Local footy recruiting: Inside the lucrative offers, salary cap concerns and how deals get done
Local footy recruiting in Victoria is big business with eye-watering packages being offered around the state. DAN BATTEN goes deep inside club land to discover how the mega-deals take place.
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Lucrative offers above $300,000 and a private plane to games, recruiters scouring the state and looking years into the future to shore up your list.
It’s not just happening in the AFL.
Cashed-up local footy clubs across the country – particularly in Victoria – are on the hunt for new recruits every off-season, fighting as hard through September to March as they do on-field when the whips are cracking.
Local footy recruiting has always been a competitive business, but in the social media age with player points caps and salary caps in place, the latter being open for rorting, clubs have to put in the work to beat their rivals to the punch.
And some sides go to extreme lengths to secure stars.
On recruiting platform Trainstop, a site that connects local footy players and clubs, one regional club put forward a godfather offer to an ex-AFL player this off-season.
It consisted of a $90,000 contract with incentives, a job paying $160,000, a $40,000 car plus free flights to and from games on a private plane – a cumulative value of well over $300,000.
The offer was passed up in the end, but it proved local footy is more than just a game for some.
Most community clubs now have at least one staffer on the lookout for new signings while others have full recruiting panels and list managers.
Trainstop creator Kai Bloomfield, also a direct recruiter for several clubs across the state, said the evolving local footy landscape was getting increasingly similar to the AFL trade space.
“It’s crazy that it’s now kind of a similar to the story on Matt Rowell with Geelong,” Bloomfield told this masthead.
“He’s still got a year to run on his contract. Talks like that are starting to happen at local footy as well and clubs are getting smart and savvy and planning these things a year, two year in advance. Keeping tabs on players, it is become more and more like the AFL.
“I mean whether it’s even the coach or the president who does it, there is definitely someone at pretty much every local club now that their designated role is recruiting.
“It’s become such a big thing and if you’re not doing it, you’re probably getting left by the wayside.”
ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Before clubs can reach out to players, they have to consider the player points and salary caps, which vary between each Victorian league.
AFL Victoria brought in these contentious changes to combat equalisation concerns in local footy when it introduced a total player points cap in 2016, followed by enforced total player payments in 2017.
When salary caps were first brought in, most top flight metropolitan clubs had more than $200,000 to spend.
But in the post-Covid era of 2024, suburban leagues — Essendon & District, Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern leagues — all had salary caps of $120,000.
Country clubs in the Goulburn Valley and Ovens & Murray leagues (both $130,000) had the most cash to splash in 2024, but it can be more challenging for these clubs to attract players compared to those in Melbourne due to their proximity.
AFL Victoria declared at the end of 2023 that they would put an integrity program in place, audit grand final teams at the end of each year and check any side at any stage throughout the season to combat clubs who aren’t playing fair.
However, the ‘salary cap’ remains the elephant in the room in local footy recruiting as tracking potential dodgy dealings from every club in the state is an impossible task.
It means there are countless loopholes for creative accounting.
VAFA clubs are not allowed to pay players but use their extensive business networks to find financial opportunities for players.
Their motto of playing for the ‘love of the game’ is often questioned.
The Ovens & Murray’s Wangaratta Magpies were the most high profile salary breach after the league stripped the club of their 2022 premiership.
Several other clubs across the country have also been caught, but you would be naive to think they are the only ones.
Cynical clubs suspect there is a myriad of clubs across Victoria doing the same as some treat breaching the salary cap in the same vein as jaywalking.
The books might look squeaky clean, but the stories of under-the-table payments are endless.
A high-paying job, a block of land, a house on the water, a new car, a school scholarship for a player’s son, a paid spot on the netball team for the player’s partner, a ride in a helicopter to and from games and the aforementioned private plane.
The list goes on, and on, and on.
While the player points cap has its detractors in clubland, it is much easier to police and has put the squeeze on signing sprees of elite talent.
Most clubs across the state have 46 total player points available to them: a former AFL player equates to six; VFL or state leagues (5); Coates Talent League and high-level local players (4); rival local players (3), reserves players (2); and club juniors/home club players (1).
Each player’s points tally will lower by one each season a player is at the club.
Thought that was hard to figure out? Now try to recruit a star that several other clubs are also eyeing.
HOW NEGOTIATIONS PLAY OUT
Similar to AFL clubs, local sides generally identify the key areas that they need to fill – whether that be a ruckman, a goalkicking key forward or a contested ball-winner.
Some clubs use the contacts from their current players as a recruiting tool to get players over the line.
A range of club connections can be leveraged to get onto possible suitors and players often receive a message on Facebook or over the phone gauging their interest.
If the player wants to proceed further, it usually isn’t long until the two parties start talking numbers.
While some eager clubs may use extra cash to tempt players their way, Bloomfield believes a unique selling point is the most effective strategy in luring new recruits.
For example, Goulburn Valley league club Benalla being coached by 244-game Carlton and North Melbourne goalkicker Jarrad Waite.
“I think the clubs that recruit best are the ones that sell the club and sell playing for that club in a way that’s not financial, so that the player’s not just coming across to them purely because they’re paying triple what they were getting paid at their own club,” Bloomfield said.
“Like Benalla, they use other means, such as, ‘We’ve got an elite coach who’s straight out of the AFL system’, or, ‘We’ve got fantastic facilities’.
“Because (otherwise) every club has to compete on money and that tends to kill the less fortunate financial clubs.”
If players are asking for too much, clubs are be forced to weigh up what they can afford and the player’s talent versus their character.
A big red-flag is a busy PlayHQ profile — a player signing with different clubs each year is likely to be chasing coin.
New Lara coach Brett Henderson – back in local footy after 13 years in various roles in the VFL and the talent pathway, feels there is greater player power now than when he was last coaching at Echuca in 2011.
A bottom-three side in the Geelong league, Lara has lost several key players this off-season, but managed to land former North Melbourne and Melbourne big man Majak Daw in September.
“There are some players who will shop themselves around to try and get the best offer that they can and if they’re good players, that’s fine and well, but I just think that it has become different in so many different aspects now,” Henderson said.
“Give a player an offer and they might sit back and wait for three or four offers from other clubs and then some players are not making decisions for long periods of time. So you can’t just sit back and wait, you’ve got to keep moving.
“It is a pretty tough climate and I think most clubs would be feeling that. I think they feel as though it is pretty tough to recruit players.
“I suppose you’ve just got to try and offer them the best environment you possibly can at your club and just try to support them as much as possible. But some of the money and some of the figures that you hear (from other country footy leagues) are astounding.”
Bloomfield said players were waking up to the fact they can use some clubs’ desperation to their advantage, but maintains many were playing for less than they are worth – especially younger talents.
I would say that the reason the players (don’t commit) is they’re getting smarter and working out that the longer they wait, the more desperate clubs get. And as clubs get more desperate, they tend to pay more money, so they tend to sweeten the offer,” Bloomfield said.
“But then there is the other spectrum, the younger players that have come straight out of the Talent League or out of private school footy and they have never been paid and they have no idea how much they are of value to clubs.”
South Barwon list manager Brendan Curry has spent 40 years in local football and the VFL, including a two-decade stint as chief executive of Williamstown, and doesn’t feel much has changed in his time.
The experienced Curry echoed Bloomfield’s message of selling the entire club. The Swans secured 28-year-old key forward Josh Corbett straight out of the AFL largely thanks to a connection with his sister Georgie and her fiance Sam, who play netball and football respectively for the Swans.
Keen to pursue coaching, South Barwon also offered the former Fremantle and Gold Coast goalkicker an assistant coaching role under former Melbourne coach Mark Neeld
“I’ve been doing it for 40 years and it is no different. You speak to players and they speak to other clubs, so you’ve got to sell the club the best way you can. Be honest and upfront with them, tell them how we are progressing,” Curry said.
“It has always been competitive recruiting, and the better clubs with better recruiting get the better players.”
“Things change, it is more important to sell the holistic view of a football club. Getting coaches involved, good people involved.”
HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH?
When an AFL player’s career comes to a close, local footy clubs come calling.
High level AFL players can expect to receive over a hundred lucrative offers from clubs and come at a high price, generally more than $50,000 for the season – more than a third of most competition’s cap and around $2,800 per game.
This often far more than players receive in the VFL.
Delisted Richmond forward Noah Cumberland received more than 50 offers in a few days and eventually settled on Northern league division one club South Morang.
Very few in local footy command $50,000 – at least within the salary cap. Bloomfield suspects less than one per cent may earn that, with some gun country footballers and talented state league players able to attract this figure.
A thousand dollars per game – $18,000 – for a quality player is regularly handed out, while $2,000 is rarer, but is common in country leagues with higher caps and locals happy to play for minimal pay.
While ex-AFL signings generate the most attention, fringe VFL players and top-level local footballers are generally the most popular players, providing high level results at a cheaper price tag.
Surprisingly, the most in-demand footballer on the Trainstop platform this off-season was 200cm ruckman Jack McKay, a former captain of Fitzroy in the VAFA who signed with Upwey Tecoma in the Outer East league.
“He had the most messages because he’s a 200 centimetre ruckman, key forward, lovely guy, leadership qualities, is going to stick with the club for a while, he’s not interested in the highest bidder,” Bloomfield explained.
“He just genuinely wants to go to a good family club and help develop some young players.”
Players out of the elite junior talent pathway are also cut-price options that can have a major impact.
Curry has consistently targeted talented youngsters out of the Coates Talent League and the strategy has proved effective at South Barwon, with the young Swans playing off in the last two Geelong league grand finals.
“I’ve always recruited players out of the TAC Cup, Coates boys, because most people have got no understanding or appreciation of how good that football is. That’s always been my No.1 recruiting source, get players that have been well educated,” Curry said.
While most of the attention hinges on who is coming in, retention and a strong junior program – allowing one-point players to fill your senior side – is arguably even more crucial to success.
Of the 63 premiers in Victorian local footy last year, 44 of them played with less than 40 player points and 16 tasted glory with 30 or less.
And just as Geelong has in the AFL, clubs that are sensible with their payments – which is easier said than done, particularly for lower-placed sides – can give themselves the best chance of success.
Local footy has become such a big business that some have become full-time footballers, taking their talents to Northern Territory Football League during the summer months.
The local footy recruiting market certainly won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
Originally published as Local footy recruiting: Inside the lucrative offers, salary cap concerns and how deals get done
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