Any idea what happened to it? We should take this idea and discussion on board. What is stopping us from binding our resources together to form a Blitz scholarship for an indigenous VFL player?
From memory that was a Sheedy backed thing, and got harpooned around the time he did
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See this is where we need you to be clear. At times you have hinted there is/was a directive specifically relating to indigenous kids & at other times you seem to have shied away from saying its been a conscious decision to discriminate. We really need to know which one it is because there is a massive difference. IF there has been any directive, plan, policy or understanding that we deliberately won’t or shouldn’t draft indigenous kids then it needs to be exposed & eradicated immediately. Like I’ve said I’m open to the possibility that the club have been deliberately risk averse & I can accept that indigenous kids particularly from remote areas have perceved extra risk so would naturally be black flagged (i wanted a better term but couldn’t think of one) but I think whats being suggested or maybe inferred here is not a conservative approach but a deliberately manipulated approach to exclude kids based on race.
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It’s because it’s a bit more complex than that, there are, we will say Smokey rumours that directly after Sheedy there was a directive linked to cost saving measures, more recently I think it’s linked to what others have been saying. About the characters we value not lending themselves to these sorts of recruits without it being deliberately discriminatory
Cost saving? I’m there with you on the idea that we compromised a lot of aspects of the club to save a buck but I’m not understanding the connection. Are indigenous kids considered more expensive? Is it the relocating or perceived extra support required? Very disappointing if there’s any truth to the rumours.
They were at the time, yeah, additional welfare support. Remember that prick who gutted the footy dept to save money?
Thanks. Not sure Wilson was on it though. We drafted him out of Central districts. There were a couple though, but NLM may have been the only one to make it onto the list.
All too well
Sorry but that is way too simplistic and not up to your usual standards. Walla wasn’t ready for many of those drafts, he didn’t have the tank and he wasn’t setting the VFL on fire except for a few brief flashes in and out. By the time he was ready he was already locked away by Essendon. He had plenty of potential but enough question marks for clubs to say they wouldn’t take the chance until Essendon finally did.
They do that with a very large number of players each year that are not indigenous too. Hence why there are often discussions around state league players and “WSHPHU”.
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This thread is a pretty uncomfortable one. But I have to ask…
In 2015, we had a draft that floored @benfti in terms of who we picked. A number of players from his list got drafted by us. Eades, Walla and Nyuon, were all non-vanilla picks.
Where did the “problem” that is being referred to go during the 2015 draft?
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Tippa is where he is now because of who he is. His family and both Mums and because he worked his backside off and listened to people who gave him good advice.
He didn’t get there any other way - having said that, it shows what is possible for our talented indigenous young men and women who have not yet been drafted. Keep working on your craft and keep working period because its tough and its gruelling but its worth it when you get there.
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It would be cool if EFC offered a scholarship to a NT/Tiwi player each year and a VFL list place.
Maybe they need some conditions ie best player under 21/25 etc.
Could send Benfti, Sheedy, Dean Rioli and the IT/ Video guy up there and they could produce a program like the recruit. And put it up on Bomber TV.
Win for fans
Win for player selected
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In all my years at Blitz, this is the first time I recall hearing of such a direction. I would be interested in any more details if you have them.
It seems a bit of a weird response to the Sheedy era, generally our indigenous picks worked out pretty well.
In the 2001-2006 era, which got Sheedy sacked, I suspect that our indigenous picks probably worked out considerably better on average than equivalent non-indigenous picks.
We had some biiig issues in the recruitment dept in those years, but ‘too many longshot indigenous guys not making the grade’ wasn’t one of them.
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Actually, I’m perfectly fine with a quota. I believe affirmative discrimination is a good tool to fight adverse discrimination. I’ve previously said that I’m a fan of special rookie lists for indigenous players, although the low take up by clubs of the current Cat B is a real bummer for that idea.
Where it is a problem is if only a single club does it. If Essendon picks players which are not as good as others, but other clubs don’t, then over time that will impact our list strength. I do have a problem with that. I’m willing (and happy) to compromise financially, I’m happy to spend to get indigenous kids better draft chances even if they get selected elsewhere. I don’t want to artificially restrict our list itself though.
And I fully admit that is a selfish decision.
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Weren’t all those cuts earlier though? I thought Jackson cut the footy department around 2000ish, and then ran on a shoestring up until about 2009 and the board finally realised that the cuts were impacting our football ability. Also seeing interstate clubs, Hawthorn and Collingwood spend big on recruiting, football departments and infrastructure made us look second rate (which we were).
Apart from money (and I have no problems spending it) I can’t see any reason we’re not doing this. Now, would there be big take up? No idea. A lot of the kids play SANFL/WAFL or up north rather than Victoria, and there may be a number of reasons for that. But having a spot open each year, with either a 2 or 3 year guarantee for the VFL squad (and either EDFL or VFL football, but more focused support and training) makes a lot of sense to me. Surely you would find someone each year who would want the opportunity. And it would mean more indigenous players around the club, even if they’re not on the AFL list. If you had 3 on this list (if it was a 3 year deal), plus at least one indigenous support/mentor, then that would be four more people with a indigenous background around the club to add to the culture and support network for the AFL listed players.
We wouldn’t have dibs on the players, but I’m not fussed about that.
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If anyone watched Xavier Campbell’s speech at the member’s forum, they will have seen the slide about the club mission and Vision.
I’ll need to look it up, but on the same slide it talked about the organisation valuing people with character, integrity & self-discipline. Xav talked about the ‘whole of club approach’ to recruitment and employment of people, and undertaking thorough back ground checks.
Then on the same slide, the mission was for EFC to become the most culturally diverse club in the AFL.
Also for the last few years, In interviews Doddoro would discuss the players we have recruited. He always starts by describing the player’s family or leadership skills.
Hense the ongoing joke on this forum about picking kids with ‘leadership abilities’.
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Beautiful signs of an incompetent board.
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Indeed, those two years- 2007-09 were the watershed period we are talking about. He was always looking to find new ways to save money and that one was much easier to push through with Sheedy no longer there