THE Bendigo Bank Bendigo Football League is investigating the merits of a player points salary cap system, but won’t rush into any decision on the back of two sides dominating this year.
The 2010 BFL season is being plagued by a host of blowout games, with no better example of that than the past two rounds, in which just one of those 10 games was decided by less than 50 points – Eaglehawk defeating Gisborne by 33 points in round 10 at Canterbury Park.
Throughout the first 10 rounds 50 games were played, with 26 of the matches decided by more than 10 goals – that’s more than half the games.
Of those 26 matches, 12 have been by more than 100 points, with the biggest of those margins the 199 points South Bendigo defeated Kyneton by last Saturday.
Throughout the VCFL’s 16 major leagues, Bendigo has had the most games this year decided by both more than 10 goals and 100 points.
And with just five, Bendigo also has the least amount of games decided by less than 20 points, with all of the other surveyed competitions having at least seven.
The only single-figure margins so far this season have both been in round one – Kyneton defeating Castlemaine by three points at Camp Reserve, and Maryborough beating Sandhurst under lights by four points at the Queen Elizabeth Oval.
“I’ve had a look at this through the majority of major leagues – 70 per cent of them have a team undefeated on top, and 67 per cent have a team on the bottom without a win,’’ BFL chief executive officer Steven Oliver said yesterday.
“I would say at the moment we’ve got an exceptional football team in Golden Square that would account for probably six of those 100-point wins, South Bendigo for four of them, and in the Ovens and Murray there’s a side like Albury that has won three or four games by over 100 points, and another three or four by 90.
“What encourages me though is we have a Strathfieldsaye that has been level at three quarter-time against South Bendigo, Sandhurst right in the game in the last quarter against Golden Square, and Gisborne being level with Eaglehawk at three quarter-time, so we’ve had those clubs lower on the ladder show capacity for two or three quarters.
“We know without doubt there’s challenges for some of our clubs, but most of our clubs are starting to look long-term and build from within with their juniors.
‘‘There’s no shying away from the fact though that we have some very good teams playing very good football, and those winning margins are reflective of the capacity of those teams, so we can’t take anything away from them.’’
Most of this season’s blowouts have been caused by the top two teams, Golden Square and South Bendigo, who between them have won 19 of 20 games heading into their clash at the Queen Elizabeth Oval tomorrow.
Golden Square is undefeated with 10 wins – nine of which have been by more than 70 points.
South Bendigo has a 9-1 record – six of those wins have been by more than 60 points.
The bottom two sides are country teams Kyneton and Castlemaine, who have lost 19 of 20 games between them – 12 of which have been by more than 60 points.
“Golden Square is one of the best country footy teams running around at the moment, and there has been some suggestion that they could compete at the next level quite comfortably,’’ Oliver said.
“But I would say if I went back five years ago when Gisborne was dominant, they would have had a lot of 100-point wins; Eaglehawk would have when they were flying a couple of years ago.
“From personal experience, back in 1992 Castlemaine had a lot of 100-point plus wins, but it doesn’t guarantee you a premiership.
“There’s still lots of interest in our competition this year, and while we would like to see a few more upsets, you can’t take away from the quality of football some sides are putting on the park, and if that means a 100-point win, then that’s how it is.
“If the standard of the competition was slipping this is something we would need to address more quickly, but as recognised by our clubs, the standard of the competition is improving, which is a good thing.’’
Unlike the AFL, which uses a draft and salary cap to give clubs an equal footing, there are no such schemes in place for country football.
However, one scenario that has often been bandied around country football is the use of a player points system, whereby each player on a club’s list is worth an amount of points based on their footballing background.
The Heathcote District Football League considered the points option in 2007, with a proposed system put to the clubs whereby players were ranked from one to seven points based on their history over the previous five years.
The complex proposal provided 18 different ratings from players who have played in the AFL, through to major league and state league players, to players who have come through a HDFL club’s junior system.
Under the system, a maximum number of points would be set and the total tally of players playing each week for a club could not exceed that amount.
The points system was discussed at a VCFL meeting in Melbourne attended by Oliver on Wednesday.
Among the leagues that implement the player points system is Mornington Peninsula Nepean, a league of three competitions – Casey, Nepean and Peninsula.
Throughout those three competitions, of the 140 games played, only four have been decided by more than 100 points, while 42 have been decided by less than 20 points.
“We’ve had a look at it, but there’s a lot of challenges with that system, and while it may look black and white, you’ve got to take in a lot of factors,’’ Oliver said.
“Without having done the background work on it, the player points system wouldn’t have a great effect on a Golden Square or South Bendigo, because a lot of their marquee players have come through their juniors, therefore they would only be ranked as a one-point player.
“In one of the leagues, one club had a number of marquee players and ended up playing 19 against 22 in one of the games because of the points system.
“So it’s something we’ve certainly been monitoring for a while, and probably the one club that would have been affected the most by a player points system this year would be Kyneton.
“They recruited a number of players from Melbourne, so how does a player points system even the competiton out when we’ve got Kyneton near the bottom of the ladder, yet they would be affected negatively the most?
“We can’t do a draft in country football and a salary cap has been tried and failed; a player points system is something we’re looking at, but we wouldn’t commit to changing the integrity of the competition based on one or two sides having a really good year. What we would want to do is some historical research and monitor it over a couple of years.
“There’s a positive and a negative to a player points system, and we would want to look at them strongly, but we certainly wouldn’t want the standard of our competition going backwards.’’
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