If the season doesn’t get delayed due to covid it should be
September/October isn’t the best time as far as exams go the combined stress wouldn’t be ideal for them, although, I guess most of the Vic kids who make the squads will likely end up on an AFL list.
I’d hope they’d select bottom agers and 19yos over kids who are unlikely to get drafted.
Very true, and that was one of the main reasons the u18 champs were held mid-year as far as i know.
With this, and with the u19s competition becoming a thing, I suspect we’re heading towards seeing the draft age change to 19.
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September, early October is actually fine as far as Victorian kids go. Actually better than the mid year dates when a lot of 1st Semester assessments are due.
Raising the draft age to 19 would be more of an issue;
There’d be enormous pressure to maintain your fitness at elite levels after leaving school, which precludes full time work, or even full time study combined with part time work.
So kids hoping to get drafted would be relying even more on their families for financial support.
Thereby narrowing opportunities for some kids & families.
Really hoping this doesn’t happen, robbing the likes of Rowell/Serong who where ready for senior footy as 17 year olds aswell
With senior football replacing School footy they’d also be earning match payments. If the AFL were smart they’d also turn the under 19s NAB league into a defacto Club based competition (without bidding rights) and monetize it allowing those 19yo to also receive standardised payments. Then the best kids might also get games and match payments from Senior VFL matches as well.
As it is, many draftees are also already graduated in the current system too and you don’t hear much about it being more difficult, in fact you often hear that being able to focus on their footy as an ‘adult’ helped their development in both a football and maturity sense.
Financially speaking if you were to pair up the money they made from footy match payments and fulltime work in some jobs (which football connections would aid) some kids may be earning more than they would from their first AFL contract.
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I’m torn tbh. Some are obviously ready, but I like the American college system where you get to see the best talent dominate for some extra time, obviously they should be reimbursed for that delay though. It enables the young kids to build their profiles too from an earlier age which will eventually be a ‘thing’ in Australia as it in in the US and the Futball world.
It would have been awesome to see Rowell competing against men in the VFL, which would be more likely to happen if the AFL adopted a Club based joint u19/VFL program. And don’t lie you’d have wet yourself if you got to see Rowell playing VFL as a 16yo.
It’s slavery. And the sooner it ■■■■■ off, the better.
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So you don’t think that the head coach of ‘volunteers athletes’ should be the highest paid public employee in numerous states?
You commie guerilla
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A long time ago the under 19’s were a valid unit known as the thirds in the VFL.
Congrats to my cousin Tom Demamiel who will make his NTFL debut for Southern Districts on Saturday
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WSPHU
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I heard this is a superdraft so If Merrett does want out we should finish last and take the 2 top mids.
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I heard that next years is the super draft?
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Father Son of Blitz
We’ve got 7 games against Adelaide, Sydney, Hawthorn and North. Even if we do pretty badly this year, there is very little chance of us finishing last. Or even bottom 2.
why is everyone so convinced that Adelaide are going to be ■■■■ this year? They won 3 out of their last 4 games and they’ve got a long history of bouncing back pretty quickly and even surprisingly at times.
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I think we’ll show a bit and win 8+ games tbh and I think Zac will stay. I was just making a silly joke 
I’m not sure they will be rubbish, but they may be. The last 3 games may have been other teams going off the boil and them being desperate, or may be an indicator of better performance. Hard to tell. They also lost Crouch, Hartigan and Atkins, although they did gain Hately. I think there is an argument they’ll be better than last year, but still pretty weak.
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No, it’s 2021 that is considered the Super Draft, 2022 I think there’s no meaningful data at all
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