Australian Football League reserves affiliations

The Australian Football League stages the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in the country. However, since the late 1980s, when the former Victorian Football League expanded interstate to become the modern Australian Football League, there has not been a league-wide reserves competition; and, since 2000, there has been no dedicated reserves competition of any kind. As a result, AFL-listed players who are not selected in their senior teams are made eligible to play in one of the second-tier state leagues: the Victorian Football League, South Australian National Football League, West Australian Football League, or North East Australian Football League. The system used to accommodate AFL-listed players within these leagues varies considerably from state to state.

Current affiliations

In the 2016 season, the eighteen Australian Football League clubs have the following reserves arrangements.

AFL club Reserves arrangement Affiliated club Affiliated league
Adelaide Stand-alone reserves team Adelaide SANFL
Brisbane Lions Stand-alone reserves team Brisbane Lions NEAFL
Carlton Club affiliation Northern Blues VFL
Collingwood Stand-alone reserves team Collingwood VFL
Essendon Stand-alone reserves team Essendon VFL
Fremantle Club affiliation Peel Thunder WAFL
Geelong Stand-alone reserves team Geelong VFL
Gold Coast Stand-alone reserves team Gold Coast Suns NEAFL
Greater Western Sydney Stand-alone reserves team UWS Giants NEAFL
Hawthorn Club affiliation Box Hill VFL
Melbourne Club affiliation Casey Scorpions VFL
North Melbourne Club affiliation Werribee VFL
Port Adelaide Reserves team Port Adelaide SANFL
Richmond Stand-alone reserves team Richmond VFL
St Kilda Club affiliation Sandringham VFL
Sydney Stand-alone reserves team Sydney Swans NEAFL
West Coast Club affiliation East Perth WAFL
Western Bulldogs Stand-alone reserves team Footscray VFL

Victorian clubs

Dedicated Reserves Competition (1919–1999)

During the 20th century, up to the 1980s, the Victorian Football League was based solely in the state of Victoria, and operated three grades of competition: seniors, reserves (established in 1919), and under-19s (established in 1946).[1] Local players were primarily recruited via the league's metropolitan and country zoning rules, and the clubs had full ability to develop its players through its junior and reserves teams. This same basic structure was used consistently across all of Australia's major state leagues (VFL, SANFL, WAFL and TANFL).

Two factors in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to the end of this traditional arrangement in Victoria. Firstly, the Victorian Football League expanded interstate to become the Australian Football League, and some of the clubs from interstate were unwilling to participate in the minor grades. Secondly, the AFL Draft (first held in 1986) was gradually replacing zoning as the primary means of recruitment to the national league, so the developmental continuity between the under-19, reserves and senior grades had lost its purpose. As a result, the AFL relinquished direct control of the Victorian reserves and junior grades at the end of 1991. The change for the under-19s grade was significant: it was replaced by the TAC Cup, and the AFL clubs' under-19s teams were discarded entirely in favour of new, independent, zone-based under-18s clubs. The change to the reserves league was mostly administrative: it became known as and was governed by the Victorian State Football League, but it was otherwise identical to the former VFL/AFL reserves and is considered a direct continuation.

The VFL/AFL reserves and the VSFL were contested by all twelve Victorian clubs. The Sydney Swans continued to participate after South Melbourne relocated in 1982,[2] and the Brisbane Bears participated for a few years,[3] but none of the South Australian or Western Australian clubs were ever involved.

Combination with the VFL (since 2000)

Following the 1999 season, the VSFL merged into Victoria's second-tier senior football league, the Victorian Football League (known until 1995 as the Victorian Football Association, and with a history dating back to 1877). Such a merger had first been proposed as early as 1980,[4] and a formal attempt to enact the merger for the 1995 season was defeated after strong opposition from the clubs.[5] Since the merger, the VFL has served as both a distinct second-tier senior competition and a reserves competition for AFL clubs.

Since the merger, there have been three types of club participating in the VFL:

Currently, there are no limitations on how many AFL-listed players may play in a VFL team on any given weekend—except during finals, when only players who have played a certain number of VFL games during the season are eligible. There was previously a rule known as the 12–10 Rule, which stated that in a match between an affiliated VFL team and a stand-alone VFL senior team, the affiliated team could play of at most twelve AFL-listed players, with the other ten to be VFL-listed players; and, where the AFL club had more than twelve reserve players available, the extras would play in the VFL reserves. The rule was abolished in 2011.

Historical VFL/AFL affiliations by AFL club

For all clubs in this list, the club fielded a reserves team in the VFL/AFL reserves up to 1991, and then in the VSFL from 1992 until 1999; additionally, the Fitzroy Football Club fielded a reserves team in these competitions until the club merged with the Brisbane Bears at the end of 1996. This listing shows all reserves affiliations and arrangements since 2000.

Carlton
The Northern Bullants changed its nickname to Blues in the 2012 season[6]
Collingwood
Essendon
The team changed its name from Bendigo Diggers to Bendigo Bombers when the affiliation was established in 2003. The team then changed its name the Bendigo Gold from 2012 onwards.[7]
Geelong
Hawthorn
Box Hill changed its nickname from Mustangs to Hawks when the affiliation was established
Melbourne
North Melbourne
Richmond
Coburg changed its nickname from Lions to Tigers when the affiliation was established
St Kilda
The Springvale Scorpions became the Casey Scorpions in 2006

An affiliation deal with Sandringham is in place until the end of 2016; neither club currently intends to extend the agreement beyond then.[11]

Western Bulldogs

Historical VFL/AFL affiliations by VFL club

The following is a listing of all senior clubs which have competed in the VFL since it merged with the VSFL in 2000, indicating the affiliation status of the club as it has changed since.

Bendigo
Changed its name from Bendigo Diggers to Bendigo Bombers when the affiliation was established in 2003, then to Bendigo Gold in 2012.[7]

Bendigo folded at the end of the 2014 season.[14]

Box Hill
Changed its nickname from Mustangs to Hawks when the affiliation was established
Casey
Changed its name from Springvale to Casey in 2006
Coburg
Changed its nickname from Lions to Tigers when the affiliation was established
Frankston
Murray

The Murray Bushrangers folded after the 2002 season.

North Ballarat
Northern Bullants/Blues
Changed its nickname from Bullants to Blues in 2012, the tenth year of the affiliation
Port Melbourne
Sandringham

An affiliation deal with St Kilda is in place until the end of 2016; neither club currently intends to extend the agreement beyond then.[11]

Tasmanian Devils

The Tasmanian Devils folded after the 2008 season.

Werribee
Williamstown

South Australian clubs

Historical arrangement

After Adelaide and Port Adelaide had entered the AFL in 1991 and 1997 respectively, South Australia had two AFL teams and a strong nine-team state league (the SANFL). Until 2013, the AFL clubs were affiliated with the entire SANFL, rather than with an individual club as is seen in Victoria; this meant that the reserves players from each AFL club would be dispersed throughout the SANFL, playing for different teams. This arrangement was governed by the annual "AFL–SANFL Interchange Agreement".[16]

The method used to allocate players to the state league teams varied depending upon whether the player was from South Australia, or had come from interstate:

Regardless of which method is used to allocate the player, he typically remained allocated to the same SANFL for his entire career, although there were provisions in the rules for players to be re-allocated to a different club on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that the AFL-listed players were given the appropriate opportunities to develop; e.g. an AFL club could seek a re-allocation for a developing key forward on its list, if the player's opportunities were limited by the presence of an established key forward in his allocated team.[18]

This arrangement, or a variation of it, was the sole mechanism for distribution of reserves players in South Australia until 2013.

Current arrangement

In August 2013, the SANFL clubs agreed to allow Adelaide to enter a stand-alone reserves team into the SANFL senior competition as a tenth team, after many years of rejecting such proposals. Among the arrangements, Adelaide's reserves team will be branded as the Adelaide Football Club, will pay a $400,000 licence fee (which will increase for inflation) to be dispersed amongst the remaining clubs, will play all its games as the away team, and cannot wear the Adelaide Crows AFL guernsey. The team each week will consist of Adelaide Crows players who are not playing in the AFL team, one permanently contracted former Adelaide Crows player to serve in a leadership position, and young top-up players from other SANFL clubs or suburban competitions. The arrangement will be in place for fifteen years.[19]

The SANFL also agreed to permit the Port Adelaide Power to use the Port Adelaide Magpies team as a stand-alone reserves team, which would be subject to the same playing conditions as Adelaide's reserves team.[19] The team will wear Port Adelaide's traditional SANFL guernsey and will play home games at Alberton Oval. From 2015, Port Adelaide will operate an academy team of father-son selections and international and interstate scholarship holders in the SANFL Reserves, but will not be permitted to retain its traditional its junior grades or its SANFL recruiting zones.[20][21][22]

Historical arrangements by club

Adelaide
Port Adelaide

Western Australian clubs

Like South Australia, Western Australia has two AFL clubs (Fremantle and West Coast) and a strong nine-team state league (the West Australian Football League). Initially, the Western Australian AFL clubs were involved in a league affiliation with the WAFL, which functioned in the same way as the SANFL's league affiliation. From 1999 until 2001, both clubs established affiliations with a single WAFL club, similar to (and, in fact, pre-dating by one year) those seen in Victoria, and known locally as "host-club arrangements". After three years, the WAFL clubs voted to end these arrangements, and returned to a league affiliation for the next twelve years.

Starting in 2011, the two AFL clubs started to push hard to end the league affiliation model; their preference was to field stand-alone reserves teams in the WAFL, but this was rejected by the WAFL clubs.[23] In October 2012, after two years of negotiations, the clubs agreed to return to host-club arrangements – West Coast with East Perth and Fremantle with Peel Thunder – to commence from the 2014 season, with some transitionary arrangements beginning in 2013. The deal will last for a minimum of five seasons.[24]

Fremantle
West Coast

New South Wales and Queensland clubs

In New South Wales and Queensland, all four AFL clubs field stand-alone reserves teams in the North East Australian Football League.

Historical New South Wales and Queensland affiliations

Brisbane Bears
Brisbane Lions
Gold Coast
Greater Western Sydney
Sydney

Push towards stand-alone reserves teams in the 2000s

Starting in around 2011, there was considerable interest by many AFL clubs in abandoning league affiliations or host-club arrangements and forming stand-alone reserves teams. A large contributing factor to this interest was the perception that the developmental autonomy Geelong and Collingwood enjoyed as the only two clubs fielding stand-alone reserves teams in the VFL was responsible for the very strong senior AFL performances of those two clubs between 2007 and 2011, during which time they shared four of the five AFL premierships. In Victoria, some VFL clubs with a strong existing identity were also interested in ending their AFL affiliations after the strong performance of stand-alone VFL side Port Melbourne in its unbeaten 2011 season.[12]

This represented a shift from the prevailing thinking of the 1990s, when the affiliations were arranged. At that time, particularly during the early 1990s recession, many clubs' finances were tight, so operating costs drove many decisions. At that time, some Victorian AFL clubs favoured the establishment of a WAFL/SANFL style of affiliation, with reserves players scattered throughout the VFL, because it would result in minimum management costs for the AFL club.[34] The desire for teams to re-establish stand-alone reserves teams came at a time when most clubs were in a much stronger financial position. The total licence and running costs for a stand-alone team were estimated to be $500,000 per year in 2011. Through the 2000s, the AFL preferred that its Victorian clubs retained VFL-affiliations, and offered a disincentive in the form of an inflated licence fee for fielding a stand-alone team; however, the AFL did not otherwise prevent teams from fielding stand-alone reserves teams if they are willing and able to pay the fee.[35]

In South Australia and Western Australia, the debate became more heated than in Victoria. The league affiliation system primarily benefitted the state leagues, by helping to ensure that none of their clubs gained an undue advantage through preferential access to professional AFL-listed players, and by helping to minimise the drain of talent from the league; but this was to the detriment of player development at the AFL clubs, since reserves players end up playing for a variety of different teams, under a variety of different game-plans, and not necessarily in the positions that the AFL clubs would prefer. As early as 1988, the West Coast Eagles' second season in the then-VFL competition, senior coach John Todd was calling for the Eagles to enter a reserves team in the VFL reserves, a plan which the West Australian Football Commission would not permit.[36]

From 2011, Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Fremantle and West Coast actively sought to establish stand-alone reserves teams. There was considerable opposition from the SANFL and WAFL teams about including those reserves teams in the state leagues, with the clubs concerned about the impact this would have on depth of talent, league competitiveness, and gate takings; as such, the WAFL and SANFL both on several occasions outright rejected any proposal which would see an AFL club's reserves team participate in those leagues.[23][37][38]

In Western Australia, a wide range of compromise solutions was proposed, including: stand-alone reserves teams playing against WAFL clubs in a separate competition during their WAFL bye weeks;[39] a new small league including reserves teams from the Western Australian and South Australian AFL clubs;[40] and a return to host-club arrangements.[41] In October 2012, the Western Australian clubs reached a compromise, with two WAFL clubs, Peel and East Perth, forming host club arrangements with Fremantle and West Coast.

In South Australia, Adelaide made it clear that it intended to establish a stand-alone reserves team from 2014, and that it was prepared to field the team in the South Australian Amateur Football League or in another state if the SANFL continued to refuse it entry; entry to the SANFL was granted in August 2013.[19] Port Adelaide's situation remained unresolved for longer, as it wants to operate the Port Adelaide Magpies SANFL team as its host club in the SANFL seniors; but, the South Australian football commission indicated that the club will not be permitted to retain its junior grades or recruiting zones, thereby severing its connection with the community, if it were to progress with this option,[20][21] and Port Adelaide was reluctant to make that sacrifice;[19] as a compromise, the club was granted permission to run an academy team in the SANFL reserves.[22]

References

  1. ↑ Rodgers, Stephen, Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results, 1897–1991 (2nd ed.), Ringwood, VIC: Penguin Books Australia
  2. 1 2 3 "Unearthing roots of Harbour City talent". The Age. 3 August 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  3. 1 2 "National Scoreboard", The Sun (Melbourne, VIC), 5 June 1989, p. 87
  4. ↑ "League nearer Sunday games". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). 12 June 1980. p. 24.
  5. ↑ Stephen Rielly; Stephen Linnell (24 May 1994). "Vic clubs threaten AFL on reserves". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 50.
  6. ↑ "Northern Blues". Carlton Football Club. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  7. 1 2 Landsberger, Sam (27 March 2012). "Bendigo Gold unveiled for final year with Bombers before Dons go solo in VFL". Herald Sun. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  8. 1 2 Paton, Al (30 September 2011), "Bombers to dump Bendigo VFL connection", Herald Sun, retrieved 30 September 2011
  9. 1 2 3 Glenn McFarline (21 November 2014). "North Melbourne is set to end its partnership with Ballarat as Western Bulldogs move in". Herald Sun (Melbourne, VIC). Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  10. 1 2 Landsberger, Sam (21 July 2012). "Richmond set to walk away from Coburg in 2014". Herald Sun. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  11. 1 2 Paul Amy (19 August 2014). "Sandringham and St Kilda to stay aligned until the end of the 2016 VFL season". Bayside Leader. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 d'Anello, Luke (21 September 2012). "Seagulls and Bulldogs cut ties". Leader. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  13. ↑ Bridie Byrne (16 August 2013). "Western Bulldogs VFL team returns to Footscray moniker". Maribyrnong Leader (Maribyrnong, VIC).
  14. ↑ Brent Diamond (25 June 2014). "VFL club Bendigo Gold to fold". The Age. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  15. ↑ "VFL Genealogy". Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  16. ↑ Rucci, Michelangelo (1 July 2011). "SANFL's integrity at stake". AdelaideNow. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
  17. ↑ Turner, Matt (15 December 2010). "SANFL mini-draft results". AdelaideNow. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  18. ↑ Duffield, Mark (16 November 2011). "Eagles turn up heat on WAFL clubs". The West Australian (Perth, WA). Retrieved 20 November 2011.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Michelangelo Rucci (15 August 2013). "Adelaide Crows to field reserves side in the SANFL in 2014". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA). Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  20. 1 2 Rucci, Michelangelo (11 October 2012). "Crows may buy Sturt as its reserves side". The Advertiser. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  21. 1 2 Michelangelo Rucci (5 August 2013). "Adelaide says it will get a reserves side, but not in the SANFL next year". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA). Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  22. 1 2 3 Michelangelo Rucci (11 September 2013). "Port Adelaide accepts SANFL offer to field Power reserves team in league next year". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA). Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  23. 1 2 Butler, Duffield, Lewis, Steve, Mark, Ross (2 June 2011). "Eagles, Dockers woo WAFL clubs with $1m carrot". The West Australian. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
  24. ↑ Quartermaine, Braden (31 October 2012). "West Coast and Fremantle will enter WAFL alignments from 2013". Perthnow. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  25. ↑ South Fremantle history
  26. 1 2 Hagdorn, Kim (16 December 2001). "Chaos looms in new draft". Archived from the original on 16 December 2001.
  27. ↑ Host clubs dead..... or are they? – Perth Football Club. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  28. ↑ East Perth history
  29. ↑ Peters, Renard (2 April 1993), "Fabian's second AFL shot", Courier Mail, p. 45
  30. ↑ "Scoreboard", Courier Mail, 2 June 1997, p. 18
  31. ↑ "Scoreboard", Courier Mail, 11 May 1998, p. 15
  32. 1 2 "AFL's north east boost". North East Australian Football League. 9 March 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
  33. ↑ Theodosiou, Peter (14 Dec 2011). "GWS sign partnership with University of Western Sydney". Blacktown Advocate. Retrieved 24 Dec 2011.
  34. ↑ Patrick Smithers (30 July 1992). "Plan for VFA as AFL 'feeder'". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). p. 26.
  35. ↑ Wilson, Caroline (28 July 2011). "Deadline looms for VFL team decisions". The Age. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
  36. ↑ Timms, Daryl (3 June 1988), "No Excuses – Todd", The Sun (Melbourne, VIC), p. 72
  37. ↑ WA’S AFL Teams in the WAFL
  38. ↑ Rucci, Michelangelo (22 June 2012). "SA clubs so no to reserves teams". AdelaideNow. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  39. ↑ Townsend, John (1 September 2011). "WAFL reserves compromise". The West Australian. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
  40. ↑ Thring, Harry (29 August 2012). "Sando wants reserves side". Australian Football League. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  41. ↑ Townsend, Josh (30 June 2012). "'Keep your AFL leftovers'". The West Australian. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
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