Suspended fines for all footy clubs
Suspended fines ranging up to $6000 have hit all senior Gippsland football clubs for breaches of the AFL’s Player Points System.
The fines flow from an AFL Victoria investigation that began after a complaint aired in September querying points allocated for some players at West Gippsland competition team Warragul Industrials.
Industrials was fined $3500, of which $500 was deferred until the end of the 2023 season, when deemed to be guilty of assigning incorrect points to some players.
In October, AFL Victoria’s community football manager John O’Donohue sent a memorandum to the other 71 clubs in the seven Gippsland leagues stating all had been found to have made PPS breaches.
The fines now meted out to the 71 clubs in the Gippsland, Ellinbank and District, Mid Gippsland, West Gippsland, North Gippsland, Omeo and District and East Gippsland leagues are suspended until the end of the 2024 season.
The penalties are not for breaching the total points allocated to a senior team but for errors in the points allocated to individual players.
The fines represent $1500 for each player allocated an incorrect points rating up to a maximum of $6000 for a club.
AFL Victoria has not issued a public statement on the matter but AFL Gippsland region manager Cameron McPhan said, in response to questions by The Gazette, the suspended fines would be taken into account if further breaches were detected over the next two years.
Individual clubs will not be out of pocket if they make no further breaches.
As with the case of Warragul Industrials, the breaches by the clubs were determined to be “interpretational not intentional”.
Over the past month many involved in Gippsland have been critical, since their clubs were told they had breached the rules, of the complexity of the Player Points System for their volunteers that submit team sheets to the AFL’s nation-wide online results platform PlayHQ that lists players selected in each game and their individual points rating.
Mr McPhan said clubs already had access to the AFL player registration base to check individual playing histories (they are significant factors in the points assessed for them) but, as a result of the audits, some “profiles” have been merged to make it easier and clubs would be encouraged to contact their leagues and the region to be sure the points ratings are correct.
He added that “some education sessions” will be run early next year once player transfers open in February.
The sessions will cover not only the PPS rules but procedures to follow if the club is unsure on the allocation for a player, McPhan added.
As Gippsland region manager Mr McPhan said he could not speak about whether audits of other community football clubs in the rest of the state were being undertaken.
The PPS, along with salary caps on the amount clubs can pay senior players, was introduced by AFL Victoria a number of years ago in an attempt to provide more equal competition within leagues.
Total points allocated teams vary within leagues and are based on a range of factors including local population, players’ history and clubs recent seasons on-field performance and ladder positions.