The president of a country football club that lost last year's grand final to a team that breached salary cap rules says harsh penalties could crush teams run by volunteers.
It comes after Wangaratta Magpies Football and Netball Club was fined $28,000 and stripped of its 2022 premiership flag for salary cap breaches.
Yarrawonga Pigeons club president Ross Mulquiney said there needed to be some sort of punishment for breaches but questioned the impacts such a fine would have on the club and others that potentially faced it.
"On one hand we're handing out [almost] $30,000 in fines and on the other hand, we're looking at how do we keep these clubs alive," he said.
"These clubs are quite large businesses, and they're run by people that volunteer their time … [They're] a tax-free organisation that receives government handouts."
The Pigeons went head-to-head against the Magpies in last year's Ovens and Murray grand final, losing 86-83.
Despite the recent ruling, Mr Mulquiney said the match was a great contest and the better team on the day won.
Red tape pressures
Mr Mulquiney said regulatory red tape was making it increasingly difficult for volunteers to run clubs.
He was forced to sacrifice two paid work days during the audit of his team due to the workload.
"The more difficult they are to run, the less we focus on our core business, which is making sure young boys and girls have an opportunity to play sport in a great environment," Mr Mulquiney said.
"There is such little focus on that key core thing, that we are having football clubs and netball clubs just collapse all around us and very little is done about it.
"It's not that long ago that we were talking about Corowa folding and … all the impacts that the collapse of community football has."
Ovens and Murray Football Netball League chair David Sinclair said he hoped the club would recover and bounce back.
"The players are collateral damage in all of this and their volunteers as well," he said.
"They're doing it tough, there's no question about that."
An honest mistake
Mr Sinclair said it was believed to be the first time a club had been stripped of its premiership flag in the league's 130-year history.
"We felt that we needed to send the strongest possible message to not only Wangaratta but all clubs in the competition and community football in general, that breaches of the salary cap won't be tolerated," Mr Sinclair said.
He said while he was satisfied that it was just an honest mistake by the Magpies, the league is wary of salary cap issues at other clubs.
"I think you'd be a fool to think that there aren't third-party payments going on, in and around other football clubs," he said.
"But we can only deal with the facts and until the breaches are detected at other clubs we can't deal with it."
The salary cap was reduced during the pandemic from about $160,000 to $125,000 to ease the burden on clubs struggling to come up with funds to attract players.
"It was just burning volunteers and clubs out trying to raise the money to be able to compete," Mr Sinclair said.
"Since salary caps have been reduced, clubs are trading much more profitably and the balance has shifted from the players back to the club," he said.
