Fear not, lads, we're playing two games this week
As its going to get out there anyway, this is how it is:
We've been permitted by the Subbies Board to play only 2nd and 3rd Grade, and forfeit Firsts. This was after the mid-year Divisional meeting, where I used all my charm* and guile** to appeal to the better nature of the other clubs in 4th Division
* begging
** pleading
Right off the bat, I'll say this: the aim is mostly to protect players at my club who are (majority) Third Grade quality. I can't have my 50yo Scottish prop up against these frigging monster packs in First Grade when i run short of front rowers.
The second aim is to prevent guys leaving the club on the back of repeat hidings every week. Its not great for morale - particularly the younger blokes who think they're invincible - and just leads to infighting and bad culture as guys start blaming each other.
To prevent opponents simply pushing back their Grades, the system is to rest 7 legit First Grade players for that week. Anyone else is allowed to play. In terms of quality of personnel we'll be a little up in some positions, and a little down in others.
Most clubs, I suspect, will name injured or otherwise absent players in the 7 required, giving them a chance to rest up or have a weekend off.
Some might not want to disrupt their lineups for 2s or 3s in order to keep their cohesion up.
Either way, the very important thing to note is that this occurs halfway through the year, so its basically an equal footing for all clubs. If we win a few games, its no different than if we switched our best players into Third Grade in an attempt to stack, and threw the lower quality players to the wolves.
I'm not
that kind of President/arsehole.
The First Grade Coach at Oatley (who was at the mid-year meeting) said it would be great for his First Grade guys "because they never get to sit on the sideline drinking beer and cheering the boys on".
They will be the only club we've yet to face, and our catch-up game with them occurs two weeks after our Round 10 home fixture, so they can have a look at us and decide how hard they want to go at HV Evatt a fortnight later.
There is no requirement in the catchup game for them to rest players, in the interests of fairness. I doubt they'll need to, but we'll see.
