Lara coach Brett Henderson calls for dramatic changes to local footy salary caps, player points after 276-point loss
Salary caps and player points were supposed to improve equalisation in local footy, but a country coach says dramatic change is needed as clubs across Victoria are stuck in a doom loop.
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Grim results and dramatic disparities are nothing new in the Geelong league, but Lara’s annihilation at the hands of St Mary’s was next level.
On their home turf, the Cats were decimated by 276 points – close to a competition record – as the scoreline read 4.4 (28) to 48.16 (304).
That came after shock 132-point loss to perennial struggler St Albans – who look to have turned its fortunes in 2025 around after years of pain – and a 20-goal thumping against Grovedale.
Lara’s star recruit, former North Melbourne player and trailblazer Majak Daw, played in the reserves at the weekend after failing to meet training standards.
The 34-year-old opened up to this masthead about his mental health and addiction struggles last month.
Cats coach Brett Henderson, who joined the club in the pre-season knowing it was going to be hard yards, has coached for three coaching local footy, the talent pathway and the VFL.
He said the St Mary’s loss was the worst day he has experienced on a football field.
“To lose a game of football by 276 points is embarrassing for I think everyone associated with football,” Henderson said.
“That’s the worst day I’ve ever had, there is no way around that. And it is not about me, I really feel for the players.
“I’m throwing three 16-year-olds out that are learning really hard lessons before they are ready to learn those hard lessons.
“The big bodies and all that sort of stuff which is clearly evident in this league, we haven’t got that apart from two or three guys, the rest of them are kids
North Shore, whose struggles and uncertain future are well documented, was thrashed by 264 points in their first game against Colac.
After three games, Lara has a percentage of just 12.9 in the seniors and 12.7 in the reserves, while North Shore’s sit at 5.8 (seniors) and 3.9 in the reserves.
AFL Barwon brought in equalisation measures through non-mandatory promotion to the Geelong league from the Bellarine, and tiered team points and salary caps.
However, those changes don’t help a team overnight. Lara has 44 points and a $105,000 salary cap, North Shore 46 and $108,000, while premiership favourite St Joseph’s — the minor premier last seaosn — has 38 and $100,000 to play with.
Henderson believes the points and salary caps, designed to enhance equalisation, have made the situation worse.
He says it has left lower-ranked teams — like Lara and North Shore — in a perpetual doom loop as the rich get richer.
“I don’t know how we can be competitive under this system. If you were down the bottom when this system came in, you are more than likely down the bottom now,” Henderson said.
“If you were up the top like Echuca (in Goulburn Valley league), they have played in the last five grand finals and they have won three in a row and they are probably going for four in a row.
“We’re playing with more points at the moment than St Albans and I’m looking at some successful clubs throughout Victoria. Echuca played with 28 points on the weekend.
“The other issue we’ve got is we’ve got the same salary cap as all these top sides, we’ve got no way of being competitive in the open market.
“And just get rid of this points system, because it is not working. It is diabolical.
“We are going to see the same top four clubs playing finals every year, the same sides down the bottom, and there is really in my opinion, no way out. And our hands are tied.”
Henderson has called on AFL Victoria to change what he believes is a broken system, fearing that more clubs will suffer the same fate as Maryborough, who departed the Bendigo league last year.
“Something has got to give,” Henderson said.
“It’s happened at Maryborough, it was happening at Kyneton and they had to jump leagues, it is hoping to Benalla and Tatura up in the Goulburn Valley league: there is no way out,” Henderson said.
“You are stuck, so something dramatic has got to be done. This system is clearly not working.”
Dire on-field results makes recruiting to improve your team an impossible task.
It is even more challenging for Lara, situated half an hour of out of Geelong and neighbouring the Western Region Football League (WRFL).
“If we are trying to recruit from the WRFL, they have $120,000 in their salary cap,” Henderson explained.
“So we get squeezed that way as well, and then guys don’t want to hang around for a rebuild for three or four years because you can go somewhere else and get instant success.”
“The issue now for us, and the issue for North Shore is, how do you get new players through the door?
“How am I going to entice players to the football club?
“If St Joeys and St Mary’s want to run around and beat sides by 275 points, good on them, but it’s to the detriment of football. And it is to the detriment of our local juniors who look at it and go, ‘I don’t want to get whacked by that every week’.”
Making matters worse, rival GFNL clubs have already reached out to Lara players in attempt to lure them over next season.
North Shore captain Jacob Sammut told this masthead that their players experienced the same thing as the club’s future was up in the air during the pre-season. .
Henderson labelled it as “immoral”.
“I’ve already got players getting phone calls about going to other clubs,” Henderson said.
“People are happy to pick at the carcass so to speak, it’s immoral and instead of kicking us down the road, I think people have got to come up with some sort of solution, some sort of support that’s going to ensure that the Lara Football Club can be a player in the Geelong League and be competitive.”
WHAT HAPPENS FROM HERE
Relegation and changing leagues is a touchy subject in the Geelong region.
But Henderson won’t be giving up without a fight.
“I’m not really interested in waving the white flag in any way, shape or form until another system is actually implemented, or this situation is put to the side,” Henderson said.
“Just to give us a bit of an opportunity to come up for some air and have a go at being competitive.”
North Shore is open to the idea, and may be forced to if the top-ranked Bellarine team on club championship for 2024-25 chooses to be promoted.
The Seagulls have a panel that will assess the pros and cons of remaining in the GFNL or joining the Bellarine or Geelong & District leagues.
Under the current model, GFNL sides plays every team at least three times over the two years.
New North Shore president Maryian Szponar wants to see the lower ranked sides play each other twice each season, describing the current fixture model as “crazy”.
“I reckon that’s crazy, because if I was running AFL Barwon, I would be sitting there saying ‘I want every side capable of winning four or five games’, and the top sides win even more,” Szponar said.
“Because what happens is if you’re following the bottom sides, you’ve only got the real stalwarts there.
“But if the top sides come in and say, ‘All right, we’re going to win today by eight or 10 goals’, they’ve still got to put a reasonable side on the ground.
“But if they know they’re going win by 20 or 30 goals, you put yourself in their shoes, do you really want to really play?”
However, Henderson maintains that more dramatic change is needed.
“We played St Albans first up who are supposedly around the same position as us, and they beat us by 132 points.
“We play Grovedale and they beat us by 20 goals.
“Unfortunately for North Shore and ourselves, we are sitting there going, a) how do we became competitive, and b) we play each other twice or three times a year, but what is that improving?
“Are we going to win three games and they are all against North Shore, or are North Shore going to win all three against Lara? Does that improve things? I don’t think so.”
A former player and president of North Shore during their glory years, Szponar has inflicted drubbings and been on the receiving end of them.
He said powerhouse clubs like St Mary’s and St Joseph’s were in a similar position to one where North Shore and Lara find themselves now.
“You look at St Mary’s v Lara, that is absolute bulls---,” Szponar said. “That isn’t a derogatory statement.”
“I played at North Shore and we have the league record, we kicked 49 goals, we kicked 300 points.
“We’ve been on top and done the same to sides, and (Lara has) probably be on top and done it to sides. We did it to Leopold when they first came, we did it to Joeys - I was playing then.
“We’ve all been in that position and you don’t want to be in that position.
“Us and Lara are two sides out of 12. If they send two sides out, well and good, whatever they want to do. But then you’ve still got another two sides that are going to come in and maybe do the same thing.”
North Shore and Lara aren’t the only clubs struggling in Szponar’s view in what has become an increasingly difficult local footy climate to navigate.
“Everyone’s struggling. Bell Park are struggling for under-18s, Leopold are struggling for under-18s,” Szponar said.
“Sooner or later, they will be in the same position. AFL Barwon need to really sit down and see what’s going on.”
Originally published as Lara coach Brett Henderson calls for dramatic changes to local footy salary caps, player points after 276-point loss
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