SANFL clubs have proven their football programs can defy professional AFL players. But what are they doing off field?

AFL reserves teams are not dominating the SANFL. But are the ‘traditional’ state league clubs seeing opportunity to strengthen their fan bases before a national AFL reserves competition begins?

• Monday Recovery: Round 8 SANFL wrap

NOTICED the SANFL premiership ladder after a sizeable chunk of the season has been played?

Adelaide is last of 10 with a 0-8 win-loss record which reflects the pain of the Crows’ hefty injury list at West Lakes that has made the AFL club vulnerable at the national level, let alone in the SANFL.

Port Adelaide in ninth with a 2-1-4 win-draw-loss count that has little to do with injuries considering the Magpies had 18 AFL-listed players at Alberton at the weekend when they lost by 79 points to North Adelaide.

North Adelaide debutant Jared Deep is chased by Port Adelaide AFL-listed players Dom Barry and Lindsay Thomas in their SANFL clash on Saturday. Picture Deb Curtis

Suddenly, the “AFL in SANFL” agenda is not built on fear about professional, full-time footballers from the Crows and Power destroying the integrity of the state league. And as no SANFL flag has been won by an AFL reserves team with multimillion-dollar payrolls, the long-established football programs at the suburban clubs with part-time league footballers have indeed proven to be sound and successful.

The debate might turn to what the AFL clubs are bringing to the SANFL, on and off the field, without the doomsday tone that has dominated the debate since the two AFL reserves teams were fielded in the state league in 2014.

The attendance count of 1753 at Richmond Oval on Saturday — when West Adelaide kept the Crows winless — does bring into question those predictions from the Adelaide Football Club of delivering crowds of 3000-4000 to SANFL venues. Were so many Crows SANFL fans kept at home by the live telecast on Channel 7?

Port Adelaide’s crowd at home was a disappointing 2378 with no distraction from television. Protest vote from Rooster fans?

There is the hardcore traditional SANFL fans with champagne on ice waiting for the announcement from AFL House of a national reserves competition, probably to be dubbed as the “D-League” as in “development league”. This crew cannot wait for the 141-year-old SANFL to revert to its pre-1991 model with no AFL influence on its premiership race ... other than the endless drafting of prime talent.

The D-League — that is most likely to emerge with a new AFL television deal or deals with AFLX, AFLW and AFLD in 2022 — significantly changes the landscape for the eight “traditional” SANFL clubs.

As D-League and AFL games would be played at the same venue on the same day, the SANFL clubs could have greater flexibility to draw fans to their venues.

But this will not just happen. The challenge — or opportunity — for every SANFL club as the AFL expands its professional base is to engage with local communities that find it more and more difficult to bond with full-time AFL players.

It is opportunity — and one the progressive SANFL clubs will take on well before the AFL leaves the state league.

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