Clubs accused of points breach

Every senior football club in Gippsland has been accused by AFL Victoria of breaching its player points system.

That’s 72 clubs in seven leagues - Gippsland, Ellinbank and District, Mid Gippsland, West Gippsland, North Gippsland, Omeo and District and East Gippsland.

In a memorandum emailed to all clubs last week AFL Victoria’s community football manager John O’Donohue stated “regrettably 100 per cent of clubs have been found to be in breach of incorrect player point allocations” following an audit of points allocated by the clubs last season.

He said “as incorrect allocations are identified a consistent approach will be undertaken. Therefore, all clubs will receive a breach notice in the coming days and will be offered the opportunity to explain the respective PPS breaches identified”.

The issue of points breaches was first aired last month when a West Gippsland football club playing in finals queried the total points of players in another club that was a finalist, Warragul Industrials.

Industrials was found to have allocated incorrect points to some players and, in some instances during the season, exceeded the number of total points allocated to it.

The matter was referred for decision to the AFL Gippsland Commission which fined Warragul Industrials $3500 of which $500 was deferred until the end of the 2023 season.

The commission deemed it an “interpretive” breach of the AFL Victoria rules, not “intentional or unintentional”.

Mr O’Donohue’s memorandum last week did not state whether others among the 72 clubs exceeded their total points allocations at any stage last season, rather that they had incorrect points allocations for individual players.

He said “in some instances the breach involved only one player whilst some clubs were found to have several players both being over and under assessed”.

A number of club presidents contacted by The Gazette were stunned and bordering on angry about being accused of breaches. A general trend in their comments was to direct much of the blame to AFL Victoria, one of them stating that even the audit conducted by the AFL had assessed some players incorrectly.

He said his club would argue that in the cases of three of four of his club’s players AFL Victoria now claimed were classified incorrectly the “AFL had got it wrong” and that the points assigned for one player had also been referred to the AFL pre-season for clarification and a decision.

Another president said a player that had graduated from the club’s youngest junior side, under 16s, to seniors and would be generally interpreted as “home grown” and a “one point player” was said to have been wrongly under-assessed because his first competitive football was in a junior league competition, under 12 and under 14, at a club that had no official alignment or connection with a senior club.

There was, however, general agreement that clubs that deliberately or were well aware of breaches in their total player points allocations should be penalised with heavy fines and/or loss of some premiership points during the following season.

AFL Gippsland region manager Cameron McPhan said clubs were given until last night to respond to Mr O’Donohue’s letter.

If they don’t formally respond they will be deemed to have acknowledged its receipt, he said.

It will be up to AFL Gippsland to decide what further action, if any, is taken.

The player points system, along with caps on the amounts clubs could pay senior players, was introduced by AFL Victoria several years ago in an attempt to provide more equal competition within leagues.

The PPS is quite complex and relies on clubs to ensure they know individual player’s football backgrounds whereas clubs The Gazette has spoken with said the AFL was best positioned to decide the allocation for each player using its records of player registrations.

Each club is given a maximum number of points based on a range of factors - the allocations may vary among clubs within individual leagues - including a town or rural community’s population, players’ previous history and recent season’s on field performance and ladder positions.

Mr O’Donohue stated in the letter that it is “appropriate that corrective and ongoing management systems are implemented to support and protect club volunteers and league management ahead of the 2023 season”.

The audit of the Gippsland clubs identified processes and practice adopted by leagues and clubs were inconsistent and subject to error, he said.