THE Hume Football League will consider introducing a salary cap to fall in line with the Ovens and Murray from next season.
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Hume league president Merv Wegener will meet with AFL North East Border general manager John O’Donohue to discuss how the NSW-affiliated competition could co-operate with its Victorian-based counterparts.
On top of the points system introduced this season, AFL Victoria will implement state-wide salary cap measures from 2017 to crack down on exorbitant player payments.
A cap of between $160,000-$180,000 is being discussed for the Ovens and Murray while the neighbouring Tallangatta and Ovens and King competitions could have a player spend limit of about $80,000.
Ovens and Murray general manager Aaron McGlynn fears clubs in the Hume league, which already has its own player points system in place, will go on a frenzy without a salary cap in place.
“From our point of view, it has to happen, otherwise it leaves us out in the cold,” he said.
“The Hume league clubs will just raid the Ovens and Murray if they’re not under a cap.
“If we’re capped at a point and the Hume league is unrestricted it’s going to impact us.
“You certainly hear stories about the player spend in the Hume league getting right up there.”
There are clubs in the Hume league spending more than $100,000 a season and McGlynn said they were often “paying for a number to get another player out on the park”.
“They’re not worth it,” he said.
“It sets the inflated player spend up because they have to pay to get a player on the park and it’s killing our seconds comp as well because why would you play seconds in the O and M when you can go and get a couple of hundred bucks to play in the Hume league.
“The way some of the clubs out there are spending, it’s not sustainable and it’s going to be to the detriment of themselves if they keep going along the path they’re going.
“If we’re trying to cut player spend across the state down, to have them unrestricted would fly in the face of what everyone is trying to achieve in getting the power back from the players.”
Wegener said he had been approached by clubs concerned at the level of their spending was open to introducing a salary cap.
The Hume league introduced its player points system, which differs from the model operating in Victoria, in favour of a salary cap in 2002.
“We will sit down with John O’Donohue and look at it and see what can be done,” Wegener said.
“I’ve got clubs saying to me ‘we spend too much money’.
“It could be difficult to police but if a salary cap can be controlled, it will be worth looking at.
“We have to do something.”