Western Region cancellation eases worries of players leaving

WERRIBEE Centrals’ fears of a player exodus from the GDFL club have been allayed by the announcement the Western Region Football League has abandoned its season.

On Monday night the WRFL became the third metropolitan competition to call off games.

Werribee Centrals coach Nick Smith held concerns his players would explore their options in the neighbouring competition.

Smith said he was relieved the WRFL had followed AFL Barwon’s decision to cancel the competition for 2020.

“It’s quite a well-resourced comp,” he said.

“It does put them in a pretty good position to start talking to your players if they go and play a year for Hoppers (Crossing) or (Werribee) Districts and they start talking about what they can offer them the following year. We know we’re probably already going to have a modified salary cap for next year that will be significantly lower than some of the competing teams’.”

Smith had said he was “terrified” about possible implications of the WRFL season going ahead.

The league said that a “significant majority of senior clubs” conceded that their club’s longer-term viability “would be best served by not competing in a senior premiership season”.

The VAFA may still play but Smith said those clubs did not hold the same concern as the competition did not allow player payments.

Many western suburbs VAFA clubs are also in lower divisions, which would not be as enticing for players.

“I think there’s about 10 or 11 senior teams in the Werribee area, but it’s probably your bigger teams like Hoppers (Crossing), Deer Park, Werribee Districts ... that would be attractive for players,” Smith said. “Most of the players who had spoken to me were talking about friends who play in WRFL. The fact that’s off the table is a pretty big relief.”