telsor
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"...to trial rules as much as anything". Great
Yep...but it's better than them trialing them in the firsts like they do currently....
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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Is it time for a National Reserves League?
- Thread starter The_Reaper
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Yep...but it's better than them trialing them in the firsts like they do currently....
barrackers
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Better yet would be to just leave the game alone including the VFL, which has a great atmosphere in it's own right. A national reserves will harm that even without trial rules turning it into some mickey mouse crap. I can't see how much relevance or insight trial rules in a reserves comp would provide to AFL footy anyway it's not as tactical especially in regards to flooding and zoning.
telsor
Hall of Famer
No. Getting the reserves teams out of the VFL and creating a Vic state level comp that is actually a competition (rather than a series of development games) would be the best thing for Victorian football.
NSW & QLD teams would love it because the NEAFL sucks so badly their development suffers as a result.
WA & SA teams mightn't mind, but the WAFL & SANFL will not be happy at each losing 2 teams that each would have been a positive to their league bottom lines (both directly as well as in support/gates and PR).
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Having no Port Magpies in the sanfl for the first time in history will be an interesting development..
telsor
Hall of Famer
Indeed....
I suppose there is a question of if that will happen....Will Port have 3 teams, AFL, Res & SANFL, or will they make the break complete?
But I thought they would never be torn apart?
telsor
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eth-dog
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Was always going to happen.
barrackers
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The AFL/VFA takeover has been ingrained too long for a standalone state league comp to re-establish or at least re-establish with all but a small handful of traditional VFA clubs. Preston, Box Hill, Sandringham, Casey are AFL reserves clubs in all but their name especially now following the demise of the development league. Standalone VFL clubs take pride in developing their players and having them drafted and it remains to be seen how a new state league may affect this.
The WAFL and SANFL both fought to maintain an even thread of AFL talent across the comp before allowing the AFL clubs to field their players within just one team, but you're right neither comp would like losing the talent, money or pr.
So, that's the 3 main state league comps that would suffer through the re-establishment of AFL reserves.
I don't follow the NEAFL closely, but from what I gather it's a weak competition that would likely benefit from the northern clubs playing elsewhere. Could they do what NT thunder (with Adelaide players) are doing in the VFLW? Perhaps in some type of a divisional structure?
The death of football outside of the AFL is almost here.
Be interesting to see how they do this, each club will need a minimum of 10-15 extra players on their list that will all have to be full time footballers I guess.
If they go with top up players then that is not very appealing to a player to play in a side that winning and achieving is not that important.
I mean if I was playing for West Perth in the WAFL now why on earth would I want to play for the Eagles or Dockers in a reserves comp where most of my team mates don’t give a crap about winning and probably won’t give a crap about me either as I am not AFL listed.
I reckon they should get the AFLW players to play as the top up players, be about the same level. Lol
I can’t speak for SA but here in WA all that will happen is that the money dividend paid by the Two AFL clubs to the WAFC will now fund the reserves instead of WA football.
telsor
Hall of Famer
For Vic, it's a good thing...it's the chance for a genuine 2nd tier comp to establish and grow.
For WA & SA it'll be a step back, but I suppose there is some silver lining in that it will allow greater independence for them.
It could mean the death of the NEAFL, but in many ways more local competitions would probably be better for the game in NSW & QLD anyway
Bad for NT if the NEAFL dies though.
Tas...not much difference really. Maybe a little better for them in that if the other 2nd tier comps elsewhere take a step back, they'll be better able to compete for players.
Ultimately though...for other comps to survive and prosper, they have to get their own fans and do it from the grass roots up (gate, sponsors, local TV coverage)...surviving on the scraps for the AFL table just isn't a viable long term plan.
Even in Victoria mate they will not be able to make it second tier, the AFL reserves will be second tier in status, not so much in talent however.
Agree the state leagues need to do it better but part of creating the national league was a promise to look after these leagues as they are the feeder leagues. Obviously that document had a use by date.
The state leagues must also break away from the AFL completely, get away from channel 7 and run independently. Almost become the opposition in some regard.
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current systems work
telsor
Hall of Famer
Not so sure...reserves is unlikely to be a real competition just development games.
VFL/WAFL/SANFL should all have an advantage in that they'll be playing every game to win, not just to see how some scrawny 18yo kid goes trying to hold down CHF all game.
You wouldn't see it so much over there, but post match VFL reports are all about how listed players went. Often the result doesn't even make the report (although it can usually be inferred from the player write ups).
For example (the first link to hit my browser...)
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/2017-06-27/the-vfl-report-round-10
That's what the 'VFL competition' is and most likely what the AFL reserves would be. I think there is still a niche for those who care about their team actually winning.
I really hope so mate because once those leagues are killed off the pathway to AFL becomes very thin. The AFL will end up a glorified colts comp.
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telsor
Hall of Famer
I hope so too.
I know you don't want it for the sake of the WAFL, but Im also sure you understand how I do want it so we can have a real VFL/state comp. (much as I'd prefer it was called the VFL to reflect the history of most of it's clubs).
We do need genuine senior competition apart for the AFL...Having the game turn into US sports where most people never play beyond high school (and many don't really get to play there) is just an awful prospect.
I am not against the idea, I just want it treated for what it is which is a training ground. No coverage required and let the state leagues prosper. After all the state leagues will still be a higher level probably.
The_Reaper
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Opposite. Peel and East Perth has have not provided any increase in support/crowds and have if anything created extremely bad PR.
eth-dog
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I find it a little amusing that people accuse the AFL players of not caring about winning when last year all four state league GF's had a team affiliated with the AFL there, two of them winning.
Ned_Flanders
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What will that be? The vfa is basically willy, port, frankston, coburg, and werribee now, and three of them arent exactly in good financial positions.
Outside the tac we wont have a proper statewide league to develop 18+ players
