{"id":65510,"date":"2024-06-27T10:00:22","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T00:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/?p=65510"},"modified":"2024-06-27T10:15:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T00:15:23","slug":"keep-footys-romance-keep-father-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/2024\/06\/keep-footys-romance-keep-father-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Footy\u2019s Romance. Keep Father\/Son"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The AFL draft is a convoluted, impossible to follow, let alone decipher, event.<\/p>\n<p>Competitive balance in the AFL, by and large, is a myth.<\/p>\n<p>Some teams are improperly punished or rewarded purely by virtue of the lottery of birth.<\/p>\n<p>The above three statements are all true.<\/p>\n<p>All of them are true, at least in part, because of the father\/son rule.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s another true statement: father\/son is beautiful and we should keep it in the game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Like father, like son \ud83e\udd29 <\/p>\n<p>Club greats Glenn Archer, Luke Darcy and Peter Daicos share a special moment with their sons, and current draftees, Jackson, Sam and Nick at the MCG \ud83d\udcf8 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7uHw8uYkyL\">pic.twitter.com\/7uHw8uYkyL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; AFL (@AFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AFL\/status\/1462995153983967248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 23, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It seems inevitable that my pleas will fall on deaf ears and the AFL will change the father\/son rule to make it even more expensive for clubs to get access to highly rated academy and father\/son prospects.<\/p>\n<p>The decision has been made apparently on the basis of preserving competitive balance after transformative players like Sam Darcy and Nick Daicos were offered to the clubs their legendary fathers played for as a matter of priority.<\/p>\n<p>I think this sucks, and I\u2019ll tell you why.<\/p>\n<p>The first reason that father\/son should be kept is romance.<\/p>\n<p>There has to be space for romance in sport, especially a sport like ours.<\/p>\n<p>It is special to have a Daicos dynasty at Collingwood.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Daicos played there and is one of Collingwood\u2019s greatest ever players, and now his sons are playing there and playing well.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fantastic Five: Peter Daicos&#039; best moments | AFL\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EyCYKB5_UHA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Father and sons wearing the same strip, bleeding the same colours, makes it even more special.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Josh and Nick Daicos&#039; best highlights so far..\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9itZb7YIuFw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I barrack for Richmond and I hate Collingwood, absolutely hate them.<\/p>\n<p>I am so bored of Dane Swan telling stories about how he drinks beers while wearing shirts made for people 25 years younger than he is.<\/p>\n<p>I still get fuzzy when I see Peter Daicos lose it in the box when his boys, one wearing his number, win games for their club.<\/p>\n<p>As much as the AFL is trying to become a corporate behemoth like the NFL, it still has retained a little bit of the heart that the NFL jettisoned long ago despite its best efforts.<\/p>\n<p>This is still a bastard amalgam born out of a of suburban league, and the suburban roots are still strong.<\/p>\n<p>Keep the family roots strong as well.<\/p>\n<p>I accept that I\u2019m a romantic, but that romance can\u2019t be the only reason to keep a dinosaur, so let\u2019s look at some facts.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a fact: competitive balance is a myth.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s like Atlantis or non-ironic moustaches on men in their mid-late 20s.<\/p>\n<p>Every league in the world is unbalanced in some way, it\u2019s just the way that competitive sport works. If you aren\u2019t prepared to play every team twice, once at home and once away, then you are going to have a somehow unbalanced league.<\/p>\n<p>Look at the New England Patriots in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p>They won the AFC East 18\/20 years during the Brady-Belichick run largely because the other teams in the division were quite poor.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the way the NFL works, that meant that they got a free ticket to the playoffs every year.<\/p>\n<p>That same system lets the occasional 7-9 team into the playoffs. It\u2019s just the way that the sport is structured.<\/p>\n<p>Some years the imbalance will favour you and others it won\u2019t, unless you\u2019re a non-Victorian side playing in a Grand Final but that\u2019s a separate issue.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what professional sport is, beating obstacles.<\/p>\n<p>For non-Victorian teams the obstacle is travel, for Victorian teams it\u2019s never getting true home games because the competing clubs are in neighbouring suburbs.<\/p>\n<p>True competitive balance doesn\u2019t exist anywhere in the world and changing the rules around father\/son will not impact that.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re just playing whack-a-mole if you make these changes to get to the euphoria of competitive balance.<\/p>\n<p>And if the AFL could see the wood for the trees instead of hunting for the euphoric release that is competitive balance that will please every club they would see that the competition is incredibly balanced.<\/p>\n<p>Other than Sydney, who were 15th in 2019 and 16th in 2020, everyone else is close.<\/p>\n<p>13 teams can reasonably make the finals this season, third and tenth are separated by just two games.<\/p>\n<p>The teams with the second and third highest percentages are sitting tenth and eleventh &#8211; Brisbane and the Bulldogs, respectively,<\/p>\n<p>This is an even season.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond this season it\u2019s generally true that teams rise and fall as they are designed to with all the equalisation measures, outside of outliers like North Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>The equalisation measures that they already have in place are working, even with father\/son having been in its current form since 2015.<\/p>\n<p>My final point is that the impact of father\/son particularly has been relatively negligible.<\/p>\n<p>The academies, I concede, are a different conversation and they are also caught up in the rule changes (though I would also contend that Errol Gulden and Isaac Heeney being from Sydney is a good thing for the competition).<\/p>\n<p>Here are all of the father\/son picks since 2021 and what they cost in terms of draft pick: Sam Darcy (2), Nick Daicos (4),<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sam Darcy snaps it and we take the lead \ud83d\ude2e\u200d\ud83d\udca8<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lxUyhN4inI\">pic.twitter.com\/lxUyhN4inI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Western Bulldogs (@westernbulldogs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/westernbulldogs\/status\/1784168403470823448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 27, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Jackson Archer (59), Jase Burgoyne (60), Taj Woewodin (65), Will Ashcroft (2), Jaspa Fletcher (12), Max Michalanney (17), Alwyn Davey Jr (45), Jayden Davey (54), Cooper Harvey (56), Osca Ricciardi (32(R)), Jordan Croft (15), Will McCabe (19), Calsher Dear (56), and Kynan Brown (22 (R)).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Never in doubt! Will Ashcroft takes home the 2023 rebel Goal of the Year. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/orSWGWxFR6\">pic.twitter.com\/orSWGWxFR6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brisbanelions\/status\/1706267151546695905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 25, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The best players on that list \u2013 Daicos, Darcy and Ashcroft \u2013 went picks 2, 4 and 2 in their drafts. That\u2019s expensive!<\/p>\n<p>Daicos and Darcy probably would have gone 1 and 2 in their draft if their clubs didn\u2019t have first rights on them, but they were in the same draft class and went picks 2 and 4.<\/p>\n<p>Pick 1 that year was Jason Horne Francis who is also a gun, and it would have been interesting to see who North picked first if they had a shot at all three.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest bargain is looking like Calsher Dear, who has been really impressive but has only played in seven games so far.<\/p>\n<p>However, if he was more highly touted as a youngster, chances are some other club probably would have bid on him and forced Hawthorn to make a choice.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Calsher Dear really, really, really wants the pill \ud83d\ude24  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AFLHawksCrows?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AFLHawksCrows<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6i4SThslGX\">pic.twitter.com\/6i4SThslGX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hawk Talk Podcast (@HawkTalkPod) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawkTalkPod\/status\/1797079869509214450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Since 2015 the biggest bargains have been Josh Daicos (57), Jake Waterman (77), and Rhylee West (26).<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a winger who got better when his transcendant brother arrived, a late bloomer key forward who is only a bargain on the basis of his start to 2024, and a clever but capped small forward.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not getting Matthew Richardson for no draft compensation or Jon Brown for pick 30 anymore.<\/p>\n<p>This system is working, good players who are father\/sons are expensive but not prohibitively so.<\/p>\n<p>The league is even.<\/p>\n<p>What are we doing here?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll leave you with this. AFL players are pretty close to NBA players in terms of the amount of power that they have with respect to where they go, even when they\u2019re in contract.<\/p>\n<p>The eight years leading up to becoming an unrestricted free agent are one long pre-agency.<\/p>\n<p>The player, if he wants to move, basically has unfettered power to tell his club to trade him somewhere and they always do.<\/p>\n<p>Look at how Jason Horne-Francis, after just one year at North Melbourne, forced his way out of the club that picked him first overall in the \u201cuncompromised\u201d part of the AFL draft.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jason Horne-Francis has put contract talks with North Melbourne on hold until the end of the season, per <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sammy__Edmund?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Sammy__Edmund<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4OtENDFWSn\">pic.twitter.com\/4OtENDFWSn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; 7AFL (@7AFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/7AFL\/status\/1523831265195327488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 10, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Do you honestly think that if Nick Daicos was picked by North, he wouldn\u2019t have done the same?<\/p>\n<p>Please don\u2019t ruin the romance of father\/son.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b><i>Like what you read from our hard-hitting columnist?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b><i>Follow\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/guywholikesspo1\"><b><i>@Guywholikessport<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i>\u00a0on Twitter or check out his\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/guywholikessport.wixsite.com\/guywholikessport\"><b><i>FULL BLOG HERE\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":65511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8298,344],"tags":[29,8614,8451,1329,8260,3094],"hub_post_cat":[],"class_list":["post-65510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-rules","category-guywholikessport","category-sports","tag-afl","tag-afl-2024","tag-afl-draft","tag-australian-rules","tag-guywholikessport","tag-opinion"],"acf":{"md_tip_date":null,"md_tip_date_end":null,"md_market_url":"","tip_date":"27\/06\/2024","event_country":"Australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65510"},{"taxonomy":"hub_post_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neds.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post_cat?post=65510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}