SANFL clubs weary of AFL raid on key players mid-season

SANFL clubs fear their seasons can be wrecked if they are raided by AFL clubs in the mid-season draft — only for their players to continue to play in the state league for their new masters.

Norwood player Dom Barry has had two stints in the AFL and is the type of player AFL clubs would be interested in mid-year if available. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

• AFL mid-season draft: SANFL clubs make a stand
• Panthers seek compensation for losing gun recruit

SANFL clubs are seething and fear seasons can be wrecked after the AFL has confirmed the rules for the mid-season draft in a memorandum to clubs.

The memorandum, which was sent by AFL integrity officer Ken Wood, makes it clear players from state leagues picked up by AFL clubs in their state will not play against their old clubs and can return to their original clubs for finals if not required by the AFL club.

But the SANFL clubs feels the arrangement is unfair and has the potential to ruin their seasons if one of their players is snapped up by Port Adelaide or the Crows and then parked in the state league.

The chief executives, as a collective, lobbied the AFL clubs to consider the West Coast model, where players will only play for the Eagles if they are in the AFL side, but that proposition was knocked back.

SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson said the league had supported the clubs but the 17 AFL clubs other than West Coast had rejected the approach.

“The AFL has brought in a mid-season draft, which they can do,” Parkinson told The Advertiser.

Norwood’s Dom Barry could interest AFL clubs in the mid-year draft.

Danyle Pearce is playing for Sturt but played AFL for Fremantle last season.

“The SANFL has been on record saying we’re unhappy, due to the unsettling nature that it brings.

“It doesn’t give thought to the impact of other leagues by having players taken up to the AFL in the middle of the season.

“It has the potential of derailing a club’s season.

“We understand there are aspirational players who want to get into the AFL — we want players to fulfil their dreams — but we think they can do that at the end of the season.

“And I think it’s going to be hard for a player from a state league list, with a part-time training base, to be able to be fit enough to compete at an AFL level.

“So the impact of the league be significant for little benefit to the AFL.”

Sturt chief executive Sue Dewing was worried about the potential supporter backlash if a key player was taken and she had reason to be concerned: 18 of the Double Blues players are eligible for the May 27 draft.

Dewing said Sturt and the other SANFL club wanted nothing more than having their players fulfil their AFL dreams and get drafted, but not in this way.

Ideally, it would happen at the end of the season — possibly also through bigger lists — and not play havoc with state leagues.

“We’re very unhappy with it,” Dewing said. “One, because there was no consultation about it.

“We’re supportive of the AFL increasing their lists — say it went from 44 to 46 — and we want to champion our players and get them drafted to play the highest level.

“We’re happy for that to happen at the end of the season.

“But to go through a whole pre-season and get to May and they take a player who’s been playing in your league team and been quite instrumental — we don’t support that.

“And we fear that the backlash that will come from supporters and members … the clubs will not be able to manage that.”

Central District chief executive Kris Grant was of a similar mind.

But he feared the AFL had made its decision and that there was nothing left to do for the SANFL clubs.

“It’s not fair at all,” Grant said. “We as a collective CEO group are not supportive at all.

“If you lose a player half way through the year, how are you going to replace him?

“And that player is probably not going to play AFL, so he’ll play SANFL, and while he’s not going to play against you, he is playing for them against other sides so it’s strengthening them up and weakens us.”