Gold Coast launches ambitious plan to poach superstars

[The Coon Dog]

Gold Coast dominates teen scene



IF you're 17 and can play Australian football, there will be no place to hide from the AFL's newest club, the Gold Coast.

Not even if you are from the backwaters of Western Australia or the wilderness in Tasmania.

One of the Gold Coast's priority concessions for its start-up is its ability to list a dozen 17-year-olds in November this year. The 12 young players must have birth dates between January 1, 1992 and April 30 in the same year.

While the most of 17-year-olds will probably come from this year's intake of AIS-AFL Academy squad, consisting of up to 30 elite juniors from around the country, the Gold Coast is confident it will identify the very best, from wherever.

And even if the youngsters or their parents indicate a reluctance to become part of the AFL's 17th club, they will have no choice if they want to play at senior level before leaving their teen years behind.

If the industry cackle is any guide, some AFL clubs have already spoken to parents about keeping their eligible sons low-key for at least a year and out of reach of Scott Clayton, the highly respected and long-time recruiter, who is now the Gold Coast's list manager in charge of compiling a team for a 2011 start.

Clayton yesterday scoffed at suggestions some clubs would consider conspiring with reluctant parents to cheat the system.

"That was how some people at clubs did business in the 1980s," Clayton said. "That's not the modern era.

"And as well as having the advantage of using AFL resources, we've got a lot of people on the ground, enough anyway to know what we're doing."

AFL general manager of national development, David Matthews, said yesterday the rules, which would also be similarly applied to a team from Sydney's west for entry into the competition in 2012, were designed specifically for the best young talent to enhance the expansion clubs and was not a workplace restraint.

"Seven clubs were on the working party and we went through a thorough process of consultation so they understood the rationale and practical effect of the rules," Matthews said.

"We've given the Gold Coast the opportunity to stagger building its playing list over three years so that 48 players don't all turn up at once."

Clayton's philosophy is to pick the best 12 players, no matter what, and they will be bound to the Gold Coast for two years.

"If that means some want to stay home to finish school, we'd still sign them to a contract and have them here the following year," Clayton said. "If we want them bad enough, we'd sit."

The Gold Coast's eligible 17-year-olds this year are too young to be in November's national draft and the only way a reluctant recruit could move on is if the Gold Coast agreed to trade him out in either 2010 or 2011.

This year's priority dozen will be either contracted for a minimum of two years or be listed for one or two years.

If contracted, they could play in either the QAFL competition in 2010 or in the VFL, as it has not yet been established which league the Gold Coast will play in next year, in their second season after exposure in this year's under-18 TAC Cup.

Among this year's AIS-AFL Academy are 13 teenagers who are eligible to be taken by the Gold Coast, but three of them are either from Queensland or the Northern Territory and are therefore eligible to be selected as zone players at the end of next year.

Clayton said he had no knowledge of any reluctant young player, but described the academy players as being excited at the prospect of being able to play together.

"We're going to list players by our timing, not anyone else's and we're very positive," he said. "The AIS group are excited. They have a bond together and are very tight, which will be valuable for us."

Clayton said his club's preference was to have most of the 17-year-olds on the Gold Coast next year for development.

"But everything's about 2011 and if some of these boys are going to have 10- to 15-year careers, their first few months pale into insignificance," he said.

The Gold Coast's initial senior list in 2011 will be 48, plus nine rookies, which will gradually work to the same list sizes of other clubs.

[The Coon Dog]

I get the feeling all clubs supporters are going to despise GC17.

Keeping Tippett an uphill battle: Crows

Adelaide coach Neil Craig admits his club face an uphill struggle to keep Kurt Tippett from choosing the comforts of a Gold Coast AFL home when his contract expires at the end of 2010.

Tippett, a Queenslander, is rapidly emerging as one of the league's most promising key forward/ruck prospects, kicking seven goals in the Crows' round 11 victory over Essendon and also plucking a contender for mark of the season.

He is most definitely on the radar of GC17 scouts, and would appear ideally suited to the expansion club's need for a strong start-up squad as he should be in the prime of his career when they enter the national competition in 2011.

Speculation about Tippett's future has intensified in direct proportion to his on-field exploits for Adelaide, while he added fuel to the talk this week by knocking back the offer of a contract extension.

Tippett also has a Queensland-based girlfriend, and Craig said that in this case, the go-home factor was significant.

"The go home factor is big, put yourself in his shoes, would you like to be able to play AFL football in your home state? Yeah. So we understand that," Craig said on Thursday.

"It's something which is a challenge to us and that's not going to change, because he's from Queensland and they're actually going to have a team on the Gold Coast where he comes from, about as close as you can get.

"In the end all we can do is create an environment to give Kurt the coaching we're trying to give him, create an environment that includes relationships with management, teammates, Adelaide, the whole thing.

"And then you take your chances on it ... we can only do what we can do."

Adelaide's young players have spoken confidently and often about their desire to grow together and ultimately win a premiership - the sort of corporate spirit that will dissuade many of the club's interstate recruits to stay on through homesickness.

But Tippett's links to the Gold Coast make him particularly vulnerable, especially now that their previous No.1 target, St Kilda forward Nick Riewoldt, has ruled himself out via a new deal with the Saints.