Collingwood president Jeff Browne declares war on AFL’s contentious soft cap
Collingwood president Jeff Browne is leading a growing push against the AFL’s soft cap, demanding the restraints be removed.
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Collingwood president Jeff Browne has declared war on the AFL’s contentious $6.7 million soft cap, demanding the league remove the “equally illegal and dangerous” restraint.
The soft cap is poised to be a hot topic item for a growing number of club bosses this year with the groundswell against the AFL to be led by Browne.
The newly installed Pies chief said the financial restraints on club spending were compromising the welfare, health and safety of players.
“It is equally illegal and dangerous and the AFL simply must remove the soft cap,” Browne told Newscorp.
Fearing a failure to relieve clubs of the “burden” of the soft cap will lead to short and long-term consequences for the industry, Browne has also warned the limitations placed on resources run the risk of exposing clubs to liability for “not providing the safest and most secure workplace”.
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Browne’s comments came after the AFL Coaches Association said football department budget cuts and the soft cap were at the heart of the issue concerning coaches’ mental health and wellbeing.
After a News Corp coaches survey found more than three quarters of respondents considered mental health to be an issue among coaches, AFLCA chief executive Alistair Nicholson said the soft cap budget cuts needed to be addressed as a “matter of urgency”.
The soft cap was slashed from $9.7m to $6.7m after the Covid-19 ravaged 2020 season.
Browne said no one could argue the need to reduce the league’s cost base as it navigated Covid but clubs needed the “ability to rebuild their workplaces to industry best standard”.
He said the league had presented an “optimistic view” of the competition as it emerged from the pandemic at a meeting of the AFL Commission and club presidents last week but the “failure to relieve” clubs of the soft cap was at odds with the league’s message.
“It is simply not reasonable or necessary in the interests of competitive balance, to impose limits on the coaching, education, health and welfare support which the clubs need to provide to their athletes,” Browne said.
“In an industry that prides itself on best practice, the soft cap is a clear and unacceptable aberration and as much as a short-term cut to the cost base of clubs was prudent during the pandemic, the limit on providing these essential and vital services must now be removed.
“The soft cap imposes a layer of restraint that will have both short and long-term consequences that we as an industry must avoid if we are to be responsible and forward thinking.”
Browne first flagged his board’s intention to take on the AFL over annual distributions and the football department soft cap on the eve of his election last November.
“To say that clubs who can afford to append the most will have an unfair advantage is just not true in a system where access to players and the amount clubs can pay them, is so highly regulated.
“The draft and salary cap have operated effectively to even up the competition in the 30 years prior to the imposition of the soft cap and this additional restraint has added nothing, other than to compromise player welfare, health and safety.
Browne said the enforced cuts to resources on account of the soft cap could lead to clubs being exposed to liability for not being able to provide appropriate levels of care and support.
“As all workplaces become more complex and pastoral, clubs need to ensure that they have the resources needed to provide a high level of safety and proper, structured career development, both during a player’s time at the club and in preparing them for life after football,” Browne said.
“To limit the ability to do so, exposes clubs to liability for not providing the safest and most secure workplace and in some instances, directors of clubs face the risk of personal liability for failing to adequately provide an appropriate level of care and support for their employees.”
Browne said the only restraints on clubs should be the draft and salary cap and refuted the notion the Bulldogs and Melbourne only won flags due to the introduction of soft cap, which was established in 2015 to counter spiralling football department spending.
“The only legally permissible restraints to deliver competitive balance are the draft and the traditional salary cap,” Browne said.
“Clubs have broken long premiership droughts under this system as a direct result of great coaching, skilful recruiting and disciplined off field management.
“To say that the Bulldogs and Melbourne won premierships because of the sudden introduction of the soft cap is just absurd.”
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