Local footy 2020: Mick McGuane’s advice for local clubs to survive
Three-time Keilor premiership coach and Collingwood great Mick McGuane says community football clubs need to act to ensure they come through the coronavirus crisis and prosper.
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Collingwood great Mick McGuane has warned “greed can often kill” as he urges community football clubs to develop long-term plans to safeguard their futures amid tumbling revenues.
The three-time Keilor premiership coach said senior players would have to take a significant hit well beyond this year as clubs seek to stay afloat.
Several have suffered a collapse in sponsorship in recent months, with countless small businesses forced to pull the plug on their support of sporting clubs.
The Essendon District Football League has scrapped player payments this year, along with the Western Region and Southern leagues.
AFL Victoria is also set to cut salary caps by at least 50 per cent in 2021.
It means EDFL Premier Division clubs could have about $100,000 to spend on players next season – $150,000 less than their limit in 2018.
“This is where we’ll have to re-condition players to say the game of footy’s not your job, which we should never think it is for players at local level anyway,” McGuane said.
“In some cases they get well paid, and rightfully so, but in this unprecedented time there has to be some logic at the table.
“We want the club to prosper, be viable and remain operational so the next generation who are a family or a player can be part of any club in the next 10 or 20 years.
“If (clubs) think they can survive this and outlandishly not save costs or suppress the money you need to stay viable, they might be extinct in the next two or three years. They’ll have to be managed really well.
“They have to understand if there’s a salary cap of 50 (thousand), you don’t have to spend 50. You can spend 30 to save your coffers.
“Greed can often kill. If we lose two or three clubs that try to remain viable … it just will destroy competitions.”
McGuane said clubs would need to be creative to capitalise on fundraising events and not rely too heavily on sponsors or benefactors.
He said clubs which operated on a “year-on-year basis” needed to look long-term to ensure their survival.
He said the coronavirus experience should be used to help them “ride through the turbulence” if another crisis presents itself in coming years.
Nineteen competitions across Victoria have cancelled their seasons, including Melbourne’s Eastern and Northern leagues.
“I just hope people don’t use this time to break rules, test the salary cap, recruit a player from the Northern league and offer him $400 (a game). They’ll get found out, and I hope they do,” McGuane said.
The 1990 AFL premiership player said he was not in favour of attracting players from rival leagues on a temporary permit.
McGuane’s Keilor completed an unblemished 20-0 campaign in 2019 and boast an enviable junior program.
“It’s definitely not appropriate in our case to bring in four or five players from the Northern or Eastern league and disrupt our culture that we’ve built,” he said.
“I don’t want to turn my back on a 19-year-old kid that I believe in two years’ time will be playing senior footy.”
McGuane backed the EDFL’s decision to have a zero salary cap.
Keilor Park and Jacana have gone into recess in recent years, and the dual Collingwood best-and-fairest winner said the sustainability of all clubs had to be top priority.
“For the competition, we had to start the discussion at the club saying, ‘We can’t survive’,” McGuane said.
“Without that club, we’ve got no competition.
“We could play tomorrow and pay our players, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for the greater good of the competition.
“As much as we feel for our players during this time that they’re not getting remuneration for their services, we also understand … once we get back to normality, because we’ve sacrificed now for the greater good, you or the next player coming in can be of benefit in two or three years’ time.”
The State Government has given senior competitions the green light for kick off from July 20.
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