Why is he being interviewed at Whitten Oval?

He sounded a lot more enthusiastic when talking about the Dees rather than the Suns. He also sounds like his Dad. Fingers and toes crossed he makes the right choice.

Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central

VFL Player Focus: Kalani White (Casey Demons)

Nostalgia was in the air as Melbourne father-son candidate and Suns Academy member Kalani White made his VFL debut for Casey Demons.

He’ll be a Demon.

Kalani White (200cm) and Benji Van Rooyen (202cm underager) would be an exciting combo.

14 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

If he picks Gold Coast we riot

Its all gone borked. Like Obvs i am biased cos of Kalani but even David Rodan has a kid who is eligible for F/S with Port but is also part of Essendon's NGA.

They need to re-jig the system.

You've got NGA players who's parents played AFL football.

Then you got cases like Kalani and Luke Hodge's kid who are part of Northern Academies despite being F/S eligible. If Cooper Hodge choses Brisbane i'll feel sorry for the Hawks, and that's a sentence I don't type very often.

Surely having parents play senior football should rule you out of being eligible for an NGA?

Isn't the purpose to unearth talents from non-traditional backgrounds and pathways?

4 minutes ago, deanox said:

Surely having parents play senior football should rule you out of being eligible for an NGA?

Isn't the purpose to unearth talents from non-traditional backgrounds and pathways?

100%

6 minutes ago, deanox said:

Surely having parents play senior football should rule you out of being eligible for an NGA?

Isn't the purpose to unearth talents from non-traditional backgrounds and pathways?

The same rules don't apply to the Northern states unfortunately. Agree with David Rodan though, no way his son should be eligible to Essendon!

7 minutes ago, deanox said:

Surely having parents play senior football should rule you out of being eligible for an NGA?

Isn't the purpose to unearth talents from non-traditional backgrounds and pathways?

Yeah its definitely a leg-up on the comp those northern academies. They 100% should be scrapped. It is grossly unfair.

The argument that the northern clubs are trying to grow the game doesn't equate to "we get first dibs on all talent that comes through". Half those boys are playing in the VIC Coates league anyway.

On 14/06/2025 at 22:28, dazzledavey36 said:

First 3 quarters worrying?

The commentators said he was on limited game time for the first two quarters hence why he got significant game time in the last.

If Petracca or Oliver had an open forward line with 2 players open to run into goal demonland would go into meltdown. Kalani blazed away with no awareness. I want to back the kid but he is a long way off. His last term was fantastic

3 minutes ago, Wrecker45 said:

If Petracca or Oliver had an open forward line with 2 players open to run into goal demonland would go into meltdown. Kalani blazed away with no awareness. I want to back the kid but he is a long way off. His last term was fantastic

C'mon man you can't compare Trac and Oliver constantly turning it over to an 18yo string bean kpf/ruck playing his first game of VFL against men.

4 hours ago, Roost it far said:

He’ll be a Demon.

I believe so, too. Then we can finally kiss goodbye the whole Melbourne has a bad culture thing. Kozzie just recommitted, our kids don’t regret being drafted by us (and just as importantly… nor do their parents) and Kalani shuns the GCS in favour of us. Surely that’s more than enough to dispel the rumours of a bad culture.

2 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

Yeah its definitely a leg-up on the comp those northern academies. They 100% should be scrapped. It is grossly unfair.

The argument that the northern clubs are trying to grow the game doesn't equate to "we get first dibs on all talent that comes through". Half those boys are playing in the VIC Coates league anyway.

I can see a benifit for those father/sons players to participate in the academies as a measure to lift the elite standards of the academies overall, just that they shouldn't be eligible to then draft them.

Agree with those who think its plain stupid for the AFL to allow sons of former players be eligible for the Academy. In reality if a father has been listed by an AFL club even without playing a game the son should not be club tied. It's ridiculous.

Talk about compromised drafts. I wonder whether They will take Prasad away from us next year?

Edited June 18Jun 18 by manny100

6 hours ago, Wrecker45 said:

If Petracca or Oliver had an open forward line with 2 players open to run into goal demonland would go into meltdown. Kalani blazed away with no awareness. I want to back the kid but he is a long way off. His last term was fantastic

Shock horror.. 17 year old playing first ever senior game makes a minor mistake.

I thought that that father / son prospects were also eligible to be drafted by their northern academy teams as a way to make up for the fact that these expansion clubs were too new to have any of their own father / sons.

8 hours ago, DistrACTION Jackson said:

The same rules don't apply to the Northern states unfortunately. Agree with David Rodan though, no way his son should be eligible to Essendon!

How does he qualify for Essendon NGA??

14 minutes ago, Demonland said:

The article doesn't say this.

18 minutes ago, Flowergirl said:

The article doesn't say this.

Ralph done jernilism rally gude

2 hours ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I thought that that father / son prospects were also eligible to be drafted by their northern academy teams as a way to make up for the fact that these expansion clubs were too new to have any of their own father / sons.

Definitely not true for Brisbane and Sydney, but may have some legitimacy for GC & GWS. Still sux that we're potentially on the short end of the stick again.

15 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Definitely not true for Brisbane and Sydney, but may have some legitimacy for GC & GWS. Still sux that we're potentially on the short end of the stick again.

Bugger the "newer" clubs. SURELY the amount of stockpiled talent that they have been afforded offsets the relatively few father/son prospects that come through. Additionally, they will eventually be eligible for the same rules once they start producing progeny. WTF should they get to overrride the rules that they will be utilising in the future just because they haven't been around long enough to qualify like the clubs that have done the hard yards? It's like St. Kilda being anti the father/son rule. Watch them do a complete 180 backflip if Reiwoldt's 3 kids all look like being guns !!!

Hope Kalani picks the Dees.

Its going to be way harder for clubs to get the required picks if they have 2 or more in the Academy/FS category. Clubs however can go into deficit using next years picks.

Gold Coast have their own 1st rounder plus Port and the maggies 1st rounders. They will be pretty well set to match bids on their academy players. They have 2 players likely to go top 20 with another one top 5.

So they will have plenty of points if Kalani nominates them.

GC are well stacked for talls so he will start way behind. He would definitely be better off footy wise coming to the Dees.

Edited June 19Jun 19 by manny100