Chairman Rob Chapman has described the League Directors' vote in favour of a Crows reserves team in the SANFL next season as a “momentous occasion”.
On Thursday night, the Crows received the long-awaited green light to join the local league in 2014.
Chapman welcomed the decision, saying it would be a “win-win” situation for Adelaide and the SANFL competition.
“We’ve sought this decision for a long time now. There’s been a lot of work gone in by a lot of people in this football Club and the SANFL Commission and League, and this is the result we wanted,” Chapman said on Thursday night.
“It’s a bit of relief and a bit of joy. We’re convinced this is going to be great for South Australian football and for us. This football club is unequivocal in its support for this decision. We can’t wait to be part of the SANFL competition next year and we’ll do whatever it takes to make this the tremendous success we expect it to be.”
While the (6-2) vote wasn’t unanimous, Chapman said he’d been assured by SA Football Commission Chairman John Olsen that the Crows had the support of all eight voting clubs to join the league.
“We sought a unanimous decision because we thought it gave us the best chance to make this the success we want it to be. But we’re assured that all eight clubs [even those that voted against] are unanimous in their support now that the vote has taken place,” Chapman said.
“We will work with all eight clubs.”
Despite initial discussions to the contrary, the Club will be able to enter the SANFL as the Adelaide Crows. However, the Crows cannot wear their traditional home guernsey. Top-up players will be provided by the SANFL clubs, who wish to make their ‘development’ players available.
“We’ll be the Crows. I think the other teams want to play the Crows. We’d like to think it’ll be a bit of drawing power. You want to play against the Crows – it gives you the best chance to get a better gate and that’s part of the equation in all of this," Chapman said.
“The top-up players will be identified through an opt-in or opt-out process with the SANFL clubs. I’m told several clubs want to opt in. We’ll draw a couple of players from each club that will be available for selection in our team if and when they’re required. We’ll review that after round six and again at round 12. They’ll probably be young players, aged 18-22, who aren’t probably going to quite break into their home league team. I’d like to think they’ll get some benefit out of being part of our team and playing at a higher level in the league competition. I think it’s a win-win for all of us."
Chapman said Adelaide would now work through the finer details, such as who would coach the Crows reserves side, which will play all its games as the ‘away’ team.
“We’re well advanced. We’ve been planning this for a while and we’ll be ready to kick off come season launch next year,” he said.
“We’ve assured the SANFL we won’t poach or seek applications from any of their personnel. We’ll draw from our own talent. We’ve got a deep talent pool here and we’ll make that decision over the coming weeks.”
Chapman said coach Brenton Sanderson – a strong advocate of a Crows reserves team – was pleased with the outcome.
“Sando knows this has enormous benefits for us, all our players playing together as a team, playing to our game plan and being coached by our coaches. This is a significant event for us,” he said.
