Country footy league acknowledges the “controversial” start to season

Wangaratta is “shattered” after its team was stripped of the 2022 premiership after self-reporting a salary cap breach. Read what the league said.

Ovens & Murray FL, Grand Final, Wangaratta Magpies V Yarrawonga Pigeons, at Lavington Sports Grounds, the winners - Wangaratta Magpies, Picture Yuri Kouzmin

A country footy league has spoken out about its decision to strip Wangaratta of its premiership title, saying it needed to send the “strongest possible message” to all clubs.

Ovens and Murray Football Netball League chairperson David Sinclair on Wednesday night addressed the season’s launch party in Albury and acknowledged the “controversial” off season due to the “Wangaratta issue”.

“I feel that the Wangaratta issue is the elephant in the room, and it needs to be spoken to so that we can move on,” he said.

“Following the board meeting on Monday night, it was felt that we needed to send the strongest possible message to community football, that the integrity of the competition is paramount.”

The decision was made after the Wangaratta Magpies were found guilty of a salary cap breach.

It comes after the Wangaratta community this week expressed feeling “shattered” at the “heartbreaking” board decision to strip its beloved footy team of its premiership title, calling for it to be overturned.

Wangaratta’s mayor Dean Rees on Tuesday said he hoped there was “good logic” behind the decision to strip the Wangaratta Magpies of the 2022 Ovens and Murray League’s premiership title.

“I’m looking forward to seeing why and how this happened. At the end of the day, people make mistakes, and someone’s obviously made a mistake with adding up the numbers, and it’s a shame because the Magpies were a great team last year and played very well with all their heart for the community,” he said.

He hoped the salary cap breach was an “accident” but understood the club still had to “cop to the consequences”.

“The Magpies are a strong team, and Wangaratta has been through a lot in the last few years. I hope there‘s no further detriment to the community or the Magpies Football Club, who are a great team.”

Ovens & Murray FL, Grand Final, Wangaratta Magpies V Yarrawonga Pigeons, at Lavington Sports Grounds, the winners - Wangaratta Magpies. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

The first such decision in country footy comes after the Magpies had until this week avoided losing the premiership title despite being found guilty of breaking the salary cap by $28,000 last year when it beat Yarrawonga by three points in the grand final.

AFL Northeast Border also fined the club $28,000 and prevented it from earning premiership points from the first two games of the season while also cutting its player points from 40 to 36.

Wangaratta local and loyal Magpies fan Michael Humphrey said he was pretty “shattered” that the players were paying the price for the breach.

“If it is what they say it is, then the unfortunate thing is it had nothing to do with any of the players. The players play each week with their hearts on their sleeves for the community.”

He said the decision was “harsh” and “just a real shame”.

“They’ve been let down by the club a bit; it’s just heartbreaking,” he said.

Another fan, Patrick Wingrove, said the decision felt like “a bit of a kick in the guts”.

“We’ve obviously had the salary cap issue come up but we can’t be the first club to have this issue? It feels like a bit of a knee-jerk reaction,” Mr Wingrove said.

“It’s a premiership that’s been taken away - it’s what every player plays for, and so to have that taken away, it’s just shattering.”

Mr Wingrove said he hoped the decision could be overturned.

“If there’s any way that it can be reconsidered, then I’d hope that that could be the case. To take away something that the boys won in such a tremendous fashion, it’s just way over the top, into the guts, and I worry about the club’s future going forwards,” he said.

Cameron Mighell, who once played for the club, said the decision had “galvanized” the community.

“[We’re feeling] pretty distraught, especially after losing a bunch of Grand Finals before and dealing with the floods. Sadly, it’s been stripped away like this, especially without any other club being audited. I think that’s completely unfair,” Mr Mighell said.

He also called for other clubs to be audited in the same way.

“I don’t understand how you can apply those sanctions when no other club has been audited, ”

Joe Richards, 16, Wangaratta Magpies, at Lavington Sports Grounds. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

It comes after League chairman David Sinclair confirmed the board found Wangaratta in breach of rules by not staying under its $125,000 salary cap.

AFL Victoria has confirmed a Wangaratta player received an extra payment last year that in part pushed the club over the $125,000 salary cap.

The club also failed to name all players who received remuneration for playing last season.

The errors weren’t picked up until the end of the season when Wangaratta was reviewing its financials for the year.

Wangaratta had been under investigation due to “inconsistencies identified in compliance auditing” and when the errors were discovered it self-reported the breach.

The club didn’t appeal the initial sanctions and attributed the breach to an “administrative error”.