SANFL to review state league competition and pathways

The SANFL has asked the state league clubs for submissions to be considered in a review of its competitions and pathways as it seeks to keep pace with a changing landscape.

SANFL Grand Final.. Picture Sarah Reed

The rapidly changing landscape of Australian rules football has prompted the SANFL to have an extensive review of the state league.

While the boundaries of the review have yet to be determined, a committee comprising representatives of the clubs and football commission will be established to take responsibility for the undertaking.

The SANFL is seeking submissions from the clubs on what they want considered and there is no time frame for the review to be concluded before any recommendations are revealed.

With the escalating growth of women’s football, more emphasis on junior programs and business models changing substantially for clubs, the SANFL believes a review of competitions and pathways is a must.

And the need for such an initiative was emphasised by a similar venture by the WAFL last year.

SANFL general manager football Adam Kelly said the review would be extensive and will involve months of work, not weeks.

“In recent years, especially with the advent of women’s football and female pathways, there has been a lot happening,” Kelly said. “We have been trying to keep pace with changes in football and have probably not had a period of time where we can have somebody have a look at what has been business as usual.

“Most SANFL clubs have a women’s team and are running under 14 and under 17 female talent shields. They are doing development work for juniors from 13 through to 18 so there is a lot happening which was not happening three or four years ago.

“There have been a lot of changes, but we have not taken time to sit back and look at what is the clubs’ point of view, what do the competitions and pathways need to be, are they resourced effectively, and is there another way we can be doing this.

“We have got this opportunity in front of us now while the clubs have got all these questions they want answered about the future of the competition and pathways, we can do the review and set us up for the future.”

Kelly noted some of the resources vital to the clubs, especially gaming revenue, had dipped yet they were still trying to fund programs to the same level and that was causing a massive strain.

He said part of the review would be to discuss what football was going to look like in the future given the commission had been able to address debt reduction.

“We definitely see no reason to be negative about our future.”