So is he going to Brissy or GC?

Brisbane Lions.

Great young hooper lost to AFL.

Thanks for another thread on Tom....

The NBL needs to stay right away from anything to do with the AFL...

"The NBL needs to stay right away from anything to do with the AFL..."

Actually with all this talk of AFL clubs wanting NBL teams, it does raise an interesting point.
Young Aussies who have chosen Basketball are attractive recruits because they can be brought into the AFL via the back door (they are referred to as "Category B Rookies") ie bypassing the Draft(s) completely. Realistically they are free-hits for the AFL club.
The downside being that the kids are older than your average AFL draftee, were perhaps better suited to Basketball, and importantly have been away from any Aussie Rules competition for 3 years.

Soooo
What happens when Collingwood identifies a young talent. Pays them good money for a few years to play Basketball, all the while engaging in "cross-skills training", before picking them up as a free Cat-B Rookie.

Keep in mind that many elite AFL draftees are identified as early as the national U16's, and that the draft age has been progressively increased to 18, because teams used to draft 16yr olds.

So sad about this mainly because he was the one Bullets player I was getting excited to see this season but that won't be happening.

I heard that Mark Bradtke's son has also is looking at going to AFL instead of persuing basketball (or tennis like his mother). Let's hope we get more teams and make basketball a far more attractive prospect

Imagine how good basketball would be in Australia without the AFL. What a waste of great athletes.

Yeah Austin Bradtke has signed with the Demons as a Cat B rookie. It is disappointing to lose the son of a legend like that. Its always going to be a risk though while the opportunities and pay gap remains. With only space for around 50-odd Aussie NBL players, compared to 700+ AFL spots.

Firstly, good luck to the kid, also to young Bradke who is going to Melbourne. Everyone needs to remember that a sports person's career opportunity is short and they can be cut from a team or injured seriously at any time ending and shortening their careers even more.

I will never blame anyone for looking after their own interests and coaches who pretend they are hard done by when they invest in a project only to see that person more to what they see as greener pastures just need to move on to the next project and get over it.

The AFL is Australia's premier sporting body, compared with the NBL it is far bigger, better organised, supported by big business and the media, provides better pathways and many other benefits not only the financial ones.

Kids of the talent level of these two and some others who choose football can stay in basketball and do well, even try to go overseas if they are good enough, but it is their decision, end of story!

We need to remain fans of the NBL and keep supporting it because it is starting to head in the right direction, there is a heap of talented juniors coming through, but spots are limited right now.

For every kid like this who chooses another pathway there are dozens of others just as good waiting in the wings, coaches need to respect people's decisions as do we from the beeches. Wish them well and don't be so judgemental IMHO...

'bleeches'

He originally was an Aussie Rules player who changed over to basketball, so he has just gone back to his original sport anyway. Still a shame though.

That 88k for a first round draft pick does not include match payments for playing senior football. A regular best 22 player will be 150k easy.

Bear I don't know if you were referring to me, but I'm not being judgmental about losing these young guys, just disappointed as a basketball fan. I completely agree with what you said about doing what is best for themselves and wish them the best.

No CRAM, just generally speaking, not directed at your comment at all.

The same could be true of any number of sports all over the world though too. If only rugby league didn't exist, the Wallabies might not be embarrassing.

The Australian Volleyball federation probably hated the emergence of basketball in the 90s too.

No sport has a natural right to athletes, and in Australia, with so many good athletes around, in so many different sports, code switching is going to be inevitable.

@anon its all bout the cash and the ability to make it sooner.

Corey Maynard quit the NBL and since has only played a couple of games at Melbourne.

It's interesting to think, if for example there were no other sports, and all Australians only played say Soccer. How good would we be?
Could we contend for a world cup?

Certainly I reckon if we only played Basketball we'd be #2 in the world. But would that be enough?
As it is, when our best players go the NBA, we feel a surge of pride and wish them luck. But if BBL was our national sport? And the difference was just about $$?

Interesting....

Is there anywhere that basketball is the number one sport? Arguably Lithuania, which explains why they so often punch above their weight. But anywhere else? Philippines?

Almost every country in the world has (association) football as a clear number one, with a few random outliers like Canada with Hockey, NZ with Rugby, us with AFL (though not as clear as the others)

I dunno, I like the variety of sports. I'll regularly go to games of most Australian top flight leagues (no NRL or Netball) and enjoy different things from each.

Plus, usually when there's only a couple of sports, there tends to be a lot of animosity between the two (rugby fans vs football fans in england as an example).

I think it is good to have different sports available, but I agree that as a country we spread the talent, airtime and crowds pretty thin.

Ideally Rugby league and Netball would't exist and their players/fans/airtime could be spread among the other sports and I would be perfectly content.

Gotta be honest though.
I used to follow Perth Glory a bit, watch a few games.
And I have coached junior Soccer, its a great junior sport.
It doessn't really float my boat as a spectacle.
Appreciate I am clearly in the minority on Earth, but 0-0 draws just annoy me.
Or worse where one team dominates all game, then makes one mistake and concedes a goal.

American football (whether NFL college or high school) is easily number 1 in U.S. in terms of media coverage, money and ratings.

@CRAM the NCAA College Basketball March Madness tournament alone is huge in the amount of money it makes and the number of viewers it attracts, just saying!