James Aish’s short career at the Brisbane Lions might already be over after the young star was ruled out for the rest of the 2015 season today due to a finger injury.
Aish is set for 12 weeks recovery after having surgery on Monday to repair a tendon in his finger that he ruptured in Saturday night’s loss to North Melbourne.
The injury may well close the book on Aish’s time as a Brisbane Lion with the youngster widely tipped to request a trade home to South Australia at the end of the year.
There has also been rumour of some Victorian clubs being keen to lure the young midfielder who finished fourth in last year’s Rising Star Award.
The name Aish is football royalty in South Australia. James is the son of Norwood champion Andrew Aish, grandson of Peter Aish, and the nephew of Magarey Medallist (SANFL equivalent of the Brownlow Medal) Michael Aish, who played in 307 games and two premierships for the club.
James himself debuted for Norwood’s senior team when he was just sixteen, the youngest player to debut for the club in 134 years. He played in two SANFL premierships for Norwood before being drafted in 2013.
Originally tipped to be a top five pick in the draft, Aish slid a little and the Brisbane Lions were ecstatic to snag him with their pick seven. He had an excellent 2014 debut season but now things are beginning to go pear-shaped.
The subject of go-home rumours from his first day at the club, Aish has repeatedly put off contract talks with the Lions this season and it’s now widely believed that he will jump ship at the end of the year.
His form has been average this year and he has been dropped from the team twice. He’s also missed three games due to jaw injury, and will now miss the rest of the season.
Lions skipper Tom Rockliff said earlier in the year that if Aish didn’t sign by Round 16 (last week), he’d “probably think he’ll (Aish) leave”.
The Lions famously lost five young players at the end of the 2013 season – Elliot Yeo (West Coast), Jared Polec (Port Adelaide), Sam Docherty (Carlton), Billy Longer (St Kilda) and Patrick Karnezis (Collingwood). With the exception of Karnezis all have gone on to be regulars at their new clubs.
Senior Lions Rockliff and Pearce Hanley both expressed their opinions on Twitter after those trades were completed, with Hanley calling the traded players “mummies boys”. By the looks of it, they might want to get their twitter fingers warmed up for the coming trade period in October.
TomC
Roar Guru
Yep. The flip side is that when frontier clubs are given extra assistance, they tend to be used to entrench that club at the top once they're successful, which makes it harder to make real support politically sustainable. Unfortunately the AFL's response has been this bewildering all or nothing strategy, where the QLD and NSW clubs either get a range of generous concessions or nothing. The new academy rules are pretty close to nothing.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Fundamentally it’s a catch 22 situation. The go-home factor amongst young draft picks is strong because the team is currently rubbish and getting flogged. The team is currently rubbish and getting flogged because so many young draft picks have left the club. Ok, a bit simplistic, but there’s an element of truth to it. If the AFL is at all serious about growing this game in QLD they simply cannot permit this to continue. If the player drafted at the end of this season (most likely #1 or #2 draft pick) walks out on the club after two years that will be the most damning indictment on the AFL in this state.
Josh
Expert
Interesting idea.
Josh
Expert
Speaking in very general terms, humans being human is the cause of literally every problem in society. If people started murdering each other in the crowd, you could refer to it the same way. I do agree it's a bit of a bad sign on the game, a lack of players willing to be loyal to the club that drafts them, or feeling like they can decide for themselves where they want to go. It's a complex issue though because it's also basically the only industry in the world where you're not allowed to choose your employer.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
So humans being.. human is the biggest blight on the game you can think of? Game is in good shape if so.
Me Too
Guest
Not sure what to do about the go home factor. perhaps limiting payments to players in their first few years in the sense that second year wages rise automatically, as do third years - a general afl amount, and players that leave for a new club before the initial contract must start at the beginning of the wage tier again. No player can sign longer than the three year deal if yet to complete one. Once a player has completed a three year deal he is no longer restrained by the tier system. Hopefully three years is enough time for a player to get acclimatised to a new city and feel part of a team.
josh
Roar Rookie
This is bigger blight on the game than anyhting else (drafted players wanting to go home).
Josh
Expert
You're right actually, now that I double check, though Rocky also had a go. "How can kids name there club they want to go to when they have played a handful of games?? #spellme #aheadofyourself". It was Hanley who used the #mummiesboysarehomenow (may or may not have sneakily fixed this in the text above now.)
Albi Mangler
Guest
It was Hanley not Rockliff who tweeted "life goes on, you grow up and inevitably move away from home". He was well within his rights as someone who traveled from the other side of the planet for his chance to play professional sport.