Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham has responded to comments made by Caroline Wilson on Footy Classified overnight.
Wilson said Pridham was urging the competition to undergo major independent reviews into the “entire competition”, including into whether 18 clubs is too many.
"This is not a review he thinks should be done by the commission, in fact I think Andrew Pridham said to the commission and their chairman Richard Goyder that they too should be reviewed,” Wilson said.
"He wants to review the Players' Association, all the clubs, the fixturing, the competition structure, the second-tier competitions, media deals, player managers.
"This isn't a two-year thing, this is a 20-year plan. Some clubs got a little paranoid because although he didn't say this, clearly 18 teams is something that there is support for a review of.
"There are clubs that believe that 18 teams is too many in the current financial circumstances."
Read Pridham’s response below
It is not appropriate to discuss what is said in what are supposed to be confidential meetings, but I and others have a long supported need to consistently review our game to make sure it keeps improving.
This should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. We have crisis - let’s see how we can best reset to thrive.
We have the greatest game in the world and we need to make sure it keeps getting better.
It’s been 27 years since the last review (Crawford Review) - all businesses and organisations do this at regular intervals every five years or so - we are significantly overdue - it’s time to look at all aspects of what we do and how we do it to see if we can improve.
Let’s look at everything, but not set any expectations or outcomes.
It’s just basic good governance and makes sense - we should see it in a positive light.
We have been through a tough season and done well so let’s seize the opportunity to get even better.
Nobody knows the future but we need to look in the mirror to see that we are best placed to thrive over the next 20+ years.
There needs to be some independence in a review as it would be terrible governance for anyone to review themselves.
Plus we need fresh eyes as they had 27 years ago.
AFL and the Commission have done a great job for 27 years so my views are not a reflection on them - just a view that we absolutely must do an audit of how things are done.