Go home Factor - Choice of Clubs

[Ringo]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-11-01/let-clubs-call-shots-lions

Rob Kerr has raised an interesting point in this interview.  He rightly points out that Lions were hamstrung in the Polec issue with not being able to get the best deal as he only wanted to go to Port.

He has rightly asked should in the case of players with less than 2 years be allowed to nominate club as per current rules which states player must also agree.

I ten to agree with Rob here that if a player wants to return home and has only been at the club 2 years he has not earned the right to nominate club and club should be able to deal with all clubs in home state to get best deal to ensure reasonable compensation for 2 years invested in development.

[CrowsFan]

Well regarding the Polec issue at first he said he just wanted to go back to South Australia, he didn't mind where. The Lions then took forever to try and get a deal done with either side, so Polec said if they didn't get a deal done in a week he would select a club. Lions still stalled so he chose one. Their own fault really.

[nrich102]

No they shouldn't. The club deserves to get the best deal, as long as they're trading them to the right state.

[Master Q]

Most second year players have played a handful of games and have hardly proven their worth as AFL players. No way should they be able to nominate a club...

[Mailman the 2nd]

Of course they should be able to choose where they want to go. It's absolutely silly to say otherwise.

The main issue is that players don't want to play in Queensland. Like NSW there's very little AFL culture. You can't blame the kids for that.

Brisbane needs to find away so that they can prove to be a stable football club (i.e. not just throw money away like the last 20 years) and get genuine interest in the state.

[Ziplock]

Of course they should be able to choose where they want to go. It's absolutely silly to say otherwise.

The main issue is that players don't want to play in Queensland. Like NSW there's very little AFL culture. You can't blame the kids for that.

Brisbane needs to find away so that they can prove to be a stable football club (i.e. not just throw money away like the last 20 years) and get genuine interest in the state.

it's not a question about culture which is why these kids are leaving, there are probably the same ratio of guys leavining melbourne/ western australian/ adelaide clubs as there are nsw/ ql clubs, the issue is that there's no kids coming back to QL/ NSW  because we're not producing large numbers of afl players. We're not going to increase the onfield success of our non afl state teams either if they keep losing first and 2nd round draft picks in droves, like brisbane have, and without increasing the onfield success, you're not going to increase the number of afl players these clubs are producing.

It's probably not as a big of a problem for sydney/gws, since sydney's a pretty awesome city, but for up in queensland, where it's significantly smaller...

[Mailman the 2nd]

So what's the point of disallowing players to nominate a club of choice then Zip? One might as well just prohibit young players from leaving their club at all.

Gold Coast lost very few players (Caddy is only one i can think of) because they actually managed to put confidence in their younger players to the club.

Brisbane has been all over the place, why give all clubs bargaining power over their players when one club is failing to do so? I can't see any logic in it

[Ringo]

Well regarding the Polec issue at first he said he just wanted to go back to South Australia, he didn't mind where. The Lions then took forever to try and get a deal done with either side, so Polec said if they didn't get a deal done in a week he would select a club. Lions still stalled so he chose one. Their own fault really.

I know negotiations went on trying to get him to either club but the issue was no Adelaide Players wanted to move to Brisbane and Crows did not have high draft picks to compensate.  Port knew this so accordingly played hard ball as well offering only 3rd round selections so was a stalemate. Even tried a 3rd club to try and get him to Crows but ran into trouble there as well. Although he only stated in the last week that Port was his preferred it was always in his mind that Port would be his choice. Bear in mind the AFL rules state players must be agreeable to trade as well so in effect in all these situations players hold the upper hand which imo young players who have only given 2 years service should not.

[Ringo]

So what's the point of disallowing players to nominate a club of choice then Zip? One might as well just prohibit young players from leaving their club at all.

Gold Coast lost very few players (Caddy is only one i can think of) because they actually managed to put confidence in their younger players to the club.

Brisbane has been all over the place, why give all clubs bargaining power over their players when one club is failing to do so? I can't see any logic in it

Just missing the point here is why if a player wants to return to Melbourne can not Brisbane not negotiate the best deal from the 10 clubs and this is binding on the player.  If the real reason is go home then they are in Melbourne and that should suffice not be allowed to pick and choose ala Longer who initially nominated Hawthorn and then changed mind to Saints. If Brisbane had negotiated a better deal with Melbourne say why should he not be made to accept that offer,.
Know Brisbane has had problems and this is the first year we have had the number wanting to go home but why should they have the option of chosing club/

[strikes91]

still don't understand that someone would leave QLD and go to SA

[Mailman the 2nd]

So what's the point of disallowing players to nominate a club of choice then Zip? One might as well just prohibit young players from leaving their club at all.

Gold Coast lost very few players (Caddy is only one i can think of) because they actually managed to put confidence in their younger players to the club.

Brisbane has been all over the place, why give all clubs bargaining power over their players when one club is failing to do so? I can't see any logic in it

Just missing the point here is why if a player wants to return to Melbourne can not Brisbane not negotiate the best deal from the 10 clubs and this is binding on the player.  If the real reason is go home then they are in Melbourne and that should suffice not be allowed to pick and choose ala Longer who initially nominated Hawthorn and then changed mind to Saints. If Brisbane had negotiated a better deal with Melbourne say why should he not be made to accept that offer,.
Know Brisbane has had problems and this is the first year we have had the number wanting to go home but why should they have the option of chosing club/

But Ringo, Kerr is proposing a change to all 18 clubs that only one has an issue with doesn't really work.

When a club has issues that makes players want to leave, why should they decide where and what they go for?

[GoLions]

So what's the point of disallowing players to nominate a club of choice then Zip? One might as well just prohibit young players from leaving their club at all.

Gold Coast lost very few players (Caddy is only one i can think of) because they actually managed to put confidence in their younger players to the club.

Brisbane has been all over the place, why give all clubs bargaining power over their players when one club is failing to do so? I can't see any logic in it

Just missing the point here is why if a player wants to return to Melbourne can not Brisbane not negotiate the best deal from the 10 clubs and this is binding on the player.  If the real reason is go home then they are in Melbourne and that should suffice not be allowed to pick and choose ala Longer who initially nominated Hawthorn and then changed mind to Saints. If Brisbane had negotiated a better deal with Melbourne say why should he not be made to accept that offer,.
Know Brisbane has had problems and this is the first year we have had the number wanting to go home but why should they have the option of chosing club/

But Ringo, Kerr is proposing a change to all 18 clubs that only one has an issue with doesn't really work.

When a club has issues that makes players want to leave, why should they decide where and what they go for?

It's hardly going to affect Victorian clubs, as if their players wish to go home, there is only 2 clubs to deal with. For the interstate clubs however, if a young player wants to return home to Melbourne, there is 10 potential clubs to deal with, and it is unfair if they are allowed to nominate the 1 club, putting the interstate team at a disadvantage.
And as Zip mentioned before, because Queensland and NSW don't produce a lot of players, no-one really wishes to go home to them, so we're losing a lot more than we're gaining.

Basically, if you want to go home, you shouldn't give two showers which club you end up at, as long as it's in your state.

[Ringo]

Has been an issue for GWS this year with players wanting to return to Melbourne. 

The last point is Club in this year has invested 2 years into their development so why should the club not to want to get the best return on their investment. Good Business sense. maybe rule should be introduced for the non AFL dominant States Qld and NSW.  As Zip says we rarely get players drafted wanting to return to Qld once they have tasted AFL in Melbourne.  Can name quite a few Qlders under 24 who have been drafted to Melbourne clubs in the last 3 years,
Brisbane have been doing research on why players are leaving and some of the reasons are players have higher expectations on themselves than is the real. Of the 5 that left really only Longer would have been ensure a place in Brisbanes best 22 this year. Others were being developed for future like most other clubs. (How many clubs have their high draft picks from 2011 and 2012 currently playing continually). Being a Non afl town this fuels the go home factor.  Remember it has been an issue for a while starting with Buckley dictating a return to Collingwood after being drafted.

[Mailman the 2nd]

I can fully understand and empathise frustration at players not wanting to come to the club but Sydney and Brisbane have been coping with this without that much issue for a while now.

What's changed? A bunch of kids at one time want to leave one club, there's obviously an underlying motive behind it that gives them some reason.

Basically, it's natural for the players to want to return home, but for 5 odd young guys at one time? You can only lay blame with the officials of Brisbane for that one I'm sorry.

Buckley got absolutely shafted returning to Collingwood lol.

[Ziplock]

basically, I don't think that the current system can be adequately changed without potentially flowering over huge numbers of players. I really think brisbane (and gc when their expansion concessions end) should be given a % cap increase (like 5-7%) in order to retain these players. Money talks, and I think if  they'd been able to offer players like longer/docherty/polec an extra 200k a year, they wouldn't have left.

The worst thing is that atm it's only really an issue for brisbane- sydney have the cost of living increase, gws/gc the expansion club increase, the WA/SA/VIC have as many kids coming back as leaving (in general).