A distressed Paul Salmon is taken from the field in 1984.Credit:Archives
N. Daicos and Darcy are the current players who encapsulate the inadequacies of the father-son rule,which is slated to be reformed into one that forces clubs to pay a fairer price for their genetic endowments.
On Friday night,Jamarra Ugle-Hagan,too,displayed his talents as he was manned by the Collingwood skipper and yet another son of a club great,Darcy Moore – one of few AFL defenders with the traits to successfully defend the future version of Darcy.
The Pies calculated that their Darcy was needed on Ugle-Hagan,whom the Dogs were gifted by the temporary munificence of a next generation academy (for Indigenous and multicultural players) rule that allowed them to snare Jamarra at pick one while also trading in Adam Treloar following the Collingwood salary cap fire sale.
The influence and spectre of father-sons and academy players – especially the northern iterations at Sydney and Gold Coast – is one of the dominant stories of 2024.
No club,bar Geelong,has prospered as much as Collingwood and the Doggies from the father-son rule,while the Swans’ academy has yielded Isaac Heeney,Errol Gulden,Nick Blakey and Callum Mills. Gold Coast (finally) hit the jackpot with four academy players last year,two of whom shape as A-grade talls (Jed Walter and Ethan Read).
Clubs that have missed the boat want a reformed system and even those who’ve cleaned up – the Cats and Pies included – feel that the system must change,as it will,via the AFL’s competitive balance review. The AFL has indicated that the rules will become fairer.
The AFL is committed to retaining the academy system,northern and NGA,and there is no agenda to scupper the father-son rule (or the father-daughter,mother-daughter and mother-son variants). And nor should there be. In an increasingly homogenised competition,to see the sons of ex-stalwarts is a necessary concession to tribalism.
But while the clubs agree on the need for change,what should the new rules become?
Several submissions from clubs on this topic have argued that a first-round pick should be the price paid for a father-son or academy player of high value,via the bidding system and that the arcane points/bidding system – which lets clubs procure recruits with a slew of later draft picks – be reformed or scrapped.
Nick Daicos had his own moment to celebrate.Credit:Getty Images
Collingwood,for instance,matched a bid for Nick Daicos at pick four,using picks 38,40,42 and 44 to meet the required points. The Dogs did similarly with Ugle-Hagan and Darcy following bids at picks one and two respectively. The Pies,unwisely,traded out their 2021 first pick (No.2) in 2020 knowing Daicos was coming and would have made out like bandits had they retained that choice and had a double dip.
In revising the rules,the AFL’s priority should and is likely to be to cease exploitation of the points system – described as “ridiculous” by recruiters – that sees first-round picks split up and sold off like junk bonds,so you can secure a father son/academy gun and keep a first rounder (usually a future one). Or use that first rounder to trade in a decent player.
The AFL could also allow clubs to match bids in the top 20 again for NGA players after the review.
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Collingwood’s and ex-Hawthorn football boss Graham Wright (who is on leave) and Geelong’s recruiting boss Stephen Wells long ago floated the idea that a club should use a pick in the same round,or one within nine selections of the bid for the father-son/academy recruit.
The Cats would not have had access to Joel Selwood in the same year as Tom Hawkins (2006) under that scenario had the rule existed.
Another alternative Wright/Wells proposed was the first two picks could be consumed if the bid was high enough,while an option clubs have floated is that a high bid must be matched by a first-round pick in that year or the following year.
Whatever the AFL decides,the overriding principle must be that game-shaping players – those who win finals and flags – are not awarded with a huge discount,and that the equalising objective of the draft cannot be undone because a club has a good set of genes or an academy that produces guns.
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