AFL Reserves Discussion...

[UK Fan]

No byes next year in the Sanfl.

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 4

22 round season I believe

[zipzap]

No byes next year in the Sanfl.

Might be up to four for me

[RB]

Have people lost interest in the league already?

Have fans of the finalists become a bit ho hum about it all?

Something is missing in the air for me...

Yeah certainly disillusioned and jaded by all this. Will go and watch South on Sunday, but beyond that wont be going out of my way to watch the finals.

Same goes for my interest in the AFL. Couldn't care less about the upcoming finals. Feels odd..

For me it's the opposite ATM. Maybe it's because my club's a genuine flag chance, but I'll be going to all the finals that the Eags aren't in, if I can make them, because I sure as hell won't be interested next year. I'm going to get my last 'fill' if you will, before the league goes to the dogs.

Make the most of the SANFL, people...six weeks till it becomes irrelevant.

[UK Fan]

Have people lost interest in the league already?

Have fans of the finalists become a bit ho hum about it all?

Something is missing in the air for me...

Yeah certainly disillusioned and jaded by all this. Will go and watch South on Sunday, but beyond that wont be going out of my way to watch the finals.

Same goes for my interest in the AFL. Couldn't care less about the upcoming finals. Feels odd..

For me it's the opposite ATM. Maybe it's because my club's a genuine flag chance, but I'll be going to all the finals that the Eags aren't in, if I can make them, because I sure as hell won't be interested next year. I'm going to get my last 'fill' if you will, before the league goes to the dogs.

Make the most of the SANFL, people...six weeks till it becomes irrelevant.

Agreed have the rest of my life to make the pr*cks suffer.

Might aswell enjoy the last 6 weeks of the comp as we know it.

[rod_rooster]

Wish i could enjoy the last six weeks but my side has seemingly put the cue in the rack coinciding with the AFL Reserves being accepted. It's now more like a slow agonising death.

[Apachebulldog]

I will have FOUR BYES next year you beauty !!!!

[areaman]

Have people lost interest in the league already?

Have fans of the finalists become a bit ho hum about it all?

Something is missing in the air for me...

To me it feels like the moment when the music stops, the lights are turned on and your glass is empty.

Time to stumble home.

[whufc]

What makes me laugh is even in politics if there was this many blantant lies given to get their own way at least one media source would question them and try and make them accountable.

But not in little piss ant Adelaide you can get away with saying whatever you like, back flip on it and then tumbleweeds roll by!!!

Even your community radio stations and messenger newspapers which supposedly promote the SANFL as number 1 priority haven't even had the balls to try and keep the bastards accountable

[topsywaldron]

I'm still getting my head around the genius of the Commission thinking that by killing the competition they'd be saving it.

It's got a weird East German Stasi vibe about it where everything they do and say has the opposite effect and different meaning.

[saintal]

If you can be bothered reading it, here's a piece from the keyboard of S. Trigg. There isn't anythng particularly new here, just reinforcing the suggested benefits and trying to ease our concerns. I do chuckle however at the emphasis on maintaining the integrity of the competition, while at the same time admiting that there will be players in their side who aren't up to league standard who are getting a game anyway.

*************

Since the SANFL League Directors endorsed the SA Football Commission’s recommendation to allow our entry into the SANFL League competition in 2014, there has been an enormously positive response.

Everyone within the Club, and the vast majority of those connected to the Club in some way have seen and understood the positive(s) in having an Adelaide Crows State League team. In fact within, there’s been an incredibly upbeat lift in the optimism as to where we can now take our young list as a result of this very significant decision.

But of course, as is always the case with such significant decisions, there’s an element out there who can’t see those same positives and who are choosing to denigrate the SANFL, their Club’s Management or indeed our Club for what they see as primarily a breach to the integrity of their competition.

As it settles, a few points need to be landed, and a few myths expelled.

From the very first presentation made by our Club to the Commission, the issue of (SANFL) competition integrity was understandably a central issue for all stakeholders. When we then personally met with the SANFL Clubs to discuss the issue, protecting the ‘integrity’ of the comp continually came through, being defined such that our state league team would:

- Play to win

- Be appropriately competitive

- Not send players off prematurely for surgeries/rest and

- Generally respect the competition

Through a series of stated and detailed commitments, our Club’s response has focused on preserving, and where possible, enhancing the integrity of the SANFL competition. And now that the decision has been made, far from resiling from those commitments we are reassuring the clubs that we will work with them, we will respect the integrity of the competition, and we will involve ourselves in a process of finalising the finer details, and documenting our various commitments.

Of the myths that have begun to emerge, our push for a ‘one team set-up’ for our ‘leftover’ players – is not simply a Brenton Sanderson request. It’s true that Brenton has seen firsthand (at the very successful Geelong) the benefits of having all players in the one team. But this issue has been on the Club’s radar for several years, well before Brenton arrived and urged for it to be pursued.

The reason that it has been on that radar for so long, is that there is a very clear view that to have all non AFL selected player together in the one team creates:

1. Better and quicker player development

2. Quicker assimilation (back into) the AFL team, and

3. Better retention of players (especially of those originating from interstate)

When young draftees (say) from Victoria or WA arrive in SA, to date they’ve had not one but two new clubs to settle into, a new home and a whole host of demands. From the outset, to have them train and play with those around them on their AFL list is a very significant benefit. So much so, that we were most assuredly prepared to place a team into the Amateur League competition if that’s what was required. Whatever the view would be of the calibre of competition, our absolutely core objective was to get this group on our list to be coached, developed and cared for by our own people. It was no bluff.

There is now a team set to work on the detailed rules and regulations around our State League Team’s operation within the SANFL as the competitions tenth team.

One of the more emotive issues that seems to pervade our entry is that of ‘top up’ players. That is, we’ll need 21 players week by week to make up the state league team, and that most often we’ll need ‘extra’ players from outside our list to top up to the required 21.

For the sake of perspective, based on the number of injuries to our list in 2012, we would have needed (on average) just 1.6 players each weekend. And in 2013 that (average) requirement is just 3.5 players per round. It’s true that at this point in time we have encountered a higher than average (collision) injury rate, and so we’d be needing more players to ‘top up’. But the average over the past two years reflects that relatively few ‘extra’ or top ups would be needed.

That said, where they come from exactly has (for some) created a stir. As it currently stands, and in simple terms, six of the eight SANFL clubs are prepared and happy to have up to two of their ‘development’ (18 years old or over and been through a draft) players ‘on loan’ to Adelaide as ‘top ups’. The strategy is to have players, who are not yet quite ready for senior action at their own clubs, spend time in an AFL system to accelerate their development.

But it’s acknowledged that it’s not a perfect solution, and that it’s not for all SANFL clubs. For our part, and to be very clear, we’re not fixed or welded onto any particular top up model. Whatever the model, we wanted and still want:

1. For the top ups to be regular participants in our team (to ensure familiarity),

2. For the SANFL clubs to be happy and engaged with it, and

3. For our Club to play a part in the development of players and football in this state.

It follows that with six of the eight clubs being positive about the SANFL model we’re prepared to take that path and make it work. As with several aspects of our entry however, a decent review at the end of the year will be important on top ups, and it should be said and understood that if Port Adelaide Power do eventually have an AFL (State League) team; that review will be sooner rather than later.

Whichever way it eventually lands, our Club is committed to working with the SANFL clubs and in their zones and development programs to the extent they want us involved. It’s an important commitment for us in maintaining our connection to SA grass-roots football.

We’re not permitted under AFL rules to have a developed so-called Academy for 17 and 18 year olds who have not been through a draft. So our view is that our best or most effective option is supporting grass-roots development in SA is to do so via the SANFL clubs, who have existing structures and areas established.

All of that detail is important, and if we work collaboratively with the SANFL and the Clubs, we will get it to work and work well. And if that means that if top up players come exclusively from ‘community football’, then our Club will find a way to make that work too.

We’re genuinely very excited about next year. We firmly believe our AFL team can bounce back quickly, and that our new State League team will be great for us, and that it will be a boost to the SANFL competition.

For those who already had their thinking tested as to who they’d barrack for in the SANFL competition – their current SANFL team or the new Crows State League team – please don’t feel conflicted. Support and barrack for your SANFL team. Almost all of our senior football and management personnel have a SANFL heritage and (at least one) SANFL team they support.

Those same people, from Brenton Sanderson and Alan Stewart to Scott Camporeale, Mark Bickley and Nigel Smart – all have their football roots in the SANFL. We all therefore have an affinity with the competition, a deep respect for it and a team that we’ve loved or still love to see doing well. Which simply underlines our collective desire to see the SANFL competition healthy and growing – and we honestly believe our involvement as the tenth team will be a winner for everyone.

[Jim05]

What a load of bollocks
F**k off Trigg

[heater31]

Where are these lies posted?

[saintal]

Where are these lies posted?

Club website. I didn't want to get their hit count up by pasting a direct link

[heater31]

Where are these lies posted?

Club website. I didn't want to get their hit count up by pasting a direct link

Well at least its only the dumb sheep reading that tripe then.......

[Ecky]

For those who already had their thinking tested as to who they’d barrack for in the SANFL competition – their current SANFL team or the new Crows State League team – please don’t feel conflicted. Support and barrack for your SANFL team. Almost all of our senior football and management personnel have a SANFL heritage and (at least one) SANFL team they support.

Is this the first time ever in the history of the world that a club has specifically told its fans to barrack for the teams that play against it? Hooray for the integrity!

[tipper]

political spin and bullshit. is he trying to get elected next weekend too??

[Wedgie]

I always struggled with Triggonometry.

[Ecky]

I suspect that our mate Burtenshaw actually wrote it - a lot of it and the writing style sounds suspiciously like his answers on here.

[saintal]

I suspect that our mate Burtenshaw actually wrote it - a lot of it and the writing style sounds suspiciously like his answers on here.

Yeah, reading it back a second time you're right.

[areaman]

I feel less informed and dumber for reading that.