League may resurrect reserves
Stephen Rielly | May 24, 2007 | The Age
AFL reserves football seems certain to return to Victoria in 2009, and with it, many of the suburban grounds that continue to serve as spiritual homes for the 10 Victorian-based AFL clubs.
Changes that are expected to be introduced by the AFL next year will make it easier and more appealing for the AFL clubs in the state to field their own reserves sides, as Geelong alone currently does, in an expanded VFL competition from 2009.
All clubs have the right to field a stand-alone reserves team but the problems of financing a second side and of sourcing players have put all but one off the idea.
The AFL, as part of a continuing review of the relationship between the state-based competitions and the elite national competition, is understood to have concluded that the current alignment system in Victoria, where surplus AFL-listed players are farmed out to a VFL affiliate, is failing both parties and putting Victorian AFL clubs at a disadvantage to their rivals in South Australia and Western Australia.
While the review has explored the possibility of establishing a national reserves competition or a stand-alone Victorian competition separate to the VFL, the consequences for the VFL clubs should they be relegated to third-tier status has produced the idea of a remodelled state competition that will combine AFL reserves sides and those VFL sides who can compete on their own.
The size of AFL lists is unlikely to increase, because the teams in other states would also need increases, but thought is being given to a return to the system which preceded the AFL/VFL alignments, of having top-up players and access to the TAC Cup teams.
While the idea of the reserves sides playing curtain-raisers at Telstra Dome or the MCG has been dismissed, an expanded VFL competition will bring regular football back to the likes of Whitten Oval, Windy Hill, Princes Park, Junction Oval and others.
The AFL's development manager David Matthews said yesterday that, with the second-tier review under way, no final decisions had been reached.
"However, it's clear at this point that the arrangements in South Australia and Western Australia don't present the tensions or issues that are apparent at times in the VFL," Matthews said.
"Tensions between VFL clubs and AFL clubs exist because the VFL clubs exist to win and the AFL clubs essentially want to develop their players. The question is, can those competing interests, which have been managed in the past, continue to be managed or is change required?"
The AFL/VFL alignments have become increasingly problematic, to the point that one club official said yesterday: "AFL clubs are spending more and more money and time on development but where it counts most, on match day, we lose control of that. Increasingly, we don't help them and they don't help us."
Said Matthews: "We're very conscious of the fact that there is a lot of history and identity and a lot of time and effort involved with the VFL clubs and an important consideration in all of this is how they are preserved and can flourish. But the AFL clubs are in a position at the moment to determine their own destiny. It's whether we consider changing the conditions under which they could do so."
It is not only the AFL clubs that are increasingly unhappy. It is also apparent that the success of the VFL teams has become largely dependent upon the injury lists of their AFL partners.
When alignments were first created it was envisaged that AFL lists would come down to 35. But list sizes haven't decreased and there have been examples of VFL sides fielding shadow AFL combinations and few of their own players.
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