’We’re being pushed’

NEWCOMB president Damian Mahoney believes his club has been consigned to relegation after the AFL Barwon commission decided to reduce their player points cap for 2018.

The BFL cellar dwellar is planning to appeal its allocation after its points were slashed from 48 to 42 for next season.

Meanwhile, Portarlington has already lodged an appeal with the league after its cap was cut from 45 to 42, despite winning just one game in 2017.

The remaining eight BFL clubs have been allocated 40 points for the new season.

Mahoney said the decision to cap the Power and Demons at 42 had sealed their fate.

“I think what they’re trying to do is push us and Portarlington to where they want us to be and we don’t want to go there,” Mahoney said.

“Last year they probably gave us the right amount of points and now this year we’ve been given 42. We’ll probably look to appeal it.”

Mahoney said the club made an application for 48 points but had planned its recruiting around 45.

“It’s all about trying to get guys and people relocating for work purposes and then (we) get disadvantaged because they’re coming down for the benefit of themselves – for work – and they can’t come and play football because they’re on four or five points,” he said. “It makes it hard.”

New Demons president Anthony Aquilina has already submitted an appeal with the league after the club’s submission for more points was knocked back.

“We had a look at the process it went through at the start of the 2017 season, with how the points were allocated based on the results of 2016, and given where we finished this year, we went a little bit higher (than 45) to see what happens,” Aquilina said.

“It was a bit of a surprise but it is what it is and we’ll just have to work through it now.

“We’ve requested we appeal it through the AFL Barwon commission, which (general manager) Lee Hartman has acknowledged.”

Aquilina said his club was determined to keep its head above water.

“It’s in the full submission we gave to AFL Barwon, we haven’t got aspirations of playing finals this year by any means, but we’ve got to rebuild the club,” he said.

“We’ve got a very strong junior base and I think over the last three or four years the guys have put work into that and we’ve seen the rewards from it.

“We just need some time for that to happen and this year is about making sure the younger kids see what the club has the potential to do.

“We’ve got to work through the next couple of years, which is going to be difficult but we know what we’re up against.”

While Hartman declined to talk publicly about the cap, he said clubs had the opportunity to appeal the points allocation.