Russell Parr wrote:
Whilst I Iargely agree with you, Tom, I'm inclined to think that in this
instance perhaps it isn't in the best interest to have a "full and frank
debate by the UK Ultimate community". A number of reasons for this:
I'm afraid I have to disagree. I think that there are 2 very important
things that need to be discussed:
1) As games get more and more important, as the sport grows, do we need
some sort of arbitration procedure?
2) How do we protect SOTG as the sport's recruitment goes from Unis to
Schools?
We don't want to go into blame or specifics, but regardless of the
people or incidents involved, these things matter.
So:
1) I heard that the decision, originally, to disqualify the GB juniors
was taken by a group which did not contain representatives from the
teams (if I heard wrong, I apologise, but the point below still stands).
If you look at any other sport, such decisions would be taken by the
governing body in consultation with the referee (or at least with a
referee's report); in ultimate the players are the refs so it is vital
that they're involved in the decision. I'd advocate a system where
someone from the governing body for the tournament (EFDF, UKU, WFDF)
sits down with the captain/coach from each team and thrashes out a
compromise.
We should allow the ultimate principle - that players run the game - to
extend as far as possible, even into disciplinary procedures, even if
this means giving the guys a couple of hours to calm down and then
having an arbitrated meeting to find the solution. Something like
replaying from 10-all is a solution that may be arrived at, and as long
as both teams agree, there's no reason that sort of thing can't be done.
Maybe they'll agree to play from 13-11 if one team had a big lead when
controversy happened; maybe they'll agree to replay the game without one
particular player. Whatever.
The point is that the governing body should only force a decision onto
one of the teams when /every effort/ has been made to reach a spirited
agreement between the teams themselves. And we may need in future to
have such procedures in place before the worst happens.
2) I know for a fact that I was a bigger cheat at 13 than I was at 19.
If I'd started playing in school sports lessons, against classmates who
were clearly split into friends and enemies, it would've been hard to
play spirited. People mature, and many young people brought up watching
premier league football will struggle at first with SOTG. By the time we
get to uni age, most of us have settled down a bit (there are
exceptions... ;-)... ).
As most of us have probably seen, it only takes one or two idiots to
ruin the spirit of a whole team, and so it is vital that the GB Juniors
have the most impeccable spirit possible, because these talented guys
will go back to their clubs and dominate the agenda. Note that I'm not
saying GBJ don't have good spirit; all I'm saying is that the coach has
a great responsibility, /over and above/ that of any normal coach, to
instil fantastic spirit in his team, in order to safeguard the future of
the sport.
The fact that the GBJ guys go back to their clubs with a thorough
understanding of, belief in, and ability to play with, good spirit, is
at least as important as winning. You can never try too hard to promote
spirit. If what happened in Southampton has put that on the agenda then
at least some good came out of it.
------------------------------
But anyway, as has been said by others, let's not forget how monstrously
well our teams did in southampton. 7 finals? Blimey. Congratulations to
all involved.
Benji
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