TOPIC:

I agree with Red Legs.

The points system won't stop abuse by clubs, but it will help control it.

It works in the both the WAFL and the South West leagues. There is no reason why it won't work for us too.

Clubs in some areas are able to raise sufficiently large amounts of money to be able to pay both players and coaches, often significant sums. Most clubs are not.

I would like to see a system which will allow all clubs to compete on a more even footing and encourage clubs to support their junior affiliated clubs rather than just buy themselves a team as some do now.

If clubs don't support and encourage their junior affiliated clubs, we will ultimately see junior football die out. This is already happening in some areas now.

In our area, we need to see a lot more time and effort put in by our associated WAFL club. Realistically, we never see or hear from them (apart from a weekly email telling us which players we can and cannot have back that week) - there hasn't been a district meeting held or even scheduled for this year and no-one has been near us.

If you want quality players, including ex WAFL and AFL players, in the WAAFL you then you can scrap any concept of a transfer fee. The issues I see with it include:

Only the clubs that could afford the transfer fees will get the quality players - I am not sure how this balances the field.

What happens if the player decides to transfer between amateur clubs. Are you then going to allow for clubs to charge for the transfer fees between clubs. Again, this will not happen and you will lose players to country footy or worse they will just hang up the boots all together.

Not all WAAFL players are the same. There are quality veteran WAAFL players vs players who have played a handful of games and or spat due to injury. I can not see clubs paying for the later.

This does everything but promote ex WAAFL/AFL players to finish off the careers in the WAAFL.

I think it is about time the issue was addressed head on it, is a subject that the WAAFL has danced around for far too long hoping it would go away, guess what? the problem will never go away and with quality players willing to leave the WAFL for a bit of extra coin then it may only get worse

One of the biggest issues is do the WAAFL have the correct people in place to work on the problem and are these people in touch with community football?

To often you see people volunteer for these positions because it sits well on their CV, in my opinion the working party should most likely be voted upon by the Presidents with all positions being unanimous
There is no quick fix as it has allowed to get out of control and whatever actions they put in place is sure to upset some people more than others as too I am sure there will be some teething problems