COROWA-Rutherglen coach Peter Tossol wants to see a points-based system to control recruiting and spending to help small-town clubs compete with their city rivals.
Tossol said a vicious cycle was in force for teams such as Myrtleford and Corowa-Rutherglen, with country towns battling to compete with city-based clubs in terms of player numbers and financial backing.
The two-time premiership coach said the implementation of a points system, weighted to clubs’ populations, would help solve issues of inequality.
Tossol said the system could involve assigning points to each player, based on their playing credentials, with each team unable to exceed a certain number of collective points.
“It’s a huge issue and the league is kidding itself if it doesn’t think it is,” Tossol said yesterday of the inequality between clubs.
“The signs are there to see now … smaller rural towns battle to generate sufficient numbers to compete against the urban clubs.
“This year, we have only two top-age under-18 players who are being promoted to the senior list, which makes it very difficult to maintain two senior teams.
“If we introduced a points system it would make the league a lot more even, a points system rewards the development of your own players and the return of ex-players.
“Trials have been conducted in other leagues and their successes or otherwise would need to be taken into account.”
Tossol said the league would have to calculate a formula to use if the system was introduced.
“It’d have to be a formula that is calculated by the league — it might be five points for an AFL player and one point for a local player, and clubs would have to stick under something like 36 points each game,” he said.
“But it has to be weighted to populations, Albury-Wodonga has something like 60,000 (people) while Corowa’s is closer to 5000.”
With the Roos struggling for numbers, Tossol said Corowa-Rutherglen needed to recruit from outside its area to ensure the club remained competitive at senior level.
“Without our Melbourne players, we’d really be stretched to field a competitive side,” he said.
“It’s challenging … you aim to be competitive for your supporters and sponsors, but what we want is an environment when in any year, any club is a chance to win
it.
“That environment doesn’t exist at the moment.
“As far as I’m concerned, the danger signs are there for the survival of country clubs in major leagues — I think there needs to be an intervention and I would encourage the league to at least investigate the merits of a points system.”
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