In the final part of his series on the yet-to-be-launched Game Management System, DAVID LLOYD-WILLIAMS looks at what will be gained by the match sheet
England Hockey had grasped the IT nettle with both hands, and were now in it for the long term. Phase 1, the ‘Minimum Viable Product’, would be just the beginning.
Looking at the typical weekly process for Team Admins (mostly captains), it was clear that ‘match sheet preparation’ would be critical. Why so?
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The story behind the GMS
READ: How the GMS system first arose
Experts, the Dutch and match sheets
Was England Hockey’s GMS too radical?
Getting Phase 1 live
We had match sheets in our old league and I’m sure Jane Smith got entered as Emily White, an absent player, when required. I’m disappointed if someone cheats so brazenly that this system spots it.
every player in Australia has a single national registration number, which they carry as long as they renew annually. It can follow them from club to club, with satisfactory clearance (ie no abandoned debts etc). Seems to work. Electronic match sheets here in Canberra at least. Other aussies will be able to add I’m sure.
At one point I was doing admin for both ice hockey and field hockey, I queried with Fixtures Live at the time why England Hovkey weren’t using the same software used by ice hockey, where each player had a unique number and it made team sheets and transfers east, no pidgeon post or double registrations for both conference/below and having to hunt which team held a registration for a player!
And yes I could name a team that listed a player who was on a gap year in S. America!
Hockey needs to be electronic.
We have all played against ringers and it can ruin your Saturday. That suspiciously good player with a different kit stands out a mile. Match sheets don’t stop that as cheating clubs will use false names. So if the technology is there, let’s have photos of every player so we can see what Joe Bloggs actually looks like and call out the cheats.
I cannot help but worry that this measure will require a good deal of effort to implement, followed by more effort to iron out the bugs, and yet more effort to train club admins to use the system.
Once all these things are true, we will have a system that will not make it impossible to cheat, but may make offenders of innocents who simply want to play some hockey, whilst at the same time having put all of us honest johns to a huge amount of effort.
As a coach in what used to be called (and may still be for all I know) the player pathway, I have noted the huge changes afoot there. Right or wrong (in my view wrong), these changes are already upsetting a great many coaches and administrators.
I will not be the first correspondent to note that, in the absence of a large paying audience, hockey functions because of the goodwill of the participants. I believe it unwise to use up that goodwill on large scale changes which do not guarantee to solve any problems, and may in fact mack matters worse.