By JARROD POTTER
LOCAL football is set to be radically altered with AFL Victoria announcing a major initiative to combat increasing club expenditure.
The Community Club Sustainability Program (CCSP) was announced at a press conference on Thursday morning, where AFL Victoria laid out two major changes set to dramatically affect the local football landscape.
AFL Victoria in 2016 is set to trial a player points system as well as potentially a salary cap to prevent the rampant increase in player payments.
Following emphatic response to a 2014 survey – with 83 per cent of club responses supporting the introduction of a system or regulation to halt the rise in player payments – AFL Victoria has launched the program to curb the rapid growth in player payments.
AFL Victoria Community Football and Engagement manager Brett Connell said in the spirit of improving local football, these initiatives needed to be developed otherwise clubs across the state were at risk.
“Basically we’re saying if it’s going to be in the best interest of footy let’s trial something – let’s test something and see how we go,” Connell said.
“It’s a club sustainability model – if we keep going down the same path we know some of our clubs will be under threat.”
AFL Victoria has not set a specific dollar-amount for the proposed salary cap, instead choosing to consult on a league-by-league basis “to ensure a cap meets the local conditions” with leagues recommending “the parameters for the salary cap for the competition”.
In regard to the proposed points system, players will be classified by their playing history and also their playing achievements.
Players from the AFL, VFL and other second tier competitions and TAC Cup levels will accrue the maximum possible points allocation – up to six total.
Reductions can be gained if players return to their “home club” – where a player has played more than 40 games with a club in official competitions from under-17s and lower – or for each season of service to the club.
Additional points will also be allocated for a “Premium Community Player” who has achieved either top 5 finish in club B&F or top 10 finish in competition B&F, or club leading goal kicker last season, with a minimum of 40 goals.
Fines for those who breach the CCSP include relegation in divisional competitions, fines and bans from finals series.
In other findings from the CCSP – South East FNL, Peninsula FNL, Gippsland FL and Yarra MDFNL have been classified as Country Premier Community Competitions while Southern FNL Division 1 and Eastern FNL Division 1 will be classified as Metropolitan Premier Community competitions.
Players transferring from Premier Community Competitions to non-premier competitions will also be added an additional point once stage two begins. Ellinbank and District FL and Nepean FNL have not been classified as premier competitions under that classification.
