FootyGoss :: Club News - Geelong [Like father, like son]

Like father, like son

By Mr Dandalooa

Father’s Day is on September 6 at an interesting time in the AFL calendar.

The occasion presents an idea opportunity for the Cats to maybe gather somewhere salubrious in Geelong and give kudos for the father-son rule which has been a gift to the current team in the likes of Gary Ablett, Tom Hawkins, Matthew Scarlett and Mark Blake.

If the Cats’ current form is anything to go by, the boys could all gather several weeks later to celebrate a 2009 AFL grand final victory.

The Ablett legacy on the field is one to be revered. This week, Gary Ablett said he would play but Geelong seems likely to err on the side of caution when it tackles North Melbourne at Skilled Stadium on Saturday.

Ablett has missed just one match since being diagnosed with a strained adductor, an injury the club suspected would keep him sidelined for two to three weeks.

However the Brownlow Medal favourite, whose injury has settled better than his club had expected, is now considered an outside chance to take on the Kangaroos.

His tenacity and football skills are straight out of his dad’s playbook, but had it not been for the father-son rule, would the Ablett legacy have existed at all?

The father-son rule is a rule allowing clubs to select the sons of players who have made a major past contribution to the team in Aussie rules football.

Footy was first introduced to the rule in the early 1950s, albeit with more than 10 amendments, most recently tightening of eligibility criteria in 2003 and refining of the draft selection process in 2007.

After years of trying, the Melbourne Football Club successfully lobbied for the rule, wanting a young Ron Barassi to follow in the footsteps of his father, Ron Barassi, Sr. who had been killed during World War II.

However, this meant bypassing the then standard zone-based recruitment rulings, which would have seen Barassi recruited to Carlton instead.

In 2007 the AFL made an important amendment for the father-son rule, establishing a bidding system to determine which draft pick a club must give up to secure the potential recruit.

Under the system, clubs are free to nominate potential father-son recruits, a meeting is held on before the start of trade week where clubs can bid for nominated players.

Each club has the option to bid, in reverse ladder order, for the nominated players and if a bid is made, the club that nominated the father-son player must use its next available selection if it wishes to retain its hold on that player.

However, if a club nominating the father-son player declines to match the selection nominated, the club with the successful bid must use that selection at the draft to select the player.

Any club that makes a successful bid on a father-son selection is bound to the pick they nominate.

If no bid is made by another club, the club that nominated the father-son eligible player will forfeit its last selection in the draft to select the player.

Prior to 2007 the father-son rule allowed clubs to select an eligible player in return for giving up their allocated third round pick in the National Draft.

If more than one player was eligible for father-son selection for the same club in the same draft then subsequent father-son selections required forfeit of the second, first and fourth round draft picks respectively.

Alternatively a player has the right to decline to be selected under the father-son rule and instead be eligible to be drafted by any club.

Some clubs have a modified rule in place, valid until the club has been in the AFL for 20 years, with eligibility to be determined by a certain number of games played for specific sides in state league, specifically.

For instance, the West Coast Eagles could select any player whose father had made 150 WAFL appearances for Claremont, East Perth, West Perth or Subiaco.