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Sport Nation
Why King and Cornes are supportive of sacking the father-son rule
SEN • August 5th, 2025 8:48 am
The father-son debate continues to spark controversy within the AFL world as the likes of Nick and Josh Daicos, Will and Levi Ashcroft and Sam Darcy continue to dominate for their respective clubs.
The argument continues to flourish, as the concept of permitting top-tier clubs access to some of the draft’s best prospects raises questions of fairness within the recruitment system.
And with the competition as divided as it has been in recent years, it’s no secret that changes need to be made to better equalise the AFL.
While the sentiment and romance of the father-son concept certainly remains one of our game’s great traditions, the debate appears to be trending towards its extinction.
As identified by SEN Fireball co-hosts Kane Cornes and David King, ridding of the tradition could help to fix a major AFL Draft issue.
King: “I’ll tell you what’s gathering momentum, sacking the father-son.”
Cornes: “It has to, at least for the first round.”
King: “If you’re doing it for the first round, it’s the good ones isn’t it. The game changers – the Ashcroft boys, the Daicos boys.
Cornes: “(Sam) Darcy (too). I’d be absolutely supportive of that.
“If they want to come home to the club where their dad played in three years’ time, good luck, and yep, no worries, but you’re going to pay full price.
“Imagine if Nick Daicos went to St Kilda and he wanted to get to Collingwood after three years – imagine what Collingwood would have had to have given St Kilda to get him out of there.
“We’re talking two to three first round picks. That’s the fair price, not pick 30, 31, 42, 52 that you’d need to match the points. What a ridiculous system that is.
King: “I call that real value. You want real value? Put your house up for auction. You get the price that it’s worth!”
Cornes: “No doubt. If Harley Reid was a father-son, let’s just say for the exercise, Harley Reid was a father-son, and his dad played at Geelong.
“After three years he wants to come back and play for Geelong. What do you reckon the Cats are going to have to give for Harley Reid if he wants a trade?
“The Eagles are going to absolutely clean up.”
King: “They’re not letting him go to West Coast in the first place. They’re trading up to pick one or trading up to pick two.
“Whatever that pick is, you’re getting overs, which is exactly how you want it to function. This is an easy fix, and a quick fix, and it won’t cost too many players, or too many teams losing their father-sons.
“It will just mean they pay real value, or overs.”
Cornes: “They may not come home. They may just be happy there. Dad played there, I played here. Well done, I’m happy.”
King: “Would you have to phase that in? Or would that be, ‘hey, this is happening’.”
Cornes: “Do we ever phase anything in? We just usually say this is happening, don’t we?
“Maybe the way to phase it in is you start with the first round is uncompromised, then in years’ time the first 40 is uncompromised.
“Then eventually, the whole thing is uncompromised.”
