The radical change coming to under-age football in 2021

THE NAB League could be reduced to an eight-game season next year in another radical change to the elite under-age competition.

The slashed draw would force Victoria’s brightest teenage prospects to play more school, and even local, football next year.

The consideration is of serious concern to AFL recruiters and list managers who believe future draftees will not get the same level of medical, physical and off-field care afforded to them in the elite NAB League.

The players will also be scattered right across the state and be difficult to benchmark given the differing standard of opposition, prompting fears some will slip through the net.

The plan has further angered AFL club officials, already furious over the lack of consultation and communication from the league’s head of talent pathways and state league competitions, Tristan Salter.

The merging of the VFL and NEAFL into a new-look eastern seaboard competition caught many clubs completely unaware.

With list sizes expected to be cut, AFL clubs are bemused at the prospect of putting tiny squads on planes with top-up players for interstate games should they have growing injury lists.

The recent decision to switch the NAB League from under-16s and under-18s to under-17s and under-19s, despite the draft age remaining at 18, also shocked many who had not seen it coming.

It’s understood one high-ranking club official - charged with speaking on behalf of the clubs – recently contacted senior AFL staff to complain about Salter’s methods.

While the footy world is transfixed over where the Grand Final will be held, the frantic discussions and anger over what the second-tier competitions look like next year and beyond, is the game’s big watching brief.