Thanks to NERFU and their gay, “everyone’s a winner” D3 playoff system, the season endures it’s most pointless weekend, where the “haves” go back and remind the “have nots” just what their missing out on.
The Wolfhounds and their “all-universe” backline will take on Middlesex. Seacoast will take on MIT (again). The only other competitive team in the league, Mad River, is on double-secret probation. And in the one game that might actually be too close to call, North Shore hike up to the Mountaineers for the battle of 4th vs. 5th seed.
Meanwhile, we are left to twiddle our thumbs this weekend, because surprise, surprise, the 8th seed in this lopsided league doesn’t really feel like coming to Portland again for another hiding, and to be honest, who can blame them? In another shocking turn of events, at least perhaps to the league, the 9th, 10th and 11th place teams didn’t actually fancy playing us either.
All this has me asking myself just why D3 is the only NERFU men’s league to put itself through this pointless end-of-season ritual?
In professional sports, more games equals more revenue, so I could understand the need to protract the season as long as possible, just like the NBA. But, in the dirt track rugby that we all play here in D3, more games usually equals more money lost. I know Seacoast have blown money on forfeited matches at Amesbury, we’ve laid out our own share for buses and practice fields, and I would guess that most of the sides in the league have experienced “negative cash-flow” with every game.
Consider the poor referees too. The league has made it crystal clear that there is a chronic shortage of refs so, once again, why put them through another week of one-sided matches and dodging projectiles?
My guess is that the logic is, or was, that in a geographically dispersed league such us ours, asking everyone to play everyone else would be too much of a strain, and the only way to find out the best side is to have a shorter season to separate the goats from the sheep, and then have all the goats play each other for the top spot. But, with eight sides making the playoffs, it appears we have a few sheep in goats clothing (how’s that for a mixed metaphor?).
True, an 11 game schedule would suck, especially for the side that draws road trips to Albany, Mad River and the Mountaineers (no offense guys, but you caan’t get theyah from heeyah). But it begs the question of why are there 12 teams in D3 to begin with?
Again, back in the day, when D3 was created that was probably the only place to put the wannabe’s and also-rans that we all are. Now however, thanks to the growth of rugby as the thinking-man’s contact sport, it looks as though there are at least a handful of respectable clubs looking for a game in D4. Couple them with the bottom four clubs from D3, and they’d have themselves a nice little league going on. That leaves D3 as a proper 8 team league, with a 7 week schedule, undisputed winners and no need for inter-league playoffs (just like D1 and D2).
Now all this might sound a bit like sour grapes from a side that wants things to end just the way they are. I’m sure Seacoast and the Wolfhounds still think they have a shot, bless ‘em, and no doubt they’re grateful for the playoffs. But, I’m also guessing that as they run up the score on MIT and Middlesex they’ll be wondering what this weekend was all in aid of. At the very least we could have all been getting on with the semi-final games to set up the D3 Dog’s Dinner Bowl for next week.
Well, as they say, opinions are like…., well, they’re not hard to come by, and I don’t consider myself a genius for having pointed out the flaws in D3 (there are other reasons why I do though), and for NERFU to have had some foresight may have been too much to hope for. But let us all pray that, whoever wins it this year, NERFU listens to the clubs and fixes this dopey system for good.
No comments:
Post a Comment