Tigers fined for salary cap breach

THE Torquay Tigers will finalise their position on Monday about whether they will appeal penalties imposed for breaching the salary cap last year.
Yesterday, AFL Barwon announced an audit of the BFL football club found the Tigers had exceeded the Allowable Player Payments (APP) by $3,040 in the 2017 season.
The club itself was found guilty of four charges and a player was found guilty of one charge.
As a result, Torquay will have to pay a $20,000 fine (with another $30,000 suspended), have their APP for the 2018 season reduced by $10,000 (to $100,000) and have their team player points reduced by three (to 37 points) for the 2018 season.
The player, who was found guilty of “not providing the requested information to the Integrity Officer within the prescribed time frames” received a two-match suspension, fully suspended until the end of this year.
Torquay will not have to relinquish their 2017 seniors premiership.
In a statement to the Surf Coast Times, Tigers president Jenny Wood said: “As a committee we are still working through our decision as to whether we will take up our option to appeal.
“We will be meeting with the club members on Monday night at 7pm to take our decision for their comment and questions.
“Following this, we will have a further statement outlining our decision.”
In an earlier email to club members, Ms Wood said the Tigers were represented in the AFL Barwon hearing by Adrian Anderson and felt they presented a strong case.
“At no time did the club have any intention to breach these rules. We have genuinely worked hard to observe all rules in the payment of players at our club. The charges are based largely around process and misinterpretation of the guidelines and we presented documentary evidence to support our case that we did not provide any underhanded payments or processes.
“The Torquay Football Club respect and support the player payment rules and salary cap for regional clubs and we are committed to maintaining the integrity of the game.
“The entire review process has put an enormous amount of stress on our valuable club volunteers, players and families. A committee of dedicated volunteers head up our club and the past couple of weeks have had us question why we would be involved as a volunteer in a football club, the answer put simply: we love our club.”