KOROIT president Maurice Molan wants football club officials to buy into AFL Victoria’s vision for equality and sustainability at grassroots level.
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Molan yesterday strongly endorsed the introduction of a salary cap and player points system in 2016 as a way of easing the financial pressures on clubs.
Details of the equalisation measures are contained in AFL Victoria’s Community Club Sustainability Program, released earlier this month.
The program aims to limit movement of players between clubs, which the governing body says is the main catalyst of spiraling player payments.
AFL Victoria’s country football manager Jim Cail outlined the details to clubs at a forum in Warrnambool on Monday night.
More than 80 people representing Hampden and Warrnambool and District league clubs attended.
A second forum will be held at Hamilton tonight.
Molan said he was overwhelmingly impressed with the CCSP and its strategies to rein in the cash figures splashed on recruiting players.
“I think the people who have put this together deserve nothing but the highest praise,” he said.
“It’s a very substantial document. They don’t seem to have missed too much at all. Clearly a lot of work and thought has gone into it. I think as leaders at clubs we need to broaden our vision, widen our eyes and look at this long term.
“What this is trying to achieve is sustainability at football clubs across Victoria and to me that’s critical, not if you win the premiership.”
In his most defiant words, Molan called on clubs to “redefine what success is” and embrace AFL Victoria’s vision for viability. He said he believed the salary cap would not be successful if it relied solely on clubs’ audits as a means of enforcement.
“It’s got to involve a change of culture across all Victorian football,” he said. “At a league level, that means the 10 (Hampden league) club presidents can sit around a table in a room, look each other in the eye and say ‘we’ll abide by it’.
“They have to say ‘we’re going to go back to our committees and say we’ll abide by it, even if there’s some short-term pain, long term we’ll be better off’.
“If the 10 leaders of the Hampden league clubs do that ... and if we have the maturity and the trust to take each other at our word, this will go a long way.”
Molan’s words of support are among the strongest from a club official since the release of the CCSP.
Those contacted by The Standard yesterday had broad support for the CCSP, but concerns about salary cap enforcement and the burden on volunteers.
Warrnambool chairman Wally Steere said the Blues had “no problems with it” and welcomed its emphasis on competition equality.
“You want to make the league stronger, that’s the main thing.
“You don’t want it to peter out and be a two or three-side competition year in, year out,” he said.
Allansford football manager Nathan Adams was wary of the demands asked of volunteers to manage clubs’ salary caps and player points allocations.
“I think there will be volunteer burnout and some people won’t want to take on those roles,” he said.
Dennington secretary Tony Pola was another who believed the CCSP would have a positive impact.
“No doubt a salary cap is easy to get around.
“But if most the people are doing the right thing, it’s going to be a win,” he said.
Pola noted the measures could actually reduce volunteer burnout, by slashing the hours required to raise cash for player payments.
“The volunteer pool is diminishing because people are reluctant to put their hand up for a small job, thinking it’s going to lead to a big job.”
afawkes@fairfaxmedia.com.au