Giants team is entirely managed by GWS as a stand-alone team. From 2021 – will field a stand-alone reserves team in the VFL. Until 1981 – based in Melbourne and known as the South Melbourne Football Club, fielded a reserves team in the VFL reserves. 1982–1999 – the senior team relocated to Sydney, and continued to field a reserves team in the VFL reserves/AFL reserves/VSFL. 2000–2002 – partially affiliated with the Port Melbourne Football Club in the VFL, and also fielded a stand-alone reserves team known as the Redbacks in the Sydney AFL. In practice, Port Melbourne served as a reserves affiliation for up to six experienced players, and the Redbacks served as a development team for inexperienced players. 2003–2010 – fielded a stand-alone reserves team in AFL Canberra. 2011–2019 – fielded a stand-alone reserves team in the NEAFL (in the Eastern Conference while it existed). From 2021 – will field a stand-alone reserves team in the VFL. Push towards stand-alone reserves teams in the 2000s Starting in around 2011, there was considerable interest by many AFL clubs in abandoning league affiliations or host-club arrangements to form stand-alone reserves teams. A large contributing factor to this interest was the perception that the developmental autonomy and enjoyed as the only two clubs fielding stand-alone reserves teams in the VFL was responsible for the very strong senior AFL performances of those two clubs between 2007 and 2011, during which time they won four of the five AFL premierships. From 2003 to 2007, Geelong had won 67 of 118 AFL matches despite being the only AFL club to maintain a standalone VFL team in this time, or continually since the dissolution of the AFL Reserves competition at the end of 1999. In Victoria, some VFL clubs with a strong existing identity were also interested in ending their AFL affiliations after the strong performance of stand-alone VFL side Port Melbourne in its unbeaten 2011 season. This represented a shift from the prevailing thinking of the 1990s when the affiliations were arranged. At that time, particularly during the early 1990s recession, many clubs' finances were tight, so operating costs drove many decisions. At that time, some Victorian AFL clubs favoured the establishment of a WAFL/SANFL style of affiliation, with reserves players scattered throughout the VFL, because it would result in minimum management costs for these AFL clubs. The desire for teams to re-establish stand-alone reserves