New CF anti-stack rules

 

There have been a number of drivers behind the changes.

• We are aware that there is significant club discontent over the way the Regulations have allowed the "stacking" of lower teams with Central League or Premier players. The rule which allows the regrading down of 3 Central League or Premier League players into a team in a local league has meant that over successive weeks a club can have up to 6 higher graded players in a local league team in the second week, and so on. This is obviously more than just covering injuries and player unavailability. It is a strategic popultaing of teams and it advantages the larger clubs with higher graded teams.
• The Regulations are currently silent on regrading up. If you combine this with the Rule that states a player is deemed to be a member of a lower graded team once s/he has played for that team, a club can then drop a Central League player to (say) Capital 4 and then the next week bring that player up to Capital 1, in addition to any 3 Central League players regraded down.
• We are not trying to stop clubs from having the flexibility to cover for injuries or absences or to develop players, but it needs to be a level playing field for all clubs.
• The fact that the Rules are silent on regrading up is not viable in Regulations that are supposewd to promote clarity. This silence was at the heart of the unfortunate outcome of the Naenae and Olympic play-off game last season. Being new in the role, I relied on advice that it was common "custom and practice" within the federation that the term "regrading" applied to downward movement only, and so Rule 3(1) (d) did not apply to upward movement. NZF disagreed and hence my ruling was overturned, causing the play-off result to be void. We are going to ensure that there is now absolute clarity on what regrading means by stating it means both up and down, unless it is clearly specified otherwise.

The changes are:

• Unless otherwise specified, "Regrading" now explicitly covers up and down.

• Once a player has played 2 consecutive games over two weeks for a Club�s lower graded team, s/he is deemed to be a member of that team until such time that he returns to the higher graded team.   This will prevent for example 3 CL players being dropped to Premier one week, staying in Premier grade and 3 more players being dropped the next weekend to enable 6 Central League players being in the  Premier team. This is because in that first week the original 3 players dropped are still deemed to be Central League players. They will have to play another week to be deemed to be members of the lower team. Currently the Regulations state that a once a player has played for a lower graded team he is deemed to be a member of that team. This meant (for example) that once a Central League player had played 5 minutes for a lower team and s/he was deemed to no longer be a Central League player - which is a nonsense.

�  Only 3 Central League or Capital Premier players can be regraded down in any one week. A "week" means from Tuesday to Monday inclusive. This means that players will no longer be able to drop down to a lower team and then back up into a higher team on the same day or in the same weekend or week.    

• A Central, Capital Premier, Womens Premier or Capital 1 player must play 2 consecutive games over two weeks for the same lower graded team (other than Capital Premier or Women�s Premier) unless they are returning to their original team. This means players will not be able to drop to a lower grade one weekend and then up to a higher team the next weekend. Clubs may still bring players down, but unless they return to their original team, they must play for two consecutive weeks for the same team before moving to another team. This will not stop the strategic populating of lower teams, but it will make the process a bit longer.

 

• When a team has completed its season, and is involved in a playoff, no further player can be regraded to that team, unless it can be shown that the player concerned has not at any time during the season played in a higher grade than the grade the team involved in the play-off has been playing in.  This is designed to allow a team in a play-off to bring in playersfrom lower grades to cover for injury or unavailability of players, but does not allow any player who has played any game or part of a game for a higher-graded team at any time during the season to be drafted in. 

I have no doubt that some clubs will be critical of these changes. However I hope that most clubs will see that our intention is a constructuive one to promote a more competitive playing environment across the board. There will always need to be flexibility for teams to cover for absence or injury and for clubs to bring players into teams for their development. We think that the changes still allow for these variables, while making the strategic use of higher graded players in lower teams more difficult. I don't apologise for this.

 

Over the next week we will be putting some examples of what is permitted and not permitted under these changes on the website to assist coaches with their pre-season preparations. These changes will be incorporated into the 20101 Senior Regulations wshich will be sent to you later this week.

 

Regards

 

Grant

Seems to work pretty well for us, seems like something similar here. Key in these situations is keeping it simple I reckon.