{"id":406820,"date":"2024-06-27T04:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T04:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=406820"},"modified":"2024-06-27T06:07:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T06:07:45","slug":"giants-ceo-slams-political-academies-sabotage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=406820","title":{"rendered":"Giants CEO slams 'political' academies sabotage"},"content":{"rendered":"

GWS Giants<\/a> CEO Dave Matthews \ufeffhas slammed Victorian clubs and their lack of care for interstate teams, as the league prepares to undertake its competitive balance review.<\/p>\n

The review will look into \ufeffthe way father-son drafting unfolds, as well as how academies operate with fairness the end goal for the AFL.<\/p>\n

9News Melbourne's chief football reporter Tom Morris earlier this year exclusively revealed that all 18 AFL clubs were approached by the league to give their feedback on the changes they'd like to see across the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Soft' Maroons hammered as Origin series squared<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Axe hangs over Ricciardo as F1 future in limbo<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Not good enough': Savage rating for Maroons star<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A myriad o\ufefff Victorian clubs expressed their dissatisfaction with the northern teams, Gold Coast, Sydney, Brisbane and GWS, having their academy programs that allow them to select the best draft talent.<\/p>\n

A handful of those Victorian clubs, like Essendon, have called on the AFL to review said academies.<\/p>\n

\"AFL<\/p>\n

Now, Matthews has hit back at what he believes is a Victorian-centric competition.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"We're supposed to be a national competition, yet we talk about 'interstate' clubs," Matthews told the Herald Sun.<\/p>\n

"Interstate from where?"<\/p>\n

Matthews even had some advice for the league, to ignore what certain teams have asked for in the off season, calling on those nine Victorian teams to become "part of the solution" instead of complaining about what's happening up north.<\/p>\n

\"Jed<\/p>\n

"Grow the game nationally for the betterment of the whole competition and stop worrying about noisy southern clubs, who have no interest or role to play in developing talent," he said.<\/p>\n

"Stop complaining when you're not going to take on the responsibility to be part of the solution."<\/p>\n

Matthews, who was the key executive of national and international development at the AFL, before joining the Giants in 2012, urged the league to "go harder" on their recruiting strategies in northern and western states in the form of academies, in hopes that they can replicate the same success when Tasmania\ufeff enters the league in 2028.<\/p>\n

"Victorian clubs were happy to play the homesick card and feast on Tom Lynch (Suns to Tigers), Steven May (Suns to Demons), Dion Prestia (Suns to Tigers) and Jaeger O'Meara (Suns to Hawthorn), but when the Suns develop talent in their own backyard, there is suddenly outrage," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Dave<\/p>\n

"We need a far bigger national talent pool, we are aiming to be a national game not just a national competition.<\/p>\n

"That's the reality now and even more important with the Tasmanian team to come."<\/p>\n

As for the state of academies, Matthews believes that if the Victorian teams want to see changes to the way they operate, that is a direct sabotage from those clubs towards the greater success of the game.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/brisbanelions\/status\/1646031032632889352<\/a><\/p>\n

"The academy strategy in NSW and Queensland is starting to work in the best interests of the code," Matthews said.<\/p>\n

"Most companies in other industries therefore wouldn't dilute a strategy working in regions where they are weak or soft, they would invest more.<\/p>\n

"Any further changes to the academy will only be made for political purposes. No other reason. Politics overriding strategy."\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GWS Giants CEO Dave Matthews \ufeffhas slammed Victorian clubs and their lack of care for interstate teams, as the league prepares to undertake its competitive […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":339706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=406820"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":406825,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406820\/revisions\/406825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/339706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=406820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=406820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=406820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}