Western Sydney Juniors May Join U18s Next Season

The Age

Friday June 13, 2008

Caroline Wilson

THE AFL's 18th team out of Western Sydney could make its under-18 debut as early as next season alongside the Gold Coast in the TAC competition.

The competition's working party for the yet-to-be-named team met for the first time last week and will almost certainly grant the new side most of NSW and the ACT as an exclusive recruiting zone to potentially enter the under-18 competition in 2009 and make its AFL debut in 2012.

So bullish is the AFL regarding the growing field of talent in NSW, it is also looking at lowering the age of its scholarship scheme to 13 and could also remove the limit of six players a club.

This would allow any AFL club to take on as many teenagers as it wanted.

The AFL has also floated introducing the scholarship scheme into Queensland or parts of that state, bearing in mind the new Gold Coast side has been tentatively guaranteed the entire state as its exclusive domain for at least three years.

While AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou yesterday ruled out restricting the scholarship teenagers to the new Sydney club, he added: "The scholarship scheme has been very, very effective and we're starting to see the benefits.

"Maybe we'll have to look at more radical and ambitious ways to capitalise on the talent we are seeing emerge out of New South Wales.

"Maybe we would lower the age of the players, maybe we would remove the six-player limit."

Asked whether the Western Sydney team could join the Gold Coast as an under-18 side next year, Demetriou replied: "Possibly. That's something we'll be looking at over the next month or two."

Underlining the AFL's enthusiasm was last Saturday's victory by the NSW Rams over the Victorian Country team in the national under-18 championships.

Promoted from division two alongside Tasmania, the Rams team had seven scholarship players, including star midfielder Ranga Ediriwickrama, whose parents are Sri Lankan and who is tied to Geelong.

Another product of the centralised NSW Academy system was Mitch Frail, a star schoolboy athlete and rugby player contesting only his 14th game of Australian football.

The NSW team will play against South Australia at Telstra Dome on July 9.

"That win just further outlined the remarkable work being done by Dale Holmes and his team in NSW," Demetriou said.

"What they have done and what (AFL NSW-ACT coaching boss) Alan McConnell has achieved in terms of promoting and developing the game is quite remarkable."

The match was played at a nondescript oval in Marrickville in front of an audience consisting mainly of the teenagers' families and AFL development officers and club recruiters, but the victory for the expanding national competition and AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick's vision was as big as any home-and-away result this season.

Victorian Country lost by only six points to the Vic Metro side last month.

Seven players in the Rams line-up have already been scholarship-listed by AFL clubs, with the 2008 intake opened up on May 1 and a total 53 teenagers now tied to AFL clubs.

Even the most sceptical AFL recruiters now believe a second team out of Sydney could prove competitive in terms of talent given a NSW zone and see 2012 not as a long shot but realistic.

Hawthorn has seven scholarship players on its list and has taken four of a possible six already in 2008, including former champion Chris Langford's eldest son William.

Yesterday, the Hawks added 16-year-old Wollongong schoolboy Jack Mahony.

The players, from the greater Sydney area and other restricted development regions in NSW, receive financial assistance until they reach draftable age, at which point the club has first option to draft them or put them on the rookie list.

Holmes, who now has a full-time staff of 62 working for the AFL in NSW-ACT, said he was confident 10 players in the current NSW under-16 team would make AFL senior or rookie lists by 2010.

© 2008 The Age

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