Crows reserves bid approved by SANFL, Power offered place in revised competition
ABC Updated August 16, 2013, 8:59 am
The Crows will field a team in a revised SANFL competition next year.
The Adelaide Crows’ bid to field a reserves team in the SANFL next season has been approved by the league’s directors, who have now offered Port Adelaide the chance to do the same.
The directors voted 6-2 in favour of a proposal to offer the Crows a place in the competition in a a meeting held at Football Park last night.
The club had wanted unanimous support from the SANFL clubs to proceed with the plan.
After the vote, all the directors gave their support.
Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman says the club will take up the offer, despite declaring in the past month that it would only enter the competition if all clubs voted in favour.
“We sought a unanimous decision because we thought that gave us the best chance to make this the success that we wanted it to be but I’m assured that all eight clubs are unanimous in their support now that the vote has taken place,” he said.
“We just want to work with all eight clubs. We know that we will, we know that we can and it will be successful.”
Mr Chapman admits some details of the plan still need to be worked out.
“We’re well advanced though. We’ve been planning this for a while. We’ll be ready to kick off season launch next year,” he said.
‘Significant change’
The Adelaide reserves will play as the Crows but in a different guernsey, and all of their games will be hosted by an SANFL club.
The Power has indicated it will continue to have its AFL players allocated across all nine SANFL teams.
The league has also given Port Adelaide the option of a reserves team in the competition, but that move would see an end to the Port Magpies.
After the meeting, SANFL president John Olsen said that decision is now up to the Port Adelaide board.
“They will no doubt have to look at all the issues, what the landscape is now because the directors have made a determination… that is a significant change. It is a significant change in the SANFL competition,” he said.
Mr Olsen says the league will work to make the transition as seamless as possible.
“There is unanimous view that we want to make the competition successful and the entry of AFL’s clubs seconds teams needs to be done successfully and to that end everybody will work together to ensure it is,” he said.
“The directors were unanimous once the vote was taken they will work collectively and as a united team to make sure this is a smooth transition and is a successful one.”
Adelaide’s entry into the competition will lead to changes in the competition’s format, including an 18-round home-and-away season with clubs playing each other twice.
The club will pay an annual licence fee of $400,000 and must make commitments to retain the integrity of the SANFL, including an agreement not to rest players.