Weekly Times | CHARLTON has qualified a former AFL player for the North Central league finals by playing him twice in two rounds to meet the competition’s four game qualification requirement.
The league changed its qualifying rules for senior finals this season, but there are already expectations the loophole will be closed.
Andrew Hooper, who played seven games for the Western Bulldogs and is on North Ballarat Roosters’ VFL list, played the reserves and senior matches against Donald in Round 6 and St Arnaud in Round 15.
Those appearances, which included only partial reserves games, were enough for Charlton to qualify Hooper for its finals campaign, which opens against minor premier Wycheproof-Narraport.
The North Central league this season increased the number of club home-and-away games players had to play to qualify for senior finals from two games to four. However there was no clause added to prevent players playing multiple games in the same day and using them to qualify.
While it has been acknowledged Charlton acted within the rules, the club — the runner-up the past three years — has been accused of going against the “spirit of the game”.
League chairman Kevin Anderson said the rule change had tried to address the issue of VFL players coming back to qualify for clubs.
But he admitted that by allowing multiple games per day to count “that’s probably where we didn’t alter the rule properly, we probably made a mistake on that grounds”.
“I would be looking at it that it had to be four senior games to qualify, to clean that rule up, rather than being able to play two games in one day,” he said.
“This club has ... used it to their advantage and it’s within the rules so it’s not cheating.
“It’s probably not what I would’ve thought in the spirit of the game but it’s within the rules.”
Charlton president Shane Fitzpatrick said the Blues had “done everything to get Andrew Hooper qualified. That’s all we’ve done”.
Fitzpatrick said the loophole was discussed at a league meeting, and the rule for seniors, which only stipulated club matches, differed to the other grades, which required the four matches to be played in that grade.
“(We) said it made no difference when they changed it because in the past they had to play two games to qualify and a bloke could play them on the same day. Things haven’t changed at all,” he said.
When asked if Charlton would support a rule change that required players to play four senior games to qualify, Fitzpatrick said he would have to take it to the committee.
Charlton is hosting the first finals this weekend, with Birchip-Watchem and Donald playing the seniors’ first semi-final.
Birchip-Watchem president Lachlan Barber also said it was discussed at a league meeting whether players could qualify two games in one day, and “the consensus was that’s really not how it should be”.
“I was of the understanding that wasn’t the case and that you couldn’t do that, but obviously it still is,” Barber said.
He backed a change, saying “why bring it from two to four if you can still play two weeks effectively and get qualified?”
Donald president Colin Gilmour said he was not “too worried” about what Charlton had done, but added “it probably does need to be cleaned up a bit, that rule”.
Hooper has played five matches for Charlton in two seasons and his lone appearance last year came at a crucial game. He kicked 10 goals in Charlton’s 166-point thumping of a winless Boort in the final round.
The win and percentage boost pushed Charlton from fourth to second and into the second semi-final. Hooper was ineligible to play finals last year because he played too many VFL matches.
He has only played seven VFL matches this year