What happens to the State Leagues with the return of the Reserves?

[eth-dog]

Punt Rd, Holden Centre, Ikon Park, Western Oval, Junction Oval, Arden St and (when upgraded) Moorabbin are all fairly near-city venues that can easily be used for a state-league competition for early afteroon/early evening curtain raisers (pretty sure this happens a fair bit already with some of the VFL affiliates), then a short trip into the city to watch the AFL side play.

Windy Hill isn't too bad for that either. Junction won't be used for AFL, ever. Only reason the AFL put money into it was to get the Vics off the MCG ASAP.

 

[Damon_3388]

Windy Hill isn't too bad for that either. Junction won't be used for AFL, ever. Only reason the AFL put money into it was to get the Vics off the MCG ASAP.

Fair enough.

Still, it seems like there's still plenty of near-city venues in Melbourne that are suitable for a state-league/national reserves comp to operate from.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

IF we got to an AFL reserves league, can Box Hill, Sandringham, Springvale and Preston survive without their AFL affiliations? Anything is possible if Coburg and Frankston are still alive. With Williamstown, Port Melbourne and Werribee thats a 9 team comp there.

State leagues - especially the NEAFL and VFL - would probably require assistance (as does the TSL, but that is nothing to do with AFL reserves). There's nothing wrong with the AFL providing that, in the meantime the leagues get their integrity back and clubs get their identity back. The AFL has set themselves up as owners of the sport, its about time they looked beyond their own competition(s) and seeing everything else either a "pathway" or irrelevent.

 

[eth-dog]

State leagues - especially the NEAFL and VFL - would probably require assistance (as does the TSL, but that is nothing to do with AFL reserves). There's nothing wrong with the AFL providing that, in the meantime the leagues get their integrity back and clubs get their identity back. The AFL has set themselves up as owners of the sport, its about time they looked beyond their own competition(s) and seeing everything else either a "pathway" or irrelevent.

NEAFL would split back into QAFL and NSWFL. Would make it much easier on sides like Aspley and co.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

NEAFL would split back into QAFL and NSWFL. Would make it much easier on sides like Aspley and co.

That is probably true. Queensland could then do with assistance bringing in Townsville and Cairns into a state league as well (PNG might be too much of a stretch, unfortunately).

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

NEAFL would split back into QAFL and NSWFL. Would make it much easier on sides like Aspley and co.

I'm in two minds about this. I think the Northern AFL clubs would benefit greatly from a national reserves comp.

I think the other NEAFL clubs would benefit from the integrity of a competition without the inherent corruption that AFL clubs using it as a development league brings.

My worry is without the AFL clubs the AFL administration will lose interest in football in NSW and QLD, funding will dry up and glory goes backwards.

It seems to me our club actively supports junior leagues and presumably the northern northern clubs do the same, as an extension of he academy to increase the local talent pool.

I'm not sure the state leagues for adults can thrive without the attention and money that NEAFL brings. Maybe more so NSW as my understanding is the Queensland local comps are stronger.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

I'm in two minds about this. I think the Northern AFL clubs would benefit greatly from a national reserves comp.

I think the other NEAFL clubs would benefit from the integrity of a competition without the inherent corruption that AFL clubs using it as a development league brings.

My worry is without the AFL clubs the AFL administration will lose interest in football in NSW and QLD, funding will dry up and glory goes backwards.

It seems to me our club actively supports junior leagues and presumably the northern northern clubs do the same, as an extension of he academy to increase the local talent pool.

I'm not sure the state leagues for adults can thrive without the attention and money that NEAFL brings. Maybe more so NSW as my understanding is the Queensland local comps are stronger.

If the reason for supporting junior clubs, etc, is for the academies; why would that change with an AFL reserves and the NEAFL breaking up? I'm not 100% on how the academies work, but wouldn't it still be in the club's interest to assist the region? Both from the academy viewpoint, but also building the market interest in an area not overflowing with interest in Australian Football.

 

[eth-dog]

That is probably true. Queensland could then do with assistance bringing in Townsville and Cairns into a state league as well (PNG might be too much of a stretch, unfortunately).

Yep. They probably go with Aspley, Redland, Southport, Morningside, Mount Gravatt, Labrador, Cairns, Townsville, maybe Noosa/Maroochydore and Toowoomba.

NSWFL probably have Canberra Demons, Sydney Uni, Ainslie, Queanbeyan, Sydney Hills, Tuggeranong, Another Sydney team and maybe three regional centres, Newcastle, Wollongong, Central Coast would be the only options IMO, can't have it in a town of less than 100k for me.

 

[eth-dog]

I'm in two minds about this. I think the Northern AFL clubs would benefit greatly from a national reserves comp.

I think the other NEAFL clubs would benefit from the integrity of a competition without the inherent corruption that AFL clubs using it as a development league brings.

My worry is without the AFL clubs the AFL administration will lose interest in football in NSW and QLD, funding will dry up and glory goes backwards.

It seems to me our club actively supports junior leagues and presumably the northern northern clubs do the same, as an extension of he academy to increase the local talent pool.

I'm not sure the state leagues for adults can thrive without the attention and money that NEAFL brings. Maybe more so NSW as my understanding is the Queensland local comps are stronger.

Splitting the NEAFL won't change the clubs interest in developing the region. They'll still want to develop the talent. It'll be big for the current NEAFL clubs and allow former NEAFL clubs like Morningside, Mount Gravatt, Labrador, Ainslie and Queanbeyan to come back into the localised comp due to not needing to spend a lot of money on flights etc.

 

[Bombermania]

If the reserves was reformed then the other VFL & state league sides should be invited to join that competition.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

If the reason for supporting junior clubs, etc, is for the academies; why would that change with an AFL reserves and the NEAFL breaking up? I'm not 100% on how the academies work, but wouldn't it still be in the club's interest to assist the region? Both from the academy viewpoint, but also building the market interest in an area not overflowing with interest in Australian Football.

Hopefully you're right. I've no doubt our club dreams of strong local comps in our zones in all age groups. I do think the juniors are the focus, but that could be just you need to start somewhere.

 

[eth-dog]

If the reserves was reformed then the other VFL & state league sides should be invited to join that competition.

So you're going to stick probably around 40 state league sides in a comp with 18 AFL reserves sides? Completely unfeasible. These are semi-pro leagues. The travel costs alone would cripple them.

 

[Bombermania]

So you're going to stick probably around 40 state league sides in a comp with 18 AFL reserves sides? Completely unfeasible. These are semi-pro leagues. The travel costs alone would cripple them.

The travel costs would be mitigated by sides playing locally, for example the SANFL side would only play SANFL sides + Adelaide/Port.

Another way of looking at it, the only two WA side the Essendon reserve would play would be WCE and Freo, or only two Queensland sides would be the Suns and Brisbane.

Its basically how it works now.

 

[eth-dog]

The travel costs would be mitigated by sides playing locally, for example the SANFL side would only play SANFL sides + Adelaide/Port.

Another way of looking at it, the only two WA side the Essendon reserve would play would be WCE and Freo, or only two Queensland sides would be the Suns and Brisbane.

Its basically how it works now.

Why would they make this complicated system when they can completely separate the two and let the SANFL be the SANFL, VFL the VFL etc? Makes no sense to do it this way.

 

[Bombermania]

In the case of Melbourne, ideally there would only be one local football comp instead of something like eight different comps but bringing them together is far harder than it should be.

 

[Bombermania]

Why would they make this complicated system when they can completely separate the two and let the SANFL be the SANFL, VFL the VFL etc? Makes no sense to do it this way.

Take the VFL, if you took the AFL sides out of that comp then it would more than likely struggle to be successful and would be little more than a local league in a city with something like eight or nine local leagues. There was a time when the VFA was the major second league in Melbourne however recreating what has been lost is not an easy task and even in the 1980s when the VFA was last a standalone comp, it struggled financially. Sure it would be great if it could be done but "how to do it" and "how to make it work" are harder questions to answer.

Ideally the eight or nine Melbourne based leagues would come together and create a metro wide league with would allow the strong sides to rise to the top tier while allowing the smaller clubs that just want to have a kick play against local sides of similar standard but getting this done seems beyond the AFL or anyone's ability.

 

[eth-dog]

Take the VFL, if you took the AFL sides out of that comp then it would more than likely struggle to be successful and would be little more than a local league in a city with something like eight or nine local leagues. There was a time when the VFA was the major second league in Melbourne however recreating what has been lost is not an easy task and even in the 1980s when the VFA was last a standalone comp, it struggled financially. Sure it would be great if it could be done but "how to do it" and "how to make it work" are harder questions to answer.

Ideally the eight or nine Melbourne based leagues would come together and create a metro wide league with would allow the strong sides to rise to the top tier while allowing the smaller clubs that just want to have a kick play against local sides of similar standard but getting this done seems beyond the AFL or anyone's ability.

Or you could allow the reserves to be the reserves and not have any AFL teams in the VFL.