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Also I don't know what year 12 studies has to do with it. Year 12 is 17 years of age. The draft is the following year at 18 years of age. It's a gap year, the first year of work or the first year of university.

That's changed now in WA La Hincha. WA has adopted the Eastern States model such that there will be kids turning 18 in year 12. Kids are no longer put into grades based on their Jan-Dec birth date but now July-June. For example, a kid born on 30 June 2007 will start year 12 in 2014 but a kid born 1 July 2007 will start in 2015. It's because human development phases better match this schedule.

Underdog wrote: That's changed now in WA La Hincha. WA has adopted the Eastern States model such that there will be kids turning 18 in year 12. Kids are no longer put into grades based on their Jan-Dec birth date but now July-June. For example, a kid born on 30 June 2007 will start year 12 in 2014 but a kid born 1 July 2007 will start in 2015. It's because human development phases better match this schedule.

Ok, didn't know that. Thanks.

Damn I would have been going to school for an extra year

Actually I don't really understand why this is come to think of it.

Wouldn't the kids born Jan-Jun 1996 now have a disadvantage against the kids born July-Dec 1995?

I mean, what's the difference now to what it was?

I'm all for increasing the draft age to 19 and can only see positives. 18 is too soon IMO to take a kid away from family and friends to the other side of the country. Sure clubs are very good at putting support networks like buddy systems, balloting kids out to families etc but one year out of school is too soon.

Let them mature a bit more in the body and mind and play a season of state league footy. They will be much better prepared and most probably have a better chance of success at AFL level.

Shit DD sorry mate but cant agree.. Me joined army at 17..Flew to hell at Kapooka on the other side of the country in NSW.. No one wiped my arse and we had it hard.. Not like the Footballer going east.
Did my basic and Corp Training and then off to Vietnam at 19..

Hey what are you saying 18 year olds are to soft and weak? I dont think so as these guys as well as being that age they have gone through the Footy System for a few years and know what Team work and comrade ship are..and I am sure even the AFL system and especially the club promotes that in them as do the senior players. A walk in the park unless they have personal issues.. and the same applied to the Military..
We adapted quickly and came to enjoy the life.. for 20 years..
Footballers dont usually last that long..if you get my point.

Freezin is spot on with his post..Albeit worded in anger. See previous page

DD...understand your reasoning, but do you really think another season playing at PFC under McMahon would of helped OMeara?.....at the other end of the spectrum, Joel Houghton has stayed in Perth and played at PFC during his time at Freo......what has he done....likely to do?

how many kids can you think of who have been drafted over east at 18, delisted within 2 years and come back and dominated at the WAFL level?..Blackwell and Lee....but Lee has gone back to the AFL older and wiser and still struggled...if the kid is any good they will adapt and succeed no matter where they go......ditto if they aren't any good in terms of failure.....junior success doesn't always correlate to senior success.....the draft is great at falsely boosting a kids footy CV and the fans expectations of that kids ability.

I'd be the first to say increasing the draft age to 19 would be great....EF have lost the likes of Harry & Jon Marsh, Cripps, Paparone, Jansen, Yeo, Swallow, Fasolo,Allirr & Johanninsen of late who could of helped EFFC no end by staying that extra year.....SF have lost a shed load as well in Kersten, Shaw, Matera,Newton, Johnson, AhChee etc...SD could of won more flags if all those kids from their golden colts team had stayed on a tad longer...

...geez one year EF lost Kennedy, Ryder, Clark (3 key talls) and Swallow at 18 yrs old over east.....if they had stayed on for an another year, who knows how much EF flag chances would of been boosted....but that is me being selfish as an EF fan....

don't be sad Cardy....3 swear words in a 1000 word essay aint that over the top fella.....anyway none were personally directed at Swandog.....just around him mate. .....I have no doubt Swandog will live

Cardy can't draw comparisons with doing national service and being drafted to play football. My point is, what do these kids do in their downtime? The more mature ones will go to uni or tafe to further their education but how many sit idle playing Xbox and going to the local tattoo parlor to jump on the Dane Swan bandwagon?

Too many fail or struggle and it takes years to adjust. Of course there are exceptions, some kids have had a very good upbringing and they are likely to adapt the best while others just don't have the life skills or maturity.

Dayle Garlett is one very good example of that. I can give you another very good example of the benefits of someone who benefited from a few years in the WAFL. Tendai Mzungu came to the Perth FC at age 19 I think but still wasn't ready for WAFL league football. Too skinny, didn't handle the physical side of it, couldn't tackle, wanted to do all the flashy stuff. Got dropped to the reserves andsstarted working on his game and came back a much better footballer playing off half back.

Look at him today,, he's a beast who attacks the contest and one of the first picked each week. A great success story.

I tend to agree with DD that the draft age should be lifted to 19.
Would it really hurt these young blokes to have a FULL year of senior footy under their belts before embarking on to the AFL rather than getting plucked straight out of TAC or Colts footy playing against kids their own age?
In the USA most of their professional sportsmen dont play in the big leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB) until they have finished College at age 22/23 so what makes our system of drafting kids at 18 work better?
Back in the day most of our WAFL stars who headed east at age 23ish had 5 years of League footy under their belts and most of those guys footy didnt seem to suffer because of it so I dont know how 1 year extra here is going to hurt their development in fact it might be a good thing to see who can actually handle the transition of playing against men before being uprooted across the other side of the nation!

DD.....but didn't Garlett have that extra year in the WAFL you are talking about because he missed out on getting drafted at 18?.....not too sure what the kids motivational levels would of been if he hadn't been drafted by Hawthorn this year, especially after proving all his detractors wrong.....well initially wrong I guess.

BH do you think Notte deserves another AFL gig?....he spent a few years at WCE primarily playing at SD, developing his game in the WAFL, for some reason deemed not good enough at the elite level.....I guess there will be exceptions to the rule both ways....pretty hard to implement them on an individual basis when some kids are ready to go from the off, whilst others obviously aren't, may never be and will struggle, whether they be 19, 20 or 21 + years old.

BH don't forget back in those days where those WAFL/SANFL boys went over to the Melbourne to play in their mid twenties, there wasn't much difference in the quality of those comps......now days there is a huge gap in quality....thus the reason why most AFL clubs want to get these kids in the system faster and as early as possible.....even if there are some casualties....a lot of maturer guys like Dennis-Lane, Horsley,B&T Lee Broughton,White,Twomey,D'olio,Hardingham etc haven't really set the AFL on fire.....though Harry Taylor and Micheal Barlow are definitely exceptions though.....