{"id":74328,"date":"2026-08-18T02:25:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T02:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/74328\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T02:25:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T02:25:06","slug":"port-adelaide-abandon-sanfl-future-up-in-the-air-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/74328\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide abandon SANFL, future up in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide abandon SANFL, future up in the air<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide<\/a>‘s impending departure from the SANFL could see the restructure of South Australian football.<\/p>\n

The club confirmed earlier this week it would see out its current agreement ending in 2028, before leaving the SANFL competition.<\/p>\n

The mutiny will see Port Adelaide’s 150-year presence in the SANFL, after winning 36 premierships, and developing some of South Australia’s best talent.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide CEO Matthew Richardson confirmed the club’s desire to leave the SANFL on SEN’s AFL Nation<\/a> before the Power took on Melbourne<\/a> in Round 23.<\/p>\n

MORE:Sydney sabotage: Sexual assault investigation compromises another AFL premiership tilt<\/a><\/p>\n

“If you look at all the other AFL teams that are operating in other competitions, the quality of the players that they’ve got around their young players is a very different level to what we’re able to do,” Richardson said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“Port Adelaide has always been about what’s next and we have to look at what’s going to give us the best chance of winning at AFL and AFLW level.<\/p>\n

“There is a sadness to it, but really importantly we’ll still play footy at Alberton Oval, it’s just that we’re playing in a different competition.”<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide has been a long-time supporter of the AFL reserves competition, with the club yet to confirm where it will play.<\/p>\n

The VFL remains an option should the reserve competition not come to fruition by 2029.<\/p>\n

The SANFL has historically been against a national reserve competition, with the league making arguments the best option for South Australian football is for both local AFL clubs to compete within the state league.<\/p>\n

MORE:Why Zak Butters should join Richmond, according to Tigers cheerleader Jack Riewoldt<\/a><\/p>\n

With one club now defecting, there is still no word on what the Adelaide Football Club will do with its reserves’ side.<\/p>\n

The Magpies<\/a>‘ breakaway comes within weeks of the SANFL announcing its looking at the longevity of its reserves competition, citing budget concerns.<\/p>\n

The league is also facing pressure over player payments.<\/p>\n

The ABC reported earlier this year that SANFL players earn an average of about $5,000 pre-tax per season, with the figure equating to roughly $8 an hour.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide’s exit therefore represents more than the departure of one of the SANFL’s most successful clubs.<\/p>\n

With the league reviewing its reserves structure, questions surrounding player payments and uncertainty over Adelaide’s future, South Australian football could be heading towards its biggest structural change in decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide abandon SANFL, future up in the air originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,61926,524,3268,80831],"class_list":["post-74328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-matthew-richardson","tag-port-adelaide","tag-sanfl","tag-south-australian-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}