Australian Football League side Gold Coast Suns' prospects of reaching its full potential in '16 "have been hamstrung by salary cap constraints," according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. The AFL "will not meet the struggling fledgling club's cash-flow shortfalls in order to allow the Suns to call on extra total player payments money they had banked over previous seasons." Gold Coast "will struggle" to reach close to 100% of its salary cap despite having the capacity to exceed the cap next season by some 5%. The club "endured a frustrating trade period in which it attempted but failed to secure Collingwood's Paul Seedsman and Melbourne's Jeremy Howe." The Suns believe extra funding from the AFL to meet its '16 salary cap with money the club "had banked could have landed at least one of the above." Not only has Gold Coast been discouraged from meeting its full salary cap potential, "but the Suns remain in the bottom three clubs in terms of its football department spending" and some A$2M ($1.4M) below the game's average. New AFL CFO Ray Gunston "has repeatedly warned clubs that the industry has been over-spending." With the league looking at enforcing new budget cut measures in '16 "the more financially struggling clubs have been warned their funding requests will not be met." The AFL Commission "appears unlikely to approve the full funding requests from the financially crippled Lions" -- which are in debt to the tune of A$12M ($8.6M) -- nor Gold Coast despite the fact that Australian Rules football in Queensland is battling to retain a place in the competitive northern market (THE AGE, 10/21).
