Draft drought an indictment on footy headquarters

WHEN it comes to Tasmania’s AFL national draft duck, “cyclical” doesn’t cut it.

AFL Tasmania’s pathway talent manager Mathew Armstrongduring under-18 training at Blundstone Arena. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

WHEN it comes to Tasmania’s AFL national draft duck, “cyclical” doesn’t cut it.

If merely a normal dip in talent were the reason for Tasmania’s stunning fall from grace in the AFL draft, it would be happening every four to five years — not for the first time in 30 years.

For a state that has produced the second most AFL Hall of Fame Legends (behind only Victoria) to fail to have one player of draftable talent is an indictment on the AFL and its complacency towards one of its heartlands.

The state has been crying out for AFL assistance, or at least attention, ever since the rise of the non-AFL state academies, but has been regularly ignored.

Now Tasmania has hit rock bottom in a football sense.

MORE: STATE COPS A KICK IN THE FACE

While 12 players from NSW-ACT and eight from Queensland had their names called out, it was tumbleweeds when it came to Tasmania.

And the early prediction is not all that brighter for next season.

This year’s duck was widely tipped and some of the reasons even forecast by the AFL’s own Future Directions of Tasmanian Football Project report by Simon Garlick, yet we are still waiting for action.

It is not necessary for a witch hunt, to bay for blood or the lopping of heads.

You won’t find a finer man in football than AFL Tasmania’s pathway talent manager Mathew Armstrong – ask any of the Devils or Mariners players who have come under his tutelage.

Yet he is being asked to bring a knife to a gun fight compared to the facilities and resources offered to his equivalents in NSW, Queensland and even the Northern Territory.

With such discrepancies, the state was always going to be overrun at some stage.

Now it has become reality and it is up to AFL to come up with the solution.

Increased funding, getting the North Melbourne Next Generation Academy established and operating successfully and increased salary caps for TSL clubs to attract and retain the best players are all a start.

But there are harder questions to be debated.

Should the under-18 Mariners return to a full-time program? It will rob local clubs of their best talent for up to two years, but will give young players more opportunities to shine on the national stage in a professionally run program.

The AFL already has a blueprint for the state courtesy of the Garlick report, but now we need to see action.

If not, an A-League soccer consortium is circling and waiting to pounce on Tasmania’s most talented athletes.

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