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AFL club chiefs back push for new 14-team reserves competition
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https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl-club-chiefs-back-push-for-new-14-tea...

AFL club chiefs back push for new 14-team reserves competition

Momentum is building towards the creation of a new 14-team AFL eastern seaboard reserves competition that would potentially replace the VFL and NEAFL, according to club chiefs.

A new league tying the four clubs in Queensland and New South Wales with the 10 Victorian clubs that would serve as a reserves development competition was shaping as a viable alternative to the problems of the existing second-tier format, according to Swans chief executive Tom Harley.

This 14-team eastern seaboard option would have the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns play one another more often than the other teams, and likewise GWS and the Swans would play each other more regularly than they would play other teams, in order to maximise cost-savings.

The effect of this unequal fixturing would mean the competition would be structured as a development league and not focused on producing a premiership-winning reserves team.

With a return to play established, the focus has switched to urgent decisions needed on the size of the salary cap, the size and structure of playing lists, draft picks as well as the soft cap on football spending and the second tier competition.

“There is a whole cascading list of pieces of work that are interconnected and need to be done pretty quickly,” Harley said.

“You need to establish the list size before knowing the salary cap and the second tier competition the soft cap, each decision is interconnected and has a cascading effect.

“We are in June and the end of the football year is October so these are critical issues that need to be considered pretty quickly as we begin trying to draft budge 

“The idea of an eastern seaboard AFL reserves competition is gaining momentum.

“The concept is to develop a culture of winning and competing. If it’s a 14-team competition and we play GWS more often and Gold Coast and Brisbane play each other more often it distorts the fixturing and the integrity of the fixture. The key issues to address are how to develop players and will it be affordable?

“You would have to change the focus of the league to being about development of players and feeding the AFL competition.”

Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans agreed saying critical work needed to be done before a definitive decision could be made on the second tier.

“You need to establish the list size before knowing the salary cap and the second tier competition the soft cap, each decision is interconnected and has a cascading effect.

“We are in June and the end of the football year is October so these are critical issues that need to be considered pretty quickly as we begin trying to draft budgets 

“The idea of an eastern seaboard AFL reserves competition is gaining momentum.

“The concept is to develop a culture of winning and competing. If it’s a 14-team competition and we play GWS more often and Gold Coast and Brisbane play each other more often it distorts the fixturing and the integrity of the fixture. The key issues to address are how to develop players and will it be affordable?

“You would have to change the focus of the league to being about development of players and feeding the AFL competition.”

Gold Coast CEO Mark Evans agreed saying critical work needed to be done before a definitive decision could be made on the second tier.

“Certainly it’s possible the four teams could join an eastern seaboard reserves competition,” Evans said.

“We need to make sure the lists of the (four northern states) clubs have the same opportunity to be strong as the Victorian lists do.

“What do we want from a league? Is it for state league clubs to chase a premiership with older players through the system? Or a development league that caters for future draft prospects who miss out because of smaller lists and fewer players taken at the drafts, and gives reserves players at AFL clubs a chance at senior footy?

“If it was billed as a development league then it would make more sense for us (in Queensland and NSW) to play each other more regularly.”

Brisbane CEO Greg Swann also raised the idea of a 14-team Eastern Seaboard reserves competition as a viable proposition in a Fox Footy interview on Saturday.