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AFL Tasmania will employ a team of former police officers to help implement a strict new salary cap system that it hopes will "create a level playing field" for Tasmanian football clubs.
Key points:
- A lack of regulation of current salary cap rules, combined with player shortages, has led to payments from lower-tier clubs spiralling out of control
- AFL Tasmania is concerned that unregulated spending has created an unsustainable arms race among community clubs
- Now, it will have the power to launch an investigation into any club it believes is skirting the system
The new investigative team will be charged with enforcing the new policy, brought about following a period of wild spending by lower-league clubs.
AFL Tasmania boss Damian Gill said the tightening of player payments was a burning issue across the Tasmanian football landscape.
"It's been a couple of years in the making. For a long time, it's been identified by the footy community that we needed to do more around salary caps and player payments," he said.
A lack of regulation of current salary cap rules, combined with player shortages, has led to payments from lower-tier clubs spiralling out of control.
AFL Tasmania is concerned that unregulated spending has created an unsustainable arms race amongst community clubs chasing short-term success.
"Everyone is on board with this, all with the right endeavour to make sure our clubs are in strong and stable positions moving forward and that we're not putting ourselves in harm's way trying to chase a premiership," Mr Gill said.
Rival clubs can 'dob in' each other
Now, AFL Tasmania will have the power to launch an investigation into any club it believes is skirting the system.
Rival clubs can also "dob in" each other if they believe something is afoul.
AFL Tasmania's team of former detectives will be given investigative powers allowing them to ask players and clubs to sign statutory declarations regarding payments and to take part in recorded interviews.
They will also be allowed to forensically audit a club's books.
Penalties will be determined by the severity of a breach, with fines, loss of premiership points and suspensions all on the table.
Grand finalists from all eight leagues this year will be used as a test case.
"We're unsure how many investigations we will see in the first year, but just as a matter of process and on testing the model, we'll actually go and audit the grand final teams just to make sure we're doing things right," Mr Gill said.
"In terms of the message to players and clubs, it's loud and clear from me.
"If you don't do anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about. If you do flagrantly breach the rules, then watch out.
"We're deadly serious about this and it's important teams are on a level playing field."
Policy aims to restore prestige
The aim of the new policy is to re-calibrate the Tasmanian football pyramid, and partly to restore prestige to the state's premier competition.
Tasmanian State League clubs will be allowed to spend $110,000 a year on players with special cap exemptions for marquee and veteran players.
Regional leagues like the Southern Football League, North West Football League and Northern Tasmanian Football Association will be afforded half that ($65,000), while community-based leagues will have about a quarter ($35-40,000) to spend.
State League players will not be allowed to earn more than $600 per match, while players participating in community-level leagues like the Old Scholars can only be paid a maximum of $250 per game.
The new system means the days of a player receiving a kitchen renovation or a head of cattle in exchange for their signature could be numbered.
Southern Football League president Russell Young believes the new system will shake out under-the-table, and third-party payments to players.
"In pubs around Tasmania there's always talk about what players are getting this money, and what players are getting that money, and I think that's where it will start to be honest — someone will dob in someone else," he said.
"The reason we've gone to this cap is to allow clubs that have been doing the wrong thing to bring things to the top of the table. With this being policed, it'll bring all of it out."
Glenorchy Magpies president John McCann agreed that extra muscle would help to bring balance to Tasmanian football.
"We think it's that missing element to give a bit of certainty to how you structure football in Tasmania.
"From the TSL's point of view we've had a strict policing of our cap for the past 15 years, so we're used to it, so it's going to cause a fair bit of shake-up around the place.
"We think it's really important for the structure of Tasmanian football, the competitive balance, and that clubs in Tasmania aren't exposed to boom-and-bust periods of player payments."