Category: General Info

*Announcement re Administrative Ruling on R8 Sossage v Baggers Match*

I’ve taken a lot of time and consulted widely on this matter including with the RGC and then all parties who attended the MSD in person.

It appears a general consensus has formed on the necessary course of action and after discussion, there was no staunch objection to this proposed course of action (other than Mick).

Background

• the game was a draw at the end of the round.

• as late as Friday after the round had completed we have evidence the game was still a draw and it seems sometime during the next round, the Bench changed the scores to increase Sossage by 3 points.
• There is a long standing rule that all scores/results must be finalised by 48hrs post the end of a round. This is critical to the orderly function of the HFFL so that matters such as assigning of draft picks and allocations of finals fixtures can occur. To allow scores to be changed after this 48hr period (and as late after the next round commences) would make HFFL Administration completely unworkable.
• The Bench was contacted for an explanation but they did not reply

Ruling

• The score change by the bench breaches this longstanding HFFL 48hr rule.
• It sets a precedent that is unworkable for the future of the HFFL

Consequently Logistix has changed the R8 score back to a draw and the ladder has automatically updated.

Additional Comments

• To Mick I can see how you may feel hard done by this. However I ask you consider the fact that Logistix has consulted widely with your fellow coaches and they felt there was no alternative. Like democracy this is the “least bad solution” to this problem. I would also ask you to consider how allowing such a precedent to breach the 48hr rule would make the administration of the HFFL unworkable. We must have an agreed time when we decide that the stats and the scores ARE FINAL. That is the 48hr rule.
• To Mick – you have insinuated in messages that this ruling is biased and self serving on my part due to my team being a competitor with your team at the top of the ladder. In fact this decision does very unfortunately result in the Dark Side displacing Sossage on top of the ladder which would feed a conspiracy theory such as yours. I would only ask you to consider the history of my administrating of this league and how I have always acted impartially in the interests of the comp and often directly to my detriment (e.g my recently freely giving away my statistical advantage at drafting by sharing my live spreadsheet with all coaches at the 2023 draft so they could always easily tell in real time which top players were remaining in the draft). I care little about winning – I care most about having a great comp that binds a bunch of mates together for life and that operates and functions with the highest efficiency and integrity. I also consulted widely and at length to ensure the coaching group was supporting this decision.
• This case serves as a reminder to all coaches that you must request all your subs promptly after a game. In addition, if you feel you wish to challenge the scores in a close game, you need to do so by the 48hr time limit.

This post follows on from this initial post – you may wish to read that first, though not essential.

If you have built a googlesheet with your HFFL stats tailored to your liking and you would like a live feed of the drafted players appearing in your sheet, so that you can have them automatically removed from your stats rankings in real-this post explains how.

Note this will only work in googlesheets, not in excel.

Note also you need to give The Emperor a big hug for sharing this with you.

The following example is for the HFFL 2023 draft. In future years you can follow the same steps but will need to use/reference the new HFFL Drafting sheet for that year.

• Within your own tailored stats googlsheet, create a new sheet called “Drafts”
• Copy and paste the Draft sheet from HFFL 2023 Drafts into this newly created sheet of your own called “Drafts”
• You don’t have to copy everything but I’d at least copy columns A-H so you include the column “Player Picked” and their “Club”
• Then in your sheet called “Drafts” enter the following formula (copy and paste it) into the first cell in the Player Picked column (cell G2)
  • =IMPORTRANGE(“https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Siahxp6FPRPgJPV8bnWAqjq5fX0muGCUZ55aUIcjgZc/edit#gid=0″,”Draft!G2:G310”)
  • This formula makes your spreadsheet go to the HFFL 2023 Drafts spreadsheet and ask for permission to live feed the data in the Player Picked column into your sheet.
  • If copying and pasting that formula into the cell doesn’t work, then you just need to recreate that formula from scratch. See Google’s Importrange information showing how. It only has 2 parts – the web link of the sheet you are feeding data from and the sheet/range of the cells you are importing.
  • Then you need to approve this request. If you look at the HFFL 2023 Draft sheet it should ask you to approve this request there and as an Editor you should be able to approve the request. You only have to every do this once.
  • From then on every drafted player typed into the Player Picked column will appear on your new Drafts sheet live.
  • If you would like their AFL Club to also appear in your Club column then repeat the above steps and copy and paste this formula but this time into the top cell in the Club column (cell H2)
    • =IMPORTRANGE(“https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Siahxp6FPRPgJPV8bnWAqjq5fX0muGCUZ55aUIcjgZc/edit#gid=0″,”Draft!H2:H310”)
    • Right, now that you have the live draft data feeds of Players Picked coming into your Stats sheet, you to set up your sheet in a way to use this data to remove players from your stats sheet as they are drafted. To do that copy what I have done in the 2022 Stats – Undrafted sheet.
      • Essentially you will need to insert an “Undrafted” column then add the “Match” and “Count” columns on the very right of the sheet and use those formulas.

In order to help make the league more competitive and help some of the stragglers, as well as make the draft run more quickly the Emperor is freely donating a statistical advantage to the group of coaches. He has trained Logistix who is now passing this on. 

This year, in the HFFL 2023 Drafts spreadsheet you will find a new spreadsheet called “2022 Stats – Undrafted”.

This will show you live in real-time as the draft proceeds which players in the Stats sheet remain Undrafted so you can select them. This will make it very quick to find for example “the next best marker available”.

Note this will only work on desktops/laptops as the special filtering explained below you need to do to rank the stats by positions is not available on the smartphone version of googlesheets.

If you wish to use this sheet you must follow this rule – you are not allowed to sort or filter the sheet in any way that affects how other coaches view the sheet. I have full live audit view on the sheet so I can see if anyone breaches this rule – if you do, you will be banned from using the sheet for 1 year (i.e. I will remove your access live during the draft).

What this practically means is, do not use the following functions:

• Data – Create a Filter
• Data – Sort Sheet (or Range).

Instead there is a clever function that will let you alone filter the sheet how you want but won’t affect how any other people see the sheet. As mentioned above, this function only works on desktops/laptops. From the top menu do this:

• Data – Filter Views – “Rank by Stats”
• This puts the arrow button filters at the top of each column but only does it for your unique view, no one else’s
• Then choose the relevant stats category (e.g Ma for marker) and click on the arrow at the top and “Sort Z-A” to rank from highest to lowest.

Now that this is explained, the key point is that you choose Data-Filter Views and don’t choose “Data-Create a Filter”. I’m labouring this point as they are easily confused and right next to each other. The former only changes your view of the sheet, the latter changes everyone’s view.

I have also placed the above instructions about how to choose the Filter view in as a note in the little green cell (A1) on the sheet.

Now some of the more advanced spreadsheet users will prefer to create their own stats spreadsheet rather than use this one. If you are such a person, instead of using the above there is a special trick to be able to have a live data feed of the players who are drafted come into your own googlesheet of stats (not excel, only google. With that occurring, you can easily have those players removed from your stats list so you know who the best available players are.

Here are instructions for how to use this trick.

Key identified issues

• Coaches were provided too much access and required to do too much for themselves on the official drafting spreadsheet.
• Instead of saving time for Logistix, this cost enormous time and created chaos.
• This resulted in substantial inconsistencies in the delistings on the Drafting sheet versus the Bench
• This also resulted in various accidental modifications made to the Drafting spreadsheets (including importantly the “AFL Squads” sheet) which broke the formulas and lead to mayhem at the draft.

Solutions for 2023

• The Drafting Sheet will remain locked by Logistix between the end of the PSD until the very beginning of the MSD. Only at the MSD itself will coaches be granted editing rights again
• Coaches will be reminded to make a copy of the Drafting Sheet and manipulate their copy as they need to (under File – Make a Copy), rather than manipulating the original sheet we share.
• Delistings and Trades will be posted here on the HFFL Online site in specific posts only – a Trades post and a Delistings post. They will be the official set of Delistings and trades. After the Delistings Deadline, Logistix will use this to modify the Drafting Sheet (Delisted Players, Outward Trades, Inward Trades).
• Coaches can at their leisure also delist their players on The Bench but what happens on The Bench will not be relevant to the MSD
• When the official Draft Order is published, all coaches will be required to check their own picks to ensure they have the correct draft picks allocated to them. If they fail to do so, they will be liable for any adverse outcomes they suffer as a result.
• Logistix will require 2 laptops at the MSD (as well as the PSD) in order to troubleshoot issues on the fly

All early MSD trades (made before the Injury Condition Deadline explained below) are subject to the Standard Injury Condition by default unless otherwise specified.

The Standard Injury Condition is that if a traded player is listed as injured in any way in an official AFL match report of AFL Round 9, either of the trading coaches can choose to dismiss the trade in its entirety by informing the Administrator of this decision.

However on dismissal, the coaches can of course choose to renegotiate the trade.

All coaches will have until the Injury Condition Deadline to choose to dismiss a trade based on the standard injury condition. The Injury Condition Deadline will be set by the Administrator and will generally be 2300 AWST on the last day games are played in AFL Round 9.

If neither trading coach chooses to dismiss the trade by this time, the trade will stand. To dismiss the trade they must inform the the coach they traded with and the Administrator so the trade can be reversed.

Subsequent trades of players/picks received in conditional trades are hereby disallowed until the trade becomes unconditional which is after the Injury Condition deadline.

i.e if you (in theory) receive a player or pick in a conditional trade, you may not on-trade that player or pick until after the Injury Condition Deadline.

Under new rules, coaches select a squad of 20 players at the PSD. They then can freely draft 2 more players from the remaining available players anytime from the end of the PSD, to the start of the season.
This will give a total squad size of 22 (1 less than previous years).

Then after the MSD, this squad size will be increased by 1 to 23.

Each week coaches name 10 starting players on field and 4 bench players

The starting field players are:
– 2 Forwards
– 1 Half Forward
– 1 Marker
– 1 Extractor (specialised midfielder)
– 2 Midfielders (accumulators)
– 1 Tackler (specialised midfielder)
– 1 Half-Back
– 1 Utility

Scoring
The players score as follows, noting all positions have 2 x Frees Against removed from their score except forwards who are exempt:
– Forwards: 6 x goals + 1 x behinds + 1 x I50
– Half Forwards: 4 x goals + 4 x I50
– Markers: 4 x marks
– Extractor: Disposals/2 + 3 x Clearances
– Midfielders: 1 x disposals
– Tackler: Disposals/2 + 3 x Tackles
– Half Back: 3 x R50 + 1 x I50
– Utility: 4 x Goals + 2 x marks + 2 x tackles + 0.5 x kicks + 0.25 x handballs + 0.35 x Hit Outs

Note:
R50 = Rebounds from 50 and
I50 = Inside Fifties.

HO multiplier increased to 0.35 (from 0.3) for season 2022