Quote Originally Posted by liz View Post
The AFL has created a bit of a problem for itself in respect of the Next Generation academies with its rationale for taking the Albury and Murray regions away from GWS. Gil's argument was that players in these areas already have access to existing talent pathway development programmes via the TAC Cup. It's hard to see how they can then justify giving the southern clubs priority access to players from a multicultural background who live in non-remote parts of those states, since these players also have access to established talent development pathways.

I am all for attracting those from non-traditional backgrounds to take up the game but I am not sure that an academy system that overlaps, geographically, with existing infrastructure is defendable. I also suspect (though haven't done an exercise to support this assertion) that if you lined up an All-Stars multicultural team against a NSW SOO team from current AFL playing stocks, the multicultural team would win quite comfortably (especially if you exclude NSW players from the regions now taken out of the Giants' academy zone).
Best example of this is the highly rated Tarryn Thomas from Tasmania. Aboriginal boy who already has a pathway and is allowed in the norf next gen academy due to his aboriginal heritage. Why is he allowed in the academy when their is a pathway already there and why is he eligible being from a large city and the WA clubs can't allow aboriginal juniors from their large city. Tarryn is expected to go top 10 easy. Google him and you'll see exactly what I'm saying.