Adelaide says it will get a reserves side, but not in the SANFL next year

ADELAIDE says it will not wait any longer for a reserves team, but the Crows' wish will not be answered in the SANFL next season.

ADELAIDE says it will not wait any longer for a reserves team, but the Crows' wish will not be answered in the SANFL next season.

This will force the Crows to live their vow to take all their AFL-listed players to the SA Amateur Football League playing games at Thebarton Oval next year - and Adelaide chairman Rob Chapman said this option was no bluff.

"We will have a (reserves) team somewhere next year," Chapman said.

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The Crows' current push to enter its reserves team to the SANFL league series next year with the unanimous support of the eight league directors is dead. The hope for a major victory at the directors' table collapsed on Monday.

Time to do what's best for SA footy

Adelaide needs at least six of the eight votes but one of the strongest supporters of AFL reserves teams in the SANFL, Woodville-West Torrens, yesterday withdrew its backing.

The Eagles have joined Norwood and Central District in rejecting the SA Football Commission-endorsed proposal to have the Crows as the SANFL’s stand-alone 10th league team next season.

At 5-3 - and with the prospect of South Adelaide standing by its original no vote - the Crows are now compelled to push ahead with their second option of joining the amateur league or starting a new campaign to win favour with the league directors.

There is a growing opinion among the league directors that the reserves debate should be put off until the Crows and Power licences are sold by the SANFL to the AFL and certainly until 2015.

Crows can still salvage something

This would allow the SANFL to study how AFL reserves teams for West Coast and Fremantle operate in the WAFL league competition next year.

But after meeting Eagles president Kurt Slaven who wants the reserves vote held off until next year, Chapman told News Ltd: “We put this off last year out of respect to SANFL president John Olsen and the SANFL. But we are not prepared to wait any longer.

“And out of respect to our position, we want an answer this year - not next year.

Finals are inspiring us to push on

“We will have (our reserves) play somewhere next year. We would prefer the SANFL because we believe the SANFL would prosper with us. If it is not the SANFL, it will be the amateur league.”

The SANFL league directors also feel there should be a one-off solution for both the Crows and the Power.

Port Adelaide is refusing to accept the commission’s terms that a Power reserves team in the SANFL must come at the cost of shutting down the Magpies reserves and under-age teams and recruiting zones.

The hope of an approving vote at the directors’ table as soon as next week is shot as the SANFL clubs argue they are being rushed into a significant decision.

But the search for answers and feedback from SANFL members will not stop.

Norwood is polling its members with an email that asks three key questions - should there be AFL reserves teams in the SANFL; if so, at what level should they play; and if the Crows and Power reserves play in the SANFL league competition, would membership at Norwood be retained?

Woodville-West Torrens has called a members-only meeting at its clubhouse at 7.45pm on Thursday. South, North Adelaide and West Adelaide are expected to do the same.

And, contrary to the commission’s wishes, Norwood has succeeded in having the eight league directors agree to meet to review the reserves debate without any commissioner or SANFL executive.