AFL Riverina will meet later this week with representatives of its two senior and two junior leagues to provide an update on the competitions review.

The review by independent consultant David Burgess handed down 14 recommendations back in August 2019, with a view to making changes for the 2021 season.

The arrival of COVID-19 blew that out of the water. Twenty-one months after its release, the review is back on the table, and timelines are top of the agenda.

AFL Riverina met with Burgess earlier this month for advice on how and when changes might now be made.

"At this stage, no decision has been made about changes for next year. It's more about the timing," said Marc Geppert, the AFL's regional manager for ACT and Regional NSW.

"Now that we've lost that 12 months to COVID, what does that do to our implementation plan? We're currently working through updating that at the moment."

AFL Riverina will discuss the review and recommendations with the Competition Management Commmittees (CMCs) of the Riverina and Farrer Leagues as well as Wagga and District Juniors and South West Juniors on Thursday.

The most significant recommendation was an overhaul of senior football, bringing in a tiered structure including a Premier League (of 8-10 clubs with firsts, reserves and under 18s), a Platinum League (8-10 clubs), a Community League and a Platinum under 18s competition.

"The biggest one is the senior competition structure," Geppert said.

"We certainly won't rush into making a decision for next year if both clubs and the CMCs don't feel as though we have enough time to implement it properly.

"We only get one chance at implementing this properly and if that means we need to push it back, we will. But at this stage, we haven't made that decision."

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A change to under 18s at seniors was to be complemented by adjusting junior leagues to under 12s, under 14s and under 16s age groups.

Geppert said the implemenation of all 14 recommendations can be looked at anew.

"They're not all major structural changes so I think there would be some of those recommendations that are possible. But there are some that might not be," he said.

"We'll get a feel from our local CMCs around some of those recommendations and if they're possible for 2022.

"If we're too tight, we'll get to that decision in enough time in the coming weeks to give everyone plenty of notice.

"But at this stage, we haven't quite worked out what those timelines are, and if there is time between now and next year to get them in place."

Geppert said the review remains important but getting clubs and full competitions back up and running took priority this year, after 13 senior clubs didn't play in 2019.

The Farrer League's four-team under 17.5s competition (including one merged team) is an area of concern, Geppert acknowledged, but on the whole he said the recovery has been good.

"I think we've bounced back really well to be honest," Geppert said.

"I believe the clubs have done an outstanding job to get to this point. To get to the point where there's a competitive Farrer League competition and a competitive Riverina League competition, with all of our senior clubs participating, we can't ask for much more than that.

"We can now turn our attention back to the implementation of the review."

Most AFL staff in the southern NSW office were stood down for months on end last year before a statewide restructure which impacted on resources.

While the headcount in Wagga wasn't reduced dramatically, there has been an impact on staff workload. (As an example, Geppert's role now covers ACT and all of NSW outside greater Sydney; rather than southern NSW).

AFL Riverina Competitions Review (2019)

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