An AFL Goldfields full audit of the PPA roll-out in the Central Highlands Football League revealed that Beaufort had exceeded its cap.

In a statement, Daylesford senior coach Marcus Goonan said the system had not been implemented as initially advised and “is being treated like a joke by clubs within the CHFL”.

“Daylesford Football Club is strongly of the opinion that every club which has exceeded even a single player’s PPA should have loss of points and be fined, regardless of a team’s total or the outcome of the game,” the statement read.  “Until someone is made an example of for breaking the rules, no one will take this seriously.”

Daylesford highlighted a section of the 2016 CHFL handbook, which states “any CHFL team identified as playing with more player points than their 2016 allocation permits will be sanctioned by the CHFL in accordance with ‘AFL Victoria Country Regulation - Penalty for playing ineligible (and) / or unregistered players’”.

“As a club we will be sanctioned for playing an unregistered under-15 player, potentially lose points and be fined. This was an honest mistake,” the statement read, referring to a junior incident which may see the club sanctioned.

“To then see the same excuse used for PPA breaches in a senior football competition, but for the clubs to receive no penalty at all and in fact be supported by the CHFL board is extremely frustrating.”

In a different statement, AFL Goldfields declared that it and AFL Victoria “appreciates the implementation of the player points system policy in 2016 may result in unintentional errors with the player points allocation from club volunteers as the industry familiarises itself with the new system”.

“(The CHFL) share their position that up to this point the emphasis is on training and education of the CCSP and not punitive,” it read.

CHFL administrator Diane Ryan said that the AFL Victoria Country regulation referred to by Daylesford does not apply to any PPA matters in 2016.