Nick Gooden says it was an "honest mistake" that caused the Warragul Industrials to breach country football's most important equalisation measure during two of the biggest games of last season.
Industrials — or Dusties — had just progressed to a preliminary final in the West Gippsland league when AFL Victoria found they had incorrectly evaluated several of their players under the Player Points System, putting them beyond their allocated "points cap" for both of their finals victories.
Rival clubs and fans were outraged.
Gooden, who is the football manager at Dusties, said he even received a death threat over the issue.
But following the breach, AFL Victoria investigated every club in the region, and found that all 71 clubs across Gippsland had incorrectly interpreted the points system during last season.
Not all had breached their allocated points cap, but all had at least one player with an incorrect number of points.
"I'm incredibly embarrassed this has happened, and I fully accept that our situation looks bad," Gooden said.
"But if every club has filed incorrectly, there's obviously some flaws in the system."
An equalisation system
The Player Points System — introduced in 2016 — operates like a salary cap, and is used to create more equal competitions in country football.
Under the system, local players are worth just one point, while recruits from other clubs are worth more, depending on the quality of the league they have played in.
Former AFL players, for example, are worth the maximum of six points.
Clubs then have a limit on the total number of points they can have on the team.
But AFL Victoria says every club across Gippsland's seven leagues got the points system wrong last season, and every club has been fined $1,500 per player they had incorrect, with a maximum fine of $6,000.
All fines are suspended until the end of the 2024 season, pending further breaches.
Clubs may also appeal their fine, however there is an application fee of $250 per club, and an upfront bond of $500, which the AFL will keep if their appeal panel deem the application "frivolous".
Clubs urge AFL to do more
Foster Football Netball Club president Noel Afflito said $6,000 was a huge amount to have "hanging over our heads".
"Where you have 100 per cent non-compliance across every team, there's obviously a problem with the system, not the participants," he said.
"There may be isolated cases where clubs have intentionally tried to improve their position, but I'd say overwhelmingly that would not be the case."
Mr Afflito urged the AFL to take more responsibility in the process.
"They need to look inward, not outward," he said.
Currently, in most leagues across Gippsland, clubs determine how much each of their players are worth at the start of the season.
Kilcunda Bass president Les Watson said that needed to change.
"I'm a little bit angry about it," he said.
"I'll be suggesting that each club sends in what they think the player points should be in early March, and the AFL can look over it and they can tick it off.
"It's just so complex for our club volunteers."
A line in the sand?
AFL Victoria community football manager John O'Donohue said the system was "reviewed constantly" by a statewide advisory group, but there were no plans for it to change.
He said breaches of the system were not widespread across Victoria, and were isolated to Gippsland clubs.
He said the AFL would work to further educate clubs about the system.
Gooden hoped the revelations were a "line in the sand".
"I'm embarrassed about it, no doubt," he said.
"But ultimately it was me, as a volunteer, sitting up at night doing it, outside of work and everything else I do. I made a mistake.
"It's a disaster — hopefully this is a line in the sand moment to get some better policies and procedures in place to make sure all 71 clubs are doing the right thing."
