Local footy leagues should consider adopting mercy rule to avoid humiliation of struggling clubs

The 2024 local footy season is still young but a number of battling clubs across Australia have already suffered humiliating record defeats. It’s time leagues considered softening the blow.

Australia’s battling local footy clubs have already suffered record defeats less than a month into season 2024, so maybe we should consider sparing them the humiliation and introduce a ‘mercy rule’ at the amateur level.

We’re just several weeks into the local footy season and already clubs which are struggling to stay afloat have been the talk of the town.

Elizabeth, which saw a number of players depart after being relegated to division six of the Adelaide Footy League, lost to Eastern Park by a whopping 340 points in round one and St Paul’s OS by 254 in round two.

The Eagles barely had the ball in both clashes and were forced to play out four quarters while both Eastern Park and St Paul’s OS won the footy and hit the scoreboard endlessly.

Division four club Gaza, which struggled with player retention after copping a huge fine and premiership points deduction for past salary cap breaches, has opened up the season with a 193-26 loss to Kilburn and a 193-30 loss to Morphettville Park.

The scoreboard from Eastern Park's recent 340-point win over Elizabeth. Picture: Eastern Park Football Club

Victoria has also seen a number of humiliations to start the season.

Poweltown’s 280-point loss to Healesville in division one of the Outer East and Bunyip’s 259-point loss to Nar Nar Goon in the West Gippsland league headline the deficits so far, while division two of the Western Football League has seen a 253-point defeat of Western Rams by Albion and a 252-point North Sunshine loss to Sunshine.

The results don’t stop there, with Claremont losing to Huonville Lions by a score of 349-0 in Tasmania’s Southern League, and Rosebery-Toorak falling to East Ulverstone by 286 points in the North West Football Association.

With plenty of clubs struggling to retain or attract players and volunteers in order to even participate at the senior level, results like these are becoming all too common and the potential damage they do should be avoided with a second half mercy rule.

If a game is approaching a margin of over 150 in the third quarter, would an early stoppage be as bad as an eventual 200, 300 or 400-point loss?

Gaza has copped two huge losses to start the 2024 Adelaide Footy League season. Picture: File

These clubs are up against it when trying to build teams and are often making up the numbers just to survive at the A Grade level.

Yes footballers should be able to handle a loss, but thrashings like these are discouraging for the players, officials and volunteers involved in keeping their clubs afloat and a hit to morale which may never be recovered from.

They could also act as a deterrent for players who may otherwise sign with, or return to the club in the future.

These affairs are often unenjoyable and emotionless for all involved at a certain point and do not serve as a learning experience, only as a percentage booster for the winning team which can be made up against other sides throughout the season anyway.

Why should players, officials and volunteers who already sacrifice most of their weekends for their clubs be subjected to a full four-quarter pummelling with a foregone conclusion?

A mercy rule would eliminate the unnecessary humiliation of these large deficits as well as any chances of late injuries to teams which are already scraping a full line-up together.

We want challenged clubs to remain buoyant in their quest for a win but it’s hard to imagine how the devastating losses we have seen this season do anything but damage the motivation of those involved and ruin their experience at the amateur level.