Port Adelaide reluctant to copy Crows model with amateur club link

PORT Adelaide is reluctant to follow the Crows’ path by embracing a local SA Amateur Football League club to supply “top-up” players for its SANFL unit.

PORT Adelaide is reluctant to follow the Crows’ path by embracing a local SA Amateur Football League club — such as Port Districts — to supply “top-up” players for its SANFL unit.

And the answer to finding new players for the SANFL Magpies — while being stripped of recruiting zones in metropolitan Adelaide and on SA’s West Coast — is to challenge the Power for the next 18 months.

The Port Adelaide Football Club next year will work to the model of:

AFL participation — as Port Adelaide Power.

SANFL league — as Port Adelaide Magpies.

SANFL reserves — with an academy squad of 30-40 players.

NO recruiting zones and no junior teams.

This puts Port in the same bind the Crows faced this season when Adelaide fielded its first AFL reserves team in the SANFL league competition: Where does the Power get its “top-up” players, as many as 25 to fill gaps in the Magpies line-up when AFL-listed players are injured?

The Crows this year relied on loan players from rival SANFL teams, amateur clubs and country teams.

Adelaide next year would prefer an alliance with one club — the leader being SAAFL club, Adelaide University. The Blacks will decide in the next fortnight on a partnership with the Crows.

Port argues it can stock the Magpies list for the next two years by signing players from its under-18 team to supplementary contracts. But this is a short-term solution.

The long-term view of either fielding a “Port Adelaide” team in the amateur league or forming a partnership with a local amateur club is not preferred at Alberton.

The Power argues being aligned to Port Districts would hurt other amateur clubs — such as Portland and Rosewater — in the traditional Port Adelaide football zone.

Local players would immediately defect to Port Districts to enhance their chances of playing SANFL league football with the Magpies.

Port says this concept strikes against the club’s determined efforts to bond with the community on the LeFevre peninsula.

The Power is more likely to seek stronger relationships with SANFL clubs Woodville-West Torrens and Norwood, the teams that gained most from the carve-up of the Magpies recruiting zone.

The Crows, Power and SANFL opened the review on AFL reserves in the State league on June 30. The debate will have to expand to the SAAFL if the Blacks later this month agree to be aligned to the Crows.

New SANFL rules for the Crows and Power are expected to include no recruiting from interstate and age limits on players who are eligible to be classed as “top-up” players.