Australia Quidditch Championships 2019: Team & Player Exemptions, Gameplay Requirements

With the Australian Quidditch Championships fast approaching, appeals are now open for teams or players to submit exemptions to the event's gameplay requirements.

Individual Player Requirements

All players wishing to participate in the Australia Quidditch Championships must meet the following criteria to be eligible to participate; 

(d) Player Requirements:

(i) All players participating at the championship must have played a minimum of three ranked games at any point in the season in question to participate. The purpose of this rule is to ensure that all players understand the rules of the game and can play in a safe manner. 

(1) Exceptions may be given in circumstances of isolation in a similar manner to the team requirements. 

(2) Exceptions may also be given if a team can provide evidence that a player has been sufficiently involved in the sport in past seasons or involved in training or playing in an unofficial capacity to the extent that their safety and experience can be verified. 

(3) These requirements must be met 60 days before the start of the championship. 

Quidditch Australia Gameplay Policies 2019, page 13

Ranked matches refer to official CLUB matches, such as games at the Victoria Cup, NSW Quidditch League or Queensland League. Ranked matches do not include fantasy events or games played for mercenary teams. 

Exemptions for individuals may be made up until October 8th.  Individual player registration for the tournament will open in late September and close on October 23rd. 

Team Eligibility

As detailed in the Quidditch Australia Gameplay Policy document; 

(b) Team Requirements 

(i) In order to be eligible to qualify for the championship, a team must satisfy one of the following criteria: 

(1) Participation in a QA-sanctioned state league, having completed at least five ranked games within that competition. 

(2) Participation in at least two ranked QA-sanctioned tournaments, having completed at least three ranked games in each tournament. 

(3) Participation in at least seven ranked games against at least two opponents, over a period of at least three different days of competition

(A) For the purpose of this regulation, participation in any event which takes more than one day to complete will still only count towards a single unique day of competition.

Exemptions may be provided to teams in the case of;

(ii) If a team has reasonable grounds for which these criteria cannot be satisfied, they may launch an appeal to the Gameplay Department, who may waive these criteria at their discretion. 

(v) Teams, who have fewer than two other QA member teams within their state or three teams total registered with their respective state body for the duration of the current season, may still qualify for the championship without satisfying these criteria provided they seek out and accept all possible opportunities for official play available to them. 

(vi) A new QA team who has never attended previously, is considered to have only come into existence in the 12 months prior to the championship, and who has signed up for their first ever annual QA membership in the second half of the season may not have sufficient opportunity to satisfy these criteria, due to lack of time or sufficient opponents. Such teams may still enter provided they seek out and accept all possible opportunities for ranked play available to them. 

(vii) Any unofficial QA team who participates within a sanctioned state body's formalised tournament structure (e.g. Victoria Cup), will be considered as exposed to opportunity and expected to have made all efforts possible to satisfy these criteria. 

Quidditch Australia Gameplay Policies 2019, page 12

Teams who feel they satisfy the requirements of an exemption may submit an appeal to the Quidditch Australia gameplay committee. Exemptions for teams may be made up until October 1st as team registration will close on October 8th.

Transfers prior to the Australian Quidditch Championships

Transfers must be submitted to the Quidditch Australia Gameplay committee by no later than October 8th for these transfers to be considered. After this date, players are locked into their current team till the end of 2019. Transfers may be submitted here: http://www.quidditch.org.au/player-transfer-form/

Team Referee Requirements

All teams are required to complete their team based referee requirements by October 8th. Quidditch Australia will be using the IQA Referee tests are the method of certificiation. These tests are accessible by visiting

https://www.iqareferees.org/

Teams will not be able to apply for exemptions to these requirements.

The requirements are as follows:

(iv) The certification requirements outlined in Section 3.2.b must be spread across six playing club members attending the championship.

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(b) Expectations for QA-Sanctioned Events

(i) Unless otherwise indicated by the tournament director, it is expected that for all QA-sanctioned events, inclusive of the Australian Quidditch Championships, teams will be able to contribute the following:

(1) one certified head referee

(2) one certified snitch runner

(3) one certified snitch referee

(4) three certified assistant referees

(5) two goal referees

(6) three scorekeepers or time keepers

Please note that snitch runner certification is no longer required and the referee certifications must be spread across five (5) playing members of the team rather than six (6). 

Quidditch Australia Gameplay Policies 2019, page 13 & 17

Exemptions to the Player or Team Eligibility May Be Submitted Here

Questions can be directed to Quidditch Australia's gameplay director, Nicola Gertler, at gameplay@quidditch.org.au

New Concussion and Injury Protocols for Quidditch Australia Sanctioned Games

Please be aware that as of today, the 15th of July 2019, Quidditch Australia is observing new Injury and Concussion Protocols, developed to increase player safety and in response to recent research surrounding brain injuries in contact sports.

Original Photo Credit: Dammia Brosnan

The Concussion Policy stipulates that concussions are brain injuries that occur from knocks to the head or other parts of the body that may or may not result in a loss of consciousness.

Injury policies state that the Head Referee of a game holds duty of care, and should a referee team or medical team witness a potential concussion, the player concerned should be removed from play and tested with the SCAT5 Pocket Concussion Recognition Tool. Players exhibiting signs of concussion will not be allowed to resume playing, act as a speaking captain, or referee for the remainder of the day, and Quidditch Australia recommends 12 days before a return to play, in line with Rugby Australia's concussion policies.

Concussions that are ignored can be fatal. Players exhibiting signs of concussion should be referred to a hospital emergency department and further rules and recommendations regarding returning to play may be found within the policy document, including a Return To Play form that must be completed.

The Injury Policy stipulates the responsibilities and duties of care of all players, referees, medical teams, and tournament directors with regards to injuries and injury management.

Is it important that all teams, players, and officials understand these policies, and that they are implemented at all Quidditch Australia sanctioned games henceforth.

Quidditch Australia would like to thank Nic Radoll for his assistance and expertise in drafting these policies.

The Policy Documents may be found below or at www.quidditch.org.au/rules

Quidditch Australia Injury Policy 2019

Download

Quidditch Australia Concussion Policy (RTP Form included)

Download

Concussion Recognition Tool

Download

State Shield Eligibility, Rules, & Regulations

ELIGIBILITY

All players must be full members of Quidditch Australia (QA) to be able to participate in the tournament.

State team eligibility is determined by the following clauses. You are eligible for a team if you meet any of the following:

1. You currently play for a club from that state and commenced playing in that state from no later than the beginning of the current season;

2. You currently live in that state;

3. The team that you first played quidditch for is from that state;

4. You spent the majority of school (K-12, at least 7 years cumulative) in that state.

If you have different states for each of the above criteria, you may choose which team you wish to apply for.

If you have moved states after the commencement of a season and do not meet any of the above criteria for that state, you may not apply for that state. You may however apply for the state you previously moved from, given you meet the above criteria.

A season is defined as the commencement of a club based state league.

Once you are chosen to represent a state as either a player or reserve, you forfeit your eligibility based on clauses B, C, and D. For example, consider a player who grew up in Melbourne spending all of their schooling there, then went to NSW for university and began playing quidditch there. If they choose to represent NSW this year, they may only play for NSW in future years until they play for a club team in a different state under clause A.

Withdrawing your application or failure to make the state team you applied for does not forfeit your eligibility to apply for other teams. You may apply for multiple states, however you must withdraw all but one application upon selection. For example, you cannot be a reserve for one state and a player for another.

All criteria from above regarding previous participating for a state applies from 2018’s State Shield onwards.

ROSTERS

Rosters must be submitted in the following format:

21 Players

9 Reserves

Staff (see below)

Rosters must list a player’s full name, jersey number, and gender.

Each team is permitted a maximum of 12 players on the final roster submission who identify as the same gender.

The deadline for preliminary rosters, maximum 30 individuals, shall be due on 1 September 2019. No new players may be added after this point.

Preliminary rosters aim to allow QA to begin marketing the event to the wider quidditch community and general public.

A final roster of 21 players must be submitted by 5pm Thursday prior to the commencement of the QA State Shield. Final rosters allow for movements between reserves and players submitted in the preliminary roster.

For states with more than one team, reserves are allowed to be listed from the players on the state’s secondary team for their primary team. In the case that a player moves up from the secondary team to the primary team, a player from the primary team may not move down to the secondary team. The reserves for the secondary team may not be players listed on the primary team’s roster. This system operates in the same manner for states with a third team, and so on.

TEAM STAFF

Each team is welcome to have up to 4 non-playing individuals on their subline during gameplay in the following roles:

• Coach

• Assistant Coach

• Team Manager

• Sports Trainer

These staff positions should be listed on the preliminary roster and can be adjusted up until the final roster submission.

The conduct of team staff is governed the the IQA Rulebook 2018-2020 section 1.1. LEADERSHIP AND TEAM STAFF.

RULES & REGULATIONS

The 2019 QA State Shield shall be governed by the QA Gameplay Policies. Participation in the event by players, staff, officials, tournament organisers, and spectators is governed by the QA Code of Conduct, Membership Protector Policy, and Constitution. Actions which violate the regulations laid out in these documents may result in suspension or disqualification from the event at the decision of the tournament committee and QA Board of Directors.

Instances of disputed games are governed by the Disputed Games Policy.

The 2019 State Shield shall use the 2018 - 2020 IQA Rulebook with QA amendments.

MEDIA

Plans surrounding the public release of rosters and staff are to be communicated with the QA Media Director (media@quidditch.org.au) for branding purposes.