Bendigo Advertiser | SALARY caps ranging from $120,000 to $160,000 will be officially introduced across the four AFL Central Victoria senior leagues in 2017.
Bendigo’s salary cap has been set at $160,000, Heathcote District and North Central will be between $135,000 and $140,000 – there’s still some tweaking to be done before it’s finalised - while Loddon Valley will be $120,000.
The salary caps are part of AFL Victoria’s Community Club Sustainability Program, which aim to create a much stricter new landscape for recruiting and ease the financial burden on clubs by combating increasing player payments.
As part of the program, which was announced in May, a player points system will be introduced next year state-wide.
However, the salary cap won’t be brought in until 2017. Instead, a “soft cap” will be introduced across AFL Central Victoria’s four leagues next year, which will give the opportunity for clubs to begin scaling their payments down if need be.
“Why we call it a soft cap is because if we see a club that is going out against the principles of the system and spending big knowing that the following year we have a really strict cap, we want to have something in place to deter that,” AFLCV regional manager Paul Hamilton said on Thursday.
Each league’s salary caps for 2017 have been determined following feedback from clubs on their player payments the past two seasons.
Hamilton said that 75 per cent of clubs across the region wouldn’t be affected by the salary caps that have been set.
“We’re not asking the clubs to pay to those amounts if they can’t, what we’re wanting to do is reduce the gap between the highest and lowest-paying clubs,” Hamilton said.
Fifty per cent of a playing coach’s wage up to $20,000 will be included in the salary cap, with clubs having been warned by AFL Victoria under the new rules that “just like the tax office, when your time comes to be audited you will need to demonstrate full compliance.”
Clubs who breach the salary cap once it’s officially introduced will risk fines, loss of points, suspension from finals and player suspensions.
