Interesting video, and I wont comment on the guy involved other than say “Get a hair cut Miro”. But the ambition is sound, but I think the execution is way off. Surely he should be lobbying the AFL to expand upon the international rookie rule that exists for the Irish; that is they can be signed directly to a list as a Category B and not have to go through a draft.
International rookies have yielded success before - Kennelly, Hanley but I guess the difference there is that in their formative years they had experience running and kicking with the ball. Ex NFL players don;t have this background. But what they do have that is particularly unique is some high end athletic talent, and some of their athleticism blows our guys out of the water.
Nic Natanui constantly gets smoke blown up his backside about his vertical leap, and how he holds the record at the Draft camp. There are two leap tests at the draft camp, the standing vertical and the running leap. His vertical leap was 78cm (not the record) but his running vertical leap was measured at 102 cm. Now lets compare NicNat to NFL combine test results. Chris Conley has a "standing vertical leap of 114 cm … that’s right, his standing vertical leap is higher than NicNats running vertical leap. Chris is 6 foot 2. OK, he is a top end talent and had a few years college training and workouts on Natanui, and he was also drafted to the NFL, but it shows that their is athleticism out there that is untapped for the AFL.
Now this is just one test, and there are hundreds of reasons why this might fail, but if Miro can attract the NFL talent and do a better job at developing their fundamentals, then surely the AFL can make things more accommodating for the teams to take a free shot or two in the rookie drafts. There is really no downside in making our game more accessible to athletes who would not otherwise get a chance - whether that be grid iron, gaelic football, or tiddlywinks.
Chances are slim that a guy can make it in a foreign competition, but a slim chance is better than none.
Interesting video, and I wont comment on the guy involved other than say "Get a hair cut Miro". But the ambition is sound, but I think the execution is way off. Surely he should be lobbying the AFL to expand upon the international rookie rule that exists for the Irish; that is they can be signed directly to a list as a Category B and not have to go through a draft.
International rookies have yielded success before - Kennelly, Hanley but I guess the difference there is that in their formative years they had experience running and kicking with the ball. Ex NFL players don;t have this background. But what they do have that is particularly unique is some high end athletic talent, and some of their athleticism blows our guys out of the water.
Nic Natanui constantly gets smoke blown up his backside about his vertical leap, and how he holds the record at the Draft camp. There are two leap tests at the draft camp, the standing vertical and the running leap. His vertical leap was 78cm (not the record) but his running vertical leap was measured at 102 cm. Now lets compare NicNat to NFL combine test results. Chris Conley has a "standing vertical leap of 114 cm … that’s right, his standing vertical leap is higher than NicNats running vertical leap. Chris is 6 foot 2. OK, he is a top end talent and had a few years college training and workouts on Natanui, and he was also drafted to the NFL, but it shows that their is athleticism out there that is untapped for the AFL.
Now this is just one test, and there are hundreds of reasons why this might fail, but if Miro can attract the NFL talent and do a better job at developing their fundamentals, then surely the AFL can make things more accommodating for the teams to take a free shot or two in the rookie drafts. There is really no downside in making our game more accessible to athletes who would not otherwise get a chance - whether that be grid iron, gaelic football, or tiddlywinks.
Chances are slim that a guy can make it in a foreign competition, but a slim chance is better than none.
What we need to do is try and get them earlier
Hey, missed the cut in your high school NFL side? Try Australian Rules!
Far more chance of them making it if they’re exposed at 15-16 than 22-23
Miro seems like a typical marketer/player manager. Great at talking the talk, but by the looks of it his actual football coaching skills are complete pox
Needs to pair himself with someone who can actually teach the technical side of the game
I just want the Bombers to win another premiership and couldn’t give a damn about growing the game in western Sydney let alone overseas. If the talent is good enough, they are welcome to come over and try to compete on the same basis as everyone else, no favours.
Interesting video, and I wont comment on the guy involved other than say "Get a hair cut Miro". But the ambition is sound, but I think the execution is way off. Surely he should be lobbying the AFL to expand upon the international rookie rule that exists for the Irish; that is they can be signed directly to a list as a Category B and not have to go through a draft.
International rookies have yielded success before - Kennelly, Hanley but I guess the difference there is that in their formative years they had experience running and kicking with the ball. Ex NFL players don;t have this background. But what they do have that is particularly unique is some high end athletic talent, and some of their athleticism blows our guys out of the water.
Nic Natanui constantly gets smoke blown up his backside about his vertical leap, and how he holds the record at the Draft camp. There are two leap tests at the draft camp, the standing vertical and the running leap. His vertical leap was 78cm (not the record) but his running vertical leap was measured at 102 cm. Now lets compare NicNat to NFL combine test results. Chris Conley has a "standing vertical leap of 114 cm … that’s right, his standing vertical leap is higher than NicNats running vertical leap. Chris is 6 foot 2. OK, he is a top end talent and had a few years college training and workouts on Natanui, and he was also drafted to the NFL, but it shows that their is athleticism out there that is untapped for the AFL.
Now this is just one test, and there are hundreds of reasons why this might fail, but if Miro can attract the NFL talent and do a better job at developing their fundamentals, then surely the AFL can make things more accommodating for the teams to take a free shot or two in the rookie drafts. There is really no downside in making our game more accessible to athletes who would not otherwise get a chance - whether that be grid iron, gaelic football, or tiddlywinks.
Chances are slim that a guy can make it in a foreign competition, but a slim chance is better than none.
What we need to do is try and get them earlier
Hey, missed the cut in your high school NFL side? Try Australian Rules!
Far more chance of them making it if they’re exposed at 15-16 than 22-23
Miro seems like a typical marketer/player manager. Great at talking the talk, but by the looks of it his actual football coaching skills are complete pox
Needs to pair himself with someone who can actually teach the technical side of the game
Yeah when you watch the video its pretty clear the basic skills just aren’t there. Sure they look great sprinting but the handballing was terrible & although we didn’t see many kicks from impact to target, the ball drops & techniques didn’t look like somebody had been drilling them on the correct way.
Can't escape the feeling that miro is just stringing these guys along and wasting their time. Wonder whose money he is burning to do it?
Given the IR team are asking to go to New York for a couple of weeks’ pissup, sorry, training every year because reasons, and the AFL do a big “fact finding” mission every year, taking a handful of coaches and club Presidents, where they find out how much champagne is and how good the rippers are all across the US, I’m glad some of the little guys are getting to waste clubs’ money.
Cam Newton looked like a complete nonse at Richmond.
As mentioned above, they need actual football people developing their skills, not a bloke who made his money as a soccer player agent.
However, that said, I’d be OK with us getting a grant from the AFL to develop LA as a zone, and have a few ex-pats over there with some coaching qualifications take them under their wing.
I feel really strongly about this and get really excited about the idea of other people from other countries playing in the AFL, perhaps bringing different skillsets and styles of player we have never seen before. But it’s pretty obvious you need to learn to kick and handpass or fk off, and why this Miro guy wouldn’t put them all through the ringer before they came over skill-wise baffles me. Surely of all the money we waste (or deny certain clubs the ability to spend) we could spend some money on some decent camps and coaching in other nations to get them up to scratch.
A perpetual dream of mine will always be to see an American play footy at the highest level.
I’m still not entirely convinced that any of our major sports still have the right skill set for it, though. I certainly don’t think it’s going to come from a footballer (gridiron)… while we have hordes and hordes of guys who succeed at the college level, sometimes elite college level, the NFL is still a crapshoot and for a lot of those guys, they are done at 22 or they end up in Canada or the arena league so God knows there are literally hundreds and hundreds of candidates to draw from. But I still think 90% of them would go to rugby first. While basketball seems to have the better fitness base, the simple fact that kicking is not a featured skill seems like the deal-breaker there.
If and when it ever happens, it is probably going to be a basketballer but also a multi-sport guy with a soccer base on top of it who has a clue with the foot as well as the hand, probably a center or tall forward who would almost certainly be developed as a ruckman, one would think.
The thing that no American has that’s even close to the level of even the journeyman Aussie footballer is the foot skills, plain and simple. You got your kids learning to kick pinpoint passes using both feet from a very early age. That can’t be taught; that has to be ingrained and can only achieve the necessary proficiency through years and years of practice to the point at which it should be effortless.
While our national footy competition over here gets better and better every year, it’s also getting older. I’ve been playing for five years now and it’s all the same faces… now we all have young children so I guess it’s just a matter of waiting for them to mature a bit and see if they can become interested in the game as teenagers while they still have time to develop.
Kicking can be taught, it’s a skill, nothing magical, it can be taught.
Peeto’s right though, should be a minimum level of kicking/marking/hand balling/catching before anyone gets within cooee of a free AFL branded training kit, much less a flight. Wouldn’t be hard these days, to film it and upload for someone to have a look at.
AFL obviously rate the promo they get from these guys, even if they’ve all been unmitigated failures.