Why this country footy league has cut ties with AFL

A country football league has hit out an “immature” AFL after it dramatically cut ties with the sport’s governing body in Australia.

The Picola and District Football-Netball League, based in Victoria’s north, says it will save almost $80,000 after it opted against joining the local administration hub run by the AFL.

“Basically, the AFL introduced a new affiliation agreement last year which required the league to be affiliated to the local commission, which is a company overseen by the AFL,” PDFNL operations boss Shane Railton told Ross and John.

“With that came a number of requirement that were quite over-arching, you could say, and meant we lost a lot of our autonomy.”

He said the AFL was now trying to make life difficult for the league in other ways, such as excluding the competition’s young players from joining the Murray Bushrangers in the TAC Cup.

“I think it’s pretty immature,” Mr Railston said.

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