West Coast Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett tells WAFL presidents club could join national reserves competition or expanded VFL

The WAFL could face an uncertain future if Eagles decide to leave in favour of a national reserves competition, writes MARK DUFFIELD.

There is uncertainty over the West Coast Eagles reserves team’s particpation in the WAFL. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

The spectre of an AFL reserves competition to take all AFL listed players out of traditional second tier competitions within three years is again looming over the WAFL.

West Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett told WAFL club presidents on Tuesday that a national reserves competition or joining an expanded VFL was an option for West Coast if they did not believe they were getting the right conditions to develop young players in their stand alone WAFL team.

Nisbett was fronting the WAFL presidents to justify list concessions his club was unilaterally granted by the WAFC after a winless season and their third wooden spoon in a row.

He flagged the possibility the Eagles could follow South Australian counterparts Adelaide and Port Adelaide in looking to an expanded VFL and potentially an AFL reserves competition to develop young players in.

West Coast leaving the competition would cost the WAFL clubs $600,000 in annual licence fees, which would swell to more than $1 million lost if Fremantle followed and abandoned their alignment with Peel.

WAFL presidents reacted differently to the news.

Some viewed it as little more than the Eagles CEO listing it as one of a series of options available to his club. WAFL Council of Presidents spokesman Mark Stewart said he believed it would be too expensive for the Eagles to seriously consider. But others saw it as a threat because several other scenarios put by Nisbett were even more unlikely.

Trevor Nisbett outlined the options on the table to WAFL clubs this week. Picture: AAP Image/Richard Wainwright

Nisbett listed aligning with a WAFL club or spreading players out across all clubs as had been the case in the 1990s as options.

Several WAFL presidents said the Eagles are unlikely to find a club to align with. Perth is the most likely candidate and the Demons would find it almost impossible to get past members after changes to the club’s constitution to protect its independence.

West Coast are clearly not in favour of spreading their players out because it would make them the only AFL club without some form of alignment.

Those presidents believed Nisbett’s message was clear: We need conditions for a competitive WAFL team or we need to look elsewhere.

Eagles chairman Paul Fitzpatrick confirmed to CODE Sports that joining a national AFL reserves competition was “an option and would always be an option” but said it was not one the Eagles board had discussed yet.

Adelaide and Port Adelaide are considered strong chances to be part of an expanded VFL competition potentially as soon as next season amid growing dissatisfaction with arrangements for their players in the SANFL.

Port believe that a full AFL reserves competition could be in place by 2027 provided arrangements with the league’s air carrier Virgin change so that all AFL team flights are chartered.

Once that happens the cost of a reserves team would drastically reduce because it would not matter if there were 25 extra players on a flight.

The Gold Coast Suns won the expanded VFL competition in 2023. Picture: Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Under revised rules granted by the WAFC, the Eagles will be given an increase in their player points allocation from 65 to 70, will be allocated a TPP 60 per cent of the salary cap of other WAFL clubs ($245,000 this year) and will have a three-year ban on recruiting players originally from the WAFL lifted.

It is the final rule that causes most angst for WAFL clubs because of fears West Coast will use the lure of full time employment to retain its delisted players and potentially tempt players from other WAFL clubs.

This year Sandover Medallist Hamish Brayshaw worked at West Coast but played WAFL for East Perth.

Fremantle’s alignment with Peel has been a happier one but Peel have made no secret of their wish to eventually be a stand alone club.

The Thunder have won two flags, lost the grand final this year and were finalists last year under the arrangement but have also endured off field battles. They lost $145,000 in 2022, the third worst financial outcome in a WAFL competition where financial sustainability is an issue for almost every club.

“We have to work through all of that because it has got to be a business decision for us,” the club’s CEO Paul Lekias said earlier this year. “We would love to be stand alone but there is a fair bit that needs to occur for that to actually happen.

“Being an aligned club does have an anomaly. In a sense we are trying to serve two masters. We are trying to do the right thing by Fremantle and trying to showcase our own local talent at the same time.

“The agreement started in 2013 and was due to end in 2018 and it is sort of rolling over at the moment on a notice period, so there is not a fixed agreement.”

Originally published as West Coast Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett tells WAFL presidents club could join national reserves competition or expanded VFL