whufc wrote:gazzamagoo wrote:DOC wrote:Keeping the AFL happy is who's priority?
The SANFL is no longer the SANFL, it's a puppet of the AFL,
we have the players they want & a very handy competition for2 AFL sides to try out their players,
let's face it, we're being used,
if the SANFL was serious, it would tell the AFL to remove their 2 sides & if push came to shove, we would tell the AFL to bugger off & go it alone.
We could do it but the SANFL as it appears right now doesn't want to do that.
Because their number 1 priority isn't the 8 SANFL clubs.
Yep personally I believe the issues stemmed from around the early/mid 2000's. Around the 'Your Tribe is Calling' marketing campaign era.
The SANFL was seriously positioning itself as the alternative to the AFL. Numbers were on the rise, there was multiple radio stations calling games, ABC on tv, multiple page media coverage and whilst the AFL would not have been scared I do definitely believe it opened their eyes to a threat of a potential alternative competition (not that it would have been the SANFL but maybe one with serious financial backing)
Since then the AFL has done everything possible to eliminate that bridge between AFL and amateur/country leagues. If the AFL wants/needs to secure its own future for the next 100 years by making sure they are control any aspect above amateur/country which obviously will never be any more than that.
Unfortunately since then the SANFL has had a long list of puppet CEO's who have only looked out for their own careers to the detriment of the SANFL.
To be honest we might as well call it the AFLSANFL and get it over and done with. The only way we will ever get our independence back is if an AFL reserves come in but by then the AFL would have done enough to ensure the SANFL is nothing more than a glorified amateur comp.
Agree re mid-2000’s being a turning point.
The SANFL was never going to be the same after 1991, but by the mid-2000’s, the SANFL had a number of things going for it, including some stability after the two AFL sides were created in the 90’s.
The AFL was being bogged down by the Swans flooding style of play - despite those great Grand Finals - the football was ugly prior to the Geelong era. The SANFL was still a high scoring, free flowing competition (prior to Bassett/Collins/Godden etc.).
The best players outside of the AFL were flocking to the SANFL thanks to the successful pokies venues and a VFL being used as an AFL Reserves comp. This was prior to the equalisation measures put in place to make it harder/more expensive for the SANFL clubs to recruit from interstate and before the idea of a NEAFL and equal 2nd tier comps around the nation.
The SANFL were also topped up with AFL mini-draft each year and often got some good value from those coming up or just on the outer at the Crows or Power. It wasn’t long before the Power started syphoning their players to the Magpies.
SANFL clubs also had access for the majority of the year to the best U18 players in the state before they got drafted. During this period the demands of the U18 national comp progressively got worse up to the point these players were missing for months from their SANFL side.
Finally the real kick in the guts - the admission of two new AFL sides and the AFL Reserves entry.
But, still we have our 8 clubs, still we have these 8 clubs run mainly on the contribution of many hours of unpaid work and still we have players committing themselves above and beyond whilst holding down a job. This has always been the case, and as John Lennon said “A working class hero is something to be.” But, FFS, if the AFL could just give it some oxygen instead of repeatedly stamping it down!
