Local clubs to trial salary cap
SALARY caps and points systems will be trialled in local netball this year ahead of their introduction next season.
AFL Barwon region manager Lee Hartman confirmed GFL and BFL clubs would be working towards a $15,000 spending limit this season.
The cap will not be enforced this year, but clubs will be urged to keep spending within the perimeters in preparation for next season.
Clubs will be asked to be fully transparent with their declarations this year — even if they exceed the $15,000 cap — so that AFL Barwon can determine whether the limit needs to be adjusted for next season.
The idea of caps and points systems for netball have been on the agenda for a couple of seasons after they were introduced to local footy in 2016.
“Our salary cap and points systems will be just shadowed in 2018 and will be fully implemented in 2019,” Hartman said.
“We just put out the framework to clubs. It’s going to be interesting to see how those figures come up, because we’re not sure when we surveyed all that clubs if we got all the truthful figures.
“We’ve set limits around what we were told, so it will be interesting to see what’s reported.”
The points cap — which is seen as an almost-foolproof way to equalise on-court teams — will also come in next season.
Just like in football, the individual player points range from one (a homegrown player or long-serving club player) to six for an international player.
Players receive a point deduction for every year of ser- vice but will have points added for moving between clubs.
Teams will need to keep their side under a points limit, which would be as high as 32 but more likely to be in the mid-to-high 20s.
The netball points system is more complicated than football, given netballers are capable of playing for multiple clubs at any time.
But Hartman has confirmed players will not receive added points for playing netball at a club based out of a local association. Only clubs attached to a football-netball league will count against a player.
“The points cap is interesting,” he said. “Netball Victoria has been involved. There’s a statewide maximum of 32 points. We think clubs will land in the mid-20s.”
In local footy this year, the BFL salary cap has been upped from $100,000 to $110,000 and the GDFL increases to $90,000 from $80,000.
The GFL cap will stay at $145,000.