The Bathurst Bushranges will welcome the introduction of a two-tier, if the AFL Central West pushes forward to bring in its new strategic plans in 2020.
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The AFL Central West will aim to be back to two men's tiers next season - with a top grade and a reserve grade - but may potentially only have 16 players a side in the top tier and as few as 12 in a second tier, both potentially with shortened games.
The Bushrangers, Bathurst Giants, Orange Tigers and Dubbo Demons would all have a team each in both tiers, while Parkes Panthers and Cowra Blues would only have a team in the top tiers.
Bushrangers president Alex Sparks has welcomed the AFL Central West's proposals to introduce the two tiers.
"I think that it's really good that the AFL Central West is putting in the resources in build a strategic plan," he said.
"I think the league for a while has had a short term plan on where they wanted to go. Now to look forward and have some strategic priorities is great.
"Our opinion is that we're very supportive of the second tier competition. We've been splitting our teams evenly for the past four years and that's come at a cost to us, with mates playing against mates and for various trophies. For us, we're really excited to put in a first tier team, if it comes to fruition."
The Bushrangers club have had two teams in the AFL Central West competition since the 2016 season, with the Outlaws winning in 2017 and the Rebels being crowned champions at the end of the 2019 campaign.
Sparks believes that with a two-tier model, the Bushrangers would have their best players available in the top grade, which has not been the case during the past four seasons, having to divide players between the Rebels and Outlaws.
"It's really important because we've got elite players in the league that haven't played together or won a premiership," he said.
"Our immediate goal is to win a premiership in that division. For us to get our best players in that team will go a long way for us to achieve that."
In terms of the AFL Central West's proposal to drop down the usual 18 players to 16 in the top tier, Sparks said he would prefer the tradition upheld.
"We'd prefer to have 18-a-side and four on the bench, just like they do in the AFL," he said.
"In terms of second grade division, we're happy and we understand the need to drop numbers.
"Overall, at this point, we need to make different rules to facilitate this in the infancy and hopefully over the years we build up to a traditional competition with both grades having 18-a-side and four on the bench."
AFL Central West has also proposed reducing travel time for the Dubbo, Cowra and Parkes teams.
The AFL Central West is yet to make a comment on the proposal and is expected to make one by the end of November.