EFL 2019: Local football red tape prevents Doncaster from boosting numbers in its reserves
Doncaster has been working the phones to boost numbers in its struggling reserves side, but the Sharks’ bid to put a seconds team on the park has been met by local football red tape. Here’s the latest.
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Doncaster is entangled in local football red tape as it attempts to boost the numbers in its struggling reserves side.
A group of former Sharks players have answered the call to return to the club to help the numbers in the seconds after it forfeited the Round 12 game against Vermont.
But as it is past the June 30 clearance deadline, Doncaster has been working through local football bureaucracy to get players on the park.
The Sharks fielded 16 players in their reserves game against Rowville on Saturday and coach Stewart Kemperman said last week he could not guarantee it would again have to forfeit a game this season due to low numbers.
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“We had a group of guys from a veterans team in Eltham, where a couple of past players are playing, and they said, ‘let’s all get together and get around and support the club’ because we have been hit by unprecedented injuries and unavailabilities from overseas travel,” Kemperman said.
“We were expecting a group of five to seven to be cleared on special permits upon the advice we got from the league and AFL Victoria.”
Kemperman said players were told they would have to re-register with their original clubs before they could be cleared.
But he said Doncaster was informed last Friday afternoon it would have to organise transfers and registrations, leaving it with little time to approve the clearances before the weekend’s game.
Eastern Football League general manager of football operations Dyson Baker said the competition was working with the club to help increase numbers in the reserves.
“We’re working with AFL Victoria to try and get a few players who meet the criteria, either for permits or transfers, across,” Baker said.
“They had a couple of players who hadn’t played in more than a few years … I think they’ve got another few players that they’re going to try and hopefully get up for this week.”
Baker said it was unlikely provisions could be made for players who did not meet the clearance criteria.
He said the league had to work within AFL Victoria’s transfer rules.
“In effect, a player who hasn’t played in 24 months is able to be cleared automatically after the deadline and then outside of that, if we’ve got an interchange agreement, they can have players permit across for the week or rest of the year,” he said.
“I think they had a couple of players who were playing at Eltham Vets, who they were looking at coming across and trying to make the most of those situations to try and get a side on the park, which we’re doing everything in our powers to try and assist where we can.
“The ones we put through last week, I think half of them played because we only got most of the stuff organised on Friday by the time you go through the rigmarole.
“I think there’s a few more players Doncaster will look to put in for this week.
“We’ll help out as much as we can but unfortunately the same deadline applies to everyone regardless of the situation.”
Kemperman called for a common sense approach to the situation.
“We didn’t realise there would be such a process that we’d have to go through to get these guys cleared just for the reserves,” Kemperman said.
“The reason why we’re doing it is for the betterment of footy and it’s not just our club, but we felt really obligated to do our best and get the reserves up given we had to forfeit the week before.”
Kemperman said he had hoped AFL Victoria “would have the powers to make it happen rather quickly” and override any decision made by the EFL.
“Footy is the big loser. We obviously as the club are the losers but everyone we play from here on in misses out on a game,” he said.
“I know the sides that are in contention for finals, I don’t think they would want their guys going without a game.
“We’re doing as best we can but we just need a little bit of help and common sense from the powers that be.”
AFL Victoria was contacted for comment.
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