Successful moments in procrastination Vol 5 - The AFDA Draft

So suppose we have an AFL style draft each year of the best unsigned talent. Let's have a few rules...

- Playing Nationals with a team constitutes "signing" with a them.
- Only those who have never played Nationals are eligible to be drafted.
- Australian ulti-citizens (learned to play in Australia) only.
- Teams who played Nationals last season are eligible to be in the draft.
- Lowest finishing team gets pick #1, second lowest gets #2, so on and so forth.

This is what the 2009 season draft might have looked like...

WOMEN
Pick #1 (Indies) - Louisa Battista (Adelaide U18s)
Pick #2 (Primal) - Amber Hong (Perth Social League)
Pick #3 (Sulty) - Colette Grgic (Uni of Queensland)
Pick #4 (Sugar Mags) - Jennifer Hoar (Newcastle U18s)
Pick #5 (Honey) - Steph Malcher (Deakin Uni)
Pick #6 (Bush) - Emily Johnson (Uni of Tasmania)
Pick #7 (Team Box) - *Pass*
Pick #8 (Factory Girls) - Jill Sutton (Canberra League)
Pick #9 (Wildcard) - Loren Viswalingam (Sydney U18s)
Pick #10 (Wildcard) - Fiona McDonald (Sydney Uni)


MEN
Pick #1 (Fakulti) - Mike Tarn (Sydney Uni)
Pick #2 (Chilly) - Matt Wood (Melbourne Social League)
Pick #3 (Firestorm) - Reece Stewart (Brisbane U18s)
Pick #4 (Karma) - Ben Foley (Flinders Uni)
Pick #5 (Sublime) - Max Daube (Perth Social League)
Pick #6 (Chilly) - Byron Wicks (Melbourne Social League)
Pick #7 (HoS) - Andrew Lorimer (Traralgon)
Pick #8 (I-Beam) - Rhys Clenton (Newcastle U18s)
Pick #9 (Fyshwick) - Andrew Jackson (Canberra League)
Pick #10 (Fakulti) - Michael Thomas (UTS)


...and the order of picks for next year's draft....

WOMEN 1. Honey 2. Indies 3. Bush 4. Sultry 5. Factory Girls 6. Primal 7. Honey 8. Sugar Mags 9. Team Box 10. Wildcard

MEN 1. Umlaut 2. Chilly 3. Sublime 4. Fakulti 5. Karma 6. Fakulti 7. Sublime 8. Firestorm 9. I-Beam 10. HoS

So who want to speculate who will be in 2010's top 10?


-EDIT- A couple of glaring omissions have been pointed out to me, so I've fixed them up. I forgot that Mike Tarn hadn't played Nats before, and that Andrew Lorimer made the A's for HoS but didn't make the trek to Perth. Sorry to Phil and Rory!

A new model for Youth Nats?

A while ago there was some discussion with some key folk via the email over the model of Youth Nationals and how it could work in the future. There's no doubting that youth growth is the way we should be pushing forward, and getting school clinics and training camps is a winner, but Youth Nats is fast becoming the neglected stepchild that NUFL once was.

The trouble with Youth Nats is that it relies on the competing teams forming in the same way that club teams do - player driven. While there certainly are some motivated kids out there recruiting and leading youth teams, there are a hell of a lot more youth players who want to get out and have a run, but have no structured team to compete with. Throw this in with the fact that playing Youth Nats requires flying interstate and eating up school days. The whole "parental permission" thing comes in to play here, which is something club teams (rarely) have to put up with.

This year's solution is to split the event up into two events - Eastern (QLD, NSW, ACT) in Newcastle and Southern (VIC & SA) in Ballarat. Theoretically this is eliminating the travel aspect and high costs, but each event is attracting 4-6 teams each. Considering the 2007 event (2008 was single gender) attracted 9 teams, I'd hardly call this a huge increase. It's time we added a bit of prestige to this event if we are to view it as a major event on the calendar.

The model I proposed to the email group a while back is similar to what Simon Wood came up with - I just expanded on it a bit.


Step 1 - Locally based teams are formed by kids/teachers/coaches
These teams are based on schools or friendship groups or even league teams. Geelong alone would already have four ready-made teams. Ideally we would have an adult, or even former youth player, driving the team. Given the number of current AFDA members that are coaches and school teachers, we need to have an incentive for them to form a team - free AFDA fees for six months? Discount off Nationals? I dunno, we'll come up with that later.


Step 2 - State Youth Championships
No brainer - we already have the massive Gala Day in NSW, the State School Championships in SA, the alternative sports days in Melbourne and State Youth Games in regional Victoria. We just brand these events as State Championships to give them a bit of prestige. This would also prevent the formation of stacked teams, eg: all the gun players in SA banding together to win Youth Nats, rather than getting more friends to play and more teams. Sure, there will still be stacked teams, but I really think this model will avoid that for reasons I'll explain soon.


Step 3 - State FDA's select a representative team
This can be done however they want, but there would generally three methods of forming a team - straight-up tryouts/selection, training camp followed by selection, and a "merit team" selection. It all depends on how many players stick their hands up for selection. Now, the important part of this is that the rep team is given a name and is kept as a continuous "club" because this gives the players some emotional attachment to the team, much the same way there is that attachment to Thunder and Terra. This attachment would also ensure former players came back to support the team.

The management of the team would have to fit within state FDA's youth coordinator role, because it is impossible to have continuation of leadership over 2-3 years. Uni teams only manage it because they are tied to a tertiary institution - youth teams would only manage if they were tied to an ongoing organisation, such as an FDA.

There are other advantages to having rep teams - new coaches and selectors can dip their toes into the role rather than going straight to a national team job, state FDA's have a clear funding avenue (ie: receiving government grants) and - in my mind, the biggest one - added authenticity for parents/schools to grant permission. This matches the model used by... pretty much every other sport there is. I know that when I was 15 my parents would be more supportive of my flying to Sydney with a state representative team rather than with "a group of friends".

Back to the stacked teams issue - while the Lochie Wise's and the Cat Phillip's of the world will be walk-on starters to rep teams, on-the-cusp players would be better served playing with a relatively inexperienced team than a stacked team because they would stand out more to selectors. It could also be part of the selection criteria - captaining a team full of new players could add more weight than playing on a team full of Thunder/Terra candidates (if two players are equally adept in skill).


Step 4 - Rep teams compete at Youth Nationals
The natural progression, really. Each state sends their rep team to compete. However we can't just have the eight teams straight up since NSW and Victoria dominate in terms of sheer numbers. So we split NSW and Vic into Metro and Country. Plus the states with smaller youth populations can be merged into other regions if they fail to get a full team. WA with SA, NT with Queensland, ACT with NSW Country and Tassie with Vic Country. From here, you could also tie the tournament in with Thunder/Terra squad selections, or at least invitations to the National Youth Training Camp.


The Calendar
Ultimate is a great after school sport for Term 1 - the weather is still fine, footy/soccer/rugby aren't stealing all the field space and senior students don't have exams to contend with. We could set a deadline of, say, May 1st for state FDA's to submit their team. This leaves the Easter holidays for the State Championships or training camps. Run the Nationals over the Queen's Birthday weekend in June (national holiday, except for WA but they won't even recognise daylight savings so that's their problem) and Robert's your father's brother.


Pathways
In my time on the board and as an admin, I heard this word thrown around a lot when discussing development. In my ever-so-humble opinion, I don't think this system could be any clearer in terms of a development pathway for a youth player from n00b to 1337.

1. Learn-to-play clinic at school
2. Form/join a school/local team
3. Play State Championships/go to state training camp
4. Play for state rep team
5. Go to National Youth Training Camp
6. Make Thunder/Terra squad
7. Play for Thunder/Terra

Thoughts/comments to the usual address.

Reflections on Nationals

So it's been a few weeks, I've let the body heal and am slowly working my way into mixed season, where I'm continuing to look off BUUF training because, dammit, I'm a Nationals player now. There's been a bit of talk around the place - are Chilly the best ever? Was the trip to Perth worth it? Should drunken shenanigans flow over into on-field repercussions? I thought about doing a journalistic review of the tournament, but after milling over a few various ideas I've chosen to just have a bit of a ramble on various matters.



Personal performance
Out there in the ultimate blogosphere there's numerous personalities giving their thoughts about on-field performance, and I try to avoid making this blog another one of them, especially since I'm not really a beacon of talent. But this tournament meant a damn lot to me. Every sport I've ever played has given me aspirations of stardom. Particularly basketball and soccer, where in my younger years I was told I could be a bloody good player, if only I bothered to put in a bit of extra effort. Back then, sport was something I did because I enjoyed running around with my mates. My horror run of knee injuries in my late teens and early 20s made me value on-field/court time even more and to finally apply myself to a sport and reach the highest level domestic competition I feel...I dunno...vindicated? Nah, not really. Just proud of myself that I applied myself and made it. Even so, I reckon I could do better.

Scratch that...I know I could have played better.

In the two weeks leading up to Nats, I developed a crook back and laid right off the fitness training. And it's amazing how much fitness you can lose in two weeks. I'm not blaming that (and the cold) for a poor performance, but it had a severe impact on my confidence on day one. It wasn't until day two that I hit my stride and started to hit tricky throws that I could do at training a thousand times, but just wouldn't back myself to do on day one.

I didn't play many points. I tended to come on more frequently once games were as good as decided. I always kept in mind the best advice ever given to me - "Don't turn it over, then you won't have to play defence." Conservative throws, basic cuts, smart decisions - all the way. I'll definitely be back in 2010, and with 12 months to work on my fitness, I should be a better player.



The tournament - yay or nay?
I really wish I could switch my brain off at events, particularly social events, and not critique what's going on. But I couldn't help thinking about various matters and what I would do if I was running the show.

Player packs - no disc! This annoyed me because I collect discs and missed out on buying one. While a cleat bag and hat are good souvenirs, I wanted a disc, dammit!
Lunches - Not enough. Every team got the same amount of food, whether they were a team of 22 guys or 14 girls. There's no such thing as too much food at a tournament. And when are other TDs going to get on board the Subway bandwagon?
Dinners - Missed out on night one, so didn't bother with night two or day four. There's probably a better way of distributing food to 400 hungry people at once short of dropping it from a helicopter or crane, but I haven't thought of it.
Party - I'm not gonna start. There were all sorts of OH&S and liability risks coming out the yinyang.

It's so much easier to condemn than it is to compliment. The TOC did a great job with everything other than my personal gripes. You can't please everyone all the time.



My predictions
As I've said before - can pick a winner

The hits
* Picking both winners and runners-up. To be fair I thought they were both quite obvious.
* Honey crack the top 4. I thought this would be their best chance with their strongest squad. Still a while off winning.
* Karma in the top 8. It was their time, and they can only improve from here.

The misses
* HoS in 3rd. I had them at 6th. They surpassed everyone's expectations except their own.
* Both Fakultis up high. Perhaps their time has passed?
* Primal up/Bush down. I'll admit it - I was just plain wrong.



The "intermediate" class
There were the obvious stars at Nationals - Tom Rogacki, Johnno Holmes, Ant Dowle, Chris Warris, Claire Hussey, Megan Gamble, Cath Matthews and anyone else who has worn the green and gold. But beyond that, there didn't seem to be any breakout stars - just the usual suspects. Some teams even demonstrated a lack of depth outside their top stars. A Pete Gardner-less Fakulti X fell to 9th, a Mike Neild-less Firestorm went winless on day one, a Joel Pillar-less Karma failed to register a win on the last two days.

There is a lot of talented players being produced by the clubs, but an international player is still so valuable to teams. Look at two of the star players in the open final - Mark Junker (Chilly) and Andrew Jackson (Fyshwick). Both imported talents. Even go a bit further down the list and take note of Michael Stout (HoS), Søren Ravn (Fakulti X) and Tom DePree (Sweet Chilly). These players aren't the big names in their home countries but can come and be stand out players down here.

We still seem to be missing that link between the elite and the rest. Is this because the commitment of the elite means they train more? Or they have the benefit of training camps and games against the best in the world? In either case, the top shelf of development personnel are placing their bets on development camps being the answer. But is this going to attract the raw talent - the ones that could very well go on to 2010 Dingos/Firetails/Mundis? There is a breed of ultimate player who just wants to play ultimate, or even only with their mates.

The level of intra-club development going on in Australia is getting more intense. Eight open clubs and four women's clubs have taken two teams (A/B or X/X) to Regionals and Nationals. And clubs are stretching their recruitment nets further. Rather than waiting for players to come to them, clubs are actively going out and finding players. This is a good sign because I firmly believe there are a lot of talented players out there in leagues and unis who don't know they are good players. Until we can really tap into that group of players we are still going to struggle to have that link between the "elite" and the "rest".



Where to next year?
Nationals comes to Ballarat the South region next year, which means a return of more players and teams, which means there are going to be some good competitive teams at Regionals who will miss out on a ticket to the show. Throw in the whole World Clubs business and some clubs are going to be less concerned about development and more about winning so they can book flights to Prague. Fyshwick and Team Box are going to be hungier than ever after losing two finals, Chilly may or may not go all in for a fifth title, Fakulti may look at returning to A/B and Wildcard will probably continue to dominate the women's division. Overall I believe there won't be any new rising power (Thong not withstanding), but we may see the emergence of some new faces at the lower end of the scale as the efforts of junior development over the last couple of years start to shine through.

I'll probably still be floating around, too.