LEAGUE, PLAYER WAGE STANDOFF THREATENS YEAR

THE AFL season could be cancelled and all 850 players stood down if they refuse to accept the league’s offer of an immediate 80 per cent pay cut, Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett warned last night.

Players are holding firm to their offer of a 50 per cent wage cut until the season’s fate becomes clearer.

A tentative restart date has been set for May 31. Talks between AFL boss Gillon McLachlan and AFL Players Association boss Paul Marsh failed to resolve the impasse yesterday.

“I understand their concern but this is about survival between now and when the competition starts again,” said Kennett, a member of the AFL’s ‘war cabinet’.

“And if an impasse cannot be resolved one of the alternatives is the players don’t get paid at all until, and if, the season opens again.

“If they don’t understand the urgency of this situation and the fact that clubs and the AFL have laid off and stood down hundreds of people, you’ve got to ask yourself why they should be treated any differently.

“If the players don’t realise the seriousness of this and take what has been offered, they run the very real risk that the AFL and the clubs will have no alternative but to declare the season over.

“They would receive no money and if the season reignited later on then we would invite back those who want to play under a whole lot of new conditions. No one is trying to mislead or gain here. We are simply trying to survive and there are other codes that won’t survive.”

While seen as a last resort, the AFL has the power to stand down all players without pay if a resolution cannot be reached.

McLachlan wants the players to take an 80 per cent pay cut for the next seven months. The league argues the players have been paid in full for the past five months and that their offer accounts for a cut of just 35 per cent across a 12-month period.