Dogwatcher wrote:If the NRL has the money to run an under 23 comp (or whatever it is), which receives national coverage on Fox, then I'm pretty certain the AFL, which already bankrolls the NEAFL competition (which has teams in two states/one territory), can afford to operate a reserves/under 23/south-eastern conference.
Absolutely right. No matter how many hands it gets funnelled through first (NEAFL/ NEAFL clubs), make no mistake that the AFL is already paying for NT, Qld, Sydney and Canberra clubs to fly to each other's states/territories, week after week, for a full footy season, indefinitely. For players who are (leaving aside the 4 AFL reserves teams in the comp) semi-pro at best. So, 'no-one can afford to pay for flights' is a furphy.
Now, near enough to 100% of AFL clubs can
already pay for organising and fielding a reserves team (whether through 'affiliated club' arrangements or otherwise). Out of their existing resources. The only additional cost is travel. (Noting that 4 teams are already paying travel costs.)
So: there's no financial reason why an AFL reserves comp can't happen.
Such sponsorship and TV coverage as the AFL reserves attracted, would only offset part of the costs of arranging it. But any amount it did offset, would be gravy. The clubs and the AFL can already afford it.
The AFLPA would never bite at 55-60 player lists (which would be the numbers required to avoid top-ups) because they would rightly fear that spreading the $ too widely would dilute individual player salaries; the clubs wouldn't want to cop the wages and on-costs they'd have to pay to the extra 10-15 players; and the AFL has no interest in massive list expansion either. So top-ups would continue to exist. Precisely where they came from and the rules under which they came (as John Howard would say), would be hammered out by people currently conducting the 'pathways to AFL' discussion. But the ongoing existence of top-ups, and a strong professional comp for them to come into, would help address one of the biggest stated concerns of the AFL clubs: that the gap between the U/18 comps and the AFL is growing.
It could easily take a decade. (At best, it could be done in perhaps 5 years.) But an AFL reserves competition is most likely coming. The arguments in favour simply outweigh the arguments against. And it will be a good thing for the SANFL competition when it does. If it doesn't come too late to rescue it from the disastrous decisions made in 2013.
