BONZA going into voluntary administration during the week has more ramifications for local teams than just putting up with a few extra flights to get here.
The main one being what do we now call the fly-in boys? QantasLink Boys and Rex Boys just don’t have the same ring to it!
For the convenience of it I am still sticking with Bonza Boys.
But seriously, there are many things that now need to be put into consideration by the clubs that have the Bonza Boys coming to town each week. And the largest one is the salary cap.
There are numerous things that are considered with the salary cap for each club and these considerations are based on the position of the ladder you have finished the season prior, how close to Mildura you are located, among a number of other things.
Basically for the 2024 season the salary cap ranges between $105,000 and $126,000 per club in the Sunraysia Football & Netball League.
This number also varies from league to league. The Millewa Football Netball League for example has a salary cap of between $42,000 and $47,500 per club.
So, here in lies the problem the local clubs will now have to consider.
Each club goes into the season knowing their exact salary cap allocation and believe me when I say that every club flies very, very close to the sun when spending up to their maximum amount in their salary cap.
Clubs also have to take into account much more than just player payments.
Part of the boundaries inside the salary cap are things such as payments to coaches; wives and partners, now that netballers are being paid at some clubs; incentives for after-game awards such as sponsors’ vouchers and cash; and also travel arrangements for any players.
This is where the collapse of Bonza now plays a massive part for clubs flying in players. Each need to provide the cost of getting their players here as part of their salary caps.
So things such as flights and their costs, accommodation for players if they are staying at motel rooms paid for by the club, meal vouchers if they are eating at the restaurants at the motels, even petrol money should players be coming from say Mildura to Ouyen or Robinvale, as an example, that is to be paid by the club.
Now the clubs and players need to renegotiate who pays for what I would assume, because I can guarantee you that the players would be getting “x” amount per game plus flights paid for on top of that. At very worst they would have negotiated “x” amount per game with those flights covered and included in that amount.
On average one player flying in from the Sunshine Coast on a Saturday morning would cost around the $69 mark and then about the same back again.
Now with the same flights, or closest to, with another carrier, it is going to be nudging $1000 return with one stopover in either Sydney or Melbourne, plus a night layover (remember accommodation needs to be covered in the cap).
Ouch!
Now to put even more focus on the salary cap, each year AFL Victoria completes mandatory audits of the two grand finalists.
This is not to say any breaches will be found, however clubs will certainly need to make sure their books are clean and all parties are happy.
The way I see it from here, if it is now going to cost extra for flights and accommodation, plus payments already on contract, someone will need to take a hit.
Either players who are contracted will need to take the hit for the flights, which is the most doubtful of outcomes, or they will simply now need to advise players they can’t afford to keep them should they be right on the edge of their salary cap.
Or do they go to the local players and ask them to all take a slight hit to cover the extra costs? Again not a very strong chance of this happening either.
For the clubs utilising fly-in players, I imagine there will be a need to have a couple of serious chats to their players.
