The AFL will gladly wait until the SANFL is a complete basket case, then turn up, media entourage in toe, photos of whoever is captain of Crows and Power on the front page of the rag, some crappy headline: "AFL throws life line to SANFL!" one sentence buried deep within the story about how "certain changes will need to be made to current structure to allow AFL greater control." the rest; a wankfest about how they really care about local footy, which clearly cannot survive without the chivalrous intervention of football's wondrous governing body.
(N.B. it should read "AFL's wondrous governing body." since they renamed the game after themselves, shouldn't it be spurious to refer to it as football ?)