AFL set to create a second tier league

Good to see. These PNG kids are the next wave......and that gives great hope of a reasonable PNG national side in years to come with several tiers of PNG talent having come through the system. Mal Michael as coach, James Gwilt as captain?? and perhaps a PNG national team vs the Australian Amateurs??

Participation wise and re 'roll models' etc.......seemingly it's very important for gaining mileage with Govt to have womens participation....look at basketball, soccer. Also, at a local level - - if your club doesn't have juniors, women, handicapped, ethnic minorities....then you can't get funding from anywhere!!!!!

I think Cairns has the money, the Cazaly club up there makes plenty from what i understand, they run the Cairns basketball team and also sponsor the lions 100k each year ( I stand corrected). Their juniors are growing quickly and the ideal situation would be a structure that leads to a club representing the area.

http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20100323123631764 Interesting article about a PNG side playing a pre-season tournament in Cairns, Cairns is a pretty good standard league with plenty of good local talent with southerners and territorians also playing. Any expanded northern comp must IMO include Cairns, plenty of flights to Cairns. Winning 3 from 4 is pretty good but they did with another 20 very good players playing in Brisbane.

I did hear today on radio about the possibility of a womens national football league starting, with womens teams running out of the current AFL clubs. The AFL has apparently done a review on womans football and has raised this as a possibility. Don't want to sound negative but womans sport generally does not make money, but loses it. Although on the other hand making money is not the be all and end all, it should be self sustaining. Especially with the cost of flying huge teams, much bigger than cricket, volleyball and netball, it will be a big effort to be a success IMO.

I really don't know who would fund an ACT team. I would hope the ACT govt would come to the party to some extent, since they have been forking out for AFL visiting appearances as we all know. There has been consistent dialogue about upgrading infrastructure i.e Manuka Oval or the development of a proposed Footy Park in Woden. The Govt here have been upping the anti as far as Aust Footy in the Territory goes in recent years but as always this town, as wealthy as it is, still lacks corporate clout. I think most of what was available in that respect, went to bringing Giteau back to the Brumbies actually. The Assembly have alluded to a budget that will bring more footy here together with the mooted GWS collaboration, which seems to be less of likely with the passing weeks, so who knows how much $ has been earmarked footy here in reality. It all might just be pie in the sky on our part. Cheers

Good sensible posts from bever and redb. I can see where bever is coming from, existing financially strong clubs are better positioned to enter such a comp then some abstract concept like an ACT representative team (which would be very strong, and certainly around the level of your average VFL team). But redb is right, if you start talking about a 14+ strong comp - that might be a touch too expensive - unless you have a draw where the local QAFL, SFL and ACTAFL clubs are playing each other more often than they play the other clubs (thereby reducing the cost substantially, although the NT team would still be flying out every 2nd week, but that would have to happen regardless).

No, the Tasmnaian government has spent money on Hawthorn. The AFL, and Hawthorn, have put virtually nothing into the deal. Its just an exercise in diverting voters attention away from the fact that Tasmania's health system is worse than NSW's and cronyism is rampant on a scale only Joh and the AWB could comprehend.

Years ago Ainslie were ready to pull the pin and join the SANFL, they had the money they were premiers every year, now they have the money but wisely they dont buy as many players but use local talent instead. A combined ACT team would be funded by whom ?, Ainslie, Belconnen, Easlake and Queanbeyan fund their own teams upwards of 500k a year, who is going to fund a ACT stand alone team, the ACTAFL have no clubhouse (read pokies)anymore to raise funds with, the money must come from the AFL, Government and sponsorship, individual clubs such as the ones mentioned are self funded. The sort of comp they are proposing must include the four AFL teams but their is no reason why the rest of the teams can be promoted or relegated. Will Southport who are contributing a lot of money to GC17 want to be part of this. These are the teams i would involve.. The four northern AFL teams The four ACT teams i mentioned 1 NT team 1 Cairns team which may include a quota of players from PNG. 2 or 3 Financially viable Sydney clubs 2 or 3 Viable QAFL clubs

Redb. On the contrary, I reckon this is worth considering and i would love to see a second tier league get the nod. Perhaps I took your earlier question and reply out of context, so my apologies if I did. I do confess however, to having a vested interest in our regions future, which is perfectly natural and trust that there is room for the ACT in all of this, along with Tassie who really should be afforded something along these lines as well, even if it is courtesy of the SANFL or VFL. Cheers

I was involved with the Wagga Tigers for a couple of years when we played in the ACTAFL, at a time when the Swans Reserves were absolutely demolishing every team. My memory is that their first premiership in the ACTAFL coincided with their senior premiership back in 2005, and you might recall that the Swans had an amazing run where they fielded the identical team for their last 12 games of the season, including the finals - pretty much unprecedented. With zero injuries for what's basically half the season, this meant that the Swans Reserves side we were playing against was a virtual AFL ready team - and not too many non-AFL clubs in Australia can compete against a team consisting of AFL ready players. You were basically up against an AFL standard midfield, and half-back line, so it was pretty hard getting your hands on the ball and keeping the ball for too long!! I don't know wha't happening these days, but if you have a season where the Swans go through a normal run of injuries, that brings the Swans reserves back to a level where the top ACTAFL clubs can compete.

Redb Thats a bit harsh. I'm not sure what point exactly, you are trying to make here? The Swans enetered an elite line up that certainly did NOT qualify as reserves in respect of this region or indeed any other minor state. That is they did NOT reflect the true calibre of the demographic they professed to be representing. This was a veritable Swannies 1sts with choice players recruited from top tier Leagues predominately, which I expect meant that many of these players might well have hailed from Vic, SA and WA's leagues. I think you were hypothesising an analogy with QAFL and the Lions. I believe the outcome would be the same dependent on any stacking of the Lions reserves. What I am trying to convey to you is that the calibre of Qld state footy is no better than that of the ACT in respect of a second tier concept. I wonder if sometimes you are merely ignorant of the footy culture here in Canberra, or have a bit of a chip towards this region. I certainly would like to give you the benefit of the doubt in hoping it is NOT the latter. Cheers