Let Jake Play

Under a policy developed by AFL NSW/ACT, junior players may only play for senior clubs within their listed pathway. As a former player of St Ives Junior Football Club, Jake Fitzgerald, 15, was eligible only to play for either Manly-Warringah or North Shore Bombers, not Macquarie University.

But Macquarie president Luke Gemmill believes it is unfair to restrict a junior footballer from choosing where he wants to play as a senior. “It’s unethical to say to a child you will play where you are told and not where you want to play”, says Gemmill.

Despite rallying the approval of every junior and senior club involved in the process, the administration at Sydney AFL would not approve Fitzgerald’s transfer. Gemmill said, “the only people who seemed to have a problem with allowing Jake to play with his friends was the AFL themselves”.

Vice President of the Macquarie University club David Marsh backed up his President’s comments saying, “It’s a matter of principles. We believe the Pathways Policy is prohibitive in its nature and is counter productive towards the goal of growing the game at a grass roots level in New South Wales”.

Peter Fitzgerald, father of Jake, thanked the club for its commitment to his son’s cause and added that during this ordeal his son had confessed to him, “If I can’t play with this team, I’m never playing football again”.

Asked “what next?”, coach of Macquarie’s Under 18s team, Tim Cameron, summed it up best by saying, “We can only hope that our actions have not fallen on deaf ears and that the Sydney AFL will sit down and review a policy that prevents a child from playing football with his friends”.