Victorian Clubs Handed AFL Funding For Academies

[LostDoggy]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-02-0...-for-academies

On the face of it, this seems a promising development, allowing us to strengthen ties in our home and extended Ballarat regions. Something really stings about Gippsland being anointed Hawthorn/Melbourne territory, however the logic is hard to argue with.

[Dry Rot]

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-02-0...-for-academies

VICTORIAN clubs have been given seed funding to establish club-branded academies in allocated areas throughout Victoria and the Northern Territory.

Under the plan unveiled to clubs on Tuesday, they will be given the chance to invest in specific regions to attract youngsters from diverse backgrounds and indigenous heritage to play AFL and develop elite talent within those areas.

Thoughts on the zone we've been given?

[Mofra]

The two weakest traditionally, although we have North Ballarat all to ourselves?

IIRC our F/S picks generally come from Calder Cannons.

[Testekill]

At least we recruited Herb Henderson and Matthew Croft from Mallee; otherwise it seems pretty slim pickings since it seems that a lot of quality young country players come more from Gippsland or the more central parts of Victoria.
Meanwhile Richmond gets a number of quality regions in Bendigo & Goulburn Valley.

[Happy Days]

So, why?

[Eastdog]

Interesting. So do we have all of the western suburbs or just parts of it?

[bornadog]

I think the zones we have are right as they concentrate in the west of Victoria and include areas close and around Geelong and beyond.

[bornadog]

...............................

[Eastdog]

I think the zones we have are right as they concentrate in the west of Victoria and include areas around Geelong and beyond.

Geelong's areas are intriguing.

True BAD. Make sense as we are really concentrating a lot on Ballarat.

[Eastdog]

If we had a choice to pick one zone to be included with the assigned ones which would it be?

[Throughandthrough]

SW Victoria is an awesome zone. There's a gazillion AFL players in the past that are from Horsham, Warrnambool and surrounds

Those types of towns are definitely "Aussie Rules" centric centres with Soccer a long way behind

Just over the border, the South East of South Australia (Mt Gambier etc) is a similar demographic and already the recruiting zone for Glenelg, they have 3 very active Academies in the South East that have supplied dozens and dozens of SANFL League footballers

From that zone these players are currently on AFL lists, and i'm pretty sure they have all been through a Glenelg Academy


Jack Redden West Coast
Lachie Neale Fremantle
Tim O'Brien Hawthorn
Jordan Murdoch Geelong
Brodie Murdoch St Kilda
Lincoln McCarthy Geelong
Mason Redman Essendon
Matt Allen West Coast Eagles
Jordan Dawson Sydney Swans
Jack Trengove Melbourne


The only problems I can see is that our new Zone is bloody big, meaning much higher costs in time and $$$ to manage, and also the distance from Melbourne is prohibitive for players and families as well

[divvydan]

Note that these academies are mainly about developing young kids from non-english speaking backgrounds, at least so far as having any first right to drafting them goes.

[LostDoggy]

At least we recruited Herb Henderson and Matthew Croft from Mallee; otherwise it seems pretty slim pickings since it seems that a lot of quality young country players come more from Gippsland or the more central parts of Victoria.
Meanwhile Richmond gets a number of quality regions in Bendigo & Goulburn Valley.

Easton Wood and Leon Cameron are 2 more from south west Victoria off the top of my head.

[Throughandthrough]

Easton Wood and Leon Cameron are 2 more from south west Victoria off the top of my head.

and "Disco" was from Stawell.

[stefoid]

Yeah, this is for Aboriginal, Asian and Arican kids.

So Essendon hit the jackpot in that regard getting western metropolitan melbourne, including footscray, sunshine, st albans, etc... Our heartland!

How many Aboriginal, Asian and African footballing kids in Victoria west of Ballarat? They could probably hold a meeting in a phone box.

Hopefully that map is an over simplification and we get Footscray , Sunshine St albans and Laverton. seriously, if not = @$#@#$.