‘Gutted’: Coomera Crushers forced to forfeit from finals campaign

Players at a battling-for-numbers Coast rugby union club who have gone above and beyond to ensure their team remains alive have been forced to forfeit on the eve of a final.

Coomera Crushers have been forced to forfeit their semi-final clash due to a lack of available players.

A battling-for-numbers Coast rugby union club have been left “gutted” after being forced to forfeit their semi-final this weekend because competition rules have punished players for backing up in first grade.

Coomera Crushers president Eru Richard said the Gold Coast District Rugby Union’s (GCDRU) “unfavourable competition rules” would make it impossible for the club to field a team of qualified players in second grade, gifting Colleges Knights automatic entry into the grand final.

“It’s very disappointing, but we’ve been left with no choice at this stage unfortunately,” Richards said.

Some players had played nearly three hours of rugby an afternoon all season to save their club and the competition from being marred by ugly forfeits.

Now they are paying the price for their dedication to their club and the battling code, with league eligibility rules deeming them as first graders - preventing from playing finals with their regular team.

“Most of our players have played enough second grade games to be able to qualify for finals, however because they’ve played more than a certain amount of games in first grade they’re now over-qualified,” Richards said.

“It’s only because we’re short on numbers that these players are required to double up and play two games.
“To be honest I just feel for the players, and for the young kids that show up with their black and orange face paint to support the club, they deserve to play in this game.”

Coomera Crushers say the league needs to provide special dispensation for clubs whose players have played first and second grade games back-to-back.

The club is now calling on competition bosses to make urgent changes to player eligibility rules to ensure no other clubs experience similar heartbreak in the future.

“It would have been nice to have had something happen in time for this season, but to be clear we’re not after preferential treatment and we’re not a special case,” Richards said.

“If something was to happen we would want that special dispensation to be available for other players from other clubs as well.

“At the end of the day it’s all about growing our competition, and some of the guidelines and rules that are currently in place are not favourable towards that.”

Richards said the club was now focused on putting this disappointment behind them and moving forward as a united front.

“That’s what we need to do, in the future we’d like to see a review but for now our teams are united and if anything it’s given us renewed invigoration for next year’s competition,” he said.

“We deserve to be there and everyone knows that, and we need to grow the competition, those are the facts.”

GCDRU media spokesman Trent MaChong said the club finished the season with 19 players who would have been eligible for finals, but had players unavailable for a variety of reasons.

“Unfortunately they don’t feel they have enough players to run out this weekend, so they’ve made the call,” he said.

“It’s not a failing of the rules per se, all the clubs are aware of what they are, they’ve just found themselves in an unfortunate situation in this case.

“This is nothing against the club, they’ve done a fantastic job over the past two seasons building their numbers and they’ve improved across both first and second grade, and they have a newer committee as well.

“But at the end of the day it’s up to each individual club to manage where their players are playing throughout the season and make sure they remain eligible.”

Originally published as ‘Gutted’: Coomera Crushers forced to forfeit from finals campaign