And if you do have to use byes - make them random? They've chosen 6 Central League teams to have byes, when it really should just be whoever is left in the pot once all the games are drawn.
When there are more teams than slots, the default is that teams in premier leagues get the byes first.
if there are still more teams than slots once only premier league teams are considered, it is then on the basis of a random draw (which is an issue).
if they had just picked out 14 capital names from a hat containing 19, a scenario where all 10 central league teams played and the 5 byes went to the likes of naenae and wainui is possible, and that's definitely worse that what we have as it sits, where it's not quite the five 'best' teams having byes, but at least it's five of the top nine.
they have not seeded the teams on a team by team basis, which would be ideal, yes. but they have seeded them on a league by league basis, which is better than a completely random mess.
and which is what sthn.jeff is referring to - the fa cup etc all seed by league, but just have so many teams that they never have the stupid situation NZF has run into (well done NZF!)