Decline in Indigenous AFL players sparks call for mandatory recruitment rule
News Corp Senior Writer Patrick Carlyon discusses growing pressure on the AFL to introduce a mandatory rule requiring each team to recruit at least one Indigenous player, amid a noticeable decline in Indigenous representation across the league.
“Like quotas in every aspect of industry across the board, they don’t work and it’s not going to work in an elite sport context,” Mr Carlyon told Sky News host Rita Panahi.
“The numbers are sad, I think there were 87 Indigenous players playing AFL five years ago, it’s down to 62.
“A lot of things need to be done, there are systemic issues here in terms of getting great players to the AFL playing field, and there’s lots that needs to be done, but quotas are not going to fix anything.”
