WARRNAMBOOL and District league officials have tightened the rules surrounding Hampden league netballers playing the occasional WDFNL match.
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The WDFNL netball committee last week amended a bylaw on the subject, making it more difficult for clubs to field players from other leagues.
The new rule stipulates netballers from other leagues must play six WDFNL matches in the opening 10 rounds.
Failure to do so will result in clubs losing premiership points for matches that player took to the court in.
WDFNL general manager Dianne Membery said the amendment aimed to stop clubs fielding netballers from other leagues in the occasional match.
Merrivale had flagged using Koroit’s Kate Dobson when opportunities arose this season, a plan which raised eyebrows at WDFNL headquarters.
The previous bylaw said netballers from other leagues could only play with a WDFNL club if they had played “consistently” with that club during the season. “We’ve just decided to tidy it up. The whole thing with playing ‘consistently’ is open to way too much interpretation,” Membery said.
“It’s hard and fast at the moment. Everyone knows where they stand.
Membery said the WDFNL encouraged netballers to play with two clubs in different leagues, so long as they were doing so regularly.
She noted the amendment would stop Hampden league netballers playing in the first two rounds of the WDFNL season, but never again.
“There are a number of players who play both leagues and do it regularly,” she said.
“Last year I think there were three girls from Dennington play both leagues and they did that nearly every week, and that’s fine.
“We’re not trying to stop people from playing both leagues, we’re trying to stop them from treating the District league as a casual thing.”
She said clubs could contact the league in the case of an injury, which would prevent netballers from other leagues fulfilling the six-game requirement for finals.
“I think injury-wise they could apply for an exemption. We have that in football as well,” she said. “If someone gets injured and can’t qualify, there’s a rule in there.
“In the case of an injury where they couldn’t play in either league, a commonsense approach would prevail. They’d put in a request for consideration.”
Merrivale coach Raewyn Poumako said she was aware of the amendment. Poumako was confident Dobson would feature six times in the opening 10 rounds.
“When we knew Kate was going to possibly play for us, to keep our team structure and morale she needed to play a reasonable amount of games,” she said.
“We’ve been through that and it’s not going to be an issue at all.”
Poumako said WDFNL netball would benefit from having Dobson, a 300-game premiership player with Koroit, play in the competition.
“From our point of view we’re well aware we need to fulfil the league requirements. I think it’s good promotion to have a player of her quality want to play,” she said.