Weekly Times | AFL Victoria’s Brett Connell says he is feeling “very positive” ahead of the statewide player points system being rolled out next season.
The points policy coming into effect statewide next season is the first major action following the state body’s commitment to tackle rising player payments.
Connell, AFL Victoria community football and engagement manager and chair of the panel developing the sustainability measures, said last week the policy was getting a final check from the AFL legal department before it was “ready to roll”.
Leagues have until the end of next month to adopt the policy for next season.
The player points policy assigns values to players based on their playing history. Players who have reached elite football levels are worth more points, and there will be a limit on the cumulative points value of a fielded senior team. The system aims to reward the development of home players, and retention of recruits.
Last week the Goulburn Murray commission released the points values clubs in three of its leagues would work under next season, with clubs in the Murray and Kyabram District leagues permitted to apply for extra points for next season. The Picola and District league has so far rejected the policy, but the commission says it will work with the league until the October 31 deadline for implementation.
This week the leagues in the Wimmera Mallee, Sunraysia and Central Murray commissions are expected to receive their points allocations for next season. Region general manager Bruce Petering said a range of values would be allocated to clubs within leagues.
AFL Goldfields region members met on Monday night to assess 22 applications for extra point allocations from clubs from its four leagues. Region general manager Rod Ward said he would encourage the panel to look at the applications of Central Highlands club Smythesdale and the Ballarat league’s Sebastopol “favourably”.
Connell said the sustainability panel would continue to focus on the statewide salary cap policy, which was delayed until 2017. “(Feedback) was pretty strong across the state that we really had to be certain that we had that nailed and we weren’t convinced that we were probably there yet,” Connell said.
Last week AFL Goldfields also announced salary cap figures for its four competitions for the next three seasons but in next year’s pilot year clubs will not be audited or penalised for breaches. Its commission has raised concerns with AFL Victoria about the points allocated for 2016 and salary cap for 2017 for some metropolitan leagues. Connell said the concerns weren’t “insurmountable”.