The Essendon District Football League’s player points cap for next season is expected to be known by the end of this month.
As previously reported by the Star Weekly, the EDFL has been considering a player points cap of 55 points per team for 2016.
Last week, AFL Victoria finalised the details of the state wide player points system allocating a maximum of 50 points to all clubs across the state.
Leagues and region commissions will determine the exact number of points allocated to each of its clubs.
The player points system is the first part of a two-step program aimed at levelling out competitions.
The second part, a salary cap, will be introduced in 2017.
Every player is given a rating of between one and six points, depending on background and experience.
Leagues and region commissions will have further flexibility to apply either a one or two point reduction for players that have met the season of service clause in 2015, to participate with the same club in 2016.
EDFL general manager Marc Turri said it would now be hard for the league to allocate a points cap above 50 points.
Metropolitan leagues and region commissions will need to apply to an AFL Victoria sub-committee should any of their affiliated clubs require more than 50 total team points.
“We were looking at 55 points cap and we are still in discussions about what the final figure will be,” Turri said.
“We’ve been in contact in AFL Victoria in the last week or so and were expecting a 50-point maximum.
“It’s going to be hard to have extra points above that.”
Turri says AFL Victoria’s decision to cap the points at 50 doesn’t have an impact on the league’s planning for next season.
“As early as July we’ve had a plan in place,” he said.
“There’s the level we want the cap at and the level they want it at and we will sit down and work on it. We need to respect we are just one of many leagues and they are trying to suit everyone.”
AFL Victoria community football and engagement manager Brett Connell said that the AFL Victoria working party has acted on the feedback received from leagues and commissions in regards to the policy’s impact on clubs.
“A large majority of metropolitan leagues and region commissions viewed the implementation of the player points system and the players salary cap in potentially the same year as too much for clubs, and that there needed to be a more phased-in approach,” he said.
“Given the feedback suggested the players salary cap program required further detail and investigation, the sub-committee believes it will be best suited to a 2017 implementation, with training and education relating to the salary cap to begin across the 2016 season.”
