Geelong and Bellarine set stage for statewide netball salary cap introduction

With a netball salary cap already in place in the Geelong and Bellarine leagues, other competitions are bracing for its introduction. See where here.

A statewide salary cap for country netball competitions is coming, according to presidents of two major football-netball leagues.

Geelong and Bellarine leagues have had a ceiling on what clubs can spend on netballers since 2019 and under a current proposal for a new premier league in the region there will be a salary cap of $35,000 — up from $15,000 presently.

But presidents of the Gippsland and Goulburn Valley leagues believe it’s inevitable the rest of the state will follow suit to match the salary cap in place for football teams.

Gippsland president Andrew Livingstone said a netball salary cap had already been discussed at board level.

“It’s something we need to all look at into the future,” he said.

“There has definitely been a shift.

“I know some girls have been paid for a long time, but in the last four or five years it’s been accepted that all the A grade girls get some form of remuneration.”

Goulburn Valley Football-Netball League president Jacqui Hudgson says netballers have been getting paid for “quite a while”. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Jacqui Hudgson was an A grade best and fairest winner and coach at Shepparton United and Shepparton Bears before joining the GV board and becoming president last year.

She said netballers had been paid for “quite a while”.

“Clubs are at a point where the amount of money paid to netballers varies quite significantly and is putting a lot of pressure on players to stay or go,” she said.

“There will come a point when, if it’s not a salary cap, it will be player points to minimise perhaps the influx of state league players.

“It hasn’t crossed our desk for deep consideration at this point, but that’s not to say in another 12 months clubs will be pushing for it.”

Megan Dean served as netball president of Geelong league club St Albans for nearly a decade and was involved in setting up the salary cap.

“The salary cap is a tough one because it’s been detrimental for our league,” she said.

“Players have left because they can get big money in other leagues where they don’t have a salary cap.

“A lot of the girls are at uni, so instead of having a part-time job, they can go somewhere and get $400 on a Saturday for doing something they love and it gets them through the week.

“It’s like any sport, it has become money orientated.”