Mitchell Woods leaves Sydney Swans Academy, signs with NRL club Canterbury Bulldogs
The NRL has won the battle for one of New South Wales’ most-exciting dual-sport talents, who has opted to quit the Sydney Swans Academy and take up a rugby league deal.
The Sydney Swans Academy has lost one of its most promising talents with 17-year-old Mitchell Woods signing a deal with the Canterbury Bulldogs NRL club.
The allure of contract security proved too great for Woods who is a talented prospect in rugby league, Aussie rules and rugby union.
Woods was named in the under-16 National Championships All-Australian team in 2022, while was firming as a potential early selection for the Swans at next year’s AFL Draft.
However, he was also a representative player for the Bulldogs and captained their Harold Matthews side to a premiership this year.
Both clubs decided it would be best for Woods to make a definitive call on his future with rugby league winning out.
“He’s a talented young player,” Swans Academy director Leon Cameron said. “We’re rapt for him, he’s a really good kid.
“He was so upset telling us because he felt like he had let everyone down. But we told him he hadn’t … we wish him all the best.
“Yes, we’re disappointed that we lost another talented option to another sport, But we’re proud that the Swans played a part in helping him make a decision.”
It’s not the first time the Swans have lost a talented youngster to rugby league in recent years. Navren Willett looked set to be a key position prospect for Sydney before signing a deal with the Wests Tigers last year.
While it’s a blow for the Swans and the work they have put into potential AFL players, Cameron doesn’t believe that it adds to the narrative around code wars in NSW.
It also shines a light on the natural advantage rugby league has over Aussie rules. Clubs like the Swans have to wait until the Draft to put players on their list, while NRL clubs like the Bulldogs have more flexibility around offering contracts – although players can’t appear in an NRL game until they’re 18.
“People make out that we’re competing against each other, I don’t see it that way,” he said.
“I see it as if you’re giving more boys and girls opportunities to perform in sport. When they realise they’re pretty good at it, whatever sport it is, it’s another opportunity to add to the talent pool in codes.
“Where it’s probably harder for us, at the start of the year league can offer up earlier contracts for some of these players. I think it’s 9-12 months ahead to secure talent and give them security. Whereas we have to wait until the end of the year.
“The Swans had no problem putting time into (Woods). Nor did the Bulldogs. And congratulations to the Bulldogs because they get a player that can hopefully show his talent off.”
Woods and Willett both choosing rugby league emphasises the importance of the AFL Academies in NSW and Queensland, a system that has come under the spotlight following this year’s Draft.
The Suns landed four of their Academy players – Jed Walter, Ethan Read, Jake Rogers and Will Graham – inside the first round and the quartet have the potential to transform their side.
Many of the frustrations have been targeted towards the bid-matching system, however, it’s been a similar process set up for father-son selections that newer Northern clubs like the Suns and Giants don’t yet have access to.
When Collingwood matched Gold Coast’s bid at pick four for Nick Daicos in 2021, they gave up four picks – 38, 40, 42 & 44. The Suns gave up three higher value selections – picks 26, 30 & 32 – to land Walter when the Kangaroos bid on him at pick three this year.
Having seen first-hand the importance of developing local talent at first the Giants and now the Swans, Cameron believes it’s important to identify that this year’s crop of talent is an outlier.
“I know there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle around the reporting that some of the clubs are at breaking point with the academies, but it’s a cycle,” Cameron said.
“The Gold Coast have developed them and it just happens to be one year where they’ve got four kids at once. If they hadn’t nursed them through the Academy, two of them could have been Mitch Woods and decided they were going to the rugby path.
“With the Academies up and running in the four clubs in the northern states, it at least gives you an opportunity to compete with the other codes.”
The Swans and Giants Academies have both delivered star players like Isaac Heeney and Tom Green in recent years. Each team had six Academy graduates play during their 2023 finals campaign.
However, the majority of players picked up through the Academy have only played a handful of games, if any at all.
The important factor is that the pathway is helping to generate more footy talent out of NSW and Queensland – even if there is a long way to go.
Brisbane Lions chairman Andrew Wellington posted on X that 23 per cent of the lists of clubs from Northern states are made up of players from the team’s home state. That’s in comparison to over 65 per cent for clubs from Victoria.
Cameron is hopeful that if young kids continue to see there is a course to go from the Academy to the AFL, they will stick with Aussie rules in the long run.
“Seeing the impact the Swans have had over 14 years, and the Giants have been a couple of years less, but you see it,” Cameron said. “Not only from a playing point of view but it’s also an opportunity to grow the talent and supporter base.
“Caiden Cleary at the Swans. He came through as a 10-year-old. He could have easily diverted down a rugby path. Holly Cooper who has just been pre-listed for the AFLW side could have been on the athletic circuit or rugby as well.
“Having them and giving them an opportunity at an early age and working closely with them gives them that point of difference.
“The four Academies are progressing, we’ve still got a long way to go.”
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