By Gerard Healy
Over in the West, there’s a battle going on between the CEO’s and the management of the game.
You have to ask what parallel universe are the game's leaders living in at the moment.
Richard Goyder, Andrew Dillon and Laura Kane are chatting away in Perth, discussing the fake NGAs and assuming all is well, cracking jokes about a marvellous development program.
So, let's see if I've got this right. Three years ago, we had an AFL inquiry into what was a recognised rort after players already in the system such as Isaac Quaynor, Lachie Jones and finally Jamarra Ugle-Hagan were taken under the NGA banner.
It was a total joke with Collingwood and the Bulldogs having a good old belly laugh and the whole AFL world knew about it.
Yesterday, the joke was re-invoked as some sort of ‘you beaut’ development pathway as clubs can now match bids on their NGA products at any stage of the draft. In 2021 you couldn't match a pick before No. 20. In the last two years, that's been pushed back to No. 40.
Clubs know with the possible exception of WA that the pathways are mature, and the players are already in the system, particularly here in Victoria.
So, all the draft experts fall in line – hook, line and sinker - and rather than focus on the big rort and the big loser, they focus on the big winner and that of course, in the short term will be the Bombers who will pick up Isaac Kako with a free-hit … but it's a minor victory in the big picture.
Here's Kevin Sheehan talking about him at the National Championships: “Again, Isaac Kako was in the perfect spot for the small forward and was clean as a whistle.
“He's going to be a player this boy, he's an NGA prospect to Essendon. His parents have an unusual background, they’re both from Iraq.
“This boy has been playing footy all his life.”
Indeed, Shifter. Yep, he’s been in the system all his life and was going to make it whether the NGA existed or not … just like all the other players that the AFL conveniently put up on a slide in Perth during the week to show the benefits of the NGAs.
Here's another one, Mac Andrew talking to David King.
“Would you have still been a footballer if the NGA wasn't available?” King asked.
“Do you still think you would have played the AFL code?”
“Yeah, one 100 per cent,” Andrew replied.
“You know, I was already playing Aussie rules footy. So, it's not like they introduced me to the game.
“I think they showed me what it takes to be an AFL footballer. But I've been playing since under 8's and 9's and football was always what I loved doing from when I was a young kid.
“I think I'd still be playing AFL whether the Academy was there or not.”
Andrew Dillon, how much more proof do you need?
You were there when you stopped it and you're now there when you reintroduce it.
It's an AFL con and a joke proving that politics is far more important with this regime than policy.
And the biggest loser, of course, will be the draft itself. The one-time key ingredient of equalisation has just become a major factor in dis-equalisation.
Are all zones equal? Well, the answer to that according to the people I spoke to today in charge of clubs is a very, very strong, ‘No’, and some are very unequal.
But the players will be taken from the draft pool that gets selected as NGAs limiting its efficiency, more and more.
Let's celebrate when a true NGA player actually emerges … but don't hold your breath.
Crafted by Project Diamond