New AFL teams for Sydney & Gold Coast

[Rik E Boy]

The SANFL will be impacted but I'd guess the impact to be at most 1/3 of the 'new' 80 which is around 25ish lost from either existing SANFL lists or potential recruits that don't come over. So, yes it's bad news but not the end of the world?

The WAFL will wear some pain and I would have thought the VFL would bear the brunt of it. But 'brunt' is maybe a bit of an alarming word when we are talking about expanding the number of AFL players across ALL of Australia from 640 to 720. Its not heaps.

I don't think it would have the impact on the State leagues as we think it would (given the MASSIVE impact the AFL has already had on them). It's like saying a cut in your gets 'worse' if it goes from 10cm to 12cm

The SANFL has proved very resiliant so far have faith lads!!!

The WAFL state team got beaten by about 20 goals by the VFL last year. If that is any indication of the standard of that league then you'll find it is the SANFL that will wear more than some pain. If the SANFL loses even 30 players then I'd suggest that IS heaps. I would state that nine teams would not be viable if, and that's if, they want to maintain the standard of the league. There was a merger when the Cows came in but not when Port came in. I'd reckon a merger would have to be on the cards if two more teams joined the AFL.

regards,

REB

[Hondo]

REB I'd be staggered if we lost 30 in one year to the 2 new clubs

On the SANFL board someone's put up a great post about drafting trends across Australia and where the players in the future will be coming from and the bottom line was that the SANFL is not going to be the league that provides most of these new clubs' players. That's the whole point of the AFL going to these new markets to attract supporters and new players.

TBH, thinking that lots of SANFL players are going to suddenly become AFL standard and disappear to these new clubs is wishful thinking that our comp is better than it is. If they were that good they'd already be drafted. My tip would be that maybe 10 players MAX might be lost to the SANFL on top of those that already will be going anyway. Remember only 10 or so got drafted from the SANFL by ALL 16 AFL clubs last year.

And you are only talking a year 1 impact anyway - once the new teams get their 1st playing lists settled then we are back to a normal draft scenario. Given that the entry of the new teams is anything up to 5 years apart then minimal impact compared to what we've already suffered IMO.

Besides, most of the SANFL clubs seem to be getting their financial situation sorted and are in a stronger position than they were were in 1990 which contributed to the merger of W-WT. With the SANFL getting potentially bigger dividends from the Crows & Power (from the bigger TV contracts) I reckon we will be alright. But we'll see ......!

[eaglehaslanded]

I would love to see a team play out of the Gold Coast again. Expect that team to be announced as the Southport Sharks.