    (1) They will be benefitting the game;
    (2) They'll be paying for it; and most importantly
    (3) it gets the other clubs off our backs re the Academies

    I'm sure there will be howls of protest on here re my post. And that's fine because I get the paranoia in here, but the only provision for the NGAs I'd have would be that I think there should be a minimum limit of investment so that, for instance, Essendon don't just use the Tiwi Islands as a recruitment zone. I also believe that they should be subject to the same points system as our Academy kids I actually think the NGAs have great potential to improve the game - one of the things we do not really grasp here in Sydney is what a elitist sport the game is in the traditional states. Go through any list and the vast majority of lists , waaaay out of proportion to the general population, are white middle class highly expensively privately educated kids. And when you look at who is actually running the game it becomes ridiculous.

    My point is that the AFL is in desperate need of some diversity and to me the NGAs are a good vehicle to provide it. And those of you on here that resent them because a Victorian club can benefit from them is really just as narrow minded as the muppets down there that want to our Academy torn down the moment they produce a decent player.

    Finally I don't think any of the NGAs have anywhere near the potential of our Academy zone.
    Last edited by Mug Punter; 14th September 2017 at 10:58 PM.

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