Sorry if this has been covered anywhere else but thought some people might have missed Todd Kelmans tweets last night. And I figured I would put them together so people dont have to trawl through all his tweets.
OK EIHL fans, I wasn't going to enter the Dept of Player Safety debate, but here are the facts and answers to questions I have been posed...
All teams were informed of the DPS procedure prior to regular season starting. DPS documents outlined fines for not supplying full game tape
DPS system is actually in place to protect the players and clean up the league and takes the responsibility away from teams having
to ask for supplementary discipline from specific incidents. All injuries are reviewed, all major penalties are reviewed.
If refs make mistakes, they are disciplined as well and game tapes are used to improve officiating as well as protect players.
The Edinburgh incident and suspension of their player for 10 games is because without a game tape, how can you review the play?
Without supplying a game tape, the player is given the maximum penalty on the play until sufficient evidence is submitted.
This can be video, photographs from official photographer on the night but because Edinburgh did not have anything to show DPS, then
DPS has no choice but to suspend the player. The injured player left the game with a suspected concussion. He did not play again that game
however I assume DPS will consider the fact that K Phillips played on the weekend after the incident but it is up to Edinburgh to
use that information to argue their case. Still the home team is REQUIRED to supply a full game tape, and this did not happen.
So to say DPS is a joke, is wrong. Protection of players is paramount and DPS did that. Edinburgh is at fault for not supplying the tape
Belfast does not have to ask for supplementary discipline. All injuries are automatically reviewed by DPS but no tape means max penalty
Fans have 2 understand that the system in place is the best disciplinary system this league can get if all teams buy in and follow procedure
Without game tapes, the play cannot be reviewed. Simple as that. Every team knew the fines so should have been double checking
that they were recording the entire game. What if K Phillips was out for the year? Would 10 games have been sufficient?
I actually think Belfast should not have played him regardless of what the player wanted to do in order to follow procedure when
a player is concussed, but they have great medical staff and I am sure they took all necessary precautions and testing to ensure he was fit
The ban should probably be reduced now that Phillips is back, but the decision by DPS without a tape to review made complete sense
to anyone that bothered to read the DPS procedure documents that every team (owners, GMs, coaches) were given in advance.
And finally - no I am not on the Dept of player safety but I understand the set up and how it will work. It is a positive move and the best
system for discipline that this league has ever had in place. Mr Hanson who did it last season did not want to come back for another season
and the DPS system is used in similar ways around the globe in top leagues. That is all for now, I will pay my fine for social media
related offences later this week. The official EIHL can forward me an invoice. While I am at it, I also don't know how to fix
a 50/50 draw, or fix a shirt off the back draw so the same people always win. I hate to expose this part of EIHL hockey, but
teams actually don't care who wins the SOTB or the 50/50.. Nighty Night EIHL fans - thats me done twitter for a while..
OK i'm not quite done, need to clear something up. No - home teams couldn't hold the game tape to get an away player a 10 game ban.
The £1,000 fine is to ensure teams submit all tapes. I don't know what the procedure would be if it happened to an away player, I assume
that a home team can't ask for discipline if they don't supply a tape, but I am sure conspiracy theorists will now ask about that
The reality is - 9 other teams supplied game tapes and the league made it a requirement to do it every game. I highly doubt it will happen
again this season. And the "rich teams" aren't going to pay £1000 to not submit a tape, despite what some might think, the group
of owners work very well together and work closely with officials to improve the product. We don't sit around at board meetings and talk
about who beat who, we talk about improving the product for the fans, how we improve officiating, how we invest in our product and
how we make it more competitive. Ideas that have come out of board meetings like the conference system, the trial of the 4 man system
the standalone challenge Cup final, all make a better product for fans. We aren't trying to bleed our fans dry, we want
this league and our businesses to be sustainable. We all have different issues and different problems, but we work together to
do the best we can for the league we have and the income levels of teams. Sometimes fans need to trust their team owners
that we are actually trying to think what you want before we think what we want. If you have ideas on how to improve things in the league
or with your team, write an email to your team or to the league or to me and tell us how we can improve things.
Its easy to blog, criticise, complain, so instead of telling the world how bad something you support and care about is...
Why not tell your teams what you think would make it better? And if you are from Cardiff, tell me or if you have issues with the league,
get in touch with me. I read all my emails, I don't always answer them but I will consider all suggestions and ideas. 500,000
people's ideas are better than 1 or 10 or however many people you think are making decisions for the league or your team
Remember, this is our league, all of ours and if we care enough to be up at 1130pm talking about it, we all want it to be better
So here is my email - let me know what you think tk@cardiffdevils.com
And if anyone wants to see Tony Smith talking to Seth Bennet about it you will find it here