Dwayne Russell believes the AFL is working towards introducing a national second-tier competition in 2022.

Talk of the new competition was mooted in March last year after the AFL reportedly held a meeting with club presidents and CEOs, with some reports suggesting the AFL was considering implementing it in 2019.

Speaking on SEN SA's Dwayne's World on Tuesday, Russell said he is of the understanding that the AFL has taken a couple of larger steps in the last couple of months.

"The national AFL second-tier competition… I'm told they're hoping to get up and running for the 2022 AFL season, so having a national second-tier competition where every AFL team, all 18 teams, have their reserves team playing in a national second-tier competition," Russell explained.

"What kind of format it's going to be, I can't tell you.

"I am told that in 2022 the idea is to have a national second-tier AFL competition, which is going to be interesting for the SANFL and the WAFL because it'll probably mean that there might be no Port Adelaide and Adelaide Crows in it (the SANFL).

"Exactly what the brief to the current two SANFL clubs that are feeder clubs for their AFL clubs is … I'm looking forward to finding out."

The last time there was a dedicated reserves league was in 1999. Since then, AFL-listed players that aren't selected have played in their state competition - Victoria’s VFL, South Australia’s SANFL, Western Australia’s WAFL or New South Wales and Queensland’s NEAFL.

Of the 18 AFL teams, 13 have their own standalone reserves side, with the five remaining clubs - Carlton (Northern Blues), Fremantle (Peel Thunder), Hawthorn (Box Hill), Melbourne (Casey) and St Kilda (Sandringham) – aligned with state-league clubs.

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