WARRNAMBOOL and District league officials will keep a close eye on how many appearances netballer Kate Dobson makes with Merrivale.
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Dobson has pledged her allegiance to Hampden league club Koroit but plans to play with Merrivale when opportunities arise.
Her parents Russell and Helen Gleeson and brothers Matthew, Sam and Jack are heavily involved with the Tigers, while she started her career at the club.
Dobson told The Standard this week she would not play two games on the same day. Her priority is lining up with the Saints’ A1 side. But she cited byes and Sunday games as perfect opportunities to don Merrivale colours.
“Merrivale starts two weeks before us and they are short this year. I’ll get the first two games in no worries and will look at the draw,” she said.
The story has sparked debate within netball circles about the respective merit of players featuring in different competitions during the season.
WDFNL general manager Dianne Membery said Dobson would have to commit to playing with Merrivale more regularly to receive the green light from officials.
Under competition bylaws, a netballer from another league cannot play in the WDFNL when their home club has a bye or Sunday/night match, unless they have consistently played in the WDFNL during that season.
That means netballers can play regularly with two clubs in different leagues. But the occasional appearance by a HFNL netballer with a WDFNL club is banned.
“If she played the first two with us, then a couple more before the first bye in May, she would’ve played four games with us,” Membery said.
“I would deem that to be a bit more consistent. But I would not deem it consistent if the only games she plays is when the Hampden league isn’t playing.
“She needs to be consistently playing in our league (to get approval to play). To me, that would mean at least every second week.”
Merrivale starts its WDFNL season on April 3, two weeks before Koroit opens its HFNL campaign on April 18.
Merrivale has a Sunday match on April 26. Koroit has a Sunday match on May 3 while the HFNL has a bye on July 11. WDFNL bylaws state a netballer must play six matches to qualify for finals. But Membery said qualification was a separate issue to playing consistently.
“To me they shouldn’t even be compared. She can’t just come and play on byes, that’s not consistently,” Membrey said.
