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Victorian clubs given academies, funding to recruit young talent

Expert
3rd February, 2016
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All ten Victorian clubs will have the opportunity to develop future talent through academies from 2016 onward after the AFL today announced they have given each club funding to establish academies in allocated areas throughout Victoria and the Northern Territory.

These academies will allow Victorian clubs to invest in the development of underage players from multicultural or indigenous backgrounds.

The decision comes after much controversy in recent years about the access of northern states clubs to their own development academies from which a number of talented young players, most prominently Isaac Heeney, have been produced.

The wealth of talent coming out of the northern states academies has led to the AFL introducing a new bidding system for these players ahead of the 2015 draft, and now to the provision of academies for all Victorian clubs.

The AFL is yet to finalise exactly how the Victorian clubs will be able to recruit their academy players, but football operations boss Mark Evans said it would likely be similar to the established bidding system.

In addition to quieting down Victorian concerns over the fairness of the northern academies however the academies will also allow the AFL to further invest in improving the talent pool available to the league by focusing specifically on multicultural and indigenous players.

Evans said players from Asian or African backgrounds would definitely qualify as multicultural academy members, and that other players from non-English speaking families might also qualify.

The potential benefits of scoring an elite draftee cheap through the academy system will provide an incentive for Victorian clubs to invest time and money in developing and attracting to the game “indigenous and multicultural players who would not otherwise play AFL, or are under-represented,” said Evans.

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The AFL is further set to meet with South Australian and Western Australian clubs to organise the distrubtion of academy regions within those states, and is also looking to finalise academy regions within Tasmania.

The current areas allocated to each Victorian club are as follows:

Carlton – Northern Melbourne (Northern Knights)
Collingwood – Central Melbourne (Oakleigh Chargers), Barkly (NT)
Essendon – North West Melbourne (Calder Cannons), West Arnhem (NT)
Geelong – Geelong /Hampden (Geelong Falcons), East Arnhem (NT)
Hawthorn – Eastern/Whitehorse LGAs (Eastern Ranges), Gippsland (Gippsland Power), Katherine (NT)
Melbourne – South East Melbourne (Dandenong Stingrays), Alice Springs (NT)
North Melbourne – Melbourne and Wyndham LGAs (Calder Cannons & Western Jets)
Richmond – Goulburn Murray, Bendigo, Sunraysia, North Central (Bendigo Pioneers and Murray Bushrangers)
St Kilda – Inner Southern Melbourne (Sandringham Dragons), Frankston LGA
Western Bulldogs – Western Melbourne, Wimmera, Mallee, South West Victoria, Ballarat, (North Ballarat Rebels & Western Jets)

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