By Matt Burgan - afl.com.au
THE AFL is looking into establishing a new second-tier competition involving New South Wales, south-east Queensland and the ACT, but will not return to a traditional 'reserves' league format in Victoria.
AFL head of game development Dave Matthews said with the introduction of Gold Coast and Western Sydney in the next few years, the league was looking into how those clubs would be best served by a second-tier structure.
He said the AFL believed a localised competition, rather than a more expansive eastern seaboard competition, would be best for football in the two states.
"That solution is worth thinking about, particularly when you've already got two AFL clubs in both markets and you've got the NT coming in [to the AFLQ] and you've got a strong Canberra competition, but with a small number of clubs."
Matthews said the AFL Commission had decided that reinstating a reserves competition for Victorian AFL clubs was not in the best interests of Victorian football.
The AFL believed the Victorian Football League had a future, and was a major investor in it.
The issue of alignments between AFL clubs and VFL affiliates was a matter for Football Victoria, Matthews said, but shifting unions were to be discouraged.
"You can't have situations where from year to year VFL clubs don't know where they sit with alignments. A true partnership requires a commitment of some time period, so that they can actually try and pursue a mutual benefit," he said.
It was inevitable that tensions would occur between the AFL and VFL partner clubs.
"One of them is fast-tracking and developing young talent and the other is [aiming] to play in an incredible competition to win premierships," Matthews said.
"How that tension is managed ends up with the key leaders in the particular clubs. If coaches are on the same page, then the alignment works."
If not, you might see affiliations break down, as had occurred with the Western Bulldogs and Werribee, whose six-year alignment ended in 2007.
Two years ago, the AFL analysed second-tier competitions across Australia.
It found Western Australian and South Australian AFL clubs had good relationships with the WAFL and SANFL respectively, with only minor tweaking needed.
Matthews said Tasmania had made the right decision in breaking away from the VFL and starting its own state-based competition after the state-based Tasmania Devils struggled in the VFL.
"As the AFL clubs started to invest in their aligned partners and as AFL list sizes crept up a bit, Tassie being unaligned was almost an impossible challenge," he said.
"You couldn't have the Devils and a state league, so which one made more sense?"
And Matthews said the Northern Territory joining the Queensland league this year had been a significant step for game development.
"We were really keen on helping the Northern Territory get a presence into a state league competition. The feedback from a lot of the Northern Territory guys is that the competition is very, very good," he said.
"It's a vibrant and fast competition, so we're absolutely delighted the NT Thunder has got up and it's a great credit to Michael Long and [AFLNT chief executive] Tony Frawley."
Courtesy afl.com.au
Last Modified on 29/04/2010 17:52