The Academy system really helps the 4 northern clubs.  Lions. Swans. Giants.  Suns.  They don’t have to rely on youngsters being in the right multicultural classification or where their parents were born.  

These academies are very professional setup.  Lots of youngsters being listed and developing strongly.  They are fully run under the clubs control. They are run and developed with head coaches and full time staff. For example , the Lions academy has” a team of seven full-time staff, four part time staff and 85+ casual & volunteer coaches, managers, physios, sports trainers, and strength & conditioning staff”. Brisbane academy covers Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and covers northern Qld through school board and development processes.  
 

In Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane, the NRL and Rugby scene is mostly dominated by young Polynesian origin boys.  Big, strong, quick. Powerful.  For boys who are more lean athletes or tall or short or who love AFL, it’s the AFL and the academy programs.  Brisbane academy has over 60 boys in each of the 13-14, 15-16, 17-18 groups.  

The big winner for the clubs … they have confidence that they can solely develop the youngsters & then they will have GUARANTEED ACCESS.  

This year Suns get Lombard (top 10 player) after they got 4 players last year within top 25.  Then they have more coming through.  Beau Addinsall is a gun and top 10–12.  Zeke Uwland is top 20 quality for next year.  
https://www.goldcoastfc.com.au/news/1384198/suns-academy-dominates-u16-all-australian-boys-squad

Footy is very popular in the Gold Coast. More boys between 8-18 play AFL.  Well above the other codes combined.  The 7 primary AFL clubs in the Gold Coast are very well setup for junior development.  Southport. Bonbeach. Palm Beach.  Surfers. Coolangatta. Burleigh. Labrador. AFL culture is very strong.  

Giants will get Logan Smith.  One of the best young ruckman.  They’ll probably hate to match around pick 35-40.  Next year they get access to gun Ryder Corrigan who is top 20 quality.  

Swans get Joel Cochran this year.  Again probably around pick 35-40.  He’s an interception key defender type.  Next year they get Max King who starred in under 16s and is top 15 likely.

Lions get Sam Marshall who just keeps improving and will be top 14-15 ranking this year.  Lions get Dan Annable next year who’s also top 9-10 draft pick quality).  There’s plenty more in the Lions prospects in the production line.  
 

The future is very bright for all 4 of the clubs and their academies  

Footnote … the Swans and Lions get BOTH Father-son and Academy youngsters.  Thats a bonus.  (Ps. They are both in the 2024 Grand Final). 
 

I think we are at the stage now where the AFL should be diluting the priority access that Brisbane and Sydney to players. Both teams are now well established in their respective cities and have been consistently successful. 
 I am OK to let Gold Coast continue as is as they haven’t a here’s anything yet and their academy is starting to develop local league players. However they should never have been given Darwin as a zone which was ours. 
Happy for GWS to continue to an extent as they need to make more traction in their market, however they should not have the Victorian Riverina as a part of their zone. 

55 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

The Academy system really helps the 4 northern clubs.  Lions. Swans. Giants.  Suns.  They don’t have to rely on youngsters being in the right multicultural classification or where their parents were born.  

These academies are very professional setup.  Lots of youngsters being listed and developing strongly.  They are fully run under the clubs control. They are run and developed with head coaches and full time staff. For example , the Lions academy has” a team of seven full-time staff, four part time staff and 85+ casual & volunteer coaches, managers, physios, sports trainers, and strength & conditioning staff”. Brisbane academy covers Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and covers northern Qld through school board and development processes.  
 

In Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane, the NRL and Rugby scene is mostly dominated by young Polynesian origin boys.  Big, strong, quick. Powerful.  For boys who are more lean athletes or tall or short or who love AFL, it’s the AFL and the academy programs.  Brisbane academy has over 60 boys in each of the 13-14, 15-16, 17-18 groups.  

The big winner for the clubs … they have confidence that they can solely develop the youngsters & then they will have GUARANTEED ACCESS.  

This year Suns get Lombard (top 10 player) after they got 4 players last year within top 25.  Then they have more coming through.  Beau Addinsall is a gun and top 10–12.  Zeke Uwland is top 20 quality for next year.  
https://www.goldcoastfc.com.au/news/1384198/suns-academy-dominates-u16-all-australian-boys-squad

Footy is very popular in the Gold Coast. More boys between 8-18 play AFL.  Well above the other codes combined.  The 7 primary AFL clubs in the Gold Coast are very well setup for junior development.  Southport. Bonbeach. Palm Beach.  Surfers. Coolangatta. Burleigh. Labrador. AFL culture is very strong.  

Giants will get Logan Smith.  One of the best young ruckman.  They’ll probably hate to match around pick 35-40.  Next year they get access to gun Ryder Corrigan who is top 20 quality.  

Swans get Joel Cochran this year.  Again probably around pick 35-40.  He’s an interception key defender type.  Next year they get Max King who starred in under 16s and is top 15 likely.

Lions get Sam Marshall who just keeps improving and will be top 14-15 ranking this year.  Lions get Dan Annable next year who’s also top 9-10 draft pick quality).  There’s plenty more in the Lions prospects in the production line.  
 

The future is very bright for all 4 of the clubs and their academies  

Footnote … the Swans and Lions get BOTH Father-son and Academy youngsters.  Thats a bonus.  (Ps. They are both in the 2024 Grand Final). 
 

Sounds very fair to the other clubs in the AFL.

Remind me who is in GF.

These advantages need to be peeled back now.

3 of those clubs are top 4 in the AFL and Suns have the list to get there. 

I honestly don’t understand why these clubs get a leg up with their academies. Much like the NGA’s, if a kid is selected under pick 40 (or whatever it is), clubs shouldn’t be able to match bids for them. I’m happy for the F/S rule to change to this too, in order to establish a fairer draft system.

These clubs opted to establish themselves in these locations, they weren’t told to go there. They should deal with the consequences of their decisions, both good and bad.

 

It's a complete rort of the system the way these clubs have built their respective lists.

We had to wait for our turn from 2007 onwards to build our list the old fashioned hard way without all the piggy back access to free agent American sport type shenanigans.

Geelong are the pioneers in this space, Steve Hocking was the brain child of all this.

Creating a path of free agency to benefit the club he left to take up the Manager of Football at the AFL.

Whilst in AFL HQ for 4 "influential" years he managed to buttered up officials and had significant influence on this current model to attract the catchment of Ex Geelong junior talent to come back "home".

Players picking where they go when they are still have 3 or 4 years to go on there contracts and the clubs get f all in return.

Now with the set up of these club acadamies brought in purely to keep them at the pointy end and keep those crowds coming back in those fickle Qld and NSW markets $$$.

Established clubs such as the Swans and Lions should not have had the sustained access that non established clubs the Suns and Giants have had over their existence.

In saying that the Suns and Giants have been given overs on numerous occasions to build the strongest squads going around.

So much so the Suns have taken our previous zone in the NT to further strengthen their already buldging player stocks.

It's beyond a joke now, it's pure greed by the AFL and letting the smaller clubs suffer in their boots.

The academy's are great for the game.

The perception of AFL in the northern states has changed significantly. NRL will always be king up there, but there are a heap of kids playing AFL as their second sport and when they realise they don't have the size to continue NRL they switch to AFL. These kids wouldn't have been drafted to AFL without having the academy's. 

It will take another generation before this solidifies to be what the AFL intended. 

In the meantime the smaller clubs will suffer. As mentioned by another poster, we are not Geelong with their wide recruitment areas. We do not play in front of big crowds and we don't even have a big modern training base (yet).

So yeah... Academy's are great for the game. Terrible for us.

They need to pay full price. Getting ashcroft #2 at 20% discount is a joke. Full price for all F/S, NGA and academy kids but also they're tied to the club from pick 1 unless the club passes.