bigmac
Billy Sheehan (19)
The overall objective of fair racing is that you should be able to throw a blanket across the finishers. Blowouts either way dont do anyone any good. In my view coaches should make an objective assessment of their crews ability early in the racing season and place their crews accordingly. This might mean struggling crews eg high and grammar move down in order to compete effectively.Totally agree. They are the worst offenders. In my opinion there is a difference between "stacking" (pulling rowers from higher crews and placing in lower-ranked crews to increase the % of wins) and the patented Kinross manoeuvre you describe. This means you pretend not to have a 1st VIII..or a 2nd VIII..but your 1st IV is good enough to row at Nationals and win plenty of other races. So Kinross top rowers ranked 1-4 compete against other schools' rowers ranked 17-20 and then claim "We beat the best Sydney schools" .
I'd love to see the tables turned. Imagine if Shore, Joeys Scotch and Nudgee all turned up to an all-comers non-GPS regatta and entered no 1st and 2nd VIII races, but instead put their top crews in as the fours. Then the 1st and 2nd Fours could have a go at the 3rd VIII race. A few records would be broken that day!
RNSW should implement the rule which IGSSA introduced (under pressure) a few years ago. If your rowing program has 12 or more rowers, you MUST enter a 1st eight. BAM!
Maybe shore could field two first eights??
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