By Michael Gleeson and Peter Ryan
As the AFL confronts a crisis in the recruitment and retention of Indigenous footballers, it is set to tear up the map that allocates recruiting zones to clubs, which at present gives Collingwood a region the size of Italy that has never produced a player for the Magpies.
The league will also review the impact of football scholarships to prestigious private schools, as recruiters worry that young Indigenous players who leave their communities to attend boarding school are “falling through the cracks”.
The AFL is celebrating Sir Doug Nicholls Round, and grappling with a decline in Indigenous numbersCredit: Darrian Traynor
These are just two elements of an immediate overhaul of the way First Nations Australians are recruited to AFL clubs, following an 18 per cent decline in the number of Indigenous players on club lists over the past five years. As the league celebrates Sir Doug Nicholls Round, The Age has interviewed recruiters, players and administrators, including AFL football boss Laura Kane, to investigate the reasons for the alarming decline in the number of Indigenous players being drafted, and what can be done to reverse the trend.
Already on the table is a revamp of the draft bidding system on Indigenous and multicultural players from Next Generation academies in this year’s national draft.
Previously, most clubs were blocked from free access to academy graduates before pick 40 in the draft, but this is set to be scrapped.
“It’s definitely something on the agenda, I don’t know what it would change to [from pick 40],” Kane told this masthead.
“I think it’s very fair to say we are open to making sure we do not disincentivise or prohibit young kids – multicultural or Indigenous kids – from being picked, so we are definitely open to it. But it is tied into other things, to the [points system] and player movement rules holistically.
“We have signalled to clubs we have an appetite as appropriate to change things as quickly as we can. I am not ruling out change for this year [the national draft] but we are working with all clubs about what does that look like.”
What the numbers say
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people account for 71 of the more than 800 footballers on AFL lists in 2024, which is down from 87 in 2020.
Overall, Indigenous footballers account for 9.2 per cent of players on club lists.
There were four Indigenous players taken in last year’s national draft – Ryley Sanders (Western Bulldogs), Lance Collard (St Kilda), Mitch Edwards (Geelong) and Lawson Humphries (Geelong). In addition, Coen Livingstone and Indhi Kirk went to West Coast and Sydney, respectively, as category B rookies.
In particular, the number of Indigenous players recruited from Western Australia has plummeted, with Malakia Champion this year’s only real draft prospect.
Kane said a range of factors, including the impact of COVID-19, had influenced that decline in numbers, but the league also acknowledged the need for structural changes.
Next Generation academy rules and recruiting zones
Tying Next Generation academy (NGA) zones to AFL clubs was meant to encourage them to invest in their zones in an effort to unearth untapped talent.
Clubs had priority access to Indigenous talent that emerged in their zone. But after the Western Bulldogs landed key forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan with the first pick in the 2020 national draft, the rules changed. Now clubs don’t have priority access to any player from their academy who other clubs want to select before pick 40 in the national draft.
West Coast missed out on recruiting Collard in the last national draft despite identifying his potential then readying him to play AFL over several years through their academy.
Instead, Collard was taken at pick 28 by St Kilda. The Eagles made a loss on their investment and the 18-year-old’s improvement was rewarded with a move away from his home state.
Kane confirmed the AFL would revisit the academy zones. Under the existing carve-up, some clubs such as Carlton only have access to an urban area in Melbourne (in the Blues’ case, it covers the northern suburbs), but no regional area. Meantime Collingwood’s zone of Barkly in the Northern Territory, which covers an area of about 323,000 square kilometres and takes in Tennant Creek, has not produced a player for the Magpies.
Asked if the AFL was reviewing academy zones and the logic behind them, Kane replied: “Yes and yes”.
“We need to take a broad view, along with the talent concession conversation, around what the map [of zones and NGA regions] looks like,” she said.
“How do we incentivise and then how do we build out the club’s reach and make sure it is connected to their supporter base and schools and community engagement because we know that works?”
As for the decline in WA, which had produced champion Indigenous players such as Lance Franklin and Bobby Hill, Kane said the AFL was reviewing the structure that puts WAFL clubs in charge of identifying and developing Indigenous talent in the state.
“It’s not about us taking it over, it’s about the structure that they have … is it producing Indigenous and multicultural numbers to the level they know they can? We know what the community looks like over there and how rich the (Indigenous) talent is in WA,” she explained.
“What do you [WAFL clubs] do with your top-end talent? In the club-based, decentralised structure the clubs have an appetite to win as well as develop their talent, and we are working with all the clubs and the WA footy commission around what does that look like for the top-end talent, and what does their year look like as compared with a club-based footballer?
Retired AFL great Lance Franklin conducts a clinic with students at the Michael Long Centre in Darwin this week.Credit: AFL Photos
“I don’t have any fixed views about what it needs to look like moving forward except that it must produce talent in a sustainable way.”
Private school scholarships
Forty-four of last year’s draft class attended private schools, including the Western Bulldogs’ top pick Ryley Sanders, who relocated from Launceston to accept an Indigenous bursary at Melbourne Grammar.
Sanders told The Age before he was drafted that the chance to receive a top-class education and join the Sandringham Dragons’ football program convinced him to board in Melbourne. Other Indigenous players to have taken this path include Hawks champion Cyril Rioli (from the Tiwi Islands to Scotch College), and Melbourne premiership star Steven May (Darwin to Melbourne Grammar).
However, one recruiter said some players who accepted scholarships were “falling through the cracks” because there was no single body overseeing their development.
Young Bulldog Ryley Sanders.Credit: Getty
Instead, they bounced from school footy to under-18s to state programs. Some schools expected them to train through summer holidays, which was a rare chance to be home with their families.
Kane acknowledged that the AFL was looking at the impact of private school scholarship programs that moved potential draftees interstate.
She also said the league was analysing the number of Indigenous players who have churned through the AFL system recently, and whether a change to rules which gave clubs priority access to academy players had caused a spike in numbers, as clubs recruited players who were unready for AFL and potentially discarded them too quickly.
‘We can’t recruit players who are not there’
An obvious starting point according to veteran AFL recruiters, Sydney’s Kinnear Beatson and Geelong’s Stephen Wells, is to understand the scale of the problem.
“The AFL firstly has to try to find out why players are not playing in the numbers they were before, before they try to come up with answers,” Wells said.
There are plenty of theories, with the list as long as Lewis Jetta’s bouncing run in the 2012 grand final.
They include the depth of the overall talent pool, the effect of COVID-19 cutbacks, the lack of ownership and accountability for Indigenous talent pathways, and the impossible demands on poorly paid talent identification officials in state league clubs.
Conversations about whether Hawthorn and Collingwood were safe environments for Indigenous players had harmed the game’s reputation, said one industry figure who wanted to remain anonymously to speak freely.
Then there are the issues the AFL controls. These include reduced list sizes, a slashed soft cap on football department spending, and draft restrictions that have forced clubs to be risk averse as they don’t have the time or resources to develop talent.
“We are judged on wins and losses, so all we want are the best players. If they are there we will pick them whether they are Indigenous, non-Indigenous, African, Asian, European, we just want the best players,” said one recruiter who preferred to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak publicly.
“We can’t recruit players who are not there. Whose responsibility is it to make sure the Indigenous players are there?”
Geelong premiership player Mathew Stokes, who hails from Darwin, said the AFL deserved credit for putting the issue on the agenda, even if they initially did so in a hamfisted way at a presentation to recruiters last month by instructing to recruiters to fix the problem by simply picking more Indigenous players.
Heritier Lumumba with Leon Davis in 2011. It was Lumumba’s allegations of racism that prompted the Do Better report.Credit: Paul Rovere
However, Stokes called for consistency in the way resources are allocated.
“The AFL can only do so much but if they want the game to be in a good state in five or 10 years, and they want the numbers to continue they are going to have to put resources into the states and territories,” Stokes said.
“They have been fumbling around the NGA since the end of COVID and every club is asking: what are we actually doing, how are we doing this, where is the money, where is the allocation?
“The only people being hurt by this are people on the ground in remote areas. [They hear] we are going to invest X amount of money in East Arnhem land, West Arnhem land or Big River or the Kimberleys. As soon as the money dries up [they just disappear]. There has to be a commitment from the AFL.”
Practical solutions
One veteran recruiter who was not authorised to speak publicly said models were in place, but experienced coaches were needed in junior development. In Western Australia alone there are nine WAFL clubs with country and metropolitan zones plus the Eagles and Dockers, which have Next Generation academies. They sit alongside the well-established and respected Clontarf programs.
The recruiter said elite coaches and Indigenous welfare officers should be involved in junior programs connected to state leagues in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Territory as well as the Talent League programs in Victoria. He suggested paying recently retired players, particularly Indigenous players, well, to lead football programs for young players.
Former AFL star Michael McLean leads the Northern Territory’s development programs. The former Bulldog and Brisbane player is revered in the Territory. He also has a great football mind and knows what is needed to bridge the gap between playing football and being a professional footballer.
Brandan Parfitt and Cats teammate Lawson Humphries in the guernsey their club wore in Sir Doug Nicholls round.
“We need five Michael McLeans in the NT,” said a close observer of football in the Territory.
The challenge is not just finding talent. It is preparing them for what might lie ahead in the AFL during their teenage years.
Geelong midfielder Brandan Parfitt moved from Darwin to North Adelaide at 16 before Geelong drafted him in 2016. His dad, David, was a star in the Territory, but Parfitt admitted those two years in a semi-professional environment were vital in laying the foundation for his football career.
“I needed that semi-professional step up and it is kind of hard when you are in an isolated place like Darwin. There is not too much opportunity. I guess I needed to surround myself with professionalism and other kids in my age group that were wanting to play AFL as well. That definitely made me work harder,” Parfitt said.
Gold Coast recruiter Craig Cameron said players, particularly in WA and NT, “need more exposure to high-level games and close regular connection to elite programs”.
Several recruiters said the Michael Long Centre, which is situated at Darwin’s TIO Stadium, could be repurposed or expanded into a centre of excellence for a pathway program. They said the centre was now primarily an education centre for school groups from communities.
Scott Baker, football operations manager for the West Australian Football Commission, said not one Indigenous player had ever been drafted to the AFL directly from their regional communities. All had moved to Perth for at least a year before being drafted, which took a significant financial commitment from the player and those developing them.
He recommended a centre of excellence in Perth where players could live, go to school, and be in an elite football program.
He favoured carving WA up between Fremantle and West Coast and allowing them to invest in identifying talent, developing players and having free access to them.
“That would create and allow a system where more indigenous players would stay in the AFL system for a lot longer,” Baker said.
In central Victoria, change is happening
It took nearly 20 years between Chris Egan being drafted to Collingwood from the Murray Bushrangers in 2004 for another player from the Indigenous-led Rumbalara Football Club to make the Talent League club’s squad.
In that time Rumbalara saw many talented players pass through their system overlooked, president Josh Atkinson said. “We never challenged or questioned their selection process. [We] always felt that we had kids who were talented enough, but they never seemed to make it and then [that] started to inspire a bit of a narrative around our community that if you play at Rumbalara you are not really going to get noticed or get picked up on a list,” Atkinson said.
Chris Egan, who was drafted to the AFL via the Murray Bushrangers and Indigenous-led club Rumbalara.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo
His cousin Ashtyn Atkinson finally broke that drought in 2022.
“We had the largest population of Aboriginals in Victoria outside a major city but we had no representation in the pathway programs,” Josh Atkinson said.
“The AFL wanted to take some positive steps and the Murray Bushrangers definitely wanted to understand why and we felt like it was a really appropriate time and a safer time to come forward with potential barriers rather than just bury our head [in the sand].
“It’s [led to] a definite improvement.”
As a result, the Murray Bushrangers formed the Dungala talent pathway in 2023 to identify and support Indigenous footballers in the region through elite training, coaching and mentorship.
This year talented Rumbalara youngster Brogan McGee made the Bushrangers’ squad after a trio of Rumbalara prospects trained at the club over summer.
Atkinson says it will take time before the connection between particular parts of the community and clubs nurturing elite talent is cemented.
“The idea of a minority group stepping into an elite circle to compete with children who come from well-supported backgrounds who have been strong and supported for generations is going to take a generation,” he said.
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