The interstate talent Drain

[E]

I was shocked to discover that 20 of the best 26 kids in the country are going to be drafted by the 8 interstate teams and only 6 will be drafted by the 10 Victorian clubs.

That this can happen in the era of interstate domination (when was the last Victorian grand Final) is mind boggling.

[think positive]

meh, the fakes can change their nappies for a couple of years, and then the babies will come home!

there is still too many vic teams though, so if we cant ditch the 2 qld teams and the 2 nsw teams, how about Geeelong (cos they are arseholes) , Essendon (cheats) hawks (seriously, who put those colours together???) and melbourne (this could free up some seats grand final day)

[piedys]

The AFL will NOT be told; nobody wants to be at GWS, nobody wants to be at GCS. And nobody actually wanted these two teams in the competition anyway, save for a handful of egomaniacal narcissists in power. 16 teams was always a good balance for the talent pool.

As Jo said, they are glorified day care centres, who will never get anywhere.

Look at how many players remain from both sides, from their first two seasons lists; count them on one hand. Their attrition rate is horrendous.

They are jumping like rats off a sinking ship now.

[woodys_world69]

yeah the salary cap ship

[Pies2016]

I get your point but this year is much more skewed than usual because the kids from S A are so good. There are probably six out of the first 25 ( likely 4 in top 10 ) kids who will come from S A and that’s why the two SA clubs hold so many early picks.
Personally, I was more concerned as to why S A won the U18 championships this year. That just shouldn’t happen.

As has been pointed out, GCS and GWS are the real issue and we all know the reasons why. Can’t see that changing for a while either.

[ANNODAM]

[SwansWay]

I like how the AFL couldn't save Fitzroy but have a bottomless pit of cash to prop up the GCS and GWS until they end up in the black, which is likely to never happen.

[Mr Miyagi]

Gold Coast is a ****ing debacle. They had the same issue when the Bears were there. My old man had a chat with Robert Walls and said they needed to get the **** out of Gold Coast and play at the Gabba. They did that, and had success (thanks to the Fitzroy merge, but moving to Brisbane had a big effect too).

So what does the AFL do in its infinite wisdom? Make the same ****ing mistake trying to establish a team at the Gold Coast. The population there is not stable, a lot of tradies staying for work and leaving, people on holidays, and permanent locals don't give a rats about footy. It's a shit of a place to drive around, it's isolated, and frankly, one team in Brisbane was enough. It totally ****ed the Lions up.

Meanwhile, in Tassie, footy is struggling now, when a team 5-10 years ago would have revitalised the state league.

We have ****ing narcissistic numpties in charge of the AFL, easily swayed by other narcissistic numpties looking to line their own pockets. It's a complete and utter **** up, and the AFL should admit Gold Coast was a **** up, fold the team or move it, and cut its losses and move on.

And don't get me started on GC (the area) being a drug den full of ICE and coke. Poor old Rocket didn't know what he was walking into when he went there, now Dew's trying to clean the place up. They pissed off Bennell, but there's still a huge problem and the AFL doesn't give a ****, hence why they threw Murray and Collingwood under the bus and broke a confidential ASADA investigation (don't think for a minute Barrett was acting alone).

Even playing field? Never gonna happen. Collingwood should look after its own and **** the AFL.

[ANNODAM]

[Pies4shaw]

The AFL had to allow Fitzroy to fold - it might otherwise not have been possible for Carlton to achieve so many number 1 draft picks this century.

[tbaker]

It's not all bad. After a few years, we'll know which of the draft picks they got right, and if they're playing for an unsuccessful interstate team then they can be lured back home fairly easily

[David]

Interstate teams make up 44% of the competition and are receiving 77% of the top 26 picks (or 75% of the 20 first round picks, to make the cut-off less arbitrary). That may seem like a big difference, but obviously the line between interstate/Victorian one is a capricious demarcation, so which teams are actually benefiting?


If we're looking at the first round, the breakdown is like this:

Interstate:

Adelaide: 3
Brisbane: 1
Fremantle: 1
Gold Coast: 3
GWS: 3
Port Adelaide: 3
Sydney: 0
West Coast: 1

Victorian:

Carlton: 1
Collingwood: 0
Essendon: 0
Geelong: 1
Hawthorn: 0
Melbourne: 0
North Melbourne: 0
Richmond: 1
St Kilda: 1
Western Bulldogs: 1

So it seems that the only teams that are really being seriously advantaged here are Adelaide, Gold Coast, GWS and Port Adelaide (the first three of which go on to each get a fourth pick leading up to pick 26). The answer as to why those teams are advantaged, then, is twofold: one, trading (these four teams traded out stars in McGovern, Wingard, Polec, Neale, Lobb, Lynch and May, while several other teams such as us mostly traded them in and thus lost first-round picks); and two, on a more meta level, the salary cap advantages that gave Gold Coast and GWS such a surplus of top players to begin with (and thus more leverage at the trade table).

I'm not sure how thrilled those four clubs should really be, though. In giving up such quality players to mostly Victorian teams, they're essentially seeing the work they put in to developing stars reaped by other clubs, and, as mentioned above, the go-home factor is a big reason why that keeps happening to them. So any idea that interstate teams are being advantaged by the draft (concessions to the new teams aside) is actually completely wrong: what we're seeing is a symptom of a system in which they're at somewhat of a disadvantage, and who's to say those compensatory picks won't also turn around and walk out on them in 4–5 years' time? Not that I feel sorry for them, mind you...

But to return to my original point, this whole Victorian/interstate divide is mostly an artificial construct. Do you really want Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn and Geelong to be more successful than Fremantle, Port Adelaide and Brisbane? No? Neither do I, particularly. We're one team in 18, and we had a pretty solid trade period and will have a quieter draft as a result. Unless the balance is somehow being skewed in some other clubs' favour (and it isn't, generally), there's nothing much to see here.

[woodys_world69]

[woodys_world69]

But to be fair the AFL can't make any new money in tassie.
No desire for them to start a club there. It's too close to Melbourne.

[Mr Miyagi]