defintely agreed – that trade week promises to be one of the most interesting ever.

btw – don’t forget, the GC17 have had access to pluck the 10 best (I think) 17 yr olds. Which effectivley undermines that draft I’d have thought?

Again though, the hope is that a lot of clubs will be looking at NSW and international scholarship opportunities as ways to secure potentially cheap talent via a pathway thus far littered with a fair sprinkling of good value gems.

If the Gold Coast have to chase players under contract then I can see that being a problem. I think teams will hold them to ransom and get them to cough up as many picks as they can for their players. If they are out of contract, then the ball is in the Gold Coast’s court as they’ll have top pick in the Pre Season Draft.

Hopefully for once trade week will be interesting. I think some teams could capitalise on the moves the Gold Coast makes. I see a lot of three-way trades happening. The Gold Coast might not be a dominant force as many fear, but their arrival could help to create one if a team trades cunningly off the back of the Gold Coast’s deals. Big chance for teams with sub-standard lists like Freo and Melbourne to turn things around if many players and picks change hands that week.

I believe the Gold Coast will be allowed to have a massive list – I think it is 57 players and 12 rookies, please correct me if I’m mistaken. If that’s the case I can see a few experienced guys in the VFL, WAFL and SANFL getting a second chance at AFL.

By the way Pippinu I’m looking forward to our match in The Roar’s DT league this weekend. Good luck. See you in two weeks Michael C.

GC will have nothing like that quality coming in – they might strike it rich in the draft, then again, they may not.

It’s worth remembering that Port had the least generous of start up concessions of all 7 non-Victorian clubs, and it managed a premiership in its 8th season (after topping the ladder three years running).

I honestly doubt anyone can predict who’ll be doing what in five years time.

(I dunno that I could handle it if the Dons do the Rooboys on Sunday, …i.e. getting done by Pip’s mob a fortnight ago and then your lot too………..ah, I couldn’t take it!)

Yeah Western Sydney start date must slide out. Is relocation still a possibility on the agenda at AFL house? That would solve the draft concession/team building issue. ‘Bullies for Bankstown’ I can see the headlines now (sorry Pip).

Redb

yeah, I’ve questioned this too – that if WS18 is still on the one year after GC17 time frame, then,
A. they’d better get cracking,
and
B. will the GC17 draft concessions be repeated therefore the next year for WS18.

At this point – all the hoopla about concessions and the ‘Gold Coast’ draft etc give the impression of it standing in isolation.

Thus far, there’s stuff all to indicate this – which gives greater credence to an assumption that the West Sydney timetable will ‘slide’ a fraction.

I’d imagine Western Sydney will get similar concessions at some point. It’s a tight fit as you imply when WS are due to start in 2012. Still don’t know why it has to be so soon after the GC enters, 2015 would make more sense on almost every level except TV rights.

Tassie may not get draft concessions other than an exclusive recruiting zone in Tasmania. Curiously both Port Adelaide and Fremantle never recevied draft concessions unlike Adelaide and West Coast whichalso recevied state based exclsuive recruting zones for a number of years which virtualll built state sides in a club competition and gifted them two flags each. In saying that both clubs have been far more sustainable with that success.

Redb

The access to uncontracted players is of little guarrantee. Most clubs are going to ensure their best players are securely signed away.

Reality is that the article reference to Brisbane and Sydney ignores to a degree the first 10 years of each ‘franchise’. (obviously the draft and salary cap weren’t in place in 1981-2 for the Swannees. But, for the bad news Bears – they got stuff all early on and were an exercise is mis-management as a bunch of rejects were thrown together and attempted to be packages as an AFL team!! Further down the track the AFL got serious, and probably we can look at the Wayne Jackson tenure as a AFL boss NOT from Victoria and willing to push a more ‘AFL’ approach than ‘VFL’. The flip side is that that administration envisaged about 2 or 3 Melb based teams to have fallen by the wayside by now.

Jake Niall had an excellent article in the Age yesterday on this and stadiums : http://www.theage.com.au/news/rfnews/afls-ground-rationalisation-costs-clubs/2009/04/15/1239474935832.html