Portland considering move to South Australian league, Hamilton has been approached

Tigers president Troy Bannam said the South Australian National Football League had contacted the club about joining a new community league next season. He confirmed the move was a possibility.

"I got the call and we put it to the executive and a few on the executive were keen, then we put it to the committee and they were really quite keen to explore it," he said.

"It's probably grown a bit more legs than I probably anticipated, to be honest. We have been saying for a little while, there's been quite a bit of noise from our members and that just about potentially looking at going back that way for lots of different reasons I suppose."

Bannam said there were a number of factors why Portland - which joined the Hampden league in 2013 from the Western Border league - was considering the move.

"They're promising us lots of things I suppose," he said.

"Similar to when we went to the Hampden, initially we got promised the world and probably the first few years we did but we're exploring our options.

"We've had two finals (senior football) in 10 years in the Hampden league, we played our first final last year.

"I think just a lot of people are just a little bit disjointed with the whole thing I suppose. And having limited success probably hasn't helped our cause.

"We lose a lot of kids to Geelong for uni and we're losing kids to Geelong now for trade school. Initially we thought that maybe going that way (to Hampden) they might come back but we're just not having a real lot of success enticing them."

Hamilton chairperson Lachy Patterson confirmed the Kangaroos had also been approached by the SANFL about joining an interstate community league.

The club also joined the Hampden league in 2013 after Western Border league rivals Hamilton and Hamilton Imperials merged.

Patterson said the Kangaroos had not progressed talks with the SANFL.

"All I can really say to be honest is we have had some contact from the SANFL," he said.

"We haven't progressed our discussions at all at this point in time. We've got priorities around finding alternate venues for this season and obviously a few other issues happening around moving netball courts and more pressing issues for us at this point in time.

"So that's been our focus and at some point we may look to hear them out but at this time it's not a priority of ours at all."

Hampden league president Shane Threlfall said he believed the discussions were preliminary and the league hoped to see both clubs stay.

"It's only sort of in its infancy and the new combination of leagues happening over there (SA), I guess they're doing their due diligence and just putting out the feelers to see if clubs in their vicinity would be interested in joining them," he said.

"At this stage to my knowledge that's been done.

"I think the clubs are now just having a look at that option and giving the chance for those leagues to have a chat to them.

"We haven't discussed it at board level yet, at some point those discussions will take place if there's any progression with the talks.

"From my point of view, the 10 clubs that we've got now is fantastic. So we're really pleased with our current league structure and we'd hope to keep that."

The approaches to Portland and Hamilton come as South Australian officials look at revamping the south-east SA football landscape. Under proposals being mooted, the Western Border league would disappear.

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