Originally Posted by
dejavoodoo44
Yes, Meg, I think my main criticism, is that I seriously doubt if they'll be doing much in the way of encouraging and developing new talent, more just claiming the talent that is already there.
My main concern is with indigenous talent. There's many areas where the indigenous population is over represented in the statistics. Unfortunately, these are mainly negative in nature: over represented in incarceration rates, infant mortality, preventable diseases, etc. However, one area where they're over represented in a good way, is in AFL participation. Currently, there are 76 indigenous players on the AFL lists, out of a total number of 812 players. This works out at 9.35%: which is something the AFL community should be proud of, since the indigenous population is 3% of the total Australian population. It's something of a testament to those players, officials and administrators of the past, who took a stand against racism and made a career as an AFL player, a much more realistic prospect for indigenous players. But with those already established pathways, I don't see why it's necessary for the Victorian clubs to get what are essentially indigenous recruitment zones.
To make my point here, I'll use the most flagrant example: the Tiwi Islands. Having seen the national coverage of the Tiwi grand finals that used to be on the ABC, it seems that AFL is more than just the number one code in the Tiwis, it's more like a religion. And the stats are interesting reading. The current Tiwi population is 2,600. From that tiny population level, the Tiwis have produced three Norm Smith medallists, in Maurice Rioli, Michael Long and Cyril Rioli. Yet now, under the sham concept of developing indigenous talent, any talented kid from the Tiwis is now more or less tied to Essendon, who gets to recruit them at an AFL funded draft discount. And it's similar in the rest of the NT, which has been divided up amongst Geelong, Hawthorn, Collingwood and Melbourne.
And it gets worse. When I said that indigenous players are over represented, that only applies to the states where AFL is the dominant code. In NSW and Qld, it's a different story. Of the 76 indigenous players, four are from NSW and one is from Qld. Essentially because rugby league is the dominant code and for years, it has been attracting a large number of indigenous players. So, if the AFL administration was serious about actually attracting kids who may not have been going to play the game, they should be investing in these two states. But no, they have given seed funding to all the clubs outside of NSW and Qld, to establish academies, whose major function will be to fix a problem that doesn't exist. While my understanding is that we fund our own academy?
And in this process, they've essentially tied promising talent to the clubs that they've handed the zones to. If this system was in place in the past, they would've been close to zero chance that we could have recruited Goodesy or Mickey O. And it probably means that in the future, the only indigenous players on the lists of NSW and Qld clubs, will be an occasional player that has been wrested away from rugby league and been put through our academies. Anyone other than that, in all likelihood, would have already been taken in the draft.
So to sum up, the AFL has given away cash, to solve a problem that doesn't exist, that will lessen the options of indigenous talent, and in the process, given a draft advantage to 14 out of the 18 clubs. In the areas where the problem might exist, the AFL has given away no cash, given a draft disadvantage to 4 of the 18 clubs and made it harder for them to recruit any indigenous talent.
Bookmarks