They train like pros, live like amateurs and dream like champions. This is life across Australia’s state league football. In the world of Australian Rules football, the spotlight usually shines on the AFL, the nation’s professional competition where full-time athletes chase premiership glory under bright lights and in front of packed stadiums.

Beyond that elite level lies the state leagues: the VFL in Victoria, WAFL in Western Australia, and SANFL in South Australia. These are semi-professional competitions filled with players who train like professionals but work day jobs to pay the bills. Some are chasing a second chance at AFL stardom; others are playing for the sheer love of the game. They’re sparkies, tradies, teachers, and students. And after a long day’s work, they swap steel caps for footy boots and take to the field.

Welcome to state league football, where the sacrifices are constant, and the reward isn’t fame; it’s simply the love of the game.

In Western Australia, Conal Lynch works full-time as an electrician while playing in West Perth’s midfield in the WAFL. His days begin well before sunrise and often finish under the harsh glow of floodlights.

“You’re always balancing doing enough to keep your work happy to be able to get to training,” he says.

“Most boys seem to make it work, you’ve just gotta be open and honest.”

On the other side of the country, Northern Bullants ruckman Lochie Simpson is navigating the same grind. After a promising basketball pathway to the US was wiped out by COVID, Simpson transitioned to football and now trains with the VFL club while working full-time installing solar panels.

“It’s pretty gnarly,” he says.

“Work from 7am to 3:30pm, gym at 4:15, training from 6 till 8:30, then home and back up at 5am the next day.”

Simpson trains six days a week, three with the club, the rest on his own.

“There’s almost no personal life,” he says.

“You do it because you’re chasing something bigger.”

Financially, that “something bigger” isn’t coming from the VFL. Players like Simpson train like full-time athletes, but unlike their AFL-aligned counterparts, they don’t have the same resources, support staff or facilities.

Juggling physical labour with high-intensity state league footy leaves little room for recovery. Lynch, currently managing bursitis in his foot, says injuries are a constant part of his life, and many around him. He must also bear some of the financial cost of his injuries.

“You pay for scans yourself initially, and the club might cover half. That’s the risk we take to play,” he says.

Standalone clubs like the Northern Bullants rely almost solely on their community funding as well as things like local sponsorship, meaning their match payments are modest, and in most cases completely non-existent until the season begins.

“We started pre-season back in mid-October, and you’re not going to see any reward until March,” Simpson says.

“And even then, you never really know, you might not get picked, and if you don’t get picked, you don’t get paid.”

Former Adelaide Crows recruiter Nick Lambert says the struggles are known and considered, and while recruiters closely monitor state league talent, he says there’s also context to consider.

“There’s always those success stories,” he says.

He explains that it’s not just about a player’s form at state league level, but about list dynamics and positional scarcity.

“There’s more to it than just dominating. A ruckman or key defender might get a look in quicker because there’s never enough, whereas you’ve got eight, 10, 12 midfielders on your list that are probably better than the next VFL player.”

Lambert acknowledges the imbalance in a system where AFL-aligned clubs often overshadow standalone teams like the Northern Bullants.

“Those amateur athletes are trying to compete against full-time professionals. I don’t see much value in either winning or losing by 126 points, it’s not a great judge of talents,” Lambert says.

Standing at 206cm, Simpson is one of the tallest players in the VFL. He still feels the pressure to prove himself.

“After playing last weekend against Collingwood and against Mason Cox, I thought I would have been a pretty good shout for this weekend [VFL Round 1],” he says.

“Then I have to go back and play local, who are still in their preseason, so yeah, it’s tough.”

Lynch echoes the frustration, pointing to the personal pride that comes with playing state league footy.

“For me, it was definitely the prestige of playing WAFL,” he says.

“You might look at the match payments we get, it’s quite good for a Saturday, but when you work it out to an hourly rate, it probably doesn’t come out all that well.”

Despite the hurdles, both players remain committed. Simpson still eyes a breakthrough AFL opportunity.

“When I was playing basketball, the goals were: go to college, go to the NBA. That was it, that was the goal,” he says.

“Having the opportunity to switch to football, it went to: play local, play VFL, play AFL. They’re the steps, that’s the goal.”

Lambert says the AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft has helped extend that dream for this exact type of mature-age player.

Introduced in 2019, the mid-season draft gives AFL clubs the chance to sign standout state league players during the season. Often as injury replacements or to reward breakout form in the state leagues. Facilities and support structures around these state league clubs often pale in comparison to AFL setups, but, according to Lambert, it doesn’t affect recruitment decisions.

“A good footballer will do well in most environments,” he says.

“West Perth and the Bullants probably have worse facilities than some local clubs. But if you’re good enough, you’ll still dominate.”

He points to state league success stories like Sam Menegola and Tim Kelly—players who spent years dominating the WAFL until they forced an AFL club’s hand. Sam Menegola spent years plying his trade in the WAFL after being delisted by both Hawthorn and Fremantle, finally breaking through with a standout season for Subiaco in 2015 that earned him a debut at Geelong at 24. He’s gone on to play over 100 games at AFL level.

Tim Kelly followed a similar path, starring for South Fremantle in the WAFL before being drafted by Geelong at 23, where he won the AFLPA Best First-Year Player award in his debut season.

For Lynch and Simpson, and for each of their teammates and opponents, that grind continues. Each gym session, every ice bath, all the early alarms and late finishes, they’re sacrifices made in the hope that someone notices.

That maybe, just maybe, they’re next.

Article: Cam Burt is a second-year Bachelor of Media and Communications (Sports Media) student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on X at @coachcavcam.

Photo: Supplied by author.