SANFL confident it will survive, with or without AFL clubs Port Adelaide Magpies and Adelaide Crows

As Port Adelaide ups the ante in its push to leave the SANFL, the league has spoken on what the possible departure of the Magpies and Crows from the competition would mean.

The SANFL is adamant its historic competition will continue to thrive, with or without AFL reserves sides Port Adelaide and Adelaide.

With Port having formally applied to the AFL to join the VFL or a possible AFL reserves competition from 2025, SANFL chief executive Darren Chandler said he was “extremely confident’’ his league would survive any challenges presented by the clubs’ departure.

“The most important thing here is the structure of football in South Australia as this is what makes us successful,’’ Chandler said of Australia’s oldest state league competition, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2027.

“That is that we have eight (stand alone) SANFL clubs and eight zones that drive participation and talent development.

“That is a very clear pathway for players in this state to know how they can get to the highest level.

“We want to invest more into the development of talent and we have a clear vision as to how we can continue to produce really good players in this state and maintain a really strong state league competition.

“The AFL has made it very clear to us that strong state leagues are a very important part of the overall football fabric of the nation.

“That gives us a lot of confidence and we will do whatever we can to maintain the structure of our league.’’

Port Adelaide SANFL captain Cam Sutcliffe leads his team onto Adelaide Oval for this year’s elimination final against Central District. Picture: David Mariuz/SANFL

Chandler said the SANFL was yet to formally hear from Port about its plans to abandon the league, despite outspoken chairman David Koch publicly declaring his club would be better served playing in a national reserves competition, while its hometown AFL rival Adelaide has, respectfully, remained tight-lipped about its long-term plans for its seconds side.

“We’ll continue to have discussions with the two AFL clubs and the AFL as to the structure of our competition and what is best for football in SA,’’ Chandler said.

“They both have agreements to play in our competition until the end of 2028 and neither club has indicated to us that they intend to go before that.

“We understand there are some challenges out there but at the moment we feel the best structure for football in this state is how we have it now.

“Is it perfect, no, it can’t be a perfect scenario when you have different structures for teams and obviously the two AFL teams here are structured differently to the rest of the competition.

“But in terms of talking about whether they are competitive or how it impacts on player development, from a competitive point of view, Port has played in three (SANFL) grand finals since 2014.

“That is equal-second behind Woodville-West Torrens (four). The Crows have been regular finals participants and this year we saw both of these teams in finals.’’

Glenelg celebrates its 2023 SANFL grand final win against Sturt. Picture: David Mariuz/SANFL

Chandler strongly defended the SANFL against claims from Port that its rules and regulations had stifled the development of its young AFL players.

“We will do everything possible to make sure we protect the SANFL competition, our clubs and the talent pathway in SA, because if you talk to people outside of SA, they are envious of the structure we have here,’’ he said.

“I have spoken to people from AFL clubs in Victoria who look at our two AFL clubs here and say they wish they could play in a competition that good every week as a second tier competition.

“But we want to work with the AFL, Port and Adelaide to make sure we get the best result for footy in this state, for the SANFL and the two AFL clubs.’’

Chandler said the league’s long-term modelling was to ensure it had “eight really strong SANFL clubs with really good facilities’’.

“Six of our eight clubs have upgraded their facilities in recent times and we are working closely with South Adelaide and West Adelaide to hopefully see some major upgrades in the next couple of years,’’ he said.

“That’s most important, to make sure that our young, talented players have great facilities to train and play at and that players are constantly wanting to come from interstate to play in our competition because it offers a really good total club environment.’’

Adelaide ruckman Kieran Strachan handballs under pressure during this year’s SANFL preliminary final against Sturt at Adelaide Oval. Picture: David Mariuz/SANFL

One of the concerns with losing Port and Adelaide from the competition – both sat out the 2020 season because of Covid restrictions, culminating in the top four teams playing finals – would be commercial, with some media coverage and corporate dollars possibly following the AFL reserves sides into their new league.

But Chandler stressed that the SANFL would remain a valuable media commodity, which this year continued to produce plenty of “eyeball’’ numbers for broadcaster Channel 7, the AFL and SANFL live streaming and other media outlets, including The Advertiser.

Channel 7’s broadcast commercial share average for the 2023 season was 40 per cent, with a 63 per cent share for the league grand final between Glenelg and Sturt, which peaked at 100,000 viewers.

“That’s enormous numbers,’’ Chandler said.

The average crowd attendance this year was 2151 – up 12 per cent on 2022 – with a season-high 7285 fans attending the Glenelg-Sturt King’s Birthday clash.

Chandler said plans were underway to build a $25 million, state-of-the-art training facility at West Lakes, which would serve as the home for the SANFL’s elite junior programs, while there would be more investment in specialist junior coaching.

He said the SANFL continually punched above its weight when it came to having players drafted to AFL clubs (averaging 19 per cent of national draftees in the past six years and 25 per cent of mid-season draftees) while participation numbers in the state were at an all-time high, with a record number of Auskickers in 2023.

“Per capita we are the best ranked state in the nation for participation, which is another example of how healthy football is here,’’ Chandler said.