AFL jacks up Father/Son and Academy player costs

[SydneyRox]

EDIT: the 'go home' factor usually seems like more of a PR spin on a player escaping a club they don't enjoy. These guys are professionals and adults and should be able to adjust to living a 2 hour plane ride away from mum and dad while they make the bulk of their career money.
You rarely see players from successful clubs with opportunities etc decide that they miss their home town.

I dont think you can discount this AFEV, the lions got raped two years ago, with every player claiming homesickness or wanting to go to family as one of the reasons for leaving. Also if you could get paid just as much or more but live up the road from your family, playing for a club you most likely grew up supporting I am sure the choice would be easy!

I honestly feel sorry for the the other three clubs, who have been a little unfairly judged because Sydney have been so good at implementing the AFL's own rules.

COLA and the academies are AFL initiatives, not the Swans or the other clubs who use them. But because the Swans are a club that is well managed and has experienced success using these rules to the full extent, the other clubs will cop it.

A lot like when the Lions won 3 in a row, and had their benefits scrapped. (Oh my was Eddie involved in that as well??)

[Ringo]

Great to see the debate here.

Here is Greg Swan's response and remember he has ben involved at both Carlton and Collingwood

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-01-28/bidding-changes-kneejerk

How about at the same time the AFL address the issue of go home boys nominating the club they want to go to thus reducing their trade value. Surely they should clamp down on this as well. This also applies to other clubs as well.

I will use Karnezis as an example always nomintaed the Pies but that precluded us from negotiating a better deal with Victorian clubs.  Why is this so. All interstate teams have 2 clubs as well so why should not the club that put further development into the players be able to get the best possible deal.

My solution would be players nominate the state and it is then up to clubs to negotiate best deal.

And yes SR Eddie led the crusade to do away with our allowances as well

[SydneyRox]

yeah, good points Ringo. You cant cut off the access the northern states have without trying to make sure they are devalued again at trade time.

[AFEV]

Just to be clear I don't think it's the fault of any of the clubs, just that the benefits of the academies need to be dulled if the AFL ever intends to run a truly equal competition (obviously there are bigger roadblocks than academies, but it's a step).

However I also think the exodus that occurred at Brisbane was only in part due to players wanting to leave for home, the players were understandably not transparent about their motivations however that doesn't mean their given reasons were the real ones. A contributor perhaps, but an underlying culture issue and a desire for more immediate or guaranteed success would also have been crucial to each of their decisions.

As I mentioned, you see very few players leaving Sydney, Port Adelaide, Fremantle etc to 'go home', because the clubs are doing well.

This is a profession, money and success will always be more important, unless they are exceptionally mentally fragile - which clubs can (to an extent) measure prior to drafting anyway.

[Ringo]

But Afev why should they have the option of nominating a club. If they were at their existing clubs mercy to negotiaite the best deal for the club then some would think twice about leaving.

[JBs-Hawks]

Just make it that clubs cant talk to players, the player nominates his state he wants to goto. The clubs from thst state arent allowed to approach the player or manager they can only deal with the club until a deal is organized.

[SydneyRox]

There probably also needs to be some sort of accountability on the clubs bidding to make sure they dont simply jack up the price for the swans, lions etc to pay a premium for the players.

[Ringo]

There probably also needs to be some sort of accountability on the clubs bidding to make sure they dont simply jack up the price for the swans, lions etc to pay a premium for the players.

This will be a little hard to prove although anecdotal evidence suggests some clubs do this knowing that you do not want to lose the player.

[meow meow]

The go home factor doesn't just apply to players coming back to Vic. Dayne Beams anyone? He's better than all the players Brisbane lost combined.

The AFL should just pay for the academies and strip all rights to the players from all clubs.

[Ringo]

The go home factor doesn't just apply to players coming back to Vic. Dayne Beams anyone? He's better than all the players Brisbane lost combined.

The AFL should just pay for the academies and strip all rights to the players from all clubs.

Fair enough Meow but Suns had the opportunity to make a play for Beams as well but chose not to.

[SydneyRox]

The go home factor doesn't just apply to players coming back to Vic. Dayne Beams anyone? He's better than all the players Brisbane lost combined.

The AFL should just pay for the academies and strip all rights to the players from all clubs.

Plus, all the clubs havent just invested this year. These academies have been up since 2010, so ball park thats a $5million investment by the end of this year to develop players and the game, at this point there is one player the Swans have got for a bargain.

[nrich102]

If this is all so bad why did it ever start, and why did they let it continue.

It's not broken, don't fix it.

[JBs-Hawks]

If this is all so bad why did it ever start, and why did they let it continue.

It's not broken, don't fix it.

It is broken, thats why they are trying to fix it.

[Purple 77]

I hope they don't touch the Father-Son bidding, I think that is a cool quirk of the draft and keeps that club-family unity stuff.



I sorta think the academies should stay, mainly just to attract youngsters to the game, more so than giving the clubs first access to them.

I did feel like it was a little unfair Sydney got to steal Heeney last year, but I didn't have a problem with average players being turned out, nor would I have a problem if say, one of the 4 teams happened to be struggling, if they received an academy bargain.

Perhaps if Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane and GWS shouldn't have access to an academy player, if they make finals AND if an academy player was bidded on in the first round?

That's what I would vote for anyways, in my hypothetical world.

[AaronKirk]

Its clearly broken.

Sydney get the best player in the draft for nothing? How is that fair?

The money generated from all 18 clubs is invested into these academies, therefore all 18 clubs should be able to select these players.

If we keep defending an uneven draft that the Queensland and NSW teams benefit from then there is less chance of the lower performing Victorian clubs to reinvigorate and survive.

If the bullshower academy rules stay then for example why can't Essendon open an academy in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and then get academy access to all Calder Cannons players? Geelong get access to all the Falcons players, the Dogs for the Western Jets and Hawthorn to the Eastern Rangers etc?