RDFL junior results to have margins capped to improve player retention

A MELBOURNE football league has made a mid-season move to cap winning margins and stop recording best players and goalkickers as it tries to stop young players leaving the game.

Junior football margins are being capped in the RDFL. Picture: Peter Ristevski

THRASHINGS are no more in all Riddell District Football League junior matches after the league introduced a new rule midway through the season.

Margins will be capped in all under-12 to under-16 grades, with goalkickers and best players also not recorded on the league’s website for posterity.

Capping margins at junior level is hoped to improve player retention. Picture: Peter Ristevski

The score capping came into effect on June 18 after junior club presidents voted on the issue in May.

“The margin is capped at 80 points in under-16s, 60 points in under-14s and 48 points in under-12s, which aligns to the length of time played in each of those age divisions,” RDFL operations manager Steve Williams said.

“We ran a number of scenarios past the club presidents and the majority of presidents voted to implement the capping process as it now stands.”

Removing goalkickers was needed as part of the process, while club presidents also voted to scrap adding best players to the system, Williams said.

The rule came about after an AFL Goldfields junior review in 2015, which identified that constant heavy defeats was one of the main reasons young players left the game.

“It was hoped that an equalisation policy would help with player retention,” Williams said.

Two Goldfields leagues have introduced similar policies in the past two seasons. Williams said the mid-season launch was due to receiving “a lot of feedback at league level, hence asked the presidents to attend the meeting to discuss our options”.

Fourteen games were decided by more than the capped margins through the eight junior leagues during Round 10.

The rule will not be enforced during finals.