Ross Lyon has voiced his opinion in a "Gettysburg"-style address regarding the current academies system, believing it has hindered “fairness and equality” within the competition.
Lyon’s comments follow from those made by club President Andrew Bassat in recent weeks, who has led the discussion regarding the changes to the current system, in particular the draft concessions in securing father-son and academy talent.
Among the call for the responsibility of academies control to be reclaimed by the AFL as opposed to being run by clubs, Lyon highlighted the Draft Value Index (DVI) wherein clubs can accumulate multiple low-end picks to match the points value of a high-end pick.
“It’s all about probability and risk, isn’t it? At the back end (of selections) there’s low probability and high risk, but you’re using those picks with low probability and high risk to secure high probability and low risk. And then you get a discount to do it,” Lyon said.
“The price and the points attached to pick No. 53 (for example) is 250 points. Pick No. 12 is about 1800 points or whatever it is. So you can go accumulate those picks at the back-end to match that price, but if you go to value, there’s a 25 per cent chance that pick No. 53 doesn’t play. The median over a sample of 300 picks is 15 games… the median games played for a pick No. 12 is 100 games and the percentage chance of them not playing is seven per cent.
“There’s price, but there’s real value. No one really talks to accumulating picks that have little value to get something that’s real value.
“When that (DVI) system was put together, you would trade for picks but it was based on you would have the slot. Now you’re accumulating 11 slots that you don’t have.
The introduction of the national draft in 1990 and the subsequent eradication of the zone-based system allowed all clubs to “fish in the same pond” and bring in talent, however the introduction of state-based academies in New South Wales and Queensland to attract premium talent has gone against the AFL’s vision of fairness — which the draft was introduced for — in Lyon’s eyes.
“You used to harvest your zone and there was inequality in the zones and less productive zones. A lot of it was about population growth in new areas and it was luck of the draw, so they got rid of zones and made it one big pond to grab players out of.
“The AFL took over talent pathways which is great... for whatever reason (the AFL has) abdicated the responsibility on academies in each state and thought clubs could do it better, but ultimately it’s just AFL money funding it.
“We’ve actually created zones again. To be honest, they’re almost like state zones. If you think about New South Wales and Queensland, we want to grow the national competition because that’s where the population is, and we’re all supportive of that. But over 50 per cent of the Australian population is in those growth corridors.”
St Kilda’s academy has produced seven AFL-listed players, including current Saints Mitch Owens and Marcus Windhager - who the club matched bids from Sydney and Geelong respectively on to secure in 2021 - and 2022 pick No. 7 Cam McKenzie, now at Hawthorn.
“Every club is putting their position forward. Those with the most to lose are being really loud,” Lyon said.
“As the AFL said to us we’ll be least affected with any change. The reason we’re least affected is we’re least benefitted and clearly we just want fairness.
“If you know it’s unfair, which the AFL knows it is, why perpetuate unfairness and inequity?”
