I don’t have the slightest doubt that the AFL invented the NGAs to distract the Vic attacks on the Northern academies. There had been no identified problem widely discussed in recruitment from the NGA categories before the NGAs were announced out of the blue.
The AFL knows the NAs are starting to bear fruit both in adding to the AFL draft pool and spreading interest in AFL in the northern states. The latter is vital to AFL revenue. And the AFL certainly don’t want to run the academies (as some Vic critics suggest they should do).
None of which excuses the very loose NGA eligibility rules when they were first established. The AFL implicitly has recognised this by tightening the drafting rules for clubs with NGA talent.
NGAs not quite finished but withering away.
AFL scraps top-20 NGA picks, new mid-season draft plan
Stripping the top 20 picks from the NGA cuts out the big advantage of the scheme. It's those obvious top level players going to designated clubs for doing next to nothing that was the annoying feature. Hopefully this doesn't end up passing through to the academy program, which would completely gut the academies. The AFL would have to take over the programs in that csse.
The timing of the reminder of the hamstringing of the NGA's, immediately after round #1, makes me wonder how safe from similar treatment the Northern Academies are.
As to what happens north of the Barassi line without the Northern Academies? The drafting wasteland that stretched from McVeigh to Heeney is a pretty clear demonstration.
Last edited by Ruck'n'Roll; 25th March 2021 at 09:47 AM.
Loose translation from the Latin is - I am tall, so I hit out.
Yes 10 goals from Swans Academy players in a single game, it gave the mouth frothers plenty to vent about.
Last edited by Ruck'n'Roll; 25th March 2021 at 09:47 AM.
Loose translation from the Latin is - I am tall, so I hit out.
Gulden and Heeney, and possibly Mills would have been playing soccer or Rugby. They would not have been drafted to an AFL club. The Northern academies grow the talent pool. The Victorian NGAs haven't done that. (I don't know Braeden Campbell's background, except he went to Knox. More of a Rugby school.)
Heeney would have been an outstanding 5/8th
Loose translation from the Latin is - I am tall, so I hit out.
A couple Academy kids have one good game against a team that was meant to beat us, and the entire state of Victoria falls apart.
They'll be going into a Covid style lockdown pretty soon just because Errol kicked a few goals. In Queensland.
The changes to the NGA rules haven't suddenly been announced this week. They were made clear before the last draft.
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