Port Adelaide accepts SANFL's offer to field Power reserves team in league next year

PORT Adelaide has closed the long-running reserves debate by accepting the SANFL's offer to field a Power seconds team in the league next year.

PORT Adelaide closed the long-running reserves debate in SA football on Tuesday night by accepting the SANFL's offer to field a Power seconds team in the state league next year.

After postponing a board meeting today - while a board member was in transit overseas - the Port directors on Tuesday night agreed to set up the Power reserves in the SANFL next year.

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They will take the place of the "Magpies" in the SANFL league competition, but will keep the "Magpies" nickname and the club's traditional black-and-white jumper.

The SANFL executive has endorsed this tonight.

The new-look Port Adelaide Football Club will now be represented by:

Port Adelaide CEO Keith Thomas speaks to club members. Picture: Mark Brake.

POWER in the national league working to AFL rules and the AFL salary cap of $9 million.

MAGPIES in the SANFL league competition. This team will be made up of Power-listed players not chosen to play in the AFL. There will be 15 "top-up" players. They will be paid a maximum $400 a game and can be any age.

AN ACADEMY team in the SANFL reserves competition. These scholarship holders - who will include Magpies father-son picks, indigenous hopefuls from the NT and international recruits - will be aged 18-22. These players can earn no more than $100 a game.

The academy team will replace the Magpies reserves and under-age teams from 2015 when Port will lose its SANFL recruiting zones in the city and on the Eyre Peninsula.

Q&A: PUTTING THE ISSUES IN BLACK AND WHITE

Port chief executive Keith Thomas tonight praised the compromise deal with the SANFL.

"We are now, finally, one club, and all of Port Adelaide's players will exclusively play for Port Adelaide," he said.

"This important decision allows us to field teams committed to excellence in the AFL and SANFL as a united club.

"We have worked closely with the league to negotiate this solution and we believe it is the best way forward for preserving our traditional identity in the SANFL competition.

"Port Adelaide will be called the Magpies and wear our traditional black and white guernsey in SANFL football - that is our iron-clad commitment to our supporters.

"We have also made the commitment to 'playing the line' in the SANFL, but of course we have always been about striving to win premierships in every competition we play in.

"One non-negotiable was that we must be able to maintain our commitment to both elite and grassroots football in South Australia.

"We are delighted to have achieved this through this proposal.

"I thank all of the key stakeholders who have helped achieve this outcome and extend particular thanks to our supporters who have been very understanding of the situation we have worked through over the last three to four months."

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