My Two Cents: SANFL clubs move to lock away star players early as AFL club concessions hit home | Andrew Capel
Port’s boss might be complaining about their wooden spoon but its state rivals’ greatest fears are being realised, writes Andrew Capel.
Opinion
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First Port Adelaide bags the SANFL.
Now it is trying to bag some of its state league rivals’ best players.
Just days after Port chairman David Koch went rogue on radio, accusing the SANFL of getting “what they wanted’’ when his club finished with the wooden spoon for the first time since 1900 and declaring “we can’t wait to be out of there’’, the eight stand-alone clubs’ greatest fears are being realised.
They are having to fend off attractive approaches from SA’s two AFL clubs to their star players.
Glenelg ace Matthew Allen is understood to be the latest big-name SANFL player that Port has targeted for its state league side as the new concessions that both it and Adelaide appear poised to be granted to stay in the local league become clearer.
While there is some more wheeling and dealing to be done, they will be handed some generous concessions after threatening to jump ship to the VFL or a potential AFL reserves competition.
They include access to up to six under 21 and four over-age listed players from SANFL rivals, along with the potential to sign delisted AFL players, either from their own clubs or from interstate.
A decision is expected to be announced in the next month.
The new recruiting rules will greatly enhance Port and Adelaide’s ability to build strong SANFL top-up lists, although they will be limited to taking one player from each local rival.
It has put the SANFL’s stand-alone clubs on red alert and had them moving swiftly to re-sign their key players to stop them from relocating to Alberton or West Lakes.
While Allen is believed to have rejected Port’s advances, Woodville-West Torrens – knocked out of the SANFL finals by Glenelg on Sunday – has urgently inked new deals with a host of key players.
They include star captain Joseph Sinor (who had his jaw broken in the elimination final against the Tigers), James Rowe, Connor Ballenden, Zane Williams, Luke McKay, Max Beattie, Adam D’Aloia, Cam Fleeton, Patrick Weckert, Zac Buck, Jordan Moore, Jordan Lukac and Max Litster.
Other clubs are following suit.
The stand-alone clubs are fuming at Koch’s comments on radio FIVEaa, which also included him saying the league “rigged the (AFL club SANFL concession) rules’’ and had him publicly questioning where the money from its West Lakes future fund was going and why the state league clubs aren’t “rolling in money’’.
Highly-respected Eagles chief executive David Couzner said his club felt that Koch’s disrespectful comments had driven a further wedge between Port and the stand-alone clubs.
“David’s negative comments make it hard for the SANFL management and SANFL clubs to foster a positive relationship with Port Adelaide, given that he thinks so little of the league,’’ Couzner said.
“It’s essential for all parties, including Port’s management, to approach these discussions with mutual respect if we are to move forward together.
“As a club, we commenced signing our players in July to ensure we maintained our talented list and to prevent both Port and Adelaide from accessing them.
“Typically, we would sign players in late August and September, but with the proposed changes, we felt it necessary to lock our list away as early as possible, which we successfully achieved.”
Port and Adelaide this year had access to four players under the SANFL Rookie Program but chose only one each.
Port selected Norwood’s Logan Evans, who it later selected in the AFL mid-season draft, while the Crows chose father-son prospect Tyler Welsh, who it could claim at this year’s national draft.
Redlegs chief executive James Fantasia, who spent years in the AFL administration system with Adelaide, the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn, has argued that SA’s two AFL clubs should not be allowed to rob SANFL clubs of players but should instead recruit from interstate clubs.
This, he says, would in turn bolster the standard of the SANFL.
“That would add to our pool of players, not take from the existing pool,’’ he said.
SANFL clubs fear that if Port and Adelaide’s supplementary player concessions are too generous they could be almost impossible to beat when they have most of their AFL-listed players available for games.
While Port finished bottom for the first time in 124 years this season, winning only four matches, it has played in three SANFL grand finals in the past 10 years.
The Crows missed the finals this year but have played in three preliminary finals in the past six seasons.
In contrast, South Adelaide has made only six preliminary finals – and one grand final – since winning its last flag in 1964.
A 12-person SANFL working group will in the next month finalise the concessions that Port and Adelaide will be offered before it is ratified by the SA Football Commission.
The group includes SANFL chief executive Darren Chandler, executive general manager football Matthew Duldig, SA Football Commissioners and three club CEO’s – Sturt’s Sue Dewing, North Adelaide’s Craig Burton and Central District’s Greg Edwards.
NUMBERS GAME
30
Points that Central District trailed Sturt by in the third quarter of the SANFL qualifying final before winning by 11.
300
AFL goals kicked by former Port Adelaide and Hawthorn forward Chad Wingard, who has announced his retirement after 218 games in 13 seasons.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“That’s right up there as one of our great wins.”– Central District coach Paul Thomas after his side’s stunning qualifying final comeback victory against Sturt.
“He’s almost like the Dustin Martin (type).’’ – AFL legend Leigh Matthews on Port Adelaide’s Jason Horne-Francis.
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