Latest news with #AFLCommission
News.com.au
29-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Cats stand firm against alleged breach
AFL: Geelong Cats coach Chris Scott has refused to accept reports of the club potentially breaking the salary cap.
AU Financial Review
29-05-2025
- Sport
- AU Financial Review
Why the AFL struggles to kick out Richard Goyder
All is not well at AFL headquarters, otherwise known as the AFL Commission. It's time to seriously address who should take responsibility for its problems. According to AFL guru Caroline Wilson, the league is beset by 'crumbling' management and communication problems. These include the chaotic leadership of Andrew Dillon as chief executive, poor Indigenous player and Indigenous executive management, poor attention to player health concerns; inconsistent approaches to player suspensions; and questions over the allocation of exclusive TV rights to Saturday games to Foxtel at the expense of free-to-air Channel Seven.
News.com.au
26-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘There have been discrepancies': Geelong ‘expecting' sanction over third-party player payments
Geelong is expecting to be sanctioned over discrepancies in their third-party player payments, with fines looming, according to a report. The Cats have been audited by the AFL over the past few months as part of regular checks on club books and according to veteran reporter Caroline Wilson, the league has found several issues. 'The AFL conducts regular salary cap audit activities across a number of clubs every year as part of our annual salary cap compliance process,' a league spokesperson said in March. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. 'We do not provide commentary on the conduct or progress of any of these activities and the only time we release any information publicly is if we determine there has been a breach of AFL rules.' The audit has reportedly found discrepancies between its results and the Cats' books, including 'lodgements that should have been noted but weren't', according to Wilson. 'The audit is virtually finished. Results have been slowed down by the fact that Geelong COO Marcus King has been away, I think studying actually at Harvard, he's back, and my belief is that Geelong are expecting a fine, or there will be a fine from the AFL over the coming weeks,' she said on Seven. 'Geelong have been adamant, from the word go, that there is no smoking gun here, that nothing untoward was going on at the Geelong Football Club in terms of any attempt to hide third party payments. 'The AFL accepts this, but there have been discrepancies, there have been lodgements that should have been noted that weren't, and they will lead to several five-figure fines, whether they go beyond five figures, I can't tell you. 'I do know that one major lodgement issue was a car to a senior AFLW player that wasn't lodged. And I think there might be a couple of other things as well.' It would not be the first time a club has been fined for incorrect lodgements with Brisbane fined $10,000 in 2017 due to an administrative error which saw a discrepancy with their total player payment information. 'We're not saying that there was any cheating, that there was any attempt to cheat the salary cap,' Wilson said. 'What it will lead to, and the AFL have told Geelong and other clubs, this is that there's been a loosening of management issues at many clubs, and a warning will be given to all clubs with a crackdown on third party payments. And this has been led by what's happened at Geelong.' Previous potential payment issues cited around the Cats , both elite-level club sponsors.
News.com.au
07-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Power GM: Rioli made �significant error'
AFL: Port Adelaide Power GM Chris Davies discusses Willie Rioli's situation after being questioned by the AFL today over the alleged threats.
Sydney Morning Herald
02-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
The AFL is finally listening to its coaches. It's baffling it's taken this long
The penny seems to have finally dropped with the game's governors in the months that have followed Chris Fagan's post premiership session with the AFL Commission. Fagan's outlining of the Brisbane Lions recovery after the club looked destitute and clinging for survival in 2015, and the football staff who led it, prompted a shift in the thinking of at least three influential commissioners and reinforced the concerns from a further two who didn't need convincing that the game was undervaluing its coaches. Even so, the bottom line-driven AFL bosses remain frustrated by the campaign being led by senior coaches that has punctuated the 2025 season. Chief executive Andrew Dillon and football boss Laura Kane have concluded they must act to address the deep levels of job dissatisfaction endured by coaches and their assistants. And the dearth of star players willing to move into coaching. And the falling numbers of Indigenous players coming through the system. And the struggles of non-Victorian clubs trying to lure good coaches interstate with so little job security – particularly in Sydney. Loading Dillon and Kane are expected to outline a set of proposals to the commission at its June session that will rewrite last year's modest three-year plan for the football department soft cap. Although Dillon has repeatedly stated that money alone cannot solve the reality of coaches feeling undervalued, new financial measures and triggers will be put in place which he believes will make coaching a more attractive career path. Dillon and Kane are also reevaluating the demands on assistant coaches and their contractual lack of job security. Dillon said the details of the proposal would be completed after sessions over the coming weeks at every AFL club. He does not believe that coaches are undervalued by the game but agrees that the game must act if coaches truly feel that way. He would not yet outline the proposed measures but said senior coaches were better paid now than they were in 2019 before the AFL slashed football department spending at the start of COVID. Frankly, it seems extraordinary that it has come to this. That such a divide exists between head office and its coaching fraternity when the red flags have been flying for so long. Red flags like the alarming lack of interest last year in the West Coast coaching job. This was amid ongoing pleas from John Longmire and Chris Scott – with Scott at the top of his game taking a second job as an ambassador for Morris Finance – and with three GWS assistant coaches living apart from their families.
