Aberfeldie president John Larkins responds to EDFL club’s critics after salary cap breach
AN ESSENDON District Football League club president has slammed suggestions his club should have been stripped of its 2017 premiership after a salary cap storm engulfed the competition.
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ABERFELDIE president John Larkins has slammed suggestions the Essendon District Football League club should have been stripped of its 2017 premiership after a salary cap storm engulfed the competition.
The perennial contender was hit with a $10,000 fine for breaching the EDFL’s $250,000 salary cap, which is the highest in Victoria, and met a torrent of criticism.
Aberfeldie made an unsuccessful appeal to AFL Victoria after an EDFL-appointed integrity officer from the state body found it was $9595 over the cap last year, with Greenvale coach and three-time Geelong premiership player Paul Chapman among those to call for Abers to be “stripped of their grand final win”.
But opening up about the saga to Leader, Larkins launched a fierce defence of his club, declaring “the flag’s in its rightful spot back at Abers — and it’s staying there”.
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“Absolutely. That is just so inaccurate, so unfair,” Larkins said when asked if he refuted suggestions the powerhouse club’s achievement was tainted.
“We’re aware that people think we were dealt with lightly, who don’t understand exactly what the process was.”
Abers, who have qualified for the decider in each of the past five seasons, were one of three clubs found to have breached allowable player payments rules, with Pascoe Vale and Essendon Doutta Stars committing administrative breaches.
In addition to the fine handed down, Aberfeldie will also be audited for the next two seasons.
It is understood the EDFL board is compiling the key learnings from the saga and will distribute those to member clubs.
In March, Torquay was slapped with $20,000 in fines and a raft of sanctions for going $3040 over the Bellarine Football League’s $100,000 salary cap last season.
AFL South East club Hastings self-reported it was almost $50,000 over the competition’s $150,000 payments ceiling in February.
The Blues were fined $45,000, with $35,000 suspended for two years pending any further breaches.
Abers’ star-studded squad includes former AFL players Kyle Reimers, Luke Blackwell, Luke Davis, Courtney Johns, Josh Toy, Tom Hislop and Mark Austin.
Chapman told the Herald Sun last month that “if you cheat you should win nothing”, adding “with such small sanctions there is absolutely no deterrent to cheating”.
However, Larkins said Abers “weren’t up to any tricks”, the club had “retained the respect” of its rivals and its players “understood the situation”.
“We’re very disappointed at the way in which I think it’s been managed — and that’s from a number of perspectives,” Larkins said.
“Our fundamental position, and this is where it has got confused, if you look at the pillars of a salary cap review or audit, you look at intention and disclosure. On both those fronts … we couldn’t have come up stronger on those aspects.
“As far as we were concerned, we were under the cap. My emphasis is simply it wasn’t something that happened that was passed under the table in a brown bag. These were disclosed interpretations of the rules.”
The salary cap was implemented last season in community competitions across the state to complement the player points system under AFL Victoria’s Club Sustainability Program, with education the focus of the first year.
“In fairness to the board of the EDFL, it was a learning year for them too,” Larkins said.
“We made the mistakes, but it was meant to be in year in which everybody was cut a bit of slack.
“To be called out in some quarters as though we’ve deliberately hidden something or behaved in a grossly neglectful or fraudulent manner, it is very disappointing.”
The EDFL’s $250,000 salary cap is greater than neighbouring Western Region and Northern leagues, which have a payments limit of $225,000 in their top-flight competitions.
The Ballarat ($140,000) and Riddell District leagues ($110,000) — which border EDFL territory — have significantly lower caps.
The EDFL figures are equivalent to $13,888 per week across the 18-round season — an average of $631 per player, with clubs required to disclose payments made to players by October 31 each year.
Clubs can lose premiership points, have their player points cap reduced and be ineligible for finals for up to three years if found guilty of serious breaches.
Plans are afoot for all metropolitan leagues to have the same salary cap by 2020.
AFL Victoria community football and development manager Stephen O’Donohue said: “The feedback AFL Victoria has received from the introduction of the Community Club Sustainability Program has in the main been positive.”
The EDFL would not comment on the penalty handed down to Aberfeldie, saying it considered the matter closed.
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