beenreal wrote:First of all, the PAFC haven't "adopted" the 2015 model, they've had it forced upon them. But in 2015 they'll still have a club structure consisting of an AFL side, an SANFL League side, an SANFL Reserves side and a junior academy to enhance the development of young footballers.
1. You sign up or you don't sign up. PAFC aggressively drove the 'we want an AFL seconds team in the SANFL' agenda, signed on the dotted line pretty much instantly once terms were set out, and then some PAFC people want to claim 'oh, but we only agreed to the rules of an AFL seconds team because we had a gun to our heads'!? Talk about trying to have it both ways.
2. You'll be an AFL franchise invading a comp that you don't belong to. There will be no continuous pathway for talented young Port supporters to play for Port from juniors. Quite the opposite—it'll be prohibited. The 'junior academy' is window-dressing nonsense. The AFL (outside of the 'development states' NSW and Qld) bans AFL clubs from entering into direct coaching arrangements with U/18 players. It's treated as draft tampering. The quality U/18 players will be attached to one of the continuing 8 SANFL clubs anyway. So, the Port 'academy' will be limited to players over 18, who've been overlooked at the AFL draft and rookie draft,
and if they were good enough to play U/18 SANFL comp in the first place, who have been released or transferred from their SANFL club (e.g. because they're not good enough to make that team's SANFL reserves side). Having no juniors, the Power will busily go around filling up its SANFL reserves squad with the cast-offs from the superannuated U/18s of real SANFL clubs, plus the odd country over-18 who's never played in the city. The 'junior academy', and the 'academy team' are a fancy way of saying that you will train your SANFL reserves squad. Whoop-de-do.