{"id":658520,"date":"2026-05-08T21:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658520\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T21:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T21:45:18","slug":"banker-considers-pulling-1-million-from-afl-academies-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658520\/","title":{"rendered":"Banker considers pulling $1 million from AFL academies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A Sydney benefactor who ploughs $1 million into the northern academies every year is reconsidering his agreement with the AFL following the league\u2019s decision to further restrict the northern clubs\u2019 access to homegrown talent.<\/p>\n

Investment banker Paul Moore, who helped underwrite the Swans academy when it launched in 2010 and now invests $250,000 annually into each of the Sydney, GWS, Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast academies, said he would address his disenchantment over the new draft rules with AFL bosses next week.<\/p>\n

\"SwansSwans academy product Isaac Heeney (left) runs onto the SCG.AFL Photos<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought it would be this hard to invest in the long-term future of the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s PM Capital, which also sponsors AFL NSW and has been a long-term patron of the game in its toughest market, signed a two-year, $2 million agreement at the start of 2024 to back all four northern academies. That deal reverted to a one-year rolling contract this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt Kilda started kicking up a fuss about the academies and my position was, \u2018I\u2019m not going to make a long-term contribution until I know what I\u2019m dealing with\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHead office is in a bubble. They\u2019re always saying they\u2019re all in and this current administration has made genuine attempts to work to grow the game in New South Wales, but then they\u2019re always compromising. They\u2019re trying to placate the southern clubs. I\u2019ve got a belief if the AFL want to be a truly national game and protect their heritage, they have to be a dominant code in NSW. The Victorian clubs are fighting like we\u2019re the enemy, but they don\u2019t understand it\u2019s the NRL which want to kill us.<\/p>\n

\"OutgoingOutgoing GWS boss Dave Matthews and AFL CEO Andrew Dillon at a local footy event in Sydney.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hard decisions are going to be about next year\u2019s funding. I\u2019m not about publicly making a name for myself \u2013 I\u2019m only in this because I want to see the game grow over the next five to 10 years. But there are plenty of other good causes out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should be careful because I don\u2019t believe in threats and when I write to the AFL next week I want to be proactive, but if my money\u2019s being wasted I\u2019ll go and find another good cause. If I\u2019m not getting a return on investment, then why invest?<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Richmond<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to invest more, and I would like to sign up for longer, but I feel like they …keep watering down the incentives to develop talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s disappointment and his decision to speak to this masthead come after the AFL Commission recently confirmed changes to AFL player movement starting with the 2026 national draft.<\/p>\n

Football boss Greg Swann tightened the bidding system around high-end talent<\/a> under the northern academy rules along with the father-sons and next-generation academies. Clubs can now only use two picks to match a bid for homegrown academy talent in the first 36 picks of the draft. Had the new rules been in place last year, it would have been significantly more difficult for the Lions to match Richmond\u2019s No. 6 bid for Daniel Annable, and Gold Coast could not have recruited their four talented academy players along with Christian Petracca.<\/p>\n

In announcing the changes, Swann said they were designed to ensure the draft was fair and effective in distributing talent.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Carlton<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese changes\u202ffollow an extensive consultation with clubs, and form part of a broader review aimed\u202fat driving competitive balance, ensuring the competition continues to be as even as possible year in, year out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rival clubs criticised the changes for various reasons<\/a>. Port Adelaide, the club most adversely affected by the new points system as Tasmania enters the competition in the coming years, already believe they have made inroads with head office to wind back changes to the draft value index. Meanwhile, the four northern clubs have chosen to split from their previously united approach due to their varying circumstances.<\/p>\n

Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham this week proposed that clubs successfully matching bids in future for Swans academy players should be forced to make a financial contribution to the academy. Either that, said Pridham, or the AFL should fund the Swans academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend $3.2 million a year on our academy,\u201d said Pridham. \u201cWe\u2019re not a charity. We are not going to continue to contribute millions of dollars into an institution where we can\u2019t get access to the best players. We are in a war for talent here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pridham \u2013 citing the impact of recent draftees Will Edwards (North Shore) and Max King (Newcastle) and the impact their wider circle of family and friends had made upon the club \u2013 said the success of homegrown academy players was the greatest tool to increase membership, support and local interest in Australian rules from non-traditional support bases.<\/p>\n

Giants CEO Dave Matthews said that his club would not accept being forced to match rival bids for top-end talent given the struggle to attract players in Sydney\u2019s west.<\/p>\n

\"BrisbaneBrisbane Lions academy player Daniel Annable at last year\u2019s draft, with AFL boss Andrew Dillon.Louis Trerise<\/p>\n

Moore, who previously served on the GWS board, said: \u201cWe obviously don\u2019t want anyone getting a head start but GWS has not produced one homegrown player. Can you keep your complaining until they actually get one? The Melbourne clubs have got to stop bitching every time we produce a top 10 players like Isaac Heeney. They make out as though it happens every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having met repeatedly with AFL bosses over recent years, Moore said he planned to contact St Kilda president Andrew Bassat \u2013 a vocal opponent of the academy and father-son advantages to rival clubs<\/a> \u2013 to better understand his position.<\/p>\n

Moore praised CEO Andrew Dillon, saying he had changed the league\u2019s attitude towards growing the game particularly in NSW.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fact of life that when his legacy is written, and when his time is done, it will focus on how he grew the game in New South Wales,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could all just go to the draft and get rid of all the attempts to recruit homegrown talent but the players we get in the northern clubs who come from Victoria or other traditional markets tend to want to go home after a few years or when they want to marry or settle down. We want to develop and grow talent in our own market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe local TV revenue is the largest across New Zealand, New South Wales and Queensland, and we will never be No.1 or equal No.2 across those markets unless we increase our focus here. I tell the AFL I want to increase my funding, but I want to see that you are equally invested.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they [the Victorian clubs] don\u2019t see the inroads the NRL has made in recent years, if they don\u2019t see how our talent is dropping off in southern New South Wales and how the NRL is working across the entire state … the NRL is working to kill them. It\u2019s not like in Victoria where you love all sports. Up here it\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not doing this for myself or the Sydney Swans or the Giants. It\u2019s because I love the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFL Commission meets in Sydney on Friday. AFL NSW boss Andrew Varasdi, who was prevented from talking to this masthead this week, is expected to present a detailed document addressing declining participation numbers and a new, significantly increased funding model.<\/p>\n

With the revelation of declining numbers \u2013 particularly in western Sydney \u2013 a major embarrassment to the head office and especially game development, Varasdi is also expected to propose a better way to market the game in NSW.<\/p>\n

The AFL was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

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\"CarolineCaroline Wilson<\/a> is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-658520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}