'We have a responsibility': NTFAW salary cap proposal to be considered

Enjoying true amateur status, the NTFAW's current structure does not allow for player remuneration, but it was revealed during the meeting that a proposal to introduce a salary cap had been put to the player payments board.

However, plenty of safeguarding steps must be put in place if its introduction was to meet the approval of head of AFL Tasmania, Damian Gill.

"The salary cap is part of the club sustainability model, which is a statewide setup, which is overseen by the player payments board," Gill explained.

"They set the limits around total player payments and with women's footy and where that sits in the model is being contemplated and worked through at the moment.

Adding that figuring out the next steps was a "worthwhile discussion", Gill insisted that women's football should avoid falling into the same issues facing the men's game.

"I am on the record as saying, I think a reduction in player payments across the board for community footy would be a really healthy thing for the game," he continued.

"In a lot of respects, we have a responsibility to learn our lessons from the men's game and not make the same mistakes in creating an arms race in women's football.

"We have to be cautious around how we step into that ... I would love to see a world where we're spending less on players and are able to invest in other initiatives in our footy clubs, I think that would be really healthy."

When the question was posed in the meeting by Meander Valley president Steve Saltmarsh about whether a women's salary cap would be introduced, he said the answer caught many by surprise.

"Some club presidents with women's teams nearly fell of their chair," Saltmarsh recounted.

Saltmarsh believed the only way a salary cap introduction would work would be if every team had access to it, not just the top division clubs.

More news about the structure of both men's and women's competitions is likely to be announced in the coming weeks.