Buddy Franklin doesn’t just outsell every other player when it comes to merchandise, he sells twice the amount of his closest rival.
At 196cm and 100kg, Buddy’s a legend and a self-generating draw card. I don’t barrack for Hawthorn but I do watch them whenever I can and I won’t hesitate to attend their games.
Only Naitanui comes close to him. Naitanui’s wow factor is a boon for West Coast and the highlight reel grows with each season that passes.
In 2013 the Kangaroos are going to introduce the AFL world to the amazing Majak Daw. At 195cm and 97kg he is the shortest of the three, but has an incredible build and the biggest cannons in the AFL.
Majak’s stunning run out of the back line and goal for Werribee had Nic Naitanui written all over it. If you haven’t already seen it, do yourself a favour and get on YouTube.
As a club that struggles to get bums on seats, it’s beyond me why North Melbourne has not given this man a game earlier. The first game they pencil him in is the first Roos game I’ll be paying to see.
The promotional power of these three is huge for the game and for their clubs. Almost every club has a draw card and merchandising machine. The Western Bulldogs, the Demons, Port Power and GWS don’t.
Not winning games is one thing, but not winning games and no draw card results in low crowd numbers and a lack of interest from the general public. So how can they generate interest?
During the latest AFL draft combine, three American athletes stood out. Eric Wallace, Yannick Crowder and Benjamin Shearry all have basketball backgrounds. With a season or two of hard work, any one of these athletes has the potential to thrill the crowds just like Buddy and help boost any club’s publicity, crowds and merchandising.
If I had to pick one, it would be Eric Wallace. He won the best international performer at the combine and has fallen in love with Aussie Rules. Keep in mind the first game of AFL he saw was the 2012 grand final.
Eric loved his time in Australia and is bursting at the seams to get back here and give Aussie rules a crack. Eric is already an amazing athlete, that’s a tick. But his biggest tick is his desire to play.
Take note GWS, this one doesn’t require a bag of money to stoke his passion. Every club can have three international rookies (No Irishmen) listed on their Category B list, in addition to their primary rookie list, which allows six normal rookies.
This won’t cost your club much more than the time. This said, I was surprised that only ten clubs interviewed Eric.
The Adelaide Crows are all over the idea of taking on athletes with a basketball background and have already had success in converting them to Australian rules players.
Yesterday the Crows announced that Jack Osbourn and Tim Klaosen will be joining Ben Dowdell on their Category B Rookie list. All three are mature aged Australians with a basketball background.
I hope all the players looking to get drafted all the best. This is a message to all the recruiting agents who want success.
Eric Wallace is sitting by his phone, give him a call and let’s give AFL its second rookie-listed American athlete for 2013.
AllSports
Roar Rookie
Well done Eric, you did it!
AllSports
Roar Rookie
Hi Andy, Thanks to The Wookie for providing the article on buddy. I found it hard to believe myself. I do my best to research everything. But the comments on the Draw cards are based more on the things that players like Natanui, Buddy and Majak do in a game to really make you go Wow this is an awesome game to watch. I could have mentioned a lot more players but to me these three standout. Plugger is my all time favourite and I could also mention Winmar, Carey and many more. What I would really love to see is one of the American blokes get a shot. I love the fact that the Swans have taken a shot with Alex Starling and I think Collingwood are the only other club smart enough to take a chance on Eric Wallace. Collingwoods recruiting has been brilliant over trade week and they would top it off by putting Eric on their Rookie list.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
AFL media report - Was actually reported via the AFL network, it WAS on all club and afl websites (despite this link being from the Hawthorn one) http://www.hawthornfc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/4742/newsid/149737/default.aspx It lists The top 10 as - 1. Lance Franklin - Hawthorn 2. Cyril Rioli - Hawthorn 3. Chris Judd - Carlton 4. Jobe Watson - Essendon 5. Luke Hodge - Hawthorn 6. Joel Selwood - Geelong 7. Marc Murphy - Carlton 8. Adam Goodes - Sydney Swans 9. Jimmy Bartel - Geelong 10. Lenny Hayes - St Kilda Worth noting that Collingwoods figures are not included due to it handling its own gear sales. All other clubs are handled through IMG. ALso note this is ONLINE merchandise only.
Andy_Roo
Roar Guru
AllSports you make some big statements there. Buddy sells twice as much merchandise as anybody else does he? Do you have figues to support that. I would have thought there are other players whose merchandis sells pretty well, Chris Judd for one. And only Natanui comes close to Buddy as a draw-card? What about Johnathan Brown or Gary Ablett amongst current players and the like of Carey, Lockett and Hird going back a few years.
Brewski
Guest
Can't speak for all states, but from what i know, a very big crossover occurs in the southern states, with many kids playing both footy and basketball , and historically if we go back to the boom times of basketball in this country, great basketball players such as Smyth, Sengstock, Bradtke, Gaze, and even current WCE Josh Kennedys father all had fairly extensive Australian football backgrounds. The sports compliment each other to a degree, and it is not uncommon for football coaches to be happy and gently push footballers to play basketball, to obtain close in 360% awareness that basketball can provide.
Cameron
Guest
With the amount of basketball players being picked up by AFL clubs at the moment, I would be a little concerned if I was a basketball administrator in this country.
Australian Rules
Guest
No debate there...he looks like a spartan
TC
Guest
Fair enough - the coaching staff are always going to know more about where a certain player is with his development, and it was known during the year that he was probably taking short cuts and not putting in the hard work, and very few make it if they go about their footy that way. All I can tell you is that from the latest pictures I've seen, he is looking like a massive unit. TC
TC
Guest
Hard to argue with. Clubs have such an insatiable demand for big units, that they will look for them anywhere. But at any one time, there are 20 "project" players on AFL lists, in various categories, including various scholarship holders. We will not hear about the vast majority of them. Over a 25 year period, three, maybe four footballers from a non-traditional background have played 100 AFL games. The record of such project players is not as solid as many seem to believe. We know of the handful of successes, Mike Pyke the most recent, we don't know about the dozens upon dozens who come and go. This is far more interesting: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=216451 Let's find the next Nic Naitanui by actually getting Fijians playing the game. Over the next week Nauru is playing three games against Fiji - and that sort of development is a better chance of producing real footballers. On top of that: has anyone seen the latest pictures of Majak Daw? That's the more logical progression for our game. TC
Brewski
Guest
I am not convinced, they will need to be got early, Nic Nat played football as a junior, so did Buddy, and my bet is that the basketballers that the Crows rookied are also footballers ...as in ... have a background in the sport, probably as juniors. Having said that, i wish these guys the best of luck, and i hope they make it, IMO unless you have played the game as a junior, basketballers skills - bar of course kicking , translate/crossover better than RL footballers.
Australian Rules
Guest
Well, who knows of course, he might make it one day...but in my chats with those at the club, the media is far more enamoured with him to date than the coaching/selection panel.
Tim Jenkins
Guest
You obviously didn't see the preliminary final against the cats, almost single handedly won them the game, and he played that well most of tr second half of the year, north wouldn't jar traded macintosh if they didn't think daw could make it
TC
Guest
As in: not good enough yet, or as in: will never be good enough? TC
Australian Rules
Guest
Re Majak Daw - "As a club that struggles to get bums on seats, it’s beyond me why North Melbourne has not given this man a game earlier." um simple... he's no good.