Southern league locks in salary caps for next three years
And the league has shaved a point off every player, giving it an advantage over country leagues that have chosen not to apply the reduction.
Southern
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The Southern league intends to adopt the new $100,000 salary cap for the next three years.
The SFNL, Northern, Eastern, Essendon District and Western Region competitions have all cut the player-payments ceiling to $100,000 for their top divisions in 2021 as community football takes steadying steps from COVID-19 and a year without football.
AFL Victoria recommended the uniform cap.
The Southern league adopted it this week, also setting it at $75,000 in Division 2, $40,000 in Division 3 and $30,000 in Division 4.
SFNL chief executive officer Lee Hartman said the league would review them annually but intended to keep them for three years.
“All the metro leagues are on the same page about it,’’ he said.
“We don’t think it’s stable going down only for one year. We think with some of the hits clubs have taken, it will take a couple of years to bounce back, so we’re pretty keen to lock that in for three years.’’
The points caps for each division will again be set at the state maximum of 47.
And a one-point reduction will apply for all players who were registered with clubs when the season was called off on July 3.
Southern and all the other metro leagues have decided to give a “season of service’’, as they are entitled to do under AFL Victoria rules.
Some country leagues, however, have not decided to apply it.
The issue has become a big talking point in AFL Barwon, with former Williamstown VFL general manager Brendan Curry, now involved at Barwon Heads, saying it was “absolutely staggering’’ there would be no discount.
Leopold president Richard Hockley told the Geelong Advertiser: “If metro (competitions) are going to reduce a point across the board, it looks like it puts us at a disadvantage — a big disadvantage — because a lot of the quality players will have to go to Melbourne because clubs here will have to turn them away.
“We won’t have the points capacity to fit them in.”
Hartman said this morning that the point reduction was a “small win for the clubs’’.
“It’s going to be hard enough for the clubs to bounce back from this period as it is, so we’ll do anything we can to help,’’ he said.
“At the end of the day, the players were on the lists and they did pre-seasons and they were ready to go. Through no fault of their own the season didn’t proceed. We just see it as small reward for the clubs, bearing in mind that the players need to stay at their clubs to get that point discount.
“So we’re trying to promote some loyalty there as well, because as I said it’s going to be hard enough for clubs to bounce back as it is.’’
Hartman said the league was confident all clubs would be returning next year.
“We’ve spoken to them all individually and they’re all pretty buoyant,’’ he said.
“There were some concerns there for a while but as time has gone on we’ve realised they should all get back. Having said that we can’t take our eye off the ball.’’
As for the league’s financial position, Hartman said COVID-19 had weakened it, taking away club affiliation fees and revenue from finals.
The league has received small business and sporting association grants and staff have been placed on the JobKeeper program.
“Without that we probably would have had to shut the doors for a period of time,’’ Hartman said.
“We’ll be back next year but obviously we’ll have to watch our cash flows.’’
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