The player points system was introduced last year by AFL Victoria as part of its Community Club Sustainability Program, which has a mantra to “assist in the equalisation of competitions, stop the inflationary nature of player payments by discouraging the movement of players and promote player loyalty and junior development.”

There has been several minor tweaks made to the system by AFL Victoria after year one, such as an amendment to the four-point “premium community player” category to a more streamlined whereby a recruit only earns such a rating if they finished top five in their previous club’s senior best and fairest the year before.

But who throughout the AFL Central Victoria senior competitions – the Bendigo, Heathcote District, Loddon Valley and North Central leagues – will be a four-point player running around this year?

To find that out the footy public has to log onto each league’s sportingpulse website and into the match centre where each player who has played that day has their points value shown.

However, why can’t each player’s points value this year also be listed alongside their name and number in the program?

Given the player points system is now such a significant part of the local football landscape – and can be confusing to understand – make it as transparent as possible.

How many times last year would there have been a spectator watching a game, and given all the talk around the introduction of the player points, been querying what a particular player who caught their eye – either for their own team or the opposition – was worth. Yet there was nothing in their program to provide the answer.

And perhaps with more eyes on the player points values by having them in the programs it wouldn’t have taken until mid-May last year for it to be brought to the attention of AFLCV that North Bendigo stars Brady Herdman and Sam Barnes were playing as one-pointers instead of two for the first seven rounds of the HDFNL season through what was an administrative error by AFLCV when entering their ratings pre-season.

Yes, each player’s points value is made available online, but surely it’s a no-brainer for leagues to also have them in black and white as part of their weekly programs.

Luke West – sports reporter