Group 10 officials will discuss the possibility of no points being awarded to any club out of the cancelled round 10, including Orange CYMS.
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CYMS was the least affected of any club, logistically, thanks to a round 10 bye but the eight other clubs had scheduled fixtures cancelled after snow and ice forced the closure of Oberon Sportsground on Sunday morning.
A motion was passed at the 2016 Group 10 annual general meeting allowing the board to postpone an entire round if one of the matches was washed out, or couldn’t be played.
This year’s draw, though, doesn’t have a scheduled catch-up round allocated at the end of the regular season.
Fairfax media contacted each of the nine Group 10 clubs asking if their respective teams would be in favour of a mid-week replay or splitting points.
Oberon’s Luke Branighan, Mudgee’s Kathy Lang and St Pat’s president David Chapman were in favour of replays, in some fashion.
Cowra coach Steve Sutton and Bears captain-coach Tim Mortimer said they’d be happy to split the points while Panthers skipper Doug Hewitt said the round’s cancellation is far from ideal, given Panthers will now be without football for three weeks thanks to next week’s round 11 bye.
Hawks president Mark Johnston said Hawks is happy to split points, too: “we knew the rules at the start of the year.”
A representative of the CYMS club said stripping the green and golds of bye points would be unfair, but the club would cop the decision on the chin.
Lithgow couldn’t be reached for comment at time of publication.
CYMS had banked two points thanks to its second bye of the season, but Group 10 director Peter McDonald said he’d float the idea of all points being wiped from round 10, including bye points.
Group 10’s directors will meet early this week to determine an outcome.
St Pat’s is currently on the edge of the top five Chapman said playing for points, particularly against a Lithgow side lower than the blue and whites on the ladder, was imperative for the club’s finals hopes in the top grade.
“We’re not travelling well and this is no disrespect to Lithgow, but we were banking on two points in this game. We back ourselves against every team,” Chapman said.
“I’ve thought about it a lot, CYMS picks up the two points via the bye and they get an unfair advantage because of that. Everyone else only gets the one, if the points are split.
“Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. I think we can learn to schedule a general bye in the last round of the year to have a week at the end of the season in case a couple of these games eventuate.”
Mortimer has plenty of experience playing rugby league overseas and says the French league he used to play in has several catch-up type rounds.
“I think that would be a great idea and fairer for all,” the Bears coach said.
The 2018 season can’t be pushed back a week to allow for a catch-up round due to the scheduled NAB Challenge, which pits the Group 10 and Group 11 premiers against each other on September 16, a week after both competitions’ grand finals.