Below is the transcript of a ruling provided by email on 10/8/20
Dear Coaches,
There has been much confusion this round about the naming rules and the rolling lockout, in particular regarding how they should apply during FoF. After much discussion with different coaches I think I have things clear now and I’m changing my interpretation to align with the spirit of the HFFL as explained below.
Let’s consider how things used to be and compare that with FoF.
In standard weekends starting with a Friday night game.
- Teams come out on a Thursday night
- Round starts Friday evening
- You have 24hrs to replace any ineligible players from your team.
- Once the round starts on Friday evening – the Partial Lockout begins which means:
- Ineligible players were now locked (and will score zero)
- Eligible players were not locked until their team started playing – coaches could make “replacements” (not subs) i.e eligible players had a “rolling lockout”.
- Ineligible players were players not named in their AFL teams that week which included injured/suspended/omitted players and players from teams who had a bye.
- If there was a Thursday night game, the Partial Lockout deadline was still Friday evening. You just had to act earlier for the teams playing on Thursday night.
- If there was. Monday/Tuesday game, the Partial Lockout deadline was still Friday evening. You however could name your players from the Monday/Tuesday teams in good faith and if they were not named on Friday you did not have to replace them and could exploit your bench with post game subs.
COVID FoF: Continuous Daily Footy with Daily Naming of teams
- Coaches are now expected to check the daily teams and change their teams based on this (unlike previous good faith naming laxity allowed in the Monday/Tuesday game examples above).
- With increased coaching responsibility came increased coaching flexibility
- Special rules introduced to facilitate team replacements during the round lockout http://hfflonline.com/festival-of-footy-fof-administrative-rulings/
- The Partial Lockout has effectively become a Rolling Lockout for both eligible and ineligible players
- My initial interpretation of what this means was:
- Eligible players: You have until their game starts to replace them
- Ineligible players:
- You effectively have until their game starts to replace them. However viewed in this light, this creates a loophole that essentially gives you special rights to replace ineligible players at anytime until the end of the round. Based on the above that is against the spirit of the HFFL.
- My revised interpretation of what this means is:
- Eligible players: You have until their game starts to replace them
- Ineligible players:
- You have until they become officially ineligible to replace them.
- For players from teams playing in that round, they become ineligible when their team starts playing.
- For players from teams with a bye, they become ineligible when they rounds starts.
- You have until they become officially ineligible to replace them.
- My initial interpretation of what this means was:
I hope this clears up any confusion and apologies for confusion I may have caused.
Kind Regards,
Your faithful Administrator,
… tireless bending his mind to the complexities of the HFFL even if it ties himself in knots,
Logistix