Western Bulldogs to land next ‘Buddy Franklin’ Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at a discount next year
Western Bulldogs are destined to land the 2020 draft prospect hailed as the next Lance Franklin cheaply after the AFL decided against scrapping the 20 per cent discount for academy players.
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Western Bulldogs are certain to secure the teenager being talked up as the next Lance Franklin at a hugely discounted price next year.
Clubs are campaigning the AFL to scrap the generous discounts applied to Next Generation Academy prospects in the national draft, but the earliest that can happen is in 2021.
The Dogs have priority access to Jamarra Ugle-Hagan through their NGA next year and, without the 20 per cent discount, they would have had to pay a hefty price.
“He’s arguably going to be as good as Buddy Franklin, and very arguably heading towards pick No. 1,” one recruiter said on Monday.
“He’s already committed to the Bulldogs. He’s mercurial, gifted in the air, got good agility, good size although he lacks body strength at the moment.
“He kicked 10 for Scotch in the APS a couple of times last season, so when they start kicking 10 you start taking notice.”
An AFL spokesman mistakenly told the Herald Sun that the discounts would be reviewed after this week’s draft, with changes possible for 2020, however the league later clarified that the 20 per cent discount would remain next year.
Carlton great Andrew McKay completed a review into the bidding system in July this year and, while tweaks were made, the 20 per cent discount was untouched.
Next year’s draft will be extremely compromised with an abundance of academy and father-son prospects headlining the pool.
One expert said 22 of his top 40 prospects were already tied to a club.
Multiple mooted changes have been suggested to the AFL, both to amend the bidding system and to toughen up the eligibility rules.
The most common one is to either reduce the discount or have it only apply after pick 30, which would ensure that elite talents are paid for at market value.
Most clubs are happy for discounts to be applied to all father-sons, enjoying the romance of that rule.
Some also believe that the current rule is fair for the northern academies run by GWS, Sydney, Brisbane and Gold Coast because it is important to nurture players in rugby heartland.
But there is widespread frustration at the potential to rort the system.
There were suggestions on Monday that one wealthy club had started relocating talented juniors into its zone.
“NGAs were designed to help disadvantaged kids and grow the talent pool of non-football families and backgrounds,” one scout said.
“Not for clubs to scoop up already-talented footballers who were always going to make it.”
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But Adelaide has access to midfielder James Borlase next year despite his father, Darryl, playing in four SANFL premierships for Port Adelaide.
Borlase played Auskick in primary school but qualifies for the Crows’ NGA because he was born in Egypt.
The AFL does not count Darryl Borlase’s Escort Cup appearances, reducing his senior games tally to 177 and below the 200 required to qualify as a father-son prospect for Port.
Collingwood’s zone covers the rich Oakleigh region and the Magpies are poised to secure Reef McInnes next year after taking Isaac Quaynor last year.
The Magpies were able to match bids for Quaynor (No. 13) and father-son Will Kelly (No. 29) with a suite of picks beyond 40, which also didn’t sit well with rivals.
“If you cop a bad academy area you might not get anybody out of it,” one club said.
“It’s almost gone back to zoning plus some draft picks.”
THIS YEAR’S NEXT GENERATION PLAYERS
*Players nominated for draft
Isaiah Butters (Fremantle)
Liam Henry (Fremantle)
Leno Thomas (Fremantle)
Harrison Pepper (Hawthorn)
Matthew McGuinness (North Melbourne)
Bigoa Nyuon (St Kilda)
Originally published as Western Bulldogs to land next ‘Buddy Franklin’ Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at a discount next year