Richmond and CEO Brendon Gale are committed to the AFL’s equalisation measuresGrant Baker
Herald-Sun
June 24, 2015 RICHMOND remains committed to the AFL’s equalisation measures amid growing rumblings of discontent from some of its fellow power clubs.
The Tigers has joined Collingwood and Hawthorn in having signed 70,000 members but chief executive Brendon Gale said the Tigers were not yet at the level of the Hawks and Magpies in terms of off-field financial clout.
Like the Hawks and Magpies, Richmond is a financial contributor to the AFL’s revenue sharing competitive balance policies.
Gale told the Herald Sun the club was philosophically behind the equalisation push, but that there should be a full review of the mechanisms being used at the end of next year.
“The competition ... the commission and clubs agreed to a set of principles which guided the development of a framework — there was an expenditure side and a revenue side and that is in place for two years,” Gale said.
“I expect there will be a very fulsome review after the two years and the model going forward may be different to that — I don’t know. But I just think we should sit back and review after two years.
“There are significant structural issues in our industry that consign (some) clubs to very difficult positions and hand other clubs some advantages. So I think equalisation is important in addressing that.
“The quantum of money that is required to be redistributed and where that money comes from — that’s where the debate is at the moment.”
Gale said the cap on non-player football department spending was a good initiative because “expenditure was getting out of hand”.
“We have got a cost problem, not a revenue problem, in our industry and I guess in that context I guess the share that was being allocated to players was diminishing and I don’t think that is fair because players were the only part of our industry that was regulated and capped.
In the Herald Sun last week, Hawthorn president Andrew Newbold linked his club’s participation in revenue sharing to arrangements the AFL is finalising related to the trading of future draft picks to effectively pay for father-son and academy players.
Because clubs in the northern states have academies, there is a concern those clubs will have more flexibility than other clubs.
But Gale said he would be surprised if the AFL backed a system that compromised draft fairness.
“That was a pretty important premise, that we get back to as pure and uncompromised player movement process as possible — that is where everything is heading,” Gale said.
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