Who cares if you went to school with him.

[tom_scully]

Why do so many people on this forum write stuff like "He went to my school/I played footy with him/he played at my school and he is a really good footballer".
News flash - If someone goes as a top ten draft pick, we know he's a potential gun.
- If someone is averaging 80 SC points per match, we know they have good skills
-In fact chances are if they are playing AFL they are a pretty handy player, we don't need your deep insight from the time you saw them kick a footy on the oval 5 years ago when you were in year 8.

[tferrier18]

Agreed.

Even the spuds of the afl dominate vfl so when you all talk about playing with someone at school and saying they were awesome its partly because the rest of the players on the field were dogshower.

As if anyone's going to get someone in their SC based on the fact that some random played footy with them in school.

Note: Some of the players that are being recommended, based on the fact that someone used to play footy with them, are actually good players. We're not bagging the players, we're bagging you people who are trying to make your claim to fame.

[CrowsFan]

Here is a great example:
I used to go to school with Tom Collier. We used to play footy at lunch time and he would dominate. But now struggles to get a game at Brisbane. I still think he is a good player, but wouldn't pick him in my teams

[Hawka]

haha

[hawk_88]

Why do so many people on this forum write stuff like "He went to my school/I played footy with him/he played at my school and he is a really good footballer".
News flash - If someone goes as a top ten draft pick, we know he's a potential gun.
- If someone is averaging 80 SC points per match, we know they have good skills
-In fact chances are if they are playing AFL they are a pretty handy player, we don't need your deep insight from the time you saw them kick a footy on the oval 5 years ago when you were in year 8.

Agreed, however inside information from clubs may be helpful, the problem being everytime someone claims to have inside information, people tend to be very sceptical. I understand why they are, however it doesn't make valid inside information any less valid. The problem with the anonymity of the internet I guess.

[tferrier18]

Agreed, however inside information from clubs may be helpful, the problem being everytime someone claims to have inside information, people tend to be very sceptical. I understand why they are, however it doesn't make valid inside information any less valid. The problem with the anonymity of the internet I guess.

I think you've missed the point of this thread.

[hawk_88]

I think you've missed the point of this thread.

I haven't, the main contention being that simply knowing an AFL player or having some close association with them, i.e. went to the same school, in no way makes you a better judge of their personal potential in an AFL context, especially from a fantasy football perspective, than any of the publicly available resources we use.

My point, supplementary to that, is that although that may be true, that does not mean that relationship is of no use. There is considerable information that could be very useful in a fantasy context that is mostly dismissed as someone name dropping, or as you put it, "you people who are trying to make your claim to fame", and to flat out reject any information based on this would be unwise.

[tferrier18]

Correct me if I'm wrong but you were talking about inside information though...? Inside information is very different to people recommending a player based on the fact that they used to play footy with them at school.

I do agree with you on the fact that it's hard to trust people on the internet. I guess in a forum environment it's a little bit easier, especially because of the culture within this forum. There are a lot of people on this forum who are more than willing to lend an opinion and sometimes divulge 'inside information', the trick is knowing who is genuine or not ;)

[Justin Bieber]

I have a friend going up for the draft next year or the year after :P.

I also have some inside information from the Hawks ::). Would of prefered Essendon but we don't choose where we live :P.

[hawk_88]

Yes I was talking about inside information. It is a supplementary idea, but hardly off topic. I was suggesting that a connection with a player (or even a club employee) could be quite beneficial which opposes the topic "Who cares if you went to school with them".

I went to school with a couple of current players, and although I didn't know either of them particularly well (in a class of 250 you aren't going to know everyone). One of them was Robbie Tarrant.

I knew that he has some shoulder issues whilst playing footy at school, and has since gone on to have 4 shoulder recos in 3 and a half years. Information like that might have stopped someone picking him as a rookie.

I also knew that Josh Kennedy had trained with the Hawks during year 12 and was going to be picked up father son (fairly obvious I know but I did know early). I also knew through word of mouth that he was very unlikely to get a game first year as they thought his deficiency was his endurance and pace and felt strong fitness training would be more beneficial than senior game time.

[Kazahkstan]

A couple of the fellas from the GC went to my school for a term or two. I didn't see them play footy though. ;P

[Alex7089]

Would certainly help though if you actually knew the bloke well and had a good idea of what he would be doing eg. playing or whatever and inside information but if all they did was go to your school, pretty easy to dominate school footy doesn't mean a LOT.
AFL is a completely different level which is why young blokes want to play there.
for instance I am related to Chris Dawes and a few years ago I went to see him play for Williamstown and he dominated, kicked 8 goals in a half of footy then broke his leg. I thought he was a complete freak future star. Now, he is good, but doesn't look as good in the AFL, because the opposition is better.
I just tend to ignore most of these posts especially when talking about unknown young guys.