Weekly Times | THE number of points to be allocated to teams under the AFL Victoria’s proposed player points system is emerging as a key concern for league officials.
AFL Victoria has entered the trial phase of its equalisation measures — a points system and salary cap aimed at combating the issue of rising player payments. The points system will allocate a value to players, and this trial period will be key to determining the upper limit of points clubs are allocated next year for their senior teams.
In country competitions, region commissions will be able to examine local factors, but AFL Victoria must grant final approval of both points and salary cap figures.
Murray Football League general manager Dale Norman said the proposals were “good in theory” but he was not convinced they would “stop the inflationary pressure on player payments”.
He called for an open forum with all leagues, in particular to hear from those with points systems already in place.
“I fear it will spell the death of community clubs who need to recruit from outside their area to put a team on the park, and do not have that local population or junior development within their club,” Norman said. “There is also other mitigating circumstances.
“If a local decision has to be made to increase the points value to a certain club or league, I believe it will create angst between clubs and leagues.”
He was blunt in his assessment of the salary cap proposals — “I don’t believe a salary cap will work. I think it will just create black money (money from third parties)” — and said the powers of auditors charged with investigating possible breaches needed clarification.
Mornington Peninsula Nepean league chief executive Jeff Jones said some clubs were quick to respond with feedback after a presentation last week.
Last year only two clubs from the three leagues that previously formed the PCN Sports Alliance — Peninsula, Nepean, and the now independent Casey Cardinia (South East) — returned the AFL Victoria survey assessing the player payments issue.
Jones was unsure how the error of distributing the survey happened, but felt the proposals would be “positive” while admitting some clubs would disagree.
The Nepean and Peninsula leagues already operate under their own points system.
Jones said one difference was that their system allowed concessions for “marquee players”, whereas the proposed system did not.
“It’s very much welcomed but ... it would be pointless for a player points-salary cap, let’s say at 39 points as it sits today and your salary cap is $125,000, and you’re sitting on the doorstep of Southern (league) who may have 44 points and a salary cap of $150,000,” Jones said.
“You’ve got to weigh up what else is going on around us before you settle on what is the ultimate salary cap-player points scenario.”
The Omeo and District league was another competition where no clubs responded to last year’s survey. League president Ray Gallagher attributed that in part to people believing the changes would not affect them.
Gallagher said the number of points his clubs were allocated was “crucial”, hoping it would be high enough to avoid any impact. He argued the clubs had transient populations and limited ability to retain juniors, factors that led to players attracting more points. He said AFL Gippsland’s Travis Switzer addressed some of the clubs’ concerns at a meeting last week, but some teams were “scratching” for players. “If we’ve got 18 people who can play on the day ... we don’t want one or two watching because they’re over the points,” he said.