Ranking the sub-AFL leagues?

[Sanecow]

Searching for James Meiklejohn forced me to look at the team list of Port Adelaide. They recruited Clive Waterhouse and James Meiklejohn this year. Not bad! Looking at their game results I see the names Cockatoo-Collins and O'Loughlin too (I know, I feel dirty).

Which made me wonder, what is the highest level of competition outside the AFL? I actually imagine the VFL is the best (don't Victorian AFL clubs play their reserves in the VFL?) but how do the SANFL, WAFL, VFL compare (and how do QLD / ACT / Tassie's NTFL/SFL compare)?

Does anyone have any idea of the relative merits of the various leagues? The total number of AFL games played by players in each comp. / the total number of players in each comp would be interesting (from my position of total ignorance anyway).

[Wil]

Re: Ranking the sub-AFL leagues?

Originally posted by Sanecow
Looking at their game results I see the names Cockatoo-Collins and O'Loughlin too (I know, I feel dirty).

I had a quick look and saw the name Fitzgerald. Same ex-Sydney player or *gasp* someone else with the same last name?

[Sanecow]

Re: Re: Ranking the sub-AFL leagues?

Originally posted by Wil
I had a quick look and saw the name Fitzgerald. Same ex-Sydney player or *gasp* someone else with the same last name?

Do you reckon there are as many Cockatoo-Collins and O'Loughlins playing AFL as there are Fitzgeralds?

[Sanecow]

Turns out there's umpteen Cockatoo-Collins.

[ugg]

Quite a number of former Swans have gone on to the SANFL, more so than the VFL:

SANFL
* Scott McGlone, Gerard Bennett, Ryan Fitzgerald (South Adelaide)
* Aaron Rogers (Glenelg)
* Ricky O'Loughlin (Port Adelaide)
* Robbie AhMat (Norwood)
* Simon Arnott (Central Districts)
* Simon Feast, Luke Jarjoura (Sturt)
* Wade Chapman (West Adelaide)
* Adam Heuskes (North Adelaide)
* Ryan O'Connor (Port Adelaide and North Adelaide)

VFL
* Peter Filandia, Michael Swan, Chris Obst, Brett Rose (Port Melbourne)

WAFL
* Michael Swan (East Perth)

SFL
* Jason McPherson (UNSW and Western Suburbs)
* Tom Hill, Daniel McPherson (North Shore)
* Troy Luff (Balmain and UNSW)

Feel free to add to the list.

[David Votoupal]

Here would be a rough ranking of sub-AFL leagues:

STATE LEAGUES
SANFL, VFL, WAFL

MAJOR REGIONAL LEAGUES (sorted by category)
Victoria Country:
Goulburn Valley, Ovens & Murray, Geelong, MPNFL, Ballarat
Hampden, Bendigo, West Gippsland-Latrobe, Western Border
Murray, Central Murray, Wimmera, Sunraysia
North Central Mallee, Bellarine, Yarra Valley Mountain

Amateur Leagues: VAFA, SAAFL, WAAFL

Melbourne Metro: Eastern, Diamond Valley, Essendon District, Western Region, Southern, Riddell District

SA Country:
Southern, Riverland, Barossa Light Gawler, Spencer Gulf, Whyalla, Port Lincoln, Broken Hill (though it's in NSW), Great Southern

WA Country:
South West, Upper Great Southern, Great Southern, Great Northern, Avon, Peel, Goldfields

Other states/territories:
ACTAFL, NTFL (NT), NTFL (Tasmania), AFLQ, Southern FL (Tasmania), Riverina FL, the Sydney FL while improving would likely fit below those.

But as I said, this is a rough guess and by no means complete

[Norris Lurker]

Originally posted by ugg
Quite a number of former Swans have gone on to the SANFL, more so than the VFL:

* Robbie AhMat (Norwood)

Robbie's back in Sydney now - playing for Campbelltown in the Sydney AFL.

[ScottH]

Arnott starred in the recent Vic v SA game @ vfl level.