AFL Canberra to work with clubs to avoid Splendour exodus
The bizarre request from a first grade club to borrow opposition players was a bad look for AFL Canberra and league boss Steve Mahar will work with clubs to avoid a repeat incident.
Countless AFL Canberra players left their teams undermanned when they flocked to the Splendour in the Grass music festival in Byron Bay last weekend.
It led to a farcical round 12 first grade clash between the winless Tuggeranong Hawks and Queanbeyan that Tigers coach Dave Corcoran believed laid the platform for a "league first".
The Hawks requested to borrow opposition players because they had been stretched so thin in the top grade despite already forfeiting their reserve grade clash. That request was knocked back and the match was played as a 16-a-side affair.
The Tigers - despite losing a handful of players to the music festival themselves - went on to win by 120 points.
This weekend marks AFL Canberra's general bye in the top grade and there is not a music festival in sight that would have lured players away, however Mahar says it is not that simple.
"It’s someone’s birthday this weekend and next week there is something else on. We’re conscious that we’re running a step under semi-professional type of league," Mahar said.
"We will accommodate the requests of clubs to put a scheduled bye given we have got a scheduled bye this weekend.
"It probably wasn’t on our radar to be looking out for music festivals, it was more around spacing out so teams could have a rest before the back end of the season.
"It probably wasn’t our consideration when we setting the draws around when music festivals were, but we will work with the clubs and if needs to be last weekend next year, that will be dictated to by the clubs."
AFL Canberra is not the only football league affected by players heading to the music festival - West Belconnen rugby league coach Troy Thompson says his side struggled to find cohesion for weeks following Splendour during last season's Canberra Raiders Cup.
But the general bye coming a week after the Tuggeranong-Queanbeyan clash has put AFL Canberra in the spotlight.
Tigers coach Corcoran has urged the league to align its general bye round with the festival following the embarrassing incident while also providing a possible solution to strengthen the six-team competition.
Corcoran believes Canberra Demons players should filter into the ranks of Tuggeranong and the Gungahlin Jets when they aren't playing in the NEAFL, but with the suggestion comes a host of complexities.
The Demons have an agreement in place with AFL Canberra to send players to Gungahlin, which Mahar says was signed off on by all clubs at the start of the season.
The arrangement will be reviewed at the end of the season however it is likely some elements will stay as they are, such as some players returning to their junior clubs when missing NEAFL selection.
"If they are a first or second-year player on the Canberra Demons list, they’re potentially not a walk-up start for the Canberra Demons," Mahar said.
"We want to be able to look after those players so they can go back to the club they know. The players that have been there for three or more years, they play for Gungahlin."