The Salary Cap and Related Issues facing the SANFL

Following on from the West Adelaide discussion recently.

Is it time for the SANFL to raise the salary cap in the interests of player retention in the league?
It is only about two-thirds of what it was. In my view this is not helping clubs retain their experienced players.

There have been some articles / discussion of late questioning the sustainability of the SANFL in its current form with an ever increasing pressure from the AFL in sapping the SANFL of its talent and other leagues who can easily match and even improve the financial rewards of players.

The average sanfl player age must surely be ever-decreasing as the commitment v reward takes its toll on mature players. Gone are the days when the most successful clubs have 5 - 10 players with 150+ games. It is becoming more difficult to find a player on each list with that experience.

Discuss away......and if we could please avoid references to "brown bags".

Great topic. I understand the reason for the cap is to protect the clubs from themselves but it will destroy the SANFL in time. I wonder if the execs have taken the same haircuts. We might as well reform under the amateur league.

If it wasn't for Jobkeeper, several clubs would be in financial difficulty. I suspect the SANFL has taken a huge hit to its finances also with no Adelaide Oval crowds.

You're right, the commitment for SANFL is huge for a player for reduced contracts. Whether some clubs can afford it is problematical.

Added to that is the fact the SANFL is losing its gloss. I doubt the big drop I crowd's last season was just due to Covid.

the afl is slowly but surely getting what it wants & i mentioned this years ago, they basically want the state leagues to be under 23's competitions

They have certainly destroyed any semblance of integrity or dignity that the VFL had. It's going to be down to SANFL clubs, and us, to fight to ensure that sort of thing doesn't happen to our comp. And I'd be trying to enlist the state government in that fight.

There’s AFL, State Leagues, Community Football.

They need to all work together.

From an SANFL/State League viewpoint, it seems they still need crowds/interest to fund salaries large enough to compensate for the commitment needed.

There needs to be encouragement/carrots dangled for players to be encouraged to play the highest level their ability and commitment will allow them too.

I would start off with rewarding the U18 premier with the opportunity to play in the curtain raiser on AFL Grand Final Day.

I would consider the possibility of moving the three main State League Men’s Seniors & Reserves to be played between October and January to avoid competition with both AFL and Community Football. If Community Football ran a 4 month season (May-Aug) and State Leagues ran a 4 month season (Oct-Jan) - could coaches and players be rewarded by playing both if they choose? Could the gap in football filled between Oct-Jan be attractive to the media and earn $? Could the AFL Draft be pushed back to after the State League season so the best U18’s around the country are showcased. Would more people watch State League footy at that time of year if there was no AFL or Community Football as competition?

Or perhaps we keep the traditions and the SANFL and clubs are comfortable to operate at a sustainable level and most likely find their place at the Community Football level?

As long as our clubs and League survives and keep playing good competitive footy.

left field thoughts there, can't see it happening though but worth some discussion & it would get rid of the mid season stealing that occurs

when do the girls play ?
what happens to clubs that have cricket played on their ovals ?

i agree that they all need to work together, however it is a one way street with the afl dictating most if not all agendas & with little (at best) or no respect whatsoever

bayman wrote:left field thoughts there, can't see it happening though but worth some discussion  & it would get rid of the mid season stealing that occurs

when do the girls play ?
what happens to clubs that have cricket played on their ovals ?

i agree that they all need to work together, however it is a one way street with the afl dictating most if not all agendas & with little (at best) or no respect whatsoever

Keep the women and juniors still in winter. The AFLW kick off late January so that already avoids a clash. The few Cricket clubs would need to make way.

Completely agree re the AFL. They keep expanding adding extra clubs to one competition to the detriment of all else. There is at least 20 odd traditional State league clubs with a small rusted on fan base, plus an idle fan base too busy to attend except for Grand Final day. Anyone over 45 in SA or WA still has a state league club alliance. Awaken part of that and there might be commercial advantages in having good levels of footy played 12 months of the year. As long as all levels work together.

Some good points raised here, but I don't think you will find much support for footy being played thru. peak holiday season and mid summer weather. I do think the traditional SANFL teams can offer something better than the AFL, but that would take an acrimonious divorce, so not happening! It's all about corporate and advertising, T.V. rights, etc. now. Something has been lost.

Aerie's ideas are certainly something different. Whether it could work, would have many matters to consider and piece together.

However, what it does highlight (at least for me) is that innovative thinking is needed to jump start footy (below AFL level) out of the mire in which it finds itself.

I just get the impression that the boffins at the top of footy management have no such thoughts and the rest of us are slowly becoming numb to what semblance of "competition" is offered up.

You are right that people under 45 have little affinity with local sanfl footy.

My eldest is now 26 and played footy until about age 22, followed the Crows fairly passively but really has no interest in sanfl. When he was young, I got him to the footy once. And that was on the promise of a coke and a doughnut and to play on the playground at Unley. In his teens he would ask, how did we go today. I said, "We...?"

How you redress this and get the kids feeling the love at local level is a huge conundrum, when all sources shunt to the "minor interest" category. Do we get a balanced journalism /media in SA when it comes to this? I think we know the answer.

i think the paper gives the sanfl reasonable space, albeit a lot of the time there is an afl connection to it, i fear when reporters like Andrew Capel, Warren Partland etc that have a love & understanding of the sanfl retire, then i think we'll be getting results published exactly the same way bowls, amatuer footy, petanque etc are printed

as for kids, i took my son almost every week as kid & that's evolved into him loving his Tigers as much as i do, he's been working in Sydney for 3 years & thankfully is coming home in December & he watches the digital pass every week & as the game goes, he rings or texts me 30-40 times during a game talking about it......so i say that to point out that parents, uncles, grandparents etc that have the love of the sanfl to take the kids to the footy reguarly & get them into it....just like growing plants you have to plant the seed first & nuture it & watch it grow/develop an interest

You clearly did it better than me Bayman.

Great post bayman, that gives me some hope.

The VFL salary cap has been increased from $200,000 to $220,000 for VFL standalone clubs and from $100,000 to $110,000 for the AFL and AFL-aligned outfits. This will certainly impact the SANFL recruiting in future and may even lead to our player going there. Is the AFL giving them more money?

https://www.afl.com.au/news/688735/more-money-more-matches-more-opportunity-vfl-changes-for-2022

There are 23 stand alone clubs in the "2nd tier" leagues of the SANFL, WAFL and VFL.

If each AFL club was to reduce the list size by 2 rookies ($85,000 each rookie) and donate those funds to a pool - each SANFL, WAFL and VFL stand alone club could add around $130k to their season salary cap and the salary cap would then be a more respectable $350k.

It keeps a higher standard in the "2nd tier" leagues and for AFL clubs, potentially a wider range of players to choose from in the mid season draft to replace injuries.

A win/win overall?

A great idea Aerie, I just doubt the willingness of AFL clubs to donate money to lower leagues.

Flag No.10 wrote:A great idea Aerie, I just doubt the willingness of AFL clubs to donate money to lower leagues.

Agree. Unlike the Cricketers Players Association which saw the need for some funds to be added to the lower level, Football seems a very selfish industry.

A story in one of the Melbourne papers today says that AFL clubs will be looking to take 'Covid top up players' from their own state league teams, which if true is a far less damaging option than the league-wide free-for-all we were dreading.

The following has been cut and pasted from another site.
Does anyone know more about it? Just another dilution of the SANFL.

Tom Lewis and Casey Voss have been selected by the Crows.

Key points of the AFL COVID Contingency Top Up Players model are:

AFL Clubs can register up to 20 additional players to make up their ‘Top Up COVID Contingency Pool’, with a maximum of four players from each NGA aligned* SANFL Club

Clubs may only select an activated player if there is less than 28 AFL listed players available, and it is not reasonable in the circumstances to play an AFL Listed player.

The number of ‘COVID Contingency Players’ a club activates must not exceed the number of ‘Protocol Players’ (those positive to COVID-19 or a close contact) that the Club has at any point in time.

If not selected for AFL, the SANFL player will always play for their SANFL Club.

SANFL Clubs with be financially compensated for each SANFL match a player misses, or if a long-term injury is sustained, under these guidelines.