which league is the strongest sub AFL competition?

[Covertackle]

i watched a WAFL game on the ABC this morning early. perth vs freo. perth won, but the standard seemed quite high.

i watch the local NEAFL comp here south of bris (redland bombers) and it seemed to me that the WAFL teams looked a little stronger. now it may just be that TV makes it look that way, but what leagues or competitions are regarded as the strongest...after the AFL?

 

[Spearhead]

i watched a WAFL game on the ABC this morning early. perth vs freo. perth won, but the standard seemed quite high.

i watch the local NEAFL comp here south of bris (redland bombers) and it seemed to me that the WAFL teams looked a little stronger. now it may just be that TV makes it look that way, but what leagues or competitions are regarded as the strongest...after the AFL?

The WAFL, SANFL & VFL are easily the 3 best Football Leagues outside of the AFL. The NEAFL & TFL are a fair way behind those 3!

 

[Covertackle]

The WAFL, SANFL & VFL are easily the 3 best Football Leagues outside of the AFL. The NEAFL & TFL are a fair way behind those 3!

cheers for the reply mate. my guess is that the NEAFL is a fairly new comp? also is it structured for the two qld clubs to 'keep' their reserves? are players mostly only qld talent or do the NEAFL teams actively recruit players from other states and comps?

it was mentioned that the NT thunder played well on TV during the WAFL game on tv. i watched the thunder wion the GF vs morningside at viccy point in qld last season. does that mean the NT play in both comps? or are there two NT sides? or is the NEAFL also telecast sometimes?

 

[Rob]

I'd be surprised if the VFL wasn't by far the strongest comp. They have 10 clubs AFL reserves players running around, which is obviously going to improve your standard. Between the WAFL and SANFL, who knows. The difference is probably negligible. The WAFL feeds off a larger state, but the SANFL has a larger salary cap so tends to attract a couple more ex AFL players.

Not sure about the NEAFL. The Queensland division appears to be vastly superior to the NSW division though. I watch a bit of the Foxtel Cup and seen some deplorable performances by NEAFL teams, but Morningside did the league proud by knocking off Port Adelaide a month or 2 ago in Adelaide.

 

[Ljp86]

VFL is the best in my opinion followed by the SANFL with the WAFL not far behind. The standard of the TSL doesn't seem to be too bad from what I've seen but at a guess they'd be on a par or perhaps a shade better than the NEAFL Northern Conference. The gap between the top three and the top three is fairly substantial though. The NEAFL Eastern Conference and the Canberra AFL are well below the rest.

cheers for the reply mate. my guess is that the NEAFL is a fairly new comp? also is it structured for the two qld clubs to 'keep' their reserves? are players mostly only qld talent or do the NEAFL teams actively recruit players from other states and comps?

it was mentioned that the NT thunder played well on TV during the WAFL game on tv. i watched the thunder wion the GF vs morningside at viccy point in qld last season. does that mean the NT play in both comps? or are there two NT sides? or is the NEAFL also telecast sometimes?

NEAFL is the amalgamation of the Sydney AFL and AFLQ competition and is in its second season I believe. It is split into two conferences with the Northern Conference for the Queesland teams (plus NT Thunder) and the Eastern Conference is for the Sydney teams. Wouldn't have much idea about players but the majority would be from NSW and Qld. I know an ex-West Coast listed player is playing in the NEAFL Eastern conference this season.

As for NT, they only play in the NEAFL.

 

[sturtman]

SANFL is the strongest, and can not simply be evaluated on player talent alone. Competition organization and ability to work with the AFL tier that makes it superior in my book. Their record in interstate comps is also second to none, and were also the best performing league at U18 championship level this year too. The AFL listed players also pay testament to what a great even comp the SANFL is to slip back into. No easy games and top will be trounced by a bottom side if just 1 % off their game as witnessed last week by Port's smashing of Centrals. 2011 in the last minor round matches, decided the final make up of the five with only one side, sadly Sturt, unable to make the cut after that round, the rest were in the mix. This year all the bottom five teams are currently on the same number of points, How can you beat that for even, ans...you can't. Now if only the AFL draft could produce those results.

 

[davo99]

SANFL is the strongest, and can not simply be evaluated on player talent alone. Competition organization and ability to work with the AFL tier that makes it superior in my book. Their record in interstate comps is also second to none, and were also the best performing league at U18 championship level this year too. The AFL listed players also pay testament to what a great even comp the SANFL is to slip back into. No easy games and top will be trounced by a bottom side if just 1 % off their game as witnessed last week by Port's smashing of Centrals. 2011 in the last minor round matches, decided the final make up of the five with only one side, sadly Sturt, unable to make the cut after that round, the rest were in the mix. This year all the bottom five teams are currently on the same number of points, How can you beat that for even, ans...you can't. Now if only the AFL draft could produce those results.

Plus you guys still have 25m penalties and 3 on the bench That would be awesome in the wafl, but I guess your grounds are a lot smaller then ours watching the state game I could kick one from 50!

 

[Spearhead]

SANFL is the strongest, and can not simply be evaluated on player talent alone. Competition organization and ability to work with the AFL tier that makes it superior in my book. Their record in interstate comps is also second to none, and were also the best performing league at U18 championship level this year too. The AFL listed players also pay testament to what a great even comp the SANFL is to slip back into. No easy games and top will be trounced by a bottom side if just 1 % off their game as witnessed last week by Port's smashing of Centrals. 2011 in the last minor round matches, decided the final make up of the five with only one side, sadly Sturt, unable to make the cut after that round, the rest were in the mix. This year all the bottom five teams are currently on the same number of points, How can you beat that for even, ans...you can't. Now if only the AFL draft could produce those results.

Vic Metro won the 18's this year, WA won in 07 & 08 ..when was the last time SA won the 18's title??? The state game played at the postage stamp bog heap this year plus the one played at Medibank Stadium in 09 showed to me there is very little difference between the WAFL & SANFL!

 

[sturtman]

Yes Vic Metro did win this year, but went down to NT in the process. "Best Performing League," I said, not winners. As for the swamp-hole, that is Glenelg's home ground was chosen largely to generate more interest at the local level for these games, trying to entice SA fans to see the value in this second tier competition. As it was unfortunately the game was poorly attended. Maybe next time it will be at the "Pondarossa," Central's home deck, that's bigger than AAMI, but you won't get much more joy playing out there. Sometimes you don't get everything you want. AAMI is too expensive to open for the interest level in the state games at the moment & also hosting AFL, while Adelaide Oval is currently undergoing a significant refit/upgrade and not available. I thought it was a good initiative by the SANFL to get at the local footy supporters. I'd hope the return game can be at a suburban Perth venue for the same reason.

Just a PS on your comment about the closeness of the SA-WA clashes, perhaps more important to that is that the balance of wins in recent years has gone from roughly 50/50 to almost 100% SA wins, with that one, 1 point win at Medibank being the sum total of damage inflicted on SA by WA for quite a number of years now. Also you have taken some heavy beatings from the VFL too in recent years, while head to head, SA is in +ve territory there.

 

[sturtman]

Vic Metro won the 18's this year, WA won in 07 & 08 ..when was the last time SA won the 18's title???

Yes, this point is taken. However in SA's defense we had a huge TEAL CUP hangover in that we were not keen to compete at this age level. At 18, SA considered the players young men and were entering the league/league reserve proper. Our players for a number of years remained at under 17, so we were at a significant disadvantage to other states. We have an U18 league for 3 or 4 years now and are getting back on even terms as far as physical development of players is concerned. However this competition still appears very uneven with players moving between the league and College fooball, but we got very close this year, and a win won't be far away I'm sure.

 

[reidy5]

How do you go about getting a spot on a list in either the VFL, WAFL or SANFL? Is it to do with contacting them or working your way up through local leagues?

 

[Eastern Rangers]

How do you go about getting a spot on a list in either the VFL, WAFL or SANFL? Is it to do with contacting them or working your way up through local leagues?

Junior development squads or amateurs comps. After being scouted by the local WAFL club or your name being put forwarded or mentioned.

You don't see a lot of former amateurs playing AFL but it's common at WAFL level.


Zoning for WAFL clubs can be a but strange at times. Jack Darling and Daniel Rich for instance both played for Sorrento Duncraig JFC. Darling was zoned to West Perth and Rich to Subiaco.

 

[Spearhead]

Junior development squads or amateurs comps. After being scouted by the local WAFL club or your name being put forwarded or mentioned.

You don't see a lot of former amateurs playing AFL but it's common at WAFL level.


Zoning for WAFL clubs can be a but strange at times. Jack Darling and Daniel Rich for instance both played for Sorrento Duncraig JFC. Darling was zoned to West Perth and Rich to Subiaco.

It has nothing to do what junior club you PLAY for it all comes down to your address you live in at the end of the day. Rich would have lived in Subi's zone & Darling would have lived in WP's zone!

 

[stuyd1]

The WAFL, SANFL & VFL are easily the 3 best Football Leagues outside of the AFL. The NEAFL & TFL are a fair way behind those 3!

The NEAFL has grown in standard enormously over the past 7 or so years. Is now a very high standard of footy and a fairly even comp... in 2011 and 2012, teams in eighth position, could of made the final five depending on the results in the final home and away season. The clubs recruit from all over the country, not just rely on home grown players, and now concentrate on the development of local juniors in a most professional manner.
IMO, yes the VFL,SANFL, AND WAFL are the premier comps outside of the AFL.The NEAFL sits next by a fair margin over say the TFL,ACT,OVENS AND MURRAY AND GOULBURN VALLEY LEAGUES as well as a coulpe of the melbourne metro leagues.