Noble Park president says it’s time to talk player payments in local football for 2020
As work continues to rescue local football’s 2020 seasons, Noble Park’s president says AFL Victoria needs to tackle the issue of player payments — and any decision has to apply to all competitions across the state.
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Should players be paid to play if local football kicks off this year?
Noble Park president Grant Connolly has no firm opinion on it, but he says AFL Victoria should put the issue on the agenda as it works towards getting leagues started.
The question of player payments comes amid concerns from some clubs that they will struggle to pay the bills if football comes back.
“If the players play for nothing, that would be great, but we’ve still got a $40,000-plus hit, and it could even be $50,000 just as running costs,” Glenroy president Murray Nilsson told Leader last night.
And last week Caulfield president Darren Stait said clubs would be “financially rooted’’ if football returned without spectators.
“It’s not just a matter of coming back for the sake of playing games. We’d have to return to almost normality,’’ Stait said.
Connolly said the question of player payments was one of many hanging over local football.
He said his club had not discussed it because there hadn’t been a decision about the season.
But he said AFL Victoria should start to talk about it with leagues, clubs and players.
He said any decision about payments would have to apply to all competitions in Victoria.
“It’s got to be all-in,’’ Connolly said.
“I think that sort of decision needs to be taken out of our hands. I think it needs to be an industry decision, because you can’t have one competition playing for nothing and another competition with a salary cap. Those rules and regulations need to be given to us, because we want to make sure that whatever happens we’re all on a level playing field. Otherwise you’ll get players jumping competitions because they can get a few bucks somewhere else.
“It’s got to be one-in, all-in, otherwise forget it.
“But it’s not that simple. If you go to the players and say there’s not going to be money in it, all of a sudden six or seven or eight of your better players could say they don’t want to be part of it, that they’re better off working or they wouldn’t want to risk injury or risk their careers and so. You could end up with a competition with sides without full lists. Then you could have a ‘lesser’ side with a full list, with players who are happy to play for nothing, end up winning the flag.
“I think it’s worth putting it on the table for everyone to discuss.
“It’s OK for clubs to say let’s not pay the players but you have to put it to the players. They’re the ones putting on the show. Put it out there and see what sort of response you get and what the fallout is.’’
He said there should be a survey of players to guide officials.
Connolly said playing half a season would cost clubs about $30,000 even without player payments. It would cover affiliation fees, insurance, medical supplies and lighting.
AFL Victoria has said there will be reduced salary caps should the season kick off.
In the case of the Southern league, if nine games are played, Division 1 teams will have match payment ceilings of $37,500.
The six senior leagues had a hook-up with AFL Victoria officials on Tuesday, but a return to the field looks some weeks away.
As a first step AFL Vic is working on guidelines for team training.
But it remains unclear if or when crowds will be allowed to games, as Victorian Sports Minister Martin Pakula acknowledged yesterday.
“In regards to a lot of community clubs, much of their revenue comes from kiosks, from gatherings, whether it’s after-matches and things of that nature, people gathering, which is not allowed and is not likely to be,’’ Pakula said.
“Those sort of crowd gatherings, even if sport is being undertaken, they are still going to be some way away. So the ability of community sporting clubs to earn revenue, we recognise, is severely compromised at the moment, for a very good reason though. It’s about keeping the community safe.’’
The State Government yesterday announced a $40 million package to help community sport through the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile it is becoming increasingly likely that Cricket Victoria will approve AFL Victoria’s request to extend the football season into October, should it proceed.
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