ADELAIDE is considering playing its reserves team in the South Australian Amateur League.
Club chief executive Steven Trigg says if the club cannot field its own reserves team in the SANFL, the local amateur competition was an option.
If the Crows are to play a seconds team in the SANFL next year, they need "unanimous" support from all nine teams.
Clubs have until next Friday to vote.
Trigg spoke at a media information seminar on Wednesday, just hours after his Port Adelaide counterpart Keith Thomas rejected the SANFL commission's latest reserves teams model.
Port Adelaide is standing by its stance that unless it's allowed to retain its junior development structure and have all unselected AFL players line up for the Magpies, it would "opt for the status quo in 2014".
Trigg wasn't able to guarantee the Crows' reserves would play in the SANFL next year because he said the league's clubs had only recently received an updated 'Adelaide' proposal.
"No, I'm not confident and that's because I don't have any basis to be confident at the moment," Trigg said.
"If we don't [play in the SANFL], we'll play in the amateur league.
"I'll put a bond on it if you like … we'll have something going next year.
"It sounds like a threat but it's not; we just need a fall back option."
There is also the possibility Adelaide could play in the SANFL next year without the Power.
However, Trigg said there was the potential for SANFL clubs to reject the plan as the initial pitch was to have both teams in the competition.
"I'm [not] distracted by [Port Adelaide]. We were asked to put the proposition that suited us, we did that, " he said.
"That other play or other movement that's going on over there is out of our control. It is what it is."
If the state league clubs reject the proposal, Trigg said the club had looked into fielding a team in either the VFL or North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) even though it "just didn't make any sense" to play interstate.
He said the amateur league, as well as being logistically easier to organise, offered Crows players a more physical competition to develop in than the SANFL reserves.
If the proposed model is accepted and Adelaide played its reserves team in the SANFL, a number of 'top-up' players will be needed to fill a side.
In conjunction with the individual club, the Crows could select two players who were not playing senior football from each of the nine traditional SANFL teams.
Those players would be developed by Crows coaches and then returned to their SANFL club if they were deemed good enough for senior selection.
Ultimately, Trigg said Adelaide didn't care where or how it received top-up players, as long as it pleased SANFL clubs.
Details regarding the colour and design of the jumper for a seconds team are yet to be determined, but Trigg said the other clubs did not want the jumper to resemble Adelaide's AFL guernsey.
"The majority are saying, 'If you turn up in Crows jumpers and the kids who are barracking for the Crows turn up in Crows gear and here we are at Unley Oval trying to get the Sturt brand up…it doesn't work for us,' he said.
"'If you turn up in a different strip…you're not swamping us with the Crows stuff… we all know who's in the jumper but just have a different look' – we had a real empathy for that."
Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.
