Wright defends dCup pooling system
Keveral Stewart, coach of Denbigh High School, said although he understands the pooling rule for qualification as a best third-place finisher that saw them out of the second round of the ISSA/WATA daCosta Cup competition, it is difficult to accept.
Pool 2 team Denbigh, with a plus 20 goal difference, finished with the same number of points, wins, draws and loses as Green Island, who have a plus seven and qualified as a best third-place team from Pool 1. This was due to the daCosta Cup team being placed in two pools, from which they selected one each. Mile Gully High School was the best third-place finisher from Pool 2 with 20 points.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think having the pools is a good idea. It defeats the whole purpose of selecting two best third-place finishers. The best third-place finishers should have been the two that finishes in the third-place position,” said Stewart.
“It’s demoralising for my team. When I gave the boys the news it was not a pill they could swallow easily. I think they only set up the pools to benefit some teams. That’s just my opinion though,” he added.
When asked if ISSA would be looking to change things going forward given the scenario, Linvern Wright, chairman of daCosta Cup said while they respect criticism, he doesn’t think this is that much a big deal for them to do so.
“The fact is that they are in two separate pools and the pools have been listed. To be honest, the point is clear and going forward I don’t know if we could use that as the basis of a strong reason to change it. I don’t think this particular instance is a good example of why we should change it,” said Wright.
“If you’re looking at the fact that the rules were transparent in the booklet from day one. If the coaches, principals, media and everybody read these rules, they should have told us from day one that pooling is unfair. Don’t wait until we reach this point, we are having this argument...” he added.