Time for AFL to recruit from our own backyard
Roar Rookie Related coverage
One story from the Sydney Swans’ premiership side has stood out like no other football story. That was the journey of their ruckman Mike Pyke.
The former Canadian Rugby Union international joined an increasing list of players from outside the sport to come and enjoy success in their new found game.
He joins a fellow Swan in Tadgh Kennelly as a premiership player. Other international recruits on current AFL lists include Pearce Hanely for Brisbane and Marty Clarke at Collingwood.
Clubs recruiting players from outside of Australia and the sport of Australian Rules is a growing trend as clubs try to unearth gems no other club has found. Just a few months ago West Coast gave Australian Olympic basketballer Mark Worthington a try out.
The ironic thing about AFL clubs searching high and low for unfound talent is in the last few years we have some players who have grown up playing the game for years emerge and have success.
Pyke’s premiership team mate Shane Mumford was not long ago playing for the Bunyip Football Club in the Ellinbank and District football league. Mumford’s former Geelong team mate James Podsiadly played for years at VFL before getting his crack at AFL where he had an immediate impact; he too is now a premiership player.
The stories of players from lower leagues continue to flow. Names such as Barlow (Fremantle), Curnow (Carlton), Zorko (Brisbane), Dickson (Western Bulldogs) and Callinan (Adelaide) to name a few have all made the step up to AFL and have made an impact.
There can be no doubt the talent in the lower leagues is there to be found and unlike players from outside of the sport they don’t need to be taught the game from scratch.
Players like Pyke make for great stories but clubs that ignore the talent that is right under their nose are missing out.
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- AFL, Mike Pyke, Sydney Swans, Tadhg Kennelly, VfL
October 3rd 2012 @ 7:46am
Lucan said | October 3rd 2012 @ 7:46am | Report comment
Wholeheartedly agree. But football at AFL level is a business, and marketing plays its part.
October 3rd 2012 @ 8:37am
brendan said | October 3rd 2012 @ 8:37am | Report comment
You cannot equate players from other sports with players from lower leagues as they are payed differently under the salary cap, correct me if i am wrong but recruiting from other sports is largely outside the cap.I wholeheartedly agree that more mature footballers should be recruited from the lower leagues but in the year that a bloke who scored a try against the all-blacks and plays a starring role in the Grand Final and we honor the memory of the great Jimmy Stynes there is a compellimg argument to continue recruiting from other codes.
October 3rd 2012 @ 8:44am
Dingo said | October 3rd 2012 @ 8:44am | Report comment
I think it could be traced back to one person. Jim Stynes. A bloke with no experience in the game went on to become one of the greatest.
Ever since and forever more, if someone looks like they have what it takes, clubs will be prepared to give them a try.
October 3rd 2012 @ 8:54am
Brewski said | October 3rd 2012 @ 8:54am | Report comment
Mark Worthing ton played football as a kid, at a high level, either his father or uncle is former Collingwood fullback Kevein Worthington.
ATM there was a draft camp in the US, i think some basketballers that missed the NBA cut may be picked up, from that camp, they have been invited to the AFL conbine.
http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20120918134323130
Interestingly a Chinese guy apparently with a fantastic vertical leap has been chosen.
October 3rd 2012 @ 9:19am
TC said | October 3rd 2012 @ 9:19am | Report comment
On the AFL site there’s a video of the first day of the AFL combine, which includes 10 athletes from outside of Australia for the first time, following historic combines in the US and China.
http://www.afl.com.au/
Also pertinent, Hawthorn has just signed the 19 year old from Ireland, Ciaran Kilkenny, who had also been chased by a couple of other clubs.
At the Irish combine, he tested near the top for speed and agillity,
http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/148794/default.aspx
This article also says:
“Recent changes to rookie list rules make the recruitment of Irish players more appealing.
Clubs can now count one Irish player as an international rookie, meaning they don’t take up a main rookie spot.
Two Irishmen, Emmett Bradley of Derry and Sean Hurley of Kildare, have been invited to attend the NAB AFL Combine at Etihad Stadium in October. ”
TC
October 3rd 2012 @ 5:27pm
Milz said | October 3rd 2012 @ 5:27pm | Report comment
Just look at Israel Folau for someone whose a great athlete was brought straight into AFL and sucked. I don’t know how they think someone whose never kicked a Sherrin before will be a key forward.
October 3rd 2012 @ 5:48pm
Breezy said | October 3rd 2012 @ 5:48pm | Report comment
I don’t think they are really worried about how successful Folau will be as a player, he serves a different purpose.
October 6th 2012 @ 4:07pm
Ian Whitchurch said | October 6th 2012 @ 4:07pm | Report comment
The biggest lesson of Pyke is it needs four years.
Of course, that wont stop people playing “lets pretend” thats theres massive amounts of high-end talent playing in the State leagues.
October 3rd 2012 @ 5:44pm
Pollock said | October 3rd 2012 @ 5:44pm | Report comment
Not many rugby either league or union are fit enough for AFL look how long it has taken Karmicharl Hunt to get up to speed. Cross code recruiting will always be popular as it is the marketing equivalent of a sugar hit for the code so is treated kindly by the AFL commission.
Doesnt really matter if you have a few failures as long as 1 or 2 come good it makes it worthwhile.
Can’t agree with the guts of the article though, isn’t it proof that the likes of Zorko etc have been elevated that the locals are being recruited?
October 3rd 2012 @ 8:32pm
Jack Russell said | October 3rd 2012 @ 8:32pm | Report comment
99% of players are recruited from our own backyard and you’re concerned it’s not enough?
Strange idea for an article.
October 4th 2012 @ 8:31am
micka said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:31am | Report comment
+1
I don’t think the handful of players picked up from outside the TAC Cup are going to swamp the code.
If you are good enough you get in and stay in regardless of where you are from. If Izzy doesn’t cut it he will be gone soon enough (I sincerely hope he tears it to shreds though – would be a great story).
October 4th 2012 @ 8:42am
TC said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Good point Jack, with over 810 footballers on AFL lists, how many have come from outside of the normal AFL system? Six? maybe seven? That’s less than 1%, it’s an absolute blip.
In the meantime, the combine is on right now (with about 10% of the participants being from overseas), and it’s the local boys dominating results so far.
An older player from Colac, playing with North Ballarat, smashed the vertical leap record, and another from the Wester Jets got within 2 cm of NicNat’s running vertical leap record.
Having said that, heard that Hawthorn’s international rookie, Kurt Heatherly, from NZ, has done very, very well.
TC
October 4th 2012 @ 8:47am
TC said | October 4th 2012 @ 8:47am | Report comment
Here’s a clip on day 2 of the combine:
Good interview with Joshie Harris, of Nauru, he talks of the difficulty of playing footy in Nauru, with only one proper footy ground.
Brief mention of the three Americans – they are flying.
TC
October 5th 2012 @ 10:34am
Brewski said | October 5th 2012 @ 10:34am | Report comment
Just watched this, very impressive, Kurt Heatherley is going to be very good, it’s all very well being a great athlete, but you need footy smarts and skills …. Heatherley will have that.
October 5th 2012 @ 1:03am
Trev said | October 5th 2012 @ 1:03am | Report comment
The whole point is I don’t get why clubs go searching far and wide for project players when clearly there is plenty of talent in the lower leagues waiting to be picked up. Players like Stynes were great but are pretty far between.
October 5th 2012 @ 1:54pm
CallmeeAl said | October 5th 2012 @ 1:54pm | Report comment
One of the main reasons clubs went searching for ‘project players’ was the compromised drafts across the phasing in of GCS and GWS.
Putting guys on as rookies, and in particular international rookies and before that NSW scholarships – these were ‘cheap’ ways outside of the draft proper to perhaps unearth diamonds in the rough so to speak.
We’ve already seen a number of stars emerge over the years from the rookie draft, and in recent years the mature age rookies (again, due in no small part to the GCS/GWS impact).
Pyke was very ‘cheap’ and worth a shot. So too the Irish lads of whom very few have kicked on but presently guys like Hanley, McKeever and Touhy have been going okay and Marty Clarke of course has returned. These guys come with a marginal advantage of being pretty well a ‘blank canvas’ when it comes to Aust Footy coaching – so, a decent coaching department can ‘mould’ the guys pretty well from scratch instead of often having to undo damage done before rebuilding.
That said – there’s heaps of kids with talent who miss out. For me though – the mature age draft and the recognition of guys sometimes needing longer to mature and being given a 2nd chance has been fantastic.
But, if Kurt Heatherley, or Yoshi Harris, or Brendon Beno can make it – having first learned their footy ‘overseas’ and first having represented their countries in junior international tournaments before coming into the mainstream talent pathway – if that can happen then would it be a bad thing for footy in the Pacific to lay claims to being a valid component of the broader talent pathway? (esp given we now have 18 teams and there’s again been talk of the current lists needing to be expanded).
October 6th 2012 @ 4:08pm
Ian Whitchurch said | October 6th 2012 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Trev,
No. Theres not.
And the talent that is there tends to be lacking height, pace, acceleration and endurance.
October 6th 2012 @ 4:37pm
CallmeeAl said | October 6th 2012 @ 4:37pm | Report comment
with all due respect that tends to be a generalisation.
Like any group of hopefuls, there are ‘journeyman’ style players and there are stand outs.
re pace, acceleration, skills, height – it can all vary.
Obviously though the South Pacific lads at the AFL draft combine have a fair degree of talent and attributes in at least certain areas.
Yoshi Harris and Gideon Simon are shorter, and perhaps more David Rodan-esque – - that’s not a bad thing.
Kurt Heatherley is a tall, and a fine athlete – and finished the season doing quite well for Sandringham Dragons in the TAC Cup through the latter rounds and into the finals – - although Tim Membrey had his measure in the Prelim final.
The main thing is for an effective talent pathway to exist that allows the talented players to be identified and effectively exposed to the Australian talent pathways. For now – this only really exists in the Sth Pacific region from PNG around. Where proximity to Australia makes it possible.
The search for ‘talls’ has obviously taken a turn (to the USofA for basketball types) that is an acknowledgement in part I suppose that the talls aren’t to be found growing on trees in Oceania. ALthough, of course, we see a couple of talls of Fijian origin in Naitanui and Carlile, and Edwards of Samoan descent has been a mid sized forward and Izzie Folau of Tongan/Samoan descent is a tall as well.
October 5th 2012 @ 10:12am
clipper said | October 5th 2012 @ 10:12am | Report comment
Overseas players give good publicity and exposure, but you’re right, there’s a lot to chose from outside that arena. With the Swans winning, there should be even more players coming up from NSW in the coming years. This story was on the front page of the Wentworth Courier, which also devoted its editorial to the Swans win – although players from west Sydney may take longer to come through.
http://wentworth-courier.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/swans-premiership-win-great-for-grass-roots-afl-numbers/
October 5th 2012 @ 5:28pm
Republican said | October 5th 2012 @ 5:28pm | Report comment
AFL = Business = Marketing, pure and simple
They will need to be careful not to cut off their nose to spite their megalomanic commercial face, the AFL i.e; if they haven’y already.
October 6th 2012 @ 9:59am
Fitzy said | October 6th 2012 @ 9:59am | Report comment
Oh come on…….Are you telling me RL RU or Soccer isn’t! These sort of comments are easily made to try and denigrate the sport…..but heres a simple fact AFL is a MEMBERSHIP based organisation in otherwords NO ONE PERSON gets the money. Unlike Soccer and more recently RL (i.e TinklerNCJ and NEWS Storm). It is not run as someones play thing but a sport where you pay your membership and you are part of the club- (RL has recently caught on and is now trying the same.) So stop trying to insinuate the AFL is some sort of evil empire, it seems soccer is the true evil in that it takes no prisoners and will not stop until everyone plays and supports the round ball and if you don’t then you will get called unaustralian. I have tried to be tolerant for many years. But now I’m sick and tired of hearing about the sort of rubbish they go on with (i.e. Glebe park – 15 soccer teams in every grade with 15 grounds whinging and complaining so they can get EVERY ground in Sydney). So for all you soccer heads that will have a bash at me least AFL is Australian which you can’t dispute.
October 6th 2012 @ 6:53pm
Ian Whitchurch said | October 6th 2012 @ 6:53pm | Report comment
Fitzy,
You have to remember that Republican hates the AFL as a league, wanting to go back to his fondly imagined Good Old Days
October 6th 2012 @ 8:31pm
CallMeeAl said | October 6th 2012 @ 8:31pm | Report comment
Not to mention until very recently the Telstra & News Ltd ownership of the NRL which truly was corporatised sport. The AFL by comparison is the people’s game. However a club like Carlton has a history of being a virtual privately owned club with a super exclusive cluster of very wealthy families effectively in control – just ask Robert Walls.
October 6th 2012 @ 12:20pm
CallmeeAl said | October 6th 2012 @ 12:20pm | Report comment
and yesterday Richmond has (announced today) signed International Scholarship player Gideon Simon (Mt Hagan, PNG) to a 2 year international rookie contract (similar to Mike Pyke).
Simon becomes the 2nd player after Donald Barry (had a 2 yr international rookie signing with Brisbane) to make it this far having learned his footy initially overseas and coming now through the PNG and South Pacific/Oceania talent pathways.
Hopeful that he can make it all the way.