Drama in the Hunter Suburban Rugby Union Competition ahead of this weekend’s prelim final.
Nelson Bay was due to take on the Griffins but the Griffins have been disqualified for fielding an unregistered player in last weekend’s elimination final.
The Gropers will now play the Cooks Hill Brown Snakes instead for the right to meet the Singleton Red Bulls in the Grand Final.
The club issued the following statement:
In response to recent media, our president Dylan Coe has made the following statement regarding Sunday’s semi final:
“During the lead up to the finals clubs are requested to submit team sheets in on Wednesday. Hunter rugby advised that certain players were ineligible to play, some players with less games were approved to play but 1 player fell short by 1 game.
The report I downloaded stated the player had played 6 games. I had sent an email back to Hunter Rugby.
It was not until Friday that Hunter Rugby advised again that the player named did not meet the minimum game requirement falling short by 1 game and that our report was incorrect.
All of this was sent to my personal email and was not addressed to the club’s email at all.
I chose to withhold this information and the final team list went to the Hunter Rugby. As I was the team manager I made all changes required.
It was alleged during the warmup the Hunter Rugby members were notified by a spectator that I had named another player.
Immediately following the game I was personally emailed by Hunter Rugby asking if I had played a player under another name and I owned up to this immediately.
I thought the boys deserved to play and it’s incredibly difficult to play short in the finals due to player numbers, injury and ineligibility which would of been the case if he did not play.”
As a result, Dylan has been asked by the club committee to stand aside from his duties as Club President for the time being pending an internal review and/or any further sanctions which may be forthcoming. Vice President Rob Cochrane will take the helm.
The club will be making no further comment on the matter, and wish all remaining Suburban teams the best of luck for the finals series.
