West Australian and South Australian clubs have been allocated their indigenous and multicultural recruiting regions by the AFL as the league continues to establish its Next Generation academies.
Since announcing the academy regions for the Victorian clubs in February, the AFL has been working with Fremantle, West Coast, Port Adelaide and Adelaide to fairly separate the WA and SA regions.
On Tuesday the AFL announced the regions each club has been allocated, with all clubs to have access to talent from metropolitan and regional areas.
Each of the four clubs will establish hubs in their respective states with the objective of attracting future players, both males and females, who are not currently playing football, along with players from remote communities in Australia who may have limited access to current pathways.
The AFL will provide the four clubs with seed funding to begin establishing club academies in in 2016, with the view of expanding the program in 2017 and beyond.
Under the rules, for a club to be eligible to access a prospect at draft age, the player must have fully participated in the club's academy program for a minimum of three years before being drafted.
Players of Asian or African heritage (who were born in an Asian or African country or have at least one parent born in an Asian or African country) will be automatically able to join a club under bidding rules.
"It is important to note that hubs have been established on the basis of multicultural populations in each state," the AFL's football operations manager Mark Evans said.
"While boys and girls from all backgrounds will participate in the academies, clubs will only receive draft concessions for players who are under-represented in the AFL."
The WA clubs will divide the WAFL club regions and also have a slice of remote areas of the state.
The Fremantle Dockers have been given access to the Kimberley region, which is likely to produce a top-10 pick this year in midfielder Sam Petrevski-Seton, who hails from Halls Creek.
Fremantle will not be able to get priority access to Petrevski-Seton this year but would be able to attract talent from that region in future years.
The AFL hopes the introduction of the community hubs and regional involvement will boost the draft numbers for its traditional football heartland.
"We certainly have noticed a change in where our draftees come from. New South Wales and Queensland have done a terrific job in growing the base there and it has challenged some of the traditional states about their talent programs," Evans said.
"It's difficult out there; we need to make it as easy as possible for parents and kids to get involved in the sport initially.
"Traditional football states have had to look at all of the different offerings for kids, and all of the other attractions that take kids away from sport. But the one thing we can't dismiss is the strength of the Australian game, and the tie-ins to communities.
"A good community club becomes the heartbeat of that community, and we know that there's no better place for kids to be than in and around their football club. It's healthy and it connects people like nothing else in this country."
At the initial launch of the Next Generation AFL Club Academies in February, Evans said the academies were part of the AFL’s broader commitment to invest in the community foundations of the game.
“The academies will look to build strong links between local communities, grassroots football and the elite level, to ensure our game is representative, inclusive and embraces gender and cultural diversity,” he said.
“For Australian Football to prosper in the future we must invest in new and emerging communities, and reinforce the pathways for indigenous Australians.
“The academies will enable AFL clubs to be actively involved in introducing kids of all backgrounds to the game and provide aspirational pathways for coaches, umpires and administrators.”
Fremantle CEO Steve Rosich said the club was strongly supportive of the new AFL initiative and welcomed its hub allocation.
“We worked closely with the AFL and the WA Football Commission to determine how the hub allocations would best serve metropolitan and regional WA,” Rosich said.
“We are now planning how we will work in our allocated regions from both a brand perspective and in terms of football talent identification and player development.
“We see the opportunities presented by the Next Generation AFL academies as initially about having a community focus. However, in the longer-term it will be about identifying potential future players for the Fremantle Dockers.”
The AFL has advised Fremantle that its allocation for the metropolitan region includes East Fremantle, South Fremantle, Peel , West Perth and Claremont, while Fremantle’s allocation for regional WA includes the Midwest, the Wheatbelt and 10 per cent of the South West.
In addition, Fremantle will also have access to indigenous players from the vast Kimberly region in the State’s far north, which is considered underrepresented in the AFL.