SANFL has AFL assurance there will be no national reserves competition next year

SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson is 100 per cent confident there will be no national reserves competition next season after receiving written confirmation from the AFL.

Port Adelaide against Adelaide in the SANFL last year. Picture: Sarah Reed

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SANFL boss Jake Parkinson has been given an assurance from the AFL there will be no national reserves competition next season.

In written communication to the SANFL, the AFL denied media reports of plans for a reserves competition for 2019.

Parkinson has also had talks with AFL general manager game development Andrew Dillon, while SANFL general manager football Adam Kelly has had similar discussions with AFL football operations manager Steven Hocking, and the message was a reserves competition was not happening.

SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson Picture: Keryn Stevens

The SANFL has a contract with Adelaide and Port Adelaide to field teams in the state league until 2028.

“I’m 100 per cent confident it won’t be happening next season,” Parkinson said. “It was reported in Victoria it would be happening, but we have categoric communication from the AFL that is not the case.”

Parkinson said Crows chief executive Andrew Fagan and his Power counterpart Keith Thomas had told him they were committed to the state league competition.

The Power released a statement in which Thomas said the club had not been engaged in discussions with the AFL regarding a national reserves competition since 2014.

He said the Power was very comfortable with its current position having the Magpies represent Port Adelaide in the SANFL, as they have done for well over a century.

Brett Eddy and Alex Keath compete for Port and Crows in the SANFL last year. Picture: Sarah Reed

The Crows said the club had not been contacted, nor had any conversations, about participating in a national reserves competition.

“As it stands, we find our current arrangement with the SANFL to be mutually beneficial for our club and the state league,” a Crows spokesperson said.

Parkinson said the future of football was uncertain given it was a rapidly evolving industry.

But he said there was an arrangement in place until 2028 to which the two AFL clubs were committed, as was the SANFL committed to them.

The SANFL reviews the state league each year and must give 12 months notice for those teams to no longer be involved.

“We have no thought of doing that,” he said. “From their end, they are obliged to be involved in the SANFL competition until 2028.

“It has commercial elements to it, you can’t break commercial contracts, and neither of them are intimating they would be.”

Responding to Power chairman David Koch’s claims the SANFL was making it harder for the club to belong to the state league, while also meeting with resistance in its desire to have an SANFL women’s side, Parkinson said they were Koch’s opinions.

However, Parkinson said the Power had put forward applications for changes to the regulations and some had been accepted at the annual review which proved beneficial to the club.

The women’s competition is a state-based league which develops players to play at SANFL level and hopefully in the AFLW, according to Parkinson, and each club had a development zone.

“An important aspect of a zone is being able to move through a talent path and to do that in SA you need to move through the eight SANFL clubs,” Parkinsons said. “Port Adelaide does not have a zone so is not part of that at present.

“That is not to say they will never play in the SANFL women’s competition. Given the development of women’s footy, to develop talent really quickly the focus is on the zones.”

Central District and Woodville-West Torrens are also without a women’s team, but the SANFL vision is to have all eight state league clubs involved.