News Changes to Next Generation Academies

[Lore]

Statement: Update on NGA Concessions, Pre-Season Supplementary Selection Period, NAB AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft

The AFL has provided an update on Next Generation Academy Concessions, the Pre-Season Supplementary Selection Period and the NAB AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft.

www.afl.com.au

Next Generation Academy Concessions

From 2021, Next Generation Academies (NGAs) - targeting Indigenous and multicultural players - will be overseen by the AFL Talent Pathway program with support from AFL Clubs. As part of this change, the AFL Commission determined that the concession model for NGAs be revised to reflect this.

The following changes to the NGA concession model ahead of the 2021 and 2022 NAB AFL Drafts will be as follows:

• From 2021, nominated NGA prospects will only be eligible to be matched from Pick 21 in the NAB AFL Draft. All other players selected from Pick 41 onwards can be matched by their Club using their next available selection, while undrafted players are still eligible to pre-selected on the rookie list.
• From 2022, nominated NGA prospects will only be eligible to be matched from Pick 41 onwards by their Club using their next available selection, while undrafted players are still eligible to pre-selected on the rookie list.

This model allows for elite talent to be available to all AFL Clubs while still ensuring late prospects can find their way onto an AFL list and continue their relationship with the respective Club that has been supporting them.

A summary of changes can be found in the table below:

Round	Current	2021	2022
1st Round (Pick 1 – 20)	20% discount	No access	No access
2nd Round (Pick 21 – 40)	197 points	197 points	No access
3rd Round (Pick 41 - 60)	197 points	Use next available selection	Use next available selection
4th Round (Pick 61 +)	197 points	Use next available selection	Use next available selection
Rookie List	Any undrafted player	Any undrafted player	Any undrafted player

Statement: Update on NGA Concessions, Pre-Season Supplementary Selection Period, NAB AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft

The AFL has provided an update on Next Generation Academy Concessions, the Pre-Season Supplementary Selection Period and the NAB AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft.

www.afl.com.au

 

[The 747]

Or if JUH didn’t exist. Essentially it’s been scrapped because it just happens that one of the NGAs this year is top rated. I thought that was kind of the point.

Yes because when this happens it shows them (because the AFL are kinda dumb about things like this) that the system is not fair. Same thing happened when we got Tom Hawkins

26

Tom Hawkins

Age

35

Ht

197cm

Wt

105kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

5.5

5star

T

1.9

4star

G

2.1

5star

D

12.7

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

2.1

3star

G

1.6

5star

D

7.8

2star

K

5.6

3star

HB

2.2

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.0

3star

G

2.2

5star

for a 3rd rounder when he should have gone at 1, they changed the FS rule. Just be happy your club got the chocolates here.

 

[Northernsoul74]

Yes because when this happens it shows them (because the AFL are kinda dumb about things like this) that the system is not fair. Same thing happened when we got Tom Hawkins

26

Tom Hawkins

Age

35

Ht

197cm

Wt

105kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

5.5

5star

T

1.9

4star

G

2.1

5star

D

12.7

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

2.1

3star

G

1.6

5star

D

7.8

2star

K

5.6

3star

HB

2.2

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.0

3star

G

2.2

5star

for a 3rd rounder when he should have gone at 1, they changed the FS rule. Just be happy your club got the chocolates here.

All Dogs fans know we’ve lucked out this year.

 

[JasRulz63]

Benefits us by creating a level playing field? That just shows that the current system screws small Vic clubs then

You're equating an open draft with a level playing field which is not the case. Equality vs equity and all that. The small Victorian team with 75% of players from their home state is screwed more than the clubs with 25% of players of their home state?

When Brisbane were struggling at the bottom and struggling with retention, they still had to draft predominantly interstate players. When the Bulldogs were struggling a bit from 2011-14, they took 4 interstate players (none within the top 30 or so) and 24 Victorian players. If you can't see how that's an advantage to the small Victorian club, I don't know what to tell you.

 

[longdonkey]

Given how few first round picks these states produce, the clubs don't have many opportunities to draft first round picks from their home state, meaning the usually draft players away from their home state.

What do you think of an equality rule where teams can't take first home round picks from their own state? Means every club has to deal with the go home factor for all their first round picks.

Terrible idea - because some cities and teams are able to attract players and other find it more difficult. So you would have a mass exodus to Melbourne by VIC players after 3 seasons while teams like Gold Coast would pay big dollars to get anyone to play for them. Plus Melbourne clubs would find it hard to get enough players out side of Vic to join their clubs.

 

[Virgin Dog]

You're equating an open draft with a level playing field which is not the case. Equality vs equity and all that. The small Victorian team with 75% of players from their home state is screwed more than the clubs with 25% of players of their home state?

When Brisbane were struggling at the bottom and struggling with retention, they still had to draft predominantly interstate players. When the Bulldogs were struggling a bit from 2011-14, they took 4 interstate players (none within the top 30 or so) and 24 Victorian players. If you can't see how that's an advantage to the small Victorian club, I don't know what to tell you.

How does it benefit us more than bigger Vic clubs? Not seeing the logic there

 

[JasRulz63]

How does it benefit us more than bigger Vic clubs? Not seeing the logic there

My bad, calling it a bigger advantage for smaller clubs was my mistake.

What I meant was that the big clubs are more able to offer the opportunities lure players back from interstate so they're less reliant on the draft. Whereas the smaller clubs are more reliant on the draft (while still picking up players like Boyd), but being in Victoria, they are able to largely mitigate the "go home" risk by picking from Victoria without compromising on quality.

 

[Kwality]

So why is the AFL so unique with this issue?

It can only either be the AFL admin, the clubs or the AFLPA (ie the players). Or a combination.

I've been told WA kids from the bush are regarded as less likely to suffer homesickness (if they've been at boarding school even better) by a Blues insider.

 

[mike123]

So why is the AFL so unique with this issue?

It can only either be the AFL admin, the clubs or the AFLPA (ie the players). Or a combination.

The AFL is probably unique in this regard because more players come from a city that has a team they can play for and relative equality of said teams compared to other sports.

 

[eastfreo75]

Keep Father Son but rid of the discount.

If a club wants to keep tradition, then they pay for it.

 

[Kwality]

The AFL is probably unique in this regard because more players come from a city that has a team they can play for and relative equality of said teams compared to other sports.

Does that mean 10 teams in a very small State v 2 teams in the other 4 significantly larger States ?

i'd add the bastardisation of a draw to set the fixturing based on home & away, where home was a suburban oval & away in another suburb down the road.

 

[mike123]

Does that mean 10 teams in a very small State v 2 teams in the other 4 significantly larger States ?

i'd add the bastardisation of a draw to set the fixturing based on home & away, where home was a suburban oval & away in another suburb down the road.

Nothing to do with states, they’re essentially arbitrary lines on a map.

I’m talking about specifically cities.
Using pretty rough stats, the population of Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane is about 64% of Australia’s population so that’s 64 percent of potential players that can play footy for an AFL club in their own state. I’d imagine this stat is allot lower for sports across the world.

Mind you those stats were done quickly so I could have got something wrong.

 

[Kwality]

Nothing to do with states, they’re essentially arbitrary lines on a map.

I’m talking about specifically cities.
Using pretty rough stats, the population of Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane is about 64% of Australia’s population so that’s 64 percent of potential players that can play footy for an AFL club in their own state. I’d imagine this stat is allot lower for sports across the world.

Mind you those stats were done quickly so I could have got something wrong.

The States focus your mind on the issue raised :

For most in the AFL it's also just a short flight away, really only kids from WA but then it's the same issue for all other clubs with them.

So is it fair to say that the AFL is unique with this issue? It seems to be.

The next obvious question is why are we so unique with this issue.

Frankly its bloody obvious, no need to dazzle yourself with science.

 

[mike123]

The States focus your mind on the issue raised :



Frankly its bloody obvious, no need to dazzle yourself with science.

The issue was raise a few posts earlier on the chain

 

[Marc_Remillard]

The States focus your mind on the issue raised :



Frankly its bloody obvious, no need to dazzle yourself with science.

It's only a very small part of what's wrong with the competition.

Personally, i think it's the clubs, well, 4 to be exact. When you constantly give someone handouts they learn to need them, all 4 clubs have been constantly awarded with advantages way above the rest of the competition. They now expect it as their right. Look at Melbourne Storm, in exactly the same position by they don't care.

Yep, no need to dazzle anyone with science

 

[Marc_Remillard]

The AFL is probably unique in this regard because more players come from a city that has a team they can play for and relative equality of said teams compared to other sports.

Look at Melbourne Storm, how many of their players are from Vic? Less of a % compared to any AFL club.

Yet they don't have an issue with it

 

[danielG]

I’d like to see a Completely Uncompromised first round of the drafts maybe first two round.. no NGA, no northern academy selections, no father son selections, no FA compo selections, just give the clubs the best players to choose from.. after that allow clubs priority selection within their state perhaps.. also make the first round or two to be 3 year initial contracts and pay them 1.5 x later selections.. Get rid of all the bidding etc that goes on... it’s a horribly flawed system...

 

[Tippett2Goal]

So why is the AFL so unique with this issue?

It can only either be the AFL admin, the clubs or the AFLPA (ie the players). Or a combination.

It's undoubtedly the players, or a combination of players and the system.

From memory the exact comment from recruiter I was speaking with was "Vic Metro/city kids are soft"

Now that's a generalisation, but they had no issue with recruiting Vic country kids, or players from any other state (but obviously had a home state bias)
In the NFL/NBA USA kids go away for college, so are used to living away from home before turning professional.

In NRL there is a very different system kids are often contracted to clubs from 15yrs old @ $5k/yr + merch + training camps etc, and aren't drafted to clubs, so when they leave for opportunity it is of their own volition.

There is also a very different makeup of nationalities, with ~45% of NRL players having a pacific island (including NZ) heritage.

Melbourne storm do a lot of recruiting from country QLD, but look at this year even they have Josh Addo Carr wanting to come back to Sydney to be closer to family, so they certainly aren't immune.

Frankly I think you could get rid of the draft and let the salary cap enforce equalization, as the GWS/GC experience has shown getting early draft picks, just to be raided by Victorian clubs in 2 years when the draftee contract expires doesn't help the club at all.

But that's a completely different discussion.

 

[Cleric]

Get rid of all academies.
If we really want to make things 100% fair, the AFL should send the same amount of money to WA and SA for.Jr development per capita as they do in Victoria.
The fact that you have the so-called AFL looking after it's home state above others is wrong as well.
Let's also have a roving GF as well, just to take away home ground advantage for one state.

 

[mike123]

Look at Melbourne Storm, how many of their players are from Vic? Less of a % compared to any AFL club.

Yet they don't have an issue with it

The nrl doesn’t have a draft though so they have more flexibility when recruiting players. They don’t have an issue with it because it’s their doing.

 

[Savage Kent]

Had a proposal. I haven't read through all posts on this thread so apologies if this idea has been brought up by another poster.

No clubs have any academies and they are all AFL run. The AFL have a rotation program where academy members spend a bit of time training and induction at all clubs so the clubs are aware of the academy players and have a first hand look. Instead of being allocated to a club, all academy players go into a separate draft and clubs pick them in the same order as the normal draft. So there are two separate drafts, the national draft and an academy draft.

A benefit of having the two separate drafts is that bottom clubs can rebuild quicker without receiving any priority picks and impacting the main national draft.

 

[longdonkey]

Look at Melbourne Storm, how many of their players are from Vic? Less of a % compared to any AFL club.

Yet they don't have an issue with it

I think you'll find that clubs that are experiencing success don't have a large turnover of players. Look at Brisbane now, compared to 6 - 7 years ago. So I think your comparison is flawed.

 

[longdonkey]

Had a proposal. I haven't read through all posts on this thread so apologies if this idea has been brought up by another poster.

No clubs have any academies and they are all AFL run. The AFL have a rotation program where academy members spend a bit of time training and induction at all clubs so the clubs are aware of the academy players and have a first hand look. Instead of being allocated to a club, all academy players go into a separate draft and clubs pick them in the same order as the normal draft. So there are two separate drafts, the national draft and an academy draft.

A benefit of having the two separate drafts is that bottom clubs can rebuild quicker without receiving any priority picks and impacting the main national draft.

Although the NGA system of drafting is not perfect I think its Ok. The thing that should be changed is the system of Compensation picks and priority picks. In my opinion it needs to be addressed at the source and that is the free agency rules.
There needs to be mechanisms to have more players drafted to their home state and then better rules in place to allow some movement while giving the clubs some power in the process.
Players signing long term contracts and then clubs trying to move on players when their contracts are back ended is not on. Also high draft picks leaving at 21 and the club not having any choice but to let them go also is a massive issue.

 

[Kwality]

It's only a very small part of what's wrong with the competition.

Personally, i think it's the clubs, well, 4 to be exact. When you constantly give someone handouts they learn to need them, all 4 clubs have been constantly awarded with advantages way above the rest of the competition. They now expect it as their right. Look at Melbourne Storm, in exactly the same position by they don't care.

Yep, no need to dazzle anyone with science

I guess you are eluding to expansion .... I'd say the expansion decision itself was correct, but the execution leaves much to be desired, ad hoc decision making of which NGAs are yet another example; the AFL reacting to criticism from the Melbourne market.

 

[juddy_Like]

I’d argue the two destination clubs right now both reside in the sunshine state.

Its amazing what you can do when:
1. You get your sh1t together off field with good footy people.
2. Form a core nucleus of young, developing players that are hungry to win together. This is irrespective of where they grew up.

 

[Kwality]

I’d argue the two destination clubs right now both reside in the sunshine state.

Its amazing what you can do when:
1. You get your sh1t together off field with good footy people.
2. Form a core nucleus of young, developing players that are hungry to win together. This is irrespective of where they grew up.

Its how well you are able to keep them together, e.g do you give them games before they are up to it, to keep them, whilst they are being fed nonsense & money to get them home.
The player managers have real influence when the kids are not mature.
There will always be people arent happy away from home & family, others who thrive on the independence.