Australian football continues to disenfranchise its prize asset to cover for administrative failings

You only needed to watch Diego Maradona waddle his way through the opposition, turning even the greatest defenders into human training cones, to appreciate his sublime talent.

On any playground, pitch or back alley on the planet, Maradona’s dancing feet would have set him apart from mere footballing mortals.

Yet the timing of Maradona’s death this week prompted a thought beyond the many touching tributes to his genius and explorations of his very human character — would he have conquered the world if he had been born in Brisbane and not Buenos Aires?

Coincidentally, Maradona’s death coincided with the publication of two media reports that shone a now routinely unflattering light on the way football talent is identified and developed in…