Footy club caught in player points rort

A country footy club has come under fire for violating a strict player points system in a bid to make the West Gippsland league finals.

The Warragul Industrials have come under fire for breaching the league’s player points system.

A country footy club has infuriated rivals by violating a strict player points system to help advance to the finals.

West Gippsland Football League teams have called for competitive sanctions against Warragul Industrials after it was found guilty of breaching the AFL Victoria Points System, used to equalise community player appointments.

The AFL fined the club $3500 – with $500 suspended until the end of next season – after ruling it incorrectly declared the points assessment of two players.

But rival club executives branded the punishment a “slap on the wrist”, declared it a mater of integrity, and called for the team to be stripped of premiership points or kicked out of next year’s finals.

Cora Lynn Football Club president Terry Dillon, whose team was knocked out of the finals by Industrials, said a bigger probe was needed into the breach.

“It needs a thorough investigation,’’ he said.

“All I will say is a lack of governance has failed the clubs and there is no checks and balances in place to prevent this happening again.

“This should not have happened … steps need to be put in place to stop this from happening ever again.’’

Industrials football director Nick Gooden said he was initially asked for a “please explain’’ about nine players but last week told two had “points incorrectly applied’’.

“We were issued with a guilty nod that we had, under the interpretational section of the rules, breached the player points policy,’’ he said.

“It was definitely a mistake … I misinterpreted the guidelines.’’

West Gippsland Football League teams are calling for tougher sanctions for the Warragul Industrials football club. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Mr Dillon could see why other clubs were upset and said the issue had been made worse by the fact player points had apparently been altered on a popular website.

“One of the major issues at the moment is that after AFL Gippsland has partaken in their investigation, they’ve changed the player points on Play HQ for some of the rounds for some reason,’’ he said.

“I think that is adding to the storm … you would have to be an absolute moron to think you could get away with changing points week by week on players.’’

Inverloch Kongwak president Peter Butcher said Industrials, which last week lost a preliminary final with a goal kicked after the final siren in extra time, should serve a harsher penalty.

“Why do we even worry about having this player points system if it’s only going to be a slap on the wrist,’’ he said.

“Either lose points from next year’s player cap or start two or three games behind everyone else.

“It should be a significant fine and it should set a precedent.’’

In a statement, AFL Victoria said the club was found guilty of incorrectly declaring the Player Points assessment of two players.

“The breach with all evidence taken into account was considered an interpretational error,’’ it said.

It stopped short of saying whether it would consider further action.

“The penalty applied by AFL Gippsland is consistent with available sanctions under AFL Victoria’s PPS policy and was determined after AFLG requested that the club explain the breach and the club subsequently responded,’’ it said.