David Lipson: There’s big money in country football and struggling clubs say they are being severely disadvantaged as rich clubs get stronger. Some of those clubs allege others are breaching the annual salary caps for players and instead are making cash payments under the table. The Charlton Football Club in northern Victoria is now calling for leagues to implement a new player points system, whilst powerhouse BFNL club Gisborne near Melbourne says player payments should be stopped altogether. Shannon Schubert reports.
Shannon Schubert: On a sunny Saturday afternoon in northern Victoria, the Charlton Navy Blues are preparing to get smashed. Charlton’s on the bottom of the North Central Football League ladder and they’re yet to win a game this season. They’re facing the Sea Lake Nandaly Tigers who are second on the ladder and yet to lose a game this season.
Shannon Schubert: The Tigers dominate the first quarter but the Navy Blues hold their heads high and show some grit in the second.
Shannon Schubert: In the end it’s a 104 point loss. Charlton’s club president Kris Dixon says it’s hard to compete with clubs who can pay a lot of money for players.
Kris Dixon: When you’re trying to recruit from all a similar area it’s very hard when they could go half an hour up the road and getting paid three or four times more.
Shannon Schubert: The president of the Sea Lake Nandaly Football Netball club Ivan Tait says rumours of what it pays players to play is not accurate and player declarations are confidential and submitted to the AFL. But it’s not just competing against clubs with big budgets that’s the problem. Other clubs have breached their salary caps which has governing body the AFL on high alert.
Greg Madigan: I think just any breach in that space where it’s deliberate is an alarm bell.
Shannon Schubert: That’s the head of AFL Victoria Greg Madigan. He says salary caps and the player point system was introduced in 2016 to keep the money under control.
Greg Madigan: We’re on top of it certainly working collaboratively with the leagues across the state.
Shannon Schubert: Sixty kilometres northwest of Melbourne the Gisborne Football Netball Club has won both a senior netball and football premiership in the last two years. Its vice president Tony Brancatisano says the money is evil and he wants to see player payments banned.
Tony Brancatisano: It’s destroying clubs even if we put a moratorium on it for three years and say let’s try and get clubs back on their feet. If you look at it a lot of clubs can put this money back into the infrastructure.
Shannon Schubert: Peter Cole was the chair of the Heathcote District Football Netball League in central Victoria for six years. In that time he says he heard hundreds of rumours of clubs paying cash under the table including one about a club paying for a player’s house renovation that didn’t turn out to be true. He says the AFL should change the salary cap and player point systems to give struggling clubs more points and money to help them recruit players.
Peter Cole: Something’s got to be done in the near future otherwise the top clubs will be playing themselves.
Shannon Schubert: AFL Victoria’s Greg Madigan says it’s up to leagues if they want to change that and he thinks the money in football is manageable. Mr Madigan says the AFL is cracking down on salary cap breaches with a recent audit finding four Victorian clubs breached it last year. He says small country clubs folding is inevitable but the AFL’s committed to working with clubs and leagues to try and prevent this.
David Lipson: Shannon Schubert.