SA Amateur Football League changes name to Adelaide Footy League
IT’S no longer the amateur league, but the ‘Adelaide Footy League’ with emphasis on footy, just as you’d expect at the grassroots level.
IT is no longer the amateur league but the ‘Adelaide Footy League’, with emphasis on footy, just as would be said at the grassroots.
The SA Amateur Football League launched its season — and changed its image of its grassroots competition — on Wednesday night at Thebarton, by casting away the amateur tag carried since its foundation year in 1911.
“Why continue the charade when we have had players paid above and under the table for 20 years now?” SAAFL chief executive John Kernahan said. “It is time to end the hypocrisy and focus on what the league does stand for.
“It is the Adelaide Footy League — and the emphasis on footy is deliberate.”
The SAAFL board at the end of last season put itself, and its competition that involves 11,500 players, through a searching external analysis from two outside experts.
Also critical in the review was understanding the damage done to grassroots football last year by the false claims made in court of drug abuse at the Gepps Cross club.
“We are not just about football — we play a significant role in the community,” Kernahan said. “There are two reasons why people get involved in our clubs — they either want to play football or they want to be part of a community.
“Whether it be football, netball or soccer, there is a lot of substance in community sport. You will find families together at our clubs, be it at training on Thursday night or the games on Saturdays.”
The SAAFL has measured this community as involving eight people for every player in the league that now has an expanding women’s football base.
“So every weekend, we could fill the (100,000-seat) MCG with people who have a part in the Adelaide Footy League,” Kernahan said.
This reach in the community has been noted by corporate backers. The SAAFL has in three years lifted its sponsorship revenue from $170,000 a year to $550,000 a season.
This financial lift also is linked the stronger public profile the league has gained by its partnership with television network Channel Nine.
The Nine sponsorship will continue this season.