Former Adelaide and Collingwood recruiter Matt Rendell believes the AFL’s sweeping changes to the NAB League will see South Australia and Western Australia become the leaders in junior development.
The AFL has made sweeping changes to the Victorian junior development program which has reportedly angered recruiters and coaches across the state.
The changes sees NAB League coaches coaching both the boys and girls programs, with staff cut despite the increased workload.
Couple that with COVID-19 severely impacting the amount of training the kids have been able to do in the last 18 months and you have a draft crop falling behind the pack.
Rendell believes the SANFL and WAFL development programs will be miles ahead of the NAB League this year.
“I read today about how well the AFL came out financially last year and I’ve gone, why couldn’t they tip easily another $5 million into the NAB League?” Rendell told SEN Breakfast.
“What’s way ahead of the NAB League at the minute is the WAFL and the SANFL.
“They’re playing practice matches right now, the NAB haven’t even started training. The WAFL and the SANFL are going to be so far in front it’s not going to be funny when they get to playing games.
“The NAB was the best preparation for footy and they’re going to be so far behind, they’ve basically missed a year and a half of footy.
“It’s going to be really hard for these kids. Are they up to speed physically? No, they’re not even close.
“They’re going to have to take them very carefully, the kids that get drafted this year, going into 2022.”
Rendell believes the potential draftees are worried they will play their junior year and not even be seen by recruiters.
“What I’m hearing is the kids are anxious and stressed out and asking questions like ‘are you going to see me play footy’ and they’re going ‘no we’re not’,” he said.
“So the kids are a bit spooked out.
“The other thing that’s happened here, they were supposed to start training for the NAB on Monday and obviously that got put on hold because of COVID so I assume they’re going to start next week.
“Normally they would start around the 18th of January, so they’ve missed a four-week block. They missed a four-week block before Christmas as well, so they’re about eight weeks behind and they start playing in about five weeks.
“You would hope that they’ve done a lot of training and I know a lot of the kids have paid for private training, which is another expense for their parents, so they can get fit enough for the start of the season.”