An independent review being conducted by David Burgess is a wholesale examination of the issues facing the game in this region. It will deliver recommendations next March with a focus on how best to keep the sport and clubs in the best possible shape. 

Set against this backdrop, and with league and club meetings scheduled for next week, The Daily Advertiser canvassed opinion from the 18 Riverina and Farrer League club presidents on some big talking points. 

The short story is vast differences between the circumstances of clubs across the senior leagues means a range of wildly different scenarios and challenges for all of them. 

The shortest answer is, finding a future that best accommodates everyone, without sounding the death knell for any, isn’t going to be easy.

There is little enthusiasm for a salary cap in the Riverina and Farrer Leagues. A vast majority of clubs are concerned that it can’t be policed, seeing it a flawed tool which might add to the workload on volunteers but won’t effect genuine change. 

Collingullie-Glenfield Park and Wagga Tigers are also opposed on principle. 

“We’re not a fan,” Tigers president Anthony Lyons said. “It makes it difficult to recruit guys and to get them past the Ovens and Murray League or out of Melbourne (where there are higher caps). It limits our ability to recruit from outside the region which improves the competition.”

Lyons said he’d love to see the Riverina League boasting a handful of players straight out of AFL but fears that will be even less likely now.

Collingullie-GP’s Tony Dean didn’t disagree: “It could devalue football in the Riverina… it’s going to be very hard to get good players and stay under that cap and that will devalue the league.” 

But Griffith offered rare, unqualified support. 

“I think it’s a good guideline the salary cap, because it does start the conversation about transparency and having confidence that clubs are doing the right thing,” Swans president Jeff Harris said. 

“There’s a bit of grey there and a bit of work before it’s cemented in but it starts the conversation about what clubs are spending and highlights disparity. I see the benefit because sustainability in our community is probably the most important thing. We’ve had the long term view of developing our juniors and that’s paying dividends.”

Most clubs raised at least some concerns. 

“I think it’s a waste of time,” East Wagga-Kooringal’s Steve Absolum said. 

“90 percent of the clubs won’t hit $100,000 but if they can, it’s open to rorting. It can’t be policed at AFL or NRL level, how’s it going to be policed here. And then clubs need to appoint an integrity officer.”

Or, as Coolamon’s Derek Owens said: “It makes more work for volunteers at football clubs but it won’t stop the brown paper bag on a Saturday night.”

Still, many understand the motivation – to create broad pressure that will bring down costs across the board – and, despite scepticism about enforcing it, grudgingly accept that something has to be done. 

But clubs with smaller population centres, including Barellan, The Rock-Yerong Creek and Coleambally worry it will limit the ability to lift yourself up after lean years.

It could take away their right to chase a premiership or at least challenge bigger clubs. 

“We haven’t got the funds to go over the cap but if we did we’d probably run into points issues,” Barellan’s Jeff Mickan said. 

“So the current structure will keep us at the bottom. We can't challenge the top teams at the moment under the whole system (cap and player points). That’s not the issue that got us there but it will make it very hard, with our low population base, if we want to get out of that situation.

“But I do think generally the spending on players is too high.”

Coleambally’s Robert Groves said the Blues are virtually in the same position due to their isolation, despite being financially healthy.

“It makes it difficult for clubs like us,” Groves said. “We have to recruit heavily to keep our club going… I don’t think they need to reduce it because it will make it too hard for the outside clubs. It’s easier for those in the closer towns who can get players out of places like Wagga.”

Peter Gerhardy, newly elected as The Rock-Yerong Creek president, broadly believes clubs can take responsibility for their own spending and manage for their own success in conjunction with their right to exist and prosper.

Where the words ‘salary cap’ tend to immediately raise eyebrows and suspicion, the player points system is widely accepted. But there’s a direct correlation between a club’s location, population base and strength of juniors, and enthusiasm for it. 

“The points system can get a bit awkward for some of us,” Northern Jets’ Andrew Clark said. “They keep talking about lowering the points which would worry us a bit.”

Groves could’ve been speaking for a few clubs with his assessment: “I know it tries to promote juniors but if you haven’t got the juniors, you can’t do much about that either, if they’re not in your town. We’ve got lots of junior juniors, like around under 11s, but it’s years before they’re coming through and who knows if they stick around?”

North Wagga, Marrar, EWK and CSU are outright fans in the Farrer League. 

In the Riverina League, virtually every club accepts it. 

Tigers say it isn’t a concern because their juniors will always keep them under but others want to see the points system start to bite. 

“We’re in favour of a reduction in points,” Turvey Park president Stephen Stapleton said. “The cap’s open to manipulation whereas the points system isn’t and it encourages retention and the development of juniors which we think is healthy.”

Coolamon and MCUE agree.

“Instead of trying to fudge around and make it a big points system to accommodate the clubs that need it, if you brought it down and tightened it up it will force clubs to source players locally and I think it would even out the competition,” MCUE president Graeme Killalea said.

Leeton-Whitton believe it has already made for a more even competition but Narrandera know it presents a new challenge in their circumstances.

It only reinforces what emerges as the great divide between small centres and the bigger communities. 

“We have to get a few players in because of how far away we are, the employment situation, and even with kids coming through, whether they’ll stay here because there aren’t the work opportunities,” president Mark Savage said. 

“Clubs closer to Wagga seem to keep their juniors because they’re still local and they don’t have to get as many players in.”

Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong, whose junior club now plays in the Wagga and District competition for virtually that reason, are among many to say the points system is superior to a salary cap. President Jason Linsell also echoed others when he suggested it be modified to prevent a related issue. 

Temora president Peter Gerhard hit on a common theme when he spoke out about players being targetted en masse by local rivals. He said they’ve generally tried to look towards Canberra or Albury or elsewhere to recruit but the points system will hurt. He raised the prospect of using it to prevent more local movement.

“We were pretty well under last year with mainly locals and a few outside,” he said. “If a lot of our players get poached, we need to look at signing a few more and we’d be right up on the mark.”

Temora have also enjoyed the value of good players coming out of Canberra now going into their fourth season. But they won’t travel forever, and replacing them will come at a points cost, given their ‘price’ has dropped each year they stay. In one sense, loyalty is rewarded, but it can still catch up with clubs in the end. 

Linsell, unprompted, also suggested the system could be closely examined to try to limit local movements and reward broader recruitment. 

“We think it’s not quite right – we think it should be stricter on players switching between the Hume, Farrer and Riverina League clubs and less strict on bringing players in from outside,” he said.

Few are suggesting players be restricted from pursuing a better opportunity, testing themselves elsewhere, playing with mates or exploring a change.

However, many clubs aren’t just concerned about top talent but their depth being raided and affected.

“Our biggest concern is a lot of our second tier players being offered money to go elsewhere,” Leeton-Whitton’s Damian Lang said.

“It makes it hard to keep those guys around and our depth is not what it used to be. Our reserve grade is struggling and I know some other clubs are too.”

Collingullie-GP are in the same boat.

“It is a really big talking point within our club at the moment, people throwing small amounts of money at fringe first graders,” Tony Dean said. “We’ve always had a group of players who are generally pretty loyal to our club but the loyalty is going to be stretched to the limit when money’s being offered.”

Amid concern about players being targetted, most clubs find it harder than ever to retain their strength through the grades.

It isn’t just about players being enticed to go to other clubs. Some of it is generational and societal change.

“Getting numbers to training is one of the biggest issues,” Derek Owens said. “It’s been a steady decline over the last four or five years. Years ago, blokes were playing seconds trying to play first grade but it doesn’t mean as much now.”

At MCUE, Graeme Killalea has noticed something else.

“The whole culture of football has changed in the last 30 to 40 years from being family orientated, a lot of it now is mates going to play with mates,” he said. 

“They have the loyalty to mates, rather than to clubs. That’s not a bad thing at all. it’s just the way culture has evolved.”

Marrar’s new president, John Carroll, said the health of clubs is about more than creating systems to enforce lower spending or limit player movement.

“Poaching? That’s just footy – players go for a change or where their mates are,” Carroll said.

“But some of the money that gets offered, it’s ridiculous. A lot of it comes down to the structure of your club. Having the right culture and a good coach and things like that will help you draw players. That has to be a part of your recruiting… You do have to spend money but you have to spend it wisely.”

He said the Bombers are particularly proud of the effort it took to develop an under 17/17.5 team (which won a premiership this year).

Wagga Tigers president Anthony Lyons is clear about why many clubs feel under pressure.

“I think the numbers in the area don’t support two competitions in the long term, or probably even the medium term,” Lyons said. “I think clubs that can’t produce their own footballers probably need to look at where their future lies.”

Barellan's Jeff Mickan said player numbers is their main concern. Tied in with caps and points to reduce recruitment, the future can look bleak.

“Our local low player base is our biggest issue by a long way. I don’t think there is a solution until you go down the road of mergers or things like that. But unless there was a big change in employment or something, the guts of our issue is coming up with enough players each week.”

But even for those that can, it’s still a major worry. 

“The biggest issue for all clubs is your junior-base retention and the drop-out rate from 15s up into 17s,” outgoing North Wagga president Mick Barnes said.

Relative to many, the Saints have a strong foundation but Barnes said it’s not all rosy.

“We have to put more effort into juniors to keep feeding into seniors. But a lot of clubs are struggling to fill every grade. We fill all our obligations from Auskick through to first grade but in a lot of grades, kids are doubling up to make up numbers,” he said.

At Gumly, retaining volunteers and finding juniors are of equal concern. Steve Absolum puts some of it down to changing times, including all the other attractions and distractions available to kids.

There are also time and work pressures on parents. He says attracting families to a club is more important than just finding kids who want to play football.

“It’s massive. Somethings got to give in the next few years. There’s not enough kids now to sustain our first grade teams,” he said. 

He also lists a range of suggestions that Melbourne could help out with, like subsidising registrations for juniors, to seeing a greater presence of AFL talent – from a variety of clubs – visiting Riverina clubs and schools. 

Turvey Park won the under 17.5 Riverina League flag this year, and the 17s last year. 

They want to see it return to being under 17s because their junior numbers are strong.

But most clubs struggle to field teams in every age group and some believe stretching the juniors to have more age groups might look good in theory but isn’t necessarily developing the best quality of football.

“Kids don’t want to line up and get flogged every week and if they give it up, they can be lost to football forever,” EWK’s Steve Absolum said. 

It’s a tough call for AFL decision makers because the reverse argument is that cutting out any age groups will have a greater effect in pushing players away from the sport. 

But it’s a major concern for many. 

“When they went to every age group, I thought it was a big mistake,” Collingullie-GP’s Tony Dean said.

“Within our club, we struggle for players… I think that was a poor decision for clubs that didn’t have massive numbers like ours, The Rock, Coolamon. Down the track, maybe it will come to fruition but I can see massive gaps in our 17s structure in coming years.”

Separate to the structure of juniors, Anthony Lyons at Wagga Tigers says the drain of talented players out of the local competition has a detrimental effect. The best young players being tied up with GWS Giants or representative commitments is a drawcard taken away from local leagues.

The sight – and impact – of Riley Corbett in action for GGGM this season is testament to that. 

As was Harry Perryman and Matt Kennedy playing in premierships at Collingullie – a reminder of the excitement that talented youngsters bring to the game if they’re able to be seen at their home clubs. 

For many, playing juniors and seniors on the one day would be a big step towards better engagement. 

It’s a well-documented dream of GGGM and TRYC and enormously important also to clubs like Coleambally, Barellan, Narrandera, Leeton-Whitton and the Northern Jets. 

The benefits are less pressure on volunteers, fewer days travelling or working at the football, a better atmosphere and greater connection for young footballers and netballers with senior sport. 

The limitations are obvious though, in that clubs need to have two grounds and enough courts to accommodate games. And to fully align, an upheaval of competition structures would have to happen given junior leagues currently play in geographically-centred leagues ( to reduce travel in younger age groups) while seniors are in their Farrer and Riverina Leagues. 

AFL Riverina currently does its best to help clubs by coordinating draws to suit clubs’ wishes where possible. But many see it as the most important factor for their future. 

“The biggest issue that we would have is that we really strongly believe that we have to get into same-day football,” Andrew Clark said of the Northern Jets.

“Lack of workers and helpers on game day for football and netball is going to be one of our biggest issues and when we have same-day football and netballer, there’s enough. It doesn’t suit all clubs but for the future of football, it’s the only way we’re going to survive.”