October 25, 2007
From The Sydney Swans website
Reported by Tara White
Full article Click here
Reported by Tara White
Full article Click here
After weeks of negotiations with AFL Canberra, the Sydney Swans have signed a new three-year deal for the Swans Reserves to remain in the competition.
It was appropriate after the initial five-year agreement to review the terms of being in the AFL Canberra competition, especially given the Swans dominance over the past three years.
The Swans accepted their dominance wasn’t healthy for the overall competition and worked with AFL Canberra to rectify those issues.
The priority for the Swans was to firstly stay in the NSW/ACT competition, as they felt this was important to the development of the code in their home state.
Secondly they believed the way to achieve equalisation of the competition was to improve the standard of the competition in Canberra instead of looking at a simple solution of restricting the three-time consecutive premiers.
“We can look at limiting our strength but more importantly we have to assist AFL Canberra to raise its standard,” Swans General Manager- Football Andrew Ireland told sydneyswans.com.au.
“Our absolute prime objective of the reserves is to develop our players, not win premierships.
“If we felt the new deal was too restrictive on the development of our players then we wouldn’t have been able to stay in the competition.
“But we are happy with the AFL Canberra deal and look forward to our participation in this competition.”
In the new deal the Swans will field two less listed players next year, going from 15 listed players on the field at any one time down to 13.
The Swans and their opposition will be permitted to pick squads of 24, extending the bench to six and maintaining a selection of 18 listed players for the Swans each week.
Along with these restrictions, during the finals the Club has agreed to name only 12 Swans listed players on the team-sheet.
Off the field, further to the financial agreement already in place with AFL Canberra the Swans and the AFL have agreed to make a significant contribution to a development fund. The Swans hope this fund will assist in development of junior AFL in the ACT region.
Additionally, the Swans have agreed to run seminars through AFL Canberra based on improving medical and conditioning practices, administration and coaching.
