Player points key to even MPNFL results

THE Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League says a player points salary cap system doesn’t guarantee close contests every week, but it has helped to even out its competition.The MPNFL is made up of three competitions – the Casey Cardinia, Nepean and Peninsula leagues – and has implemented the player points system for the past five years.With no salary cap or draft, the player points system is a way for country football leagues to try to give their clubs an equal footing.Under the system – which the Bendigo Football League is investigating the merits of – all players on a club’s list are given a points rating based on their football history.Players who have played in the AFL are allocated the most points, while a player who has come through that club’s juniors the least points.Under the MPNFL player points system, it has five sections that it bases its player ratings on.Each club’s senior team of 22 players can’t exceed 39 points per game each week, and it’s a system that seems to be working well for the MPNFL.There have been 154 senior games played in the MPNFL’s three competitions this year – 31.8 per cent of matches have been decided by less than 20 points, while only 2.5 per cent have had a margin of 100 or more points.Compare that to the BFL, where only 12.2 per cent of the 55 games have been decided by less than 20 points, but 21.8 per cent of matches have been 100 point-plus blowouts.“It has evened up the competition for us; the system rewards loyalty, encourages clubs to play their juniors, and encourages players to come back to their own club,’’ MPNFL operations manager Ian Benson said yesterday.“Obviously, when we brought it in there were a few clubs that weren’t comfortable with it, but I think most now agree with it.“Everyone has their own ideas about how the points should be allocated to suit themselves, and you can’t blame clubs for that, but I think we’ve got it fairly well right at the moment.“We tweak it every year marginally, and probably the biggest tweak we’ve made this year is we included a marquee player, which encourages clubs to still go out and try to get the best playing coach they can get.’’Ben Schwarze, who played 11 games for North Melbourne in 2006, is classed as Sorrento’s marquee player and therefore is only worth one point, or if 383-game former St Kilda player Robert Harvey was to return to his junior club Seaford, he could do so for just one point as a marquee player.Under the MPNFL system, every player is given a base rating of one point, but there are then additional points added according to the standard they have played at previously.The highest rating a player can have is seven points, which is a player who has played at least 51 AFL games and hasn’t played at that MPNFL club before.The player rating sections all offer reductions that reward service to a club, such as if a player has remained at an MPNFL club for more than four years, regardless of his history, he reverts to a one-point player.There are deductions for AFL players returning to their original clubs, while there is also a section to deal with players wanting to defect from one MPNFL club to another.“We’re happy with the system, but what it doesn’t deal with is money; clubs can still go and pay unrealistic figures for players, but what it does do is prevent a club from going and buying three AFL players, because you just can’t fit them in,’’ Benson said.To police the system, a player’s points are included on the pre-game team sheet.No club has breached the system since its introduction, but they would incur a hefty penalty if they did so – the loss of the four points if they won, no score taken into account on the ladder and a $1000 fine.“We had a scenario a couple of years ago where a club didn’t recruit smartly and in one game ended up playing only 20 players to get under the points,’’ Benson said.“But we then changed the rules so that you need to have 22 players on the team sheet that add up to no more than 39 points.“We find with this system it protects the smaller towns and those clubs with less income and drawing power.’’While the BFL has given no indication that it would follow a similar path, Gisborne coach Ty Elliott is sceptical.“There’s always going to be criticism of clubs when they have successful periods... they are going to be criticised for paying out X amount of dollars,’’ Elliott said.“And there’s always going to be criticism of clubs that are going through rebuilding phases that aren’t successful.“But those clubs that go through the hard years might then find themselves in the position where they generate some extra cash flow, they have rebuilt their local talent and then they have an opportunity for success.’’