by therisingblues » Wed Sep 25, 2019 1:26 pm
Booney wrote:When the AFL reserves were proposed the SANFL should have given Adelaide half of Port's recruiting zones, made them find a home base, set up SANFL reserves and U18's and become another club competing in the SANFL. That way a limit of 10, 12, 14, whatever you want AFL listed players in the league side and I'd think most SANFL fans would have had more of a chance of accepting that than the current set up.
If you remember correctly, the overwhelming majority of the state was vehemently opposed to joining the AFL
This was evident in the various polls run by the News and Advertiser at the time.
When the Crows eventually joined, part of their image was as some sort of shield protecting the SANFL from the continued pillaging by VFL clubs. In practice there was a moratorium on the recruitment of SA players, any SANFL players selected by the Crows was made available by their club of origin when not playing for the Crows, former Croweaters that'd previously left SA returned, the Crows set up a mini draft for players drafted from interstate to be selected by SANFL sides when not playing AFL, etc.
Back then, the fact that the Crows played the role of protector made them more palatable to a parochial SA football community. A direct entry of their reserves side in the SANFL would have been a disaster from the start, and the SANFL would be even further advanced down our current path of slow decay
EDIT: Whoops, I just read your post again Booney, and realised that I mis-read it the first time. My reply doesn't quite fit the post that I've quoted.
Last edited by
therisingblues on Wed Sep 25, 2019 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm gonna sit back, crack the top off a Pale Ale, and watch the Double Blues prevail
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