WAFL: East Fremantle Sharks CEO Todd Shimmon departing club amid salary cap investigation

Shimmon, a long time WAFL club administrator who has worked in CEO roles for the Sharks and Claremont, said his departure from the club had been looming for some time.

“Where they are going as a board I am not aligned with so it was time to separate but it wasn’t to do with the TPP (Total Player Payments).”

Shimmon said he had been considering his future for “eight to 10 months”.

“They had a different way of where they wanted to go and I wasn’t part of that,” he said.

Shimmon will leave the club in mid October and club talent manager David Depane will step in as interim CEO.

Shimmon’s resignation was posted on the club’s website on Wednesday, just days after it had been revealed the Sharks were under investigation for potential breaches of the WAFL’s salary cap rules.

In a statement, East Fremantle President Mark Stewart said: “Todd has shown a genuine passion for our club’s football program and worked hard to ensure our players and coaches have the resources they need to succeed.”

“He has also been heavily involved in negotiations around our new facility as part of the $32 million redevelopment project at East Fremantle Oval which will secure our long term future.”

The Sharks will play Peel Thunder at Fremantle Oval on Saturday in a second semi final against the uncomfortable backdrop of the WAFC’s audit of the club’s salary cap, which is believed to have uncovered potential breaches from the 2022 season.

East Fremantle is one of four clubs under audit from that season. West Perth, Claremont and Swan Districts are the other clubs who were chosen for audit.

It has been claimed that East Fremantle incorrectly recorded Superannuation payments, handed out sports goods vouchers to players which should have been included in their salary cap records, and did not include a one off contract payment to a player.

The player concerned did not play for the Sharks in 2022 because he was signed by the Eagles over the 2021-22 summer as a Supplemental Selection Period addition to their list.

The WAFC is yet to officially confirm that East Fremantle have committed salary cap breaches, with CEO Michael Roberts saying on Thursday that “the audit isn’t complete yet so until it is we can’t determine if any breaches have occurred.”

But East Fremantle president Mark Stewart told CODE Sports on Thursday that his club would be overhauling its governance and TPP recording practices in the wake of the scandal.

“We have been very, very compliant and we will be instituting some new governance practices working closely with them (The West Australian Football Commission),” he said.

“We have pulled a whole stack of processes apart and we are going to implement a process internally ourselves before we submit stuff.”

The Sharks have remained adamant that any breaches were the result of errors and did not result in any competitive advantage.

But speculation is building that East Fremantle will dodge the harsh penalties handed to fierce rival South Fremantle, who earlier this year were found guilty of 2021 breaches after a process that stretched through several months over summer.

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South Fremantle were fined $25,000 and docked eight premiership points for the 2023 season.

They were found to have paid players outside TPP guidelines without the approval of the WAFC.

It is understood the breaches were linked to injury payments to one player who suffered a significant spinal injury which has ended his WAFL career, as well as paying veteran Nick Suban as a coach when he did not have the required accreditation to be classified as one.