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.

Courtesy of Leader Newspapers
Reported by Paul Amy

CASEY Scorpions captain Nigel Carmody will wear the black and white colours of the Collingwood jumper next season.

Carmody, a 142-game stalwart of the Scorpions, confirmed on Monday that he had joined the Magpies' VFL team.

Collingwood will be running its own state league team after cutting ties with its partner of seven years, Williamstown.

Carmody's decision followed meetings with Collingwood coach Gavin Brown, recruiting official Noel Judkins and football manager Geoff Walsh. 

He admitted the departure of coach Peter Banfield had prompted him to "look around".

"It was the impetus for me to see what was out there, which is something I've never done before," he said. "It's pretty well known I was disappointed with the coaching situation. I thought Peter did a good job and deserved to stay on."