Indigenous academy backlash
The AFL has told clubs that Indigenous communities and elders in Western Australia and South Australia have complained that they have been discriminated against, as the league considers major changes to its academy system.
And clubs believe that the AFL is seriously looking at adopting a proposal – put forward by West Coast, with the backing of Fremantle and the SA clubs – to have the Next Generation Academys Indigenous and multicultural players available to all clubs in the first 25 or 30 positions in the national draft in a trade-off for the WA and SA teams gaining access to their entire states.
In a memo sent out to all clubs last week, the AFL said the WA and SA clubs were experiencing a significant backlash from Indigenous communities who felt their youngsters were excluded from the (NGA) academy set-up, which only allocates certain largely remote territories to recruit Indigenous players for their academies and leaves other territories alone.
West Coast, which has been the strongest voice in pushing for the Perth and Adelaide teams to share access to all Indigenous players in their states, said the club would not be able to hide players if their proposal was approved, because the elite talent at the top end of the draft would be up for grabs for all clubs.
The AFL memo also contained a policy discussion by the league back in February, saying that tribal elders of communities that were not allocated to either the Eagles, Dockers, Crows or Port, had complained of discrimination.
The AFL document said: Indigenous elders from certain communities have identified the current policy discriminates against their own people. It added that retention rates of Indigenous participation are drastically dropping right across the country – this cannot be ignored.
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The AFLs concerns – outlined in the memo and the earlier document – also make clear that there should be draft purity with the other clubs protected if the Perth and Adelaide teams are given first access to Indigenous players in their states. Under the current system, the Eagles have only the remote Pilbara region, while the Dockers have the Kimberley, but the remainder of the Indigenous players in that state arent included in the academies – a situation that the AFLs memo suggests has led to a backlash.
West Coasts manager of game development, former premiership player Adam Selwood, said he hoped that the AFL would adopt the four clubs joint proposal to share the Indigenous players in those states, but that the other 14 clubs would be protected in their proposal.
Selwood said, for example, had Lance Franklin been allocated as an Indigenous player under the new system the four clubs have proposed, his home address would have tied him to the Eagles. But there would be no chance that West Coast would get him, since he was a top five draft choice.
The proposal for the four clubs would apply to all Indigenous and multicultural NGA players, meaning that any player in the NGA could be drafted by another club inside the top 30. It is almost certainly too late for this system to be introduced for this years draft, meaning that North Melbourne will likely retain its first rights to match bids for Taryn Thomas, an Indigenous player from its Tasmanian zone, while Collingwood would retain first rights to bid for Isaac Quaynor, a multicultural academy player from Oakleigh.
[This is] not about competitive advantage and trying to hide players, Selwood said of the proposal, which clubs believe is a strong chance to be brought in for 2019.
Selwood said the drop-out rate for Indigenous players in WA for elite pathways was 70 per cent and that it was important to give all Indigenous kids a chance to participate, not simply those in the restricted zones.
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