Agree and disagree…
There is a romance in the history of these numbers, but at the same time anyone wearing 4, 5, 10, 18, 27, 31, 32, etc. has a massive hill to climb to qualify for the company they keep.
5 should almost be retired for a generation such is the aura of Hird.
And you’d have no reason to disparage Colyer in this context if he’d been running around in 34.
You’re not punishing them at all. They still have the same opportunity, just the draft age is raised. It would be a good way to weed out those kids who don’t have the commitment/motivation to play AFL too.
I’m good enough to spar with the big boys on Bomberblitz but my mummy says I’m not ready and only allows me to post on big footy.
It would be a good way to help give a leg up to those kids whose parents could afford for them to take a year off to focus on footy, get a personal trainer, etc, etc. Meanwhile some kid from a disadvantaged background doing shift work and trying to prove themselves on the football field at the same time doesn’t make it because they “lacked commitment”. Sounds perfect.
They’d go into VFL programs mate. Plenty of resources available.
How many resources do you think a club like Frankston, Port Melbourne, or Werribee have?
The VFL salary cap is about $250k a year for standalone clubs, with a 40 man roster. That’s under $10k per player. That’s not “plenty”. If they opened up a gap year for draftees, there would be private academies that would charge more than that for a six week course. Oh, you played for Port Melbourne while working stocking shelves? That’s cool, but this kid spent the year in an intensive AFL preparation program at The Chris Judd Centre For Kids Who Can Football Good, and Chris Judd said that’s the best junior he’s ever seen, and he wouldn’t say that just because he’s getting paid.
Money and access and opportunity is already a problem in junior football. The higher you raise the draft age, the worse it gets.
Essendon - kyle Reimers ???
best ever League - Adam Goodes I imagine
You are punishing them.
You’re effectively taking however many years off their AFL careers, and robbing them of the chance to spend their early development years in a fully professional environment.
Ed Considine says STFU
Then you offset by upping the salary cap, so they’re effectively not losing our on any more money.
You can’t ■■■■■■■ create e level playing field for everything. Imbalance already exists with kids who are at private schools because their facilities and resources are significantly better than country or public school kids.
Could also lose some kids to different codes as well if you raise the draft age, seems to be a lot of kids choosing between Cricket, Footy and Basketball
Probably best to get them into a more “level” playing field of being at an AFL club then?
I just don’t see what you’re trying to achieve. Plenty of players are ready to play afl football at 18/19.
Slow developers will either be picked up with a view to the future, or can play at a lower grade until they’ve shown enough for a team to want to pick them up. The MSD being a great chance for them.
It’s not just about the money.
Evans is about 30, looking at his dial, but his profile says 21.
I find it the argument of the clinically half-witted.
■■■■ you too. I personally think it’s good for the kids in many facets. Number 1, they can concentrate on their studies… because the reality is 30% won’t play more than 50 games and stay on a list more than 6 years. More to life than Football.
Haha. Can confirm he was playing for the “Griffins” not so long ago.
There’s plenty of arguments either way. In the end you have to draw the line somewhere, and given the rest of society tends to draw the line for about a million other things at 18, I can accept that’s where the AFL have drawn it. The Olympic sports tend to draw it at 16, with all of the implications of that. Forcing the AFL to 19, 20 or 21 would be at odds with society. The current system has defined pathways for 18yos, and the addition of allowing some 19yos another year of junior football would seem a positive for those who have a specific need. Forcing the entire cohort to wait a year would seem to create more problems than it would fix, in terms of transitioning kids out of the structure of school to a professional environment, but a less structured and disciplined version, at either state leagues or district leagues.