Kangaroo Flat has become the first BFNL club to be a penalised for a salary cap breach.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The AFLCV Player Payments Disciplinary Committee found the Roos exceeded the allowable player payment amount of $150,000 by $11,900 and failed to lodge declarations and statement of payments by the due date.
As a result, the Roos will have their 2020 and 2021 salary caps reduced by $6000 each year and they'll have less Total Player Points for the 2020 season.
The Roos were docked three points from their 2020 TPP tally and they'll now have a maximum of 47 points per game.
In October last year, the Roos were originally allocated 47 points before in November they successfully campaigned for an extra three points for the 2020 season. Those three points have now been stripped.
A fine of $15,000 was suspended for 24 months subject to compliance with the salary cap and TPP sanctions.
Kangaroo Flat president Scott Mitchell said the Roos self-reported the issue to AFLCV in December.
"We were going back through our books, looking at what we'd done and when we started to lodge our end of year paperwork we looked at it and things didn't add up,'' Mitchell said.
"We had a closer look and that's when we found it."
After an audit of the Roos' books the Player Payments Disciplinary Committee laid charges and the club fronted a hearing last Friday night.
"The breach was unintentional, coming mainly from a lack of understanding of the rules and requirements," Mitchell said.
"We are committed to training our volunteers and building the clubs capacity to ensure that reporting issues do not reoccur.
"We need to get better training around the player payment system.
"It was an understanding we got wrong and we missed a couple of deadlines through the year and that contributed to the breach."
The Roos finished ninth in 2019 with a 4-14 record.
"The Disciplinary Committee considered many factors before handing down the sanctions, including that the club acknowledged liability and that there was little or no demonstrable benefit from the breach," AFLCV regional general manager Carol Cathcart said.
Read more - Catch up on all the latest local footy news
Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.