ERRA / NCRRL

POLICY ON PENALTIES

Ad Hoc Committee Recommendations

History

In the Spring of 2007, an Ad Hoc committee was formed under the joint umbrella of ERRA/NCRRL to review overly aggressive play in the region. After the initial discussions, three areas were identified as requiring further review and discussion:
 
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    		• Reporting and tracking of serious or major penalties (ie: match, misconducts, 4 minute fully served)
     
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    		• Tracking individual penalty minute totals and setting acceptable thresholds for age groups
     
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    		• Tracking team penalty minute totals and setting acceptable thresholds for age groups
    Progress

    Reporting and tracking of serious or major penalties

    The ERRA RIC will be posting a new form on the ERRA web site that will allow referees to report match/misconduct penalties immediately after their games. It is recommended that this report (regardless of whether it is an Open, LERQ, or NCRRL game) be automatically sent to the following people

    ERRA Games & Tournament Coordinator
    ERRA RIC
    NCRRL RIC
    NCRRL Statistician
    NCRRL President
    NCRRL Discipline Chair
    All Age Level Convenors
    Respective Association President of the team assessed the penalty

    The process for reviewing these major penalties is outlined below.

    Tracking individual penalty minute totals

    Starting with the 2008-2009 season the online game report form was modified to include the recording of individual penalty statistics. It is now possible to track all penalties, their types, as well as individual players that are habitually playing in a rough or overly aggressive manner. Acceptable thresholds have been developed based on the data provided by those online reports.

    Tracking team penalty minute totals

    As with the individual penalty minute totals, thresholds have also been developed regarding acceptable levels for team penalty minutes.

    Recommendations
     
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    		• Discipline and reviews to be conducted along existing lines of administration: all tournament, Open, or LERQ games are the responsibility of ERRA. NCRRL will be responsible for their league and play-off games.
     
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    		• If a formal hearing is called for, this hearing must be convened within seven days of the penalty being assessed.
     
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    		• The person who has committed a match or misconduct penalty is not permitted to play (or be on the bench) in a league, tournament or exhibition game until the review process is complete and all assessed penalties and supplementary discipline, if applicable, has been served.
     
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    		• Should it be determined that a formal hearing is required, the chair (ERRA Games & Tournament or NCRRL Discipline Chair) will call upon three objective members from a common pool within the region to form the review panel. Also to be included should be the RIC (ERRA or NCRRL) or their designated respresentative
     
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    		• Discipline thresholds, both for a team and an individual, are subject to annual review. Any changes will be posted on the ERRA/NCRRL web sites.
     
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    		• Formal hearings will occur, in all cases, when the following has occurred:
    In the same playing season (including tournaments, play-off or exhibition games), a player or bench staff is assessed
        i) Any match penalty
        ii) Two misconduct or major penalties or a combination thereof
        iii) Three unsportsmanlike penalties
        iv) Forty minutes in total penalties, compiled in any manner, during league play only
     
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    		• League convenors will make every effort to advise team coaches and respective association presidents when they have a player or bench staff that has reached thirty total penalty minutes.

    Team Thresholds

    In addition to the individual regulations outlined above, there are also team thresholds. The level convenor will contact any team if both of the following two conditions are met:

      The team in question is averaging more than 10 pim per game, and
      The team in question is averaging 50% more pim than the mean for the division.


    NOTE: NCRRL Discipline Chair will be responsible to carry out random spot checks to ensure that level convenors are correctly calculating pim totals and teams are being evaluated as per the guidelines and the schedule set out below.

    Suggested Procedure

    Step 1: League level convenors will review team pim totals on a regular, agreed upon basis (November 1st, December 1st, February 1st, March 1st) and red flag any team that is exceeding acceptable league guidelines either by 10 pim or more per game, and surpassing their division pim average by more than 50%.

    Step 2: If a team exceeds on both qualifiers, the level convenor will contact the team coach by e-mail and c/c the respective association president. The convenor will ask that precautionary action be taken to reduce the number of penalties and avoid any possible discipline from the league. The convenor will follow-up as per the prescribed schedule.

    Step 3: Upon the next review, if the team in question has not dropped down below the acceptable levels, under both qualifiers, the respective coach and president will be required to meet with the league discipline committee. Present at this meeting should be the league committee chair, three members of the discipline pool with no conflict of interest, the level convenor, the team coach and association president. At this meeting the league will seek reasons why this team has accumulated so many pim, suggest ways to curb this behavior and outline possible repercussions if it is not done. Minutes of this meeting will be recorded and e-mailed to the respective coach and association president.

    No further discipline or action is proposed at this point as this is a new pilot process and needs to be reviewed and adjusted at end of season 2009-2010.