Grassroots Footy in NSW

[Brave New World]

This could have been posted in a new ‘2025 GWS Giants List Management - Academy, Free Agent, Trade & Draft’ thread. Anyway the article shows that the ‘Northern Academies’, except for GWS, are doing very well. We have no male players in next year’s AFL Academy. The closest we got was Liam Hetherton from North Albury (Murray Bushrangers); perhaps some ammo for the argument of returning the ‘Border area’ to the GWS recruitment zone.

We did but did get one female player: Isla Wiencke from the Belconnen Magpies. Kudos to her.

AFL Draft: Willem Duursma, Zeke Uwland and Dyson Sharp headline 2025 AFL Academy squad

Chris Cavanagh

11 November 2024

News Sport Network

Victorian utility Willem Duursma will be vying to become the fourth sibling in his family to play football at the highest level as he looks towards his top-age draft year.

Duursma – who is the younger brother of Essendon midfielder Xavier, Carlton AFLW winger Yasmin and North Melbourne forward Zane – has been named in the 2025 Marsh AFL Academy squad as one of next year’s leading draft prospects.

Duursma is one of 28 players who have been named in the initial boys’ squad, which also includes some other famous names.

Zeke Uwland, who is the younger brother of Gold Coast defender Bodhi, is another member of the squad, along with Cody Curtin, whose older brother Daniel was drafted by Adelaide last year.

Gold Coast Suns Academy member and Melbourne father-son prospect Kalani White – whose father Jeff played 236 AFL games for the Demons – has also made the cut.

The top-end of next year’s draft pool is stacked with northern Academy prospects, with Uwland and White being two of four Suns Academy members picked in the national squad.

Highly-rated Brisbane Lions Academy member Daniel Annable also features, as do Sydney Swans Academy duo Lachlan Carmichael and Noah Chamberlain.

Beau Addinsall	QLD	Gold Coast Suns Academy	Burleigh
Daniel Annable	QLD	Brisbane Lions Academy	Redland-Victoria Point
Harley Barker	SA	Sturt	Mt Barker
Thomas Burton	VIC M	Western Jets	Point Cook
Lachlan Carmichael	NSW/ACT	Sydney Swans Academy	Mosman
Noah Chamberlain	NSW/ACT	Sydney Swans Academy	East Sydney
Samuel Cumming	SA	North Adelaide	Wentworth District
Cody Curtin	WA	Claremont	West Coast
Cooper Duff-Tytler	VIC M	Calder Cannons	Woodend-Hesket
Willem Duursma	VIC C	Gippsland Power	Foster
Louis Emmett	VIC M	Oakleigh Chargers	Glen Iris
Koby Evans	WA	Perth	Federals
Oliver Greeves	VIC M	Eastern Ranges	Vermont
Jasper Hay	TAS	Tasmania Devils	Clarence
Liam Hetherton	NSW/ACT	Murray Bushrangers	North Albury
Noah Hibbins-Hargreaves	VIC C	Dandenong Stingrays	Mornington
Matthew LeRay	SA	Central District	Golden Grove
Josh Lindsay	VIC C	Geelong Falcons	Newtown & Chilwell
Archie Ludowyke	VIC M	Sandringham Dragons	East Sandringham
Taj Murray	NT	Northern Territory Academy/North Adelaide	Nightcliff
Riley Onley	VIC C	Murray Bushrangers	Shepparton United
Dylan Patterson	QLD	Gold Coast Suns Academy	Palm Beach Currumbin
Fred Rodriguez	WA	South Fremantle	Fremantle City Dockers
Ben Rongdit	VIC C	Geelong Falcons	Colac
Dyson Sharp	SA	Central District	Barossa District
Zeke Uwland	QLD	Gold Coast Suns Academy	Burleigh
Wes Walley	WA	Subiaco	Warwick Greenwood
Kalani White	QLD	Gold Coast Suns Academy	Broadbeach

 

[Powkid]

A decent listen to Gerard Healy this afternoon on SEN Sportsday talking about grassroots footy in Western Sydney and the lack of success and players coming g from that region since our inception. Also discussions on our poor crowds and other issues. The full pod should be up soon (for 12/11).

There is a lot of blame on the AFL itself and less on that of the Giants organisation.



On SM-A546E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Brave New World]

A decent listen to Gerard Healy this afternoon on SEN Sportsday talking about grassroots footy in Western Sydney and the lack of success and players coming g from that region since our inception. Also discussions on our poor crowds and other issues. The full pod should be up soon (for 12/11).

There is a lot of blame on the AFL itself and less on that of the Giants organisation.



On SM-A546E using BigFooty.com mobile app

Link to Healy’s full editorial here:

Megaphone

 

[Bjo187]

Healy and Garb make some valid points but also some points which are uninformed. I thought sproule, stein and peatling were also academy players from western sydney, or maybe they are just from the area and not via the academy. He also misses the fact that Melbourne storm have had even less players from Victoria and they've been in existence double the time.

Also I think these guys don't realise that Olympic park is going to be a massive suburb right outside the ground, with near 30k residence in the future and the train line going from the city direct to Olympic park will also increase crowds. The club should be targeting primary schools close to those new stations along that line asap, but that's another point.

Overall I think the pressure on the afl from the Melbourne media to invest in western sydney isn't a bad thing though.

 

[dlanod]

Healy and Garb make some valid points but also some points which are uninformed. I thought sproule, stein and peatling were also academy players from western sydney, or maybe they are just from the area and not via the academy. He also misses the fact that Melbourne storm have had even less players from Victoria and they've been in existence double the time.

Peatling was Western Sydney and an academy boy but got recruited as a mature age mid-season draft pick, not straight out of the academy so isn't technically an academy pick. Sproule was from Albury, and Stein was an alternative sport signing, not academy.

 

[Andre the Giant]

Link to Healy’s full editorial here:

Megaphone

I honestly believe this is coming from a good place from Gerard and it’s very hard to argue with anything he says.

They need to invest heavily into the region, put a lot more time into the Academy and make a decision if this can work or we need to be a Canberra based franchise.

I actually think Canberra could probably work better, it wouldn’t change my support for the team and instead of being a Sydney afterthought we could actually be the main attraction.

That said if it is the latter we need to be given a very significant part of the border for our Academy allocation as player recruitment and retention would be a lot more challenging with metro talent (Albury and Murray given back).

 

[Bjo187]

I've said previously they need to head hunt athletes in western sydney from basketball and the likes and not steal them away, but show them there is an alternative for if they don't make it to the nbl or nba. They can play both sports at the same time, I'm sure there are heaps of young African and aboriginal talent to be engaged in the area, that might not even know the game exists.

They even do this in Melbourne. It's actually neglect sitting on your hands waiting for talented young sportsman to come to you, outta nowhere. Get proactive.

 

[Colonial]

Would be nice if they gave Western Sydney a full time team and a chance.

As I said elsewhere, add nauseam, pick a spot and own it.

 

[Colonial]

I've said previously they need to head hunt athletes in western sydney from basketball and the likes and not steal them away, but show them there is an alternative for if they don't make it to the nbl or nba. They can play both sports at the same time, I'm sure there are heaps of young African and aboriginal talent to be engaged in the area, that might not even know the game exists.

They even do this in Melbourne. It's actually neglect sitting on your hands waiting for talented young sportsman to come to you, outta nowhere. Get proactive.

Problem is that Basketball, League, Union, Football can all offer talented teens contracts and sign them up for their seniors way ahead of time.
With a draft we cannot.

 

[Bjo187]

Problem is that Basketball, League, Union, Football can all offer talented teens contracts and sign them up for their seniors way ahead of time.
With a draft we cannot.

That's true, but the people that make it to the top in any sport are like 0.1 percent of the population. If those kids were also in the giants academy at the same time, they could defer to footy instead if they didn't make it to the starting 5 of an nbl team. Or they might end up liking footy more.

A guy like mykelti lefau is a perfect example of this, there would be a heap of these 'potentials' in western sydney, if the academy was actually proactive in finding talented 13 or 14 year olds.

 

[Colonial]

That's true, but the people that make it to the top in any sport are like 0.1 percent of the population. If those kids were also in the giants academy at the same time, they could defer to footy instead if they didn't make it to the starting 5 of an nbl team. Or they might end up liking footy more.

A guy like mykelti lefau is a perfect example of this, there would be a heap of these 'potentials' in western sydney, if the academy was actually proactive in finding talented 13 or 14 year olds.

A young kid, a premium athlete, who loves sport, and has the opportunity to play professionally in multiple codes/sports, then he is going to go for the one that offers the most certain future with regards to what he/she is doing and the team ahead. AFL is well behind on that.

 

[Bjo187]

A young kid, a premium athlete, who loves sport, and has the opportunity to play professionally in multiple codes/sports, then he is going to go for the one that offers the most certain future with regards to what he/she is doing and the team ahead. AFL is well behind on that.

I don't deny that, but you're talking about an even smaller percentage of that 0.1 percent that have the ability to make it to the top in multiple sports and actually have the choice when the time comes.

Do you not try 20 good basketballer's in your academy, coz 1 might be good enough to make it into both the nbl and afl? So the other 5 that could make it onto the afl list are just never exposed to football, so end up stopping sport all together once they miss out on making the nbl?

There are barely any list spots for basketball players anyway, compared to the afl which has 18 compared to 5 in field and 18 clubs compared to 10, that's hundreds and hundreds more list spots.

Plus you have to take into account an nbl players average salary is a bit over 100k, an afl players salary is averaging 500 to 600k, so that's got to be appealing too.

The competition in basketball to make it to the top league is harder due to higher participation numbers in Australia and list spots in the Australian league being far lesser (plus imports come from America to play), this means it's likely 10x harder to make it onto an nbl list than an afl list, so there are plenty of talented kids that could be playing afl in western sydney.

 

[sydney_gws]

A young kid, a premium athlete, who loves sport, and has the opportunity to play professionally in multiple codes/sports, then he is going to go for the one that offers the most certain future with regards to what he/she is doing and the team ahead. AFL is well behind on that.

I think future earnings, based on their own perceived probability of making it would be key, also opportunity to play an international sport would also be a factor for some, the injuries you can get might be a factor as well.
If I was a talented batsman in cricket and a potential afl player, the longevity of cricket and international competition would see me choose cricket. But hard to get a cricket contract at 18.

 

[Colonial]

I think future earnings, based on their own perceived probability of making it would be key, also opportunity to play an international sport would also be a factor for some, the injuries you can get might be a factor as well.
If I was a talented batsman in cricket and a potential afl player, the longevity of cricket and international competition would see me choose cricket. But hard to get a cricket contract at 18.

Didn’t Cogs have an offer in front of him for a Cricket contract?