NAB League region bosses and coaches asked to reapply for their jobs
Big changes are coming to the elite pathway competition for boys and girls, with coaches to become full-time and officials expecting a shorter season in 2021.
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Some region managers and coaches from the elite NAB League must reapply for their jobs as part of the overhaul to the elite under-age competition.
It’s understood all coaching positions will be going to full-time roles, and that the coaches will be required to coach the girls and boys teams next year as well as oversee talent identification.
Most of the coaches were part-timers last year.
They must decide if they can commit to the NAB League in a full-time capacity.
“They’ll be big jobs. They won’t be for the faint-hearted,’’ one NAB League official said this afternoon.
The talent managers will also have their jobs advertised “in house’’. They are full-time roles.
Club officials expect the boys’ season to start as soon as the girls finish.
They also believe the 2021 season could be at least two months shorter than in previous years.
The AFL outlined the changes to NAB League staff on Monday.
In a press release the same day it announced the talent programs had been “remodelled to further align and simplify the talent pathway calendar, to provide boys’ and girls’ programs with the same opportunities for elite development while also increasing their connection to community football’’.
The AFL said the age groups for the NAB League Girls and Boys and the AFL/AFLW National Championships would change from Under 16 and Under 18 levels to Under 17 and Under 19 in 2021.
The draft age will remain at 18.
The changes and the jobs situation have caused great unrest in the NAB League.
“Honestly, we’re all still guessing about how it’s going to look,’’ one club official said.
“How I thought it might go last week is different to this week, and next week it might be different again.’’
Meanwhile NAB League manager Paul Hamilton has written to players and parents to inform them of the changes.
Referring to the 2020 season not getting off the ground because of COVID-19, he said there would be “further opportunities for the playing group into the future’’.
Hamilton said after a review of the AFL talent pathway programs, the male and female programs would be integrated “to ensure the same opportunities for both genders’’.
They would be spread across the year to “enable resourcing to work across both groups’’.
Hamilton said there would be changes to the NAB League staffing structures from November 1 and they would be announced “once the internal processes have been completed’’.
“We hope these changes will assist our playing group who have encountered a difficult year in 2020,’’ he said.
“We should caution that by being on a NAB League list in 2020 doesn’t guarantee a position in 2021. The normal selection processes will need to take place in developing the list.
“We thank you for your patience, resilience and support over the year.’’
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