By ADEM SARICAOGLU
ESSENDON District Football League general manager Marc Turri has joined a 10-person working group charged with assessing the merits of introducing a player points system for Victorian local football.
The group will look at the growing rate of player payments within the local game and the effect they have on club sustainability both on and off the field.
“It’s just a working group that’s going to look at different player point systems that currently exist and whether we can come up with a system that’s going to be applicable for Victorian football, both metropolitan and country,” Turri explained.
“Some individual leagues across Victoria do have a player points system already and you’ve also got the SANFL (South Australia) who have a state-wide player points system.
“So we’re going to have a look at the range of systems out there, assess their strengths and weaknesses and make a final decision on whether it’s worthwhile implementing it in Victorian football.”
Turri said the EDFL and its clubs had planned to review the potential for a player points system as soon as 2015, but has since backed the AFL Victoria push for state-wide reform.
“The EDFL clubs as a group have voted in favour of investigating a player points system,” Turri said.
“That’s obviously separate to adopting one but there’s certainly enough support out there to at least look at it, and look at the benefits with the view to potentially taking it on board.
“It’s certainly something we’re keen to have a look at and keen to see what impact it can have in terms of reducing costs on clubs.”
Turri said controlling club costs would ease pressure on volunteers and revenue-raising measures on clubs.
