2nds Official Swans Academy Thread (Player News and Discussion)

[Callipygian]

Two potential aspects to outperforming:
1) who they attract?
2) how well they develop?
If I'm correct didn't some or all of the recent batch from GC board in Vic for their footy? The Ashcroft bros certainly have. Pretty sneaky.

Fair point. But we are taking players from the Queensland Academies in our men's and women's programs. They have a surfeit of talent. It's not the cream that I'm thinking of (after all, we have produced the likes of Heeney, Mills, Blakey in the men's and some as yet unproven talent in the women's) but the depth and the quantity of AFL-list standard players.

 

[Callipygian]

Queensland was a notably strong women's footy state well before the AFLW - that 2017 Brisbane team came in as basically their state side with Starcevich moving over from Qld high performance coaching.

They were the clear 2nd or 3rd state of women's footy already, in Div 1 of the national champs pre AFLW alongside WA and Vic.

That work started in the 1980s, you can read some history here:

Women made this happen - The development of women's footy in QLD

The story of how women's footy in Queensland developed and great, as a 'non traditional' footy state is fascinating.

sirensport.com.au

That is a fantastic article, thank you so much Arwib. It's also a very long article, and it's the first in a series of 3. The articles are co-written by the inimitable Gemma Bastiani. They are published on the Siren website which I have never previously heard of but which has been established by Gemma and others to promote women's sport. I have now subscribed to the Siren newsletter. I commend Siren and the articles to all who are interested in the evolution of women's footy or in supporting women's sport generally.