Future of Northern Football League clubs could be jeopardised unless rising player payments are curved, presidents fear
THE skyrocketing cost of player payments has Northern Football League presidents fearing for the future of clubs.
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NORTHERN Football League clubs need to spend at least $250,000 a season on players just to be competitive in Division 1, says Whittlesea president Rob Barker.
AFL Victoria has asked clubs across the state for feedback on the impact of skyrocketing player payments.
NFL presidents agreed the long-term future of clubs could be jeopardised unless spending was reduced, but a solution remains unclear.
Barker said clubs would always find a way to attract the best talent, even if measures such as a player points system were introduced.
“It’s the biggest problem we have, raising money and enough money to pay players,” Barker said.
“If you want to get ahead you’ve just got to spend more and more money.
“If you’re under $250,000 a year you haven’t got much hope of success. It’s not just a matter of winning a premiership, it’s just being competitive.”
Whittlesea has won just one game since claiming the Division 2 premiership last year, finding it near impossible to compete against Division 1 clubs.
“There are clubs in Division 1 that I know are spending three times as much as what we do,” Barker said.
“We just can’t get good players, (you can) when you spend that sort of money.”
Mernda president Jason Berry said his club feared the same fate if it won promotion from Division 2.
“We’re constantly talking at committee level about where we are at the moment and how much we’d probably have to pay if we get there to stay in Division 1 and stay competitive in Division 1,” Berry said.
“The gap we have to bridge is astronomical and where we are going to find those funds from, I don’t know.”
Berry said the problem was not isolated to Division 1, with clubs in Division 2 and 3 having to find more money to spend on players each year.
West Preston-Lakeside president John Schott said clubs were being forced to increase their spending to stay in the race for premierships.
“You’d be foolish not to think that your performance and your ladder position at the end of the year would pretty much determine what your player payments are,” Schott said.
Schott said the long-term financial viability of clubs was a key issue across the competition.
But he questioned whether a player points cap would work, adding clubs would find a way to exploit the system.
“I’ve got to be very careful here, (but) coming from a football background, footballers cheat,” he said.
“They cheat out on the football field trying to get a free kick and I think that probably continues on.
“If salary caps and all these point systems are brought in, somebody will rort the system.”
Northcote Park general manager Dennis McNiece said it would take a “crystal ball” to know whether a player points system would help control spending in the NFL.
The league raised rising player payments as an issue earlier this year, with most clubs expressing misgivings on the issue.
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