TOPIC:

Anyone have any idea who's on the working party for the amateur status and any whispers floating around about whats been happening.

For as long as I can remember, I have heard complaints from various clubs always I might add, about the “opposition”, concerning alleged payment of the odd player or coach, which may have been breached by way of direct payment, incentives, match awards or the existing loophole of allowing players to receive large payments to play for the senior team whilst coaching the Reserves or Colts.

The people who complain often refer to the ideals of the “Amateur competition” and that we need to keep the competition beyond reproach. I seem to remember hearing that espoused way back in the 70’s, when the arguments were still being heard to maintain the integrity of the Olympics and Tennis, but thankfully it went by the wayside and we now have the best athletes competing.

For mine I want the best coaches and the best footballers competing in our Amateur competition. We need their experience and talent to ensure the standard of our competition is maintained and that we are continually exposed to new training and game tactics and that we continue to compete against the best, when we are graced with their presence in our competition. It is also a great drawcard for spectators having AFL and WAFL players coming back to grass roots footy.

We do however need to “control” the process and try and maintain a level playing field. We can go a long way in achieving this by implementing some fairly simple rules.

My ideas centre on the following:
(1) A points system to be put in place by the WAAFL which allocates points for each player with “Professional Football experience” and categorised by AFL, Senior 2nd Tier State, minor professional competitions and amateurs
(2) A maximum of 100 points per team each game to be allowed
(3) A compulsory once only “Transfer fee” to be paid to the WAAFL for each player transferred to an Amateur Club with professional football experience.

My points system would be allocated as follows:
• AFL points per player 20
• State League per player 5
• Minor League per player 2
• Other Amateur players 1
• Max points per team 100

If we assume a club list as per below then as they only have 94 points they comply with the rules.
• AFL 2 X 20 = 40
• WAFL 8 X 5 = 40
• Minor 2 X 2 = 04
• Other 10 X 1 = 10
• Total 94

My Transfer fees would be charged as follows:
• AFL fee per player $ 2,000
• State League fee per player $ 1,000
• Minor League per player $ 500
• Other Amateur players Nil

Using the above example assuming all players were transferred to the club in 2015 then the fees payable to the WAAFL would be:
• AFL 2 X $2,000 $ 4,000
• WAFL 8 X $1,000 $ 8,000
• Minor 2 X $500 $ 1,000
• Total Fees $ 13,000

Assuming all professional players were transferred to the club in 2015 then the WAAFL would receive the following “Transfer Fees” from the club which would go a long way towards reducing affiliation fees for all other clubs and improving their facilities.
I’d be interested in everybody’s feedback.

I think that you are heading in the right direction.
The only change I would suggest is that in the points system 1 point allocated to a player who started with your club and that players who transfer in from another club are allocated 2 points.
This is to try and minimise the more financial clubs from poaching from the poorer clubs.

I like the idea Hawkeye but for me I think WAFL players should be worth more points but perhaps with a caveat for the number of games.

say a player that's drafted but never plays an AFL game would be classed as a WAFL player or a fringe WAFL player who plays a handful of games might be classed as the minor leagues.

If you throw a blanket over AFL and WAFL players then those guys who tried to crack the teams but only managed a couple and then came back to amateurs would be worth the same as top tier players who are finishing up playing in the amateur leagues.

also by minor leagues do you mean Country leagues or WAFL Colts and Reserves?

I agree with the sentiments of the other posters as to some refinements. I'd suggest as follows:

A minimum number of games will apply at each level before the Points and Fee transfer will be allocated. Players playing less than the minimum will fall to the next senior classification.

Players who are returning to their original club after having played at a more senior level, who return to their club of origin, having played at least 10 games of senior Amateur Football, with that club, will be exempt from any transfer fees and only incur the minimum player points.

Minimum games to apply would be allocated as follows:
• AFL 20 games
• State 20 games
• 2nd tier 50 games
• Amateur Nil

Lets get a few more comments because I for one would like a sensible resolution to overcome what I believe could be a very workable solution to the issue.

The cost of implementing and controlling these recommendations would be enormous. Who fits the bill, the clubs? Great idea but I cannot see it being sustainable. Better off addressing the problems at junior and colts level, why are these teenagers choosing not to play football at all?

For mine the only thing that needs to
Change is take away the word "amateur " from the league heading
The promotion relegation system works fine it makes each grade fairly even in each grade as an average theres normally two stand out top teams two bottom teams and 8 fairly even teams so the richer well run clubs are in A and B grade your smaller less financial clubs then filter down through c1 to c4
Seriously wats wrong with this system who cares how much clubs pay out if a club puts in the time and effort to raise 50k or 150k to run there footy club with then thats alot of hard work and great management by them EVERY club in perth has the ability or opportunity to do this through donations and sponsorship
I think the grade system works well because a team is normally only unsuccessful for a year then they go back a grade and they normally do ok against similar talented and financial based teams and the other hand successful winning teams move up grades and get new challenges
Look at the old sunday league for the last 10 years the same 3 teams dominated it and the same teams got flogged each week and eventually left and the league aint here no more
Forget the word amateur and leave things as they are we cant have 50 A grade teams so y do we need a points system or salary cap to even things out thats what we have grades for

a points system will not work.

The South Australian Ammos used it and it has not worked.

King wrote: For mine the only thing that needs to
Change is take away the word "amateur " from the league heading
The promotion relegation system works fine it makes each grade fairly even in each grade as an average theres normally two stand out top teams two bottom teams and 8 fairly even teams so the richer well run clubs are in A and B grade your smaller less financial clubs then filter down through c1 to c4
Seriously wats wrong with this system who cares how much clubs pay out if a club puts in the time and effort to raise 50k or 150k to run there footy club with then thats alot of hard work and great management by them EVERY club in perth has the ability or opportunity to do this through donations and sponsorship
I think the grade system works well because a team is normally only unsuccessful for a year then they go back a grade and they normally do ok against similar talented and financial based teams and the other hand successful winning teams move up grades and get new challenges
Look at the old sunday league for the last 10 years the same 3 teams dominated it and the same teams got flogged each week and eventually left and the league aint here no more
Forget the word amateur and leave things as they are we cant have 50 A grade teams so y do we need a points system or salary cap to even things out thats what we have grades for

Why stop there? If we are going to have a free for all lets have the university teams handing out scholarships to attract players to their clubs. Even better align 2 clubs with our AFL entities. Will stop the defrauding off our WAFL comp and bring a heap of funds back towards "amateur footy". Who cares about the integrity of an amateur competition. There is money to be made!!!

Are u kidding dirty weekender u sound like a c grader wana b a grader the amateur comp has never had integrity what u think north beach was successfully winning flags any never paid a player and talk about integritythe waafl president is an ex nth beath president
As for your uni and a scholarship comment y not whats the difference between them doing that and clubs offering players jobs through sponsors and club connections to get them to play for them
Clubs already have wafl alignments as such and that comes back to good club management and people willing to put in the work to create relationships between an amateur club and a wafl club it doesnt just happen seriously every A grade club is an A grade club because of a number of people (volunteers) that put in alot of work in there own time to make these clubs strong and successful probably most B grade clubs also
Lets get real just because we brought in a points system or salary cap does that automatically even things up and lets say for example make a kenwick or rossmoyne an A grade club of course not because u still need the right people to make the smart football decisions and put in the work at your club
I dont think there is anything wrong with the comp now other than the word amateur and the waafl committee trying to sweep under the carpet what really goes on we have probably the best talent in coaching and playing ranks EVER this year most grades are pretty even and any team can win on any given week