During WAVL this weekend, I was impressed to learn from one of the Uni Blues coaches that they use the 12-sub-rule even at the highest level of the Victorian State League. Good on ‘em!
In a year where my club can’t field a League Mens team, I can find some ironic delight in seeing everyone else’s League team stacked with 4 or 5 players on the bench. Man, people really don’t want to play for us! It’s 6-sub rule, so these guys on the bench aren’t going to see much game time. Unless they get a run in reserves. But most of these reserves teams have about 4 or 5 guys on the bench too. so someone’s missing out. Maybe i’m blowing this out of proportion, since we do have the elegant solution of having the remaining league mens teams take turns playing two games each week which means plenty of game time.
6-Sub-Rule is great if you’re one of the six people who start on the court. Not so great if you’re not. Why on earth do we still use 6-sub-rule at league level in SA? It could be an argument by the purists for professionalism. Who knows. It’s certainly not worth turning up to one of these awful SOC meetings where this issue comes up from time to time to find out why we persist with it.
Perhaps the idea is if you’re on the bench and unlikely to get much game time, you could be encouraged to move to another club and get a run. bit like a salary cap that trades money for game time, which is the only real currency in amateur sport. Clearly it isn’t working out like that in SA. Why not change it to 12-sub-rule and let these guys get on the court for a bit. After all, let them come away with some playing memories before state league inevitably dies in the arse.
Maybe they should think about using it at AVL level too. Why not? Would it appear unprofessional? well what does appearances matter when no one’s watching anyway! it’s that expensive to play now, that maybe they should just charge players for the rallies they end up playing in an itemised invoice at the end of each round.
Just think; “Getting on to serve at 24-14 and putting the ball into the net: $500. Standing in the back corner while your team sides out to win the game: $500. The opportunity to play at the highest level you can: PRICELESS!!!!”
