Every SANFL traditionalist will appreciate the irony.

Standing in the way of Norwood’s first SANFL grand final appearance since 2018 is the team it introduced to the State league with a major backflip during the contentious debate on AFL reserves teams.

The semi-professional Norwood players will face for the second time in this SANFL finals series the AFL professionals from the Adelaide Football Club, who won by 55 points in the qualifying final a fortnight ago. The winner advances to the grand final against North Adelaide at Adelaide Oval next Sunday.

Norwood has been here before – caught in contentious debates on how AFL players return to SANFL ranks.

There was Norwood coach Neil Craig in the early 1990s, well before he joined the Crows as fitness coach, assistant coach and senior mentor, sending Adelaide ruckman David Pittman to the reserves or keeping him on the league team’s interchange bench when not selected for AFL duty.

This was the prelude to the Crows and Port Adelaide arguing for AFL reserves teams to keep their players together rather than farmed across the SANFL as sometimes – as the Pittman case highlights – “unwanted” guest players, even at their original SANFL clubs.

Then there was 2014, the year the SANFL finally sanctioned Port Adelaide and the Crows keeping its AFL players together in reserves teams rather than sending them to their original SANFL clubs or to those which adopted AFL draftees in the so-called SANFL mini-draft.

Norwood was expected to join Central District and South Adelaide in voting against AFL reserves teams. Against the backdrop of a powerful club sponsor urging Norwood’s then president Joe Tripodi to reconsider, the vote was passed 6-2 in favour of allowing Adelaide to join the SANFL … even though the Crows had earlier declared they would only accept a unanimous vote.

The traditionalists at The Parade were appeased at the end of 2014 when Norwood completed its hat-trick of SANFL flags by beating “a stacked Port Adelaide team”.

“They had 19 AFL-listed players and two pretty handy top-ups – Steve Summerton when he was the best player in the SANFL and Nathan Krakouer,” recalls Norwood president Paul Di Iulio. “That was a pretty good Port Adelaide team.”

Of the six wins Norwood has earned against Port Adelaide in SANFL grand finals, there are two that challenge modern-day fans as the club’s favourite; 1984, when Norwood created history in rising from fifth to upset Russell Ebert’s team; or 2014, when Norwood defied the professionals from Alberton in both the semi-final and grand final.

Yes, 2014 is one of the better ones,” says Di Iulio. “We did beat a pretty good team … a stacked team. We came to a grand final from two different playing fields – we faced all sorts of inequities that year. Do our players like that challenge? Yes, they do.”

The SANFL rules have changed since to limit the AFL reserves teams to no more than 17 AFL-listed players being allowed to take part in a State league final.

The SANFL Crows in May 2015. Photo: Peter Argent

As part of the annual review of the AFL reserves system in the State league, the SANFL football department has regularly monitored how games are shaped by the number of AFL players fielded by Port Adelaide and the Crows on the suburban fields of South Australian league football.

This has shaped the eligibility rules which state: “Under SANFL requirements, players must satisfy the following criteria for selection: Played a higher percentage of SANFL games than AFL games; played three SANFL games in the second half of the season. Adelaide can also only field a maximum of 17 AFL-listed players under SANFL rules.”

Adelaide has “only” 15 AFL-listed players eligible for Sunday’s preliminary final against Norwood, a figure Crows SANFL coach Michael Godden says keeps the game a “50-50” prospect for the professionals and the semi-professionals.

“Probably 13 is the tipping point. If you drop below that, the numbers show you probably never win,” Godden said. “If we have 15, it is a 50-50 split. With 17/18, you become very good.”

Godden regards the debate on AFL reserves teams – and Adelaide’s right to be considered a genuine SANFL premier, if it wins the title – as an “insult”.

“Let’s look at the bigger picture,” said Godden, who played 145 league and reserves matches at West Adelaide. “We want to embrace the SANFL. Our senior coach Matthew Nicks has given us firm support and continues to do so. We are building something at our football club and the SANFL competition is important (in the rebuild).

“As coaches, we need to give our players a platform where they can perform, learn and be tested. The SANFL is amazing for their development.”

If Adelaide wins, it will be the fourth time since AFL reserves teams were introduced in 2014 that the professionals have made the SANFL grand final, after Port Adelaide’s narrow losses to Norwood in 2014 and Sturt in 2017, and to Glenelg in 2019.

“Then,” says Di Iulio of the introduction of AFL reserves teams to the State league in 2014, “we were all wondering about the fallout if Port Adelaide won.”

The key issue being the “integrity” of the competition – and the fact Port Adelaide was playing a team with a $6 million payroll while Norwood and Sturt were working to a $400,000 salary cap.

“Today,” says Di Iulio, “we all accept it is going to happen one day. It is inevitable. And it won’t be a disaster, provided it is a great grand final.”

Has time taken the heat out of the debate? Or is it easier to accept losing an SANFL grand final to the Crows more so than Port Adelaide?

The question of how the South Australian-based AFL clubs exist in the SANFL has never been more complicated. Port Adelaide increasingly wants out of the State league, preferring the VFL where the recruiting rules for “top-up” players would be less restrictive. For now, the Crows are content to live the 14-year deal that expires in 2028 and can be cast aside with 12 months’ notice to the SANFL.

Norwood’s board met last week while its members and supporters loaded up talkback radio and fan blog sites, questioning the fairness of the competition after the 55-point loss in the qualifying final.

Di Iulio insists the late addition to the board agenda was not motivated by the loss to the professionals from the Adelaide Football Club, but the bigger question of “AFL in SANFL” – and the prospect of an AFL national reserves competition.

With Adelaide on the playing agenda this week, Di Iulio was circumspect in telling InDaily: “We are not in a position to make a public statement at this time. We are forming our opinion based on further information to be collected to better understand the pros and cons of all options.”

But many others have been most vocal this month. Generally, the participants current and recent are content to be challenged by matching the professionals from Adelaide and Port Adelaide on the field. The exceptions to the rule remain at the far extremes of the SANFL map at Elizabeth with Central District and Noarlunga at South Adelaide. As one notable South Adelaide advocate told InDaily: “It is not just the salary cap issue.”

“Take Friday night games,” they said. “The AFL professionals are resting, getting physiotherapist treatment before the game. Our blokes are spending the day doing manual labour and knocking off after a tough shift to play. Equal playing field?”

Has time taken the heat out of the debate? Or is it easier to accept losing an SANFL grand final to the Crows more so than Port Adelaide?

Australian Football Hall of Fame legend Malcolm Blight – a former Woodville player and coach in the SANFL and the Crows’ only premiership coach – entered the long-running debate with a broadside to the SANFL clubs taking issue with the AFL presence in their league.

“If you don’t like it, don’t play in the competition,” Blight declared, while rejecting any SANFL premiership won by the Adelaide or Port Adelaide AFL reserves should carry an asterisk on the SANFL’s mahogany honour board at Adelaide Oval.

“If you were Norwood Football Club,” added Blight, using Norwood as his example based on the fans’ reaction from the qualifying final, “if you don’t like those rules set up by the SANFL some eight years ago when Port Adelaide and the Crows got reserves teams, if you don’t like them, go to the Adelaide Footy League. I reckon the Goodwood Saints they would love to come into the SANFL to take Norwood’s spot if they don’t want it.

“Anyone who thinks anything other than that – they are the rules – don’t play in the SANFL if you don’t want to.

“Adelaide has finished eighth, seventh, fourth, eighth, 10th and eighth,” added Blight, dismissing the AFL reserves teams have overwhelmed the eight traditional SANFL clubs since 2015. “What is all this rubbish about?

“Come on. If you are thinking that way, you are very small minded. The SANFL is a great development competition now. It is not what it was. It is a great development competition now.

“It is different (to the pre-AFL SANFL competition that changed with the advent of the Crows in 1991). I am not sure why anyone would want to get on that bandwagon (of no AFL in the SANFL). There is no sense in it. And quite frankly, every player in the SANFL wants to play and win a game of footy (no matter the opponent).

“What is all the whingeing about?”

Matt Panos played at centre in that Norwood team that defied the professionals of Port Adelaide in the 2014 grand final. He was in his second stint at Norwood after returning from Melbourne where he spent 2011 and 2012 trying to break into AFL ranks at the Western Bulldogs.

He will deal with the professionals from Adelaide this weekend, appreciating just how the Crows players feel being in a State league team. He did the same at Williamstown in the VFL.

“One of the best days of my life,” says Panos of the challenge to beat Port Adelaide in 2014, and a Port Adelaide team loaded with players living the AFL dream that has closed on him months earlier.

“I look back on that 2014 premiership – I wouldn’t say often – a little bit. It is the last premiership we won,” he says.

“It was the first grand final back at Adelaide Oval. Being Port Adelaide, the rivalry. We spoke about it quite a bit. Still relevant now. You want to beat those guys. They are professionals, doing it every day. Some of us have been fortunate to be in that scenario. You still want to win. The rivalry might not be what it was … certainly still is for us. We want to beat the AFL teams just as much as anyone else.

“We had belief (to beat Port Adelaide in 2014). It is not dissimilar to what we have at the moment (before Norwood plays the Crows). We have a lot of 23-year-olds who were in high school when we beat Port Adelaide in 2014.”

If Norwood fails this weekend, North Adelaide will become the standard bearer of the “No AFL in SANFL” crowd at the grand final at Adelaide Oval on Sunday week.

North Adelaide coach Jacob Surjan has lived on both sides of the growing divide between AFL and SANFL football. Drafted from Western Australia, Surjan played 121 AFL games at Port Adelaide before advancing to the club’s development programs as an apprentice coach in 2012 and 2013. He joined North Adelaide as the reserves coach in 2017 and has mentored its senior team since 2019.

Surjan advocates embracing AFL reserves sides in the SANFL and keeping them competitive – an issue that has challenged Port Adelaide recently, prompting the Port Adelaide football boss Chris Davies to repeatedly look at taking the reserves to the VFL.

“I do (want Port Adelaide and the Crows in the SANFL) and you want those teams to be strong,” Surjan said.

“Port Adelaide have been really, really unlucky this year with regard to their injuries. If Port Adelaide and the Crows have injuries it affects their SANFL team.

“The Crows have been really mature in the way they have recruited their guys; Isaya McKenzie, Jay Boyle, Louis Sharrad. They brought in more mature guys. Port Adelaide have some younger more developing type players. That is the difference in the two teams this year. They both have young, talented lists. I watched the last Port Adelaide-Crows game at Adelaide Oval before the Showdown and it was great football. The Crows have gone about their recruiting in a different way this year compared to previous years.

“It has worked for them. Having them both strong and hopefully they can stay in the competition for a long time.”

Brisbane strategy coach Mark Stone won an SANFL premiership with Glenelg in 2019 and has long argued the SANFL competition is better for having its semi-professionals rise to the challenge of matching, and beating, the professionals from the AFL clubs.

“Keep them in there,” Stone says. “I saw that Norwood-Crows qualifying final. I liked watching, with some bias, a lad from Glenelg in Luke Pedlar making his way towards an AFL career with the Crows. Some of his goals were just incredible. That is great for young AFL draftees like Luke in his development phase as an AFL player. He gets to play in those games against quality opposition. As an SANFL player, you just have to come up to the level.

“Look at the VFL. We had our Brisbane VFL (reserves) team play Southport in a final – and they were beaten. It is good. It can be done.”

Looking at the VFL, and the development value for AFL draftees, is exactly what Port Adelaide is doing? Would leaving the so-called best State league in Australia for the cumbersome VFL, that has AFL reserves teams and semi-professional teams from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, be worthwhile for Port Adelaide? More so if it costs the club any chance to play as “Magpies” in the traditional black-and-white bars jumper week after week each winter?

Mildura-born AFL rising star Dylan Stephens made his way to the national league through the juniors at Norwood while boarding at an Adelaide college. After being recruited by Sydney at pick No. 9 in the 2019 AFL national draft, Stephens has had to work his apprenticeship in the VFL that replaced the NEAFL State league in New South Wales and Queensland.

Stephens doubts Port Adelaide would be worse off in the VFL.

“The VFL is very different to the SANFL,” the Sydney wingman said. “SANFL is a lot more experienced; the bigger bodies. But the VFL has a lot of that AFL players who are not quite on the list or have just come onto the list as draftees. Just on the fringe. It is a bit faster the VFL. They are tough to compare. But both are a similar level.”

Stephens is not reading from the same hymn book that has so many SANFL leaders, coaches and players declaring no issue with semi-professionals playing against AFL professionals. Like Stone, Stephens watched the Norwood-Crows qualifying final.

“And I wasn’t happy about it,” Stephens said. “It was a pretty stacked Crows side. The Crows boys coming back from the AFL to the SANFL, I did not like it.”

When the Adelaide and Port Adelaide reserves teams were endorsed for the SANFL from 2014, the cynics among SANFL traditionalists argued the AFL clubs would prefer – in a season when they failed to qualify for AFL finals, as Adelaide did again this year – to send players for corrective surgery or on holidays rather than play State league finals.

Nicks has proven otherwise.

“We talk about finals footy at this club,” Nicks said. “There is nothing like it. SANFL finals is a great experience for our guys. We are the youngest squad in the AFL. We have guys playing in the SANFL who are young and still developing their games. We talk to them about the opportunity that is before them – it is about playing finals at any level of football. Finals just rise to another level. The experience they are going to gain over this month in the SANFL finals, that makes these guys really keen to play finals footy.”

Di Iulio is reassured by Adelaide’s intent in this year’s top-five final series.

“For the integrity of the competition,” Di Iulio said, “those AFL teams must want to win the flag. And one day they will. Their chances will depend on injuries – and top-up players.”

The SANFL traditionalists also constantly refer to former Adelaide Football Club chairman Rob Chapman’s promise that a Crows reserves team would draw 4000 fans to weekend matches, even though the Crows’ formal submission to the SANFL predicted 3000.

The drawing power of the Crows reserves team will be tested with a SANFL grand final appearance.

When Port Adelaide, a founding club of the SANFL from 1877, played its big rivals Norwood and Sturt in the 2014 and 2017 grand finals with AFL professionals, the turnstiles at Adelaide Oval clicked over 38,644 and 39,831 times. Port Adelaide had a traditional “Magpies” supporter base to march to Adelaide Oval.

Norwood and North Adelaide drew 40,355 to the 2018 SANFL grand final. What would a North Adelaide-Crows grand final generate at the turnstiles on Sunday, September 18?

The question is more concerning, considering the SANFL has drawn under 10,000 fans to the first two weekends of the finals series in which the Crows beat Norwood in the qualifying final and lost to North Adelaide in the second semi-final.