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Swans launch new development academy

By Mr Dandalooa

The Sydney Swan Football Club has launched a new development academy in a bid to entice more NSW-born AFL players into the game.

Swans coach Paul Roos reckons the first day of the academy was a watershed moment for the sport in NSW, but added it was a moment that should have happened at a decade0 years ago.

“If you look at the quality of some of the players - Lenny Hayes, Mark McVeigh – there’s enough quality players through the old system, let alone if you’d had this set up 10 years ago,” he said on Tuesday.

“You’d have some real quality players about to enter the draft with Greater Western Sydney coming in.

“Obviously it’s an enormous opportunity that’s been lost, because there are kids who would have been playing AFL football if we had have started this 10, 15 years ago.

“But we can’t worry about the kids that aren’t playing. We’ve got to make sure that a lot of these kids do play in the next five to 10 years.”

About 600 boys aged from 8 to 12 will attend tryouts at Lakeside Oval until Friday with a view to being chosen among the first intake of the Swans’ academy.

Boys as young as 12 will take part and once they reach draft age, their clubs will have first call on their services. If another club expresses interest in drafting an academy player, a bidding system similar to that used under the father-son rule will be used.

The Swans’ new system – whereby the four AFL clubs in NSW and Queensland will run their own development programs – replaces the NSW scholarship system from 2011.

Sydney Swans head honcho Andrew Ireland, who has been one of the key architects of the academy system, estimated the club’s academy would cost about $1 million per season.

He said it would take several years before its advantages over the NSW scholarship program became apparent.

“While I’m sure there are a couple of scholarship boys who are going to come through and become AFL players, our view is if you look at that group of players ... that pool isn’t quite good enough,” he said.

“We’re really talking about a quantum change, rather than just the individual talent that might sneak through.”

Roos said on the club’s website he hoped to assume a role with the club’s academy on completing his coaching tenure at the end of 2010.