‘Maintaining the integrity’: NRRRL to cancel round 16, complete round five after wet weather disruptions

In response to weather woes, NRRRL makes a big decision on catch-up rounds. Here’s why they did it and what impact it will have on the run to the finals for teams.

The competition has been badly affected by rain in recent seasons. Picture: DC Sports Photography

The final round of the NRRRL regular season has been cancelled as the division looks to complete the backlog of rained-out games from earlier in the year.

The board made the call to scrap round 16 altogether and replace it with the partially completed round five.

Just two games – Cudgen’s 64-10 victory over Mullumbimby and Ballina’s 36-0 win over Byron Bay – were played during the round’s original scheduling on May 18, with the remaining five fixtures to be played across the weekend of August 16/17.

NRRRL secretary Josh Golan said the decision was based on trying to make the competition as fair as possible.

“The last three rounds are all double-ups of one of the rounds prior, so we’ve now cancelled round 16 and put the round five fixtures in that position. Now every team has an opportunity to play each other once,” he said.

Round 16 has been cancelled to complete the remainder of round five. Picture: DC Sports Photography

“It just maintains the integrity of the draw a little more than wiping it out completely and some clubs potentially playing against a weaker team (twice) and getting an extra two points.”

It what has been a trend of recent seasons, the competition was badly affected by wet weather during autumn, which led to a considerably lopsided situation between some clubs.

For example, by mid-May Cudgen had played its full complement of five games while Marist Brothers had only played one.

It meant that once the grounds dried out the Rams played a remarkable six games across the month of June just to catch up.

With limited wriggle room to reschedule games between now and the beginning of the finals at the end of August, Golan said that the board will work with clubs to find a solution should any games be postponed from this point on.

“We’ll obviously have a conversation with the clubs about it because we like to consult and collaborate with them to make sure that we’re hitting the right mark.

“If more than 50 per cent of the games go ahead then the round will be played and there will be catch-up games, but if at any point in time they can’t be played and the round is cancelled, we would go back to the clubs to try and maintain that integrity.”