CENTRAL Highlands Football League has published a statement on its website following an emergency player points audit.
This statement claims there has been "continuous efforts in the media to discredit the administration of the CHFL and in turn the clubs within the league".
It also hits back at a query from AFL Goldfields general manager Rod Ward, who asked whether a pre-season player points audit on the competition’s 18 clubs was completed by the league before the start of the season.
The statement says any inference that this was not carried out is a “complete mistruth”.
“At no stage has contact been made with the CHFL administration by the RGM (Ward) to determine what audit was undertaken which would have been expected to be the approach in a leadership position,” the statement reads.
With CHFL administrator Diane Ryan away on holidays last week, Ward and AFL Goldfields commissioners met with CHFL president Eddy Comelli and other representatives of the CHFL board last Thursday to discuss the audit.
“As the member clubs of the CHFL will attest an audit was undertaken prior to the season with consultation with all clubs where it was identified that player points allocated by a club may have required further consideration,” the statement read.
“There have been continual adjustments as clubs and CHFL work together in bedding down this new policy which has been communicated as a trial year by AFL Victoria in numerous forms. (It is) a year to get all used to the new system which is a significant change in operation for community clubs.”
The statement also claims some confusion in the policy at AFL Goldfields level.
“The CHFL administration has been working with AFL Goldfields in recent weeks on some clubs’ points and have actually identified in one case where AFL Goldfields auditing wished to change multiple player points at a club, that the AFL Goldfields were using the incorrect element of the policy and the points which had been allocated by the CHFL were in fact correct,” it read.
“This further highlights that it is a trial process that has many elements still being learnt, even by those engaged to conduct local audits.”
The statement says that this information was provided to local media, but claims it was “ignored as it appears that it didn't support the agenda which was being driven.”
The Courier can confirm it had correspondence from Ryan about a possible AFL Goldfields error, but after further conversations with members of the regional body, a decision was made not to include her comments in a story published last Wednesday.
This decision was made because this journalist felt the talks between Ryan and a member of AFL Goldfields were of a private nature and that any mistakes were quickly rectified before they had any bearing on official player point allocations.
Ward confirmed on Monday that the points policy was not a trial in season 2016.
The Courier attempted to contact Ryan on Monday without success, while Comelli didn’t want to make comment on the matter.
AFL Goldfields started an audit into the CHFL’s 18 clubs after inaccuracies in a number of senior playing lists were discovered.
