Should AFL reserves teams play in SANFL?
InDaily readers have fired up over yesterday’s comment piece by Dion Hayman about the proposal to play Crows and Port reserve teams in the SANFL league.
BRONWYN LUDLAM: The SANFL gives life and provides hope to local footballers from the moment they begin playing. There isn’t room in AFL teams for everyone – the SANFL provides them a place. It also provides inspiration and entertainment for thousands of fans. Granted, not all can attend matches in person, but they still proudly support their teams – often through the generations. My brother and I are diehard Redlegs supporters because of our father’s and grandfather’s devotion to the team.
Attending an SANFL match is a delight and a treat for spectators, and a passion for officials, volunteers and players – and should remain so. If the Crows and Port Adelaide want to play reserves teams, they should be lobbying for a national AFL reserves competition.
DANIELLE LUCAS: I totally agree that the last thing the SANFL needs now is to have this play out. It is taking a battering, and to have two teams in the competition not playing with passion will be to the detriment of what is already a fragile situation.
MIKE SMITH/POWER SUPPORTER: The deathblow was struck many years ago, but the corpse is struggling on. Who really sees the SANFL as anything but a first line reserves for the AFL these days? And in that case, the proposal to field reserves teams from the Crows and Power AFL teams makes good sense. But it won’t prolong the lifespan of the SANFL much longer – as you say, who wants to pay $14 for that? Make it free and you might see an increase in crowds.
LOUISE WATSON: Thank you, Dion Hayman. It is vital that a publication such as InDaily gives the time of day to this issue. It’s wonderful to read an opinion that reflects a view that the SANFL competition can survive and thrive without the AFL. Indeed, it explains clearly that it will surely die if AFL reserves teams are permitted in the SANFL League competition, and that is a loss not just for South Australia but for the Australian game nationally.
PAUL VICTORY: I am a football follower for 40 years. I grew up at the double blues with Paul Bagshaw and Rick Davies, and journeyed on with football to the Crows and Port Adelaide. I disagree whole heartedly with your article. Time is progress, and progress is change. Allow the Crows and Port to field strong teams in the SANFL. It is called positive progress.
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GLEN PATTEN/PASSIONATE REDLEGS MEMBER: The system may not be perfect, but why bugger it up for eternity on the whims of the Crows and the Power? Every week the SA AFL team listed players that are not picked play in the second-best competition in the land. Unlike yesteryears, the reserves (or seconds) are full of kids with only a sprinkling of more mature players vying to make the first 21 for Norwood, Magpies or the other seven teams. Pitting ALF listed players – earning at least 50 grand a year and training full time – against kids, many of whom are still at high school, is a recipe for disaster.
LINCOLN RIDLEY/WEST TORRENS SUPPORTER: Dion Hayman paints a bleak emotional picture of a future SANFL with AFL reserves teams, but doesn’t provide much basis as to why it would be so. If the problem is the reserves teams not caring about actually winning, the answer is to make two existing league sides the reserves team.
Port Magpies is the obvious choice for the Powers reserve team, and you can be sure that the management of the club would be trying as hard as it can to secure another SANFL premiership for the black and white. Also, as much as supporters of other clubs would hate to admit it, there is something missing in the competition now that Port is no longer the feared powerhouse it once was.
For the Crows reserve team, there will be plenty of clubs that are only just surviving that would be willing to sacrifice a bit of their heritage for the additional resources and ability to compete. The simple way to decide is to give it to the team which has gone the longest since winning a premiership – South Adelaide. There is no other supporter base as long-suffering. It would revitalise local football in the south and nothing would help harden up the young Crows (or the ones searching for form) more than a Saturday afternoon braving the elements down at Noarlunga.
Then, to keep things even, the other SANFL clubs would get more money to spend on players, which would help address their big problem of having to compete with amateur league teams for local talent.
STUART BEE: I am also an SANFL tragic and do not want AFL reserves teams at all – it’s just a quick fix for the Crows and Power. Please do not sacrifice our competition just because they want it. If they were serious, they should go into the VFL competition and play other AFL reserves teams – pay the cost yourselves and get on with it and leave the SANFL alone as you have done us so much damage over the years.
SAM WELLINGTON: Sorry, InDaily, but your SANFL article is just emotional, one-sided rubbish. The VFL has a number of stand-alone reserve sides such as Collingwood and Essendon, and they add to the competition. They do guarantee more people each week, as supporters of those AFL sides will come and watch the reserves in the VFL. They don’t have “top-up” players; they recruit 10-12 players at the start of each year to make up their side. They aren’t so strong they ruin the competition, nor are they so weak they become easy beats. The SANFL is stale and out-of-date, hence the falling crowd numbers and financial oblivion so many clubs face. Embrace change. It won’t ruin the competition, and in two to five years, everyone will see it was a good thing for the long-term future of the SANFL. Imagine a SANFL with 10 teams. No more meaningless byes, coupled with some fresh blood, new fans, and no doubt new exposure. Change is not a dirty word (despite the thick-headed hate Adelaideans seem to have for it) – get on board and give it a trial!
TREVOR WILKINS: I have been a passionate member of Sturt for all my life and have been a vice-president for the last decade or so. I have assisted financially whenever the requests have gone out. However, I have sent a letter to the club saying that if they, and in turn, the SANFL, vote to include the two reserve AFL teams, I will not be renewing my membership. I have no wish to be a party to a farce. And yes, I do support one of the teams, the Crows, but the reserve team proposal will be the death knell of local footy. I would take greater interest in amateur footy, which this will probably become if all member financial support is withdrawn.
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TRISTAN SULLIVAN: I think you are missing the point that the SANFL is already “dying” and bringing in AFL reserves teams actually generates interest in a competition void of it (and interest equals important dollars).
People like myself who have no interest in the SANFL will start going to watch Port or Crows reserve games because we get to see our up-and-coming talent. There are 80000+ members of Power and Crows, many of whom are interested in reserves teams.
To hold onto the ’70s and ’80s now is fruitless; it’s too late. The AFL is now the premier competition and the interest in reserves teams is one of the few lifelines the SANFL has.
TIM MORTIMER: We should maintain the integrity of our SANFL competition – this is what sport is all about. All the other sports being played have a state league or equivalent where the local players can perform at the top state level, which is commendable and rewarding.
We should not let the SANFL be polluted by the rigged and unfair AFL competition, thereby getting dragged down with it over the long term. At the very least it won’t be a level playing field, pitching amateur athletes against a team of professionals. At least at the moment the amateurs can benefit from playing alongside the professionals who are split among all the teams, which is fairer.
The starting point of any good sporting competition is being fairly organised for the participants, which the SANFL is. At the very least this must be preserved and not compromised in any way.
My grandfather spent a good part of his life putting in for the Sturt Football Club on the selection committee and in many other ways. There are numerous others like him, and their work over the years to build the competition should be respected.
It’s beyond belief that with all the millions of dollars paid in rates to local councils every year that we can’t preserve our sporting heritage by keeping a few football clubs running.
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