I’ve been trying so hard to enjoy a holiday. I can’t believe out of everyone, you peanuts are the ones who missed me the most.

I’ll keep it as short and sweet as possible and will start with the rules.


Ruling change for Players being Utilised / ‘Borrowed’ up a Grade – ( 3rd to Res) (Res to 1st)

Players listed in the Starting Eleven from the previous match (that round) 3rds and Res’s; will have the ‘Borrowed Player Rule E47’ applied when moving up grades.
Four Borrowed Players are permitted from 3rd to Res, from Res to 1st; and must start on the bench (unless the team (Res / 1st ) is short of a starting Eleven.
Borrowed Players must be identified on the Team Sheet as being borrowed from the grade below. (B)

Last Sunday, we did not have enough players to have two fresh starting elevens. Our third grade team featured over 35s.
Our reserve grade team had 8 fresh starters. Our ressies CB filled in keeper for thirds as we only had one keeper available who played in goals in ressies along with playing on the field in thirds due to our player shortage.
We had therefor used 2 starters from third grade backed up in ressies and then two further third graders on the bench and two additional players who played in the first grade fixture.
Now unless you guys are reading the rules in a different language. It clearly states that you cannot start in two starting elevens in a regular round fixture, UNLESS YOU ARE SHORT OF A STARTING ELEVEN.

So I’m not sure what was expected of us. Should we have stated with 8 players, kicked the ball out and brought on players? Should have have asked warners bay if we could borrow a couple of their players? Or maybe just some ransoms from the crowd?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that maybe, just maybe the reason why the Suns results have been all over the place as of late. I’ll give you a hint, we have a heavily injury depleted squad.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see exactly why Warners Bay put in an appeal for the result. Without knowing the facts, I’m sure there were questions to be raised. But we had no alternate option. We had over 35s playing in third grade backing up from two nights earlier. We had on field players playing in goal. We had keepers on the field. It was a shit show trying to put a team together.
The fact that the thirds and ressies games were not played prior to first grade as scheduled was a joke in itself. We were told that there would be a field inspection in the morning to determine early grades. We had no correspondence from Warners Bay until we contacted them around 9am. Little did we know that they had already posted on their Facebook page at 7am that the games were off.
However, that day there were games from 10am onwards on the next field, all day. Splendour weekend? How convenient..

So now we are left in a situation where the games are being played in a mixed order, we have an injury hit squad, we do our best to back up after the backlog of games (understand all clubs in the same boat) yet, with the rules clearly stating that players can start two grades when short, we are being penalised for it. WHAT WAS THE ALTERANTIVE?!

You can hate the Suns all you like. But any educated persons after seeing the facts, seeing the rules, you cannot say that we have broken any rules.
There are multiple clubs that have been in the exact situation that we have and have had players start in multiple grades, yet there has been no penalty enforced.

It’s actually embarrassing the number of people who have not only come onto this forum to have a whinge and moan, but also create new accounts to do this.

Now we are in the same situation tomorrow against Mayfield (you’re welcome, here’s the heads up). So what do we do, shall we just forfeit third grade? Shall we double up players and hope Mayfield don’t complain?
I don’t have any answers, but it seems all you guys do.

Further to this, Warners Bay openly admitted that in our first round fixture, one of their players not only started in both first grade and reserve grade. He scored in both games and started the game while having a fresh player on the bench.

So not only are the Suns well within the rules in the most recent game, but we have been absolutely done by what Warners Bay have claimed against us.
I’ll be happy to provide team sheets to any person that wants to investigate further. It’s all there in black and white.

Sorry for not keeping it short and sweet.