Dear Club Presidents and Secretaries

The Directors have resolved, and I’m certain all clubs will agree, that the behaviour of players needs to be much better managed and we need it to be driven at tournament level, at high/medium goal level right through to club level.

The NSWPA Board met 12 months ago and ratified the NSW Disciplinary Regulations. Now we need the Tournament Committees from each club to be vigilant in applying the APF Rules on misconduct and discipline to enable this Policy and Regulations to work smoothly. See policy here  - NSWPA-Disciplinary-Regulations-Sept-2021.pdf (nswpolo.com.au)

Firstly, to clearly get the point across upfront, Tournament Committees should remind all players and officials of these principles and print them in their Tournament Program:

All players are expected to behave in a sportsmanlike manner.

No player shall talkback to, or argue with an umpire or any other officials – there shall be zero tolerance on this

Horse welfare is paramount, and no player shall abuse a horse in any way – there shall be zero tolerance on this

No player shall abuse or strike another player or play dangerously causing harm to others – there shall be zero tolerance on this

At all tournaments and polo events any breach of the above rules should follow these guidelines:

• The APF Rules of Polo must be strictly enforced by the Umpires and supported fully by the Tournament Committee.
• The Umpires and Referee have full authority before, during and after the game regarding conduct and discipline.
• The Umpires must determine whether misconduct warrants just a field penalty, further warning, or escalated to a Yellow Flag or a Red Flag, and the level of that Red Flag, being one or even more games.

• For Yellow or Red Flags the Umpires must complete an Incident Report Form immediately following the game as per the APF Rules. The Tournament Committee is responsible for following up on these reports ensuring they detail all necessary information and signed by the Umpires.
• An Incident Report Form can be accessed here APF-Incident-report-form-fillable.pdf (nswpolo.com.au) and should detail as a minimum the player at fault, the incident, the reason for the charge, the penalty awarded, and details of any witnesses, evidence, video (if available) etc., including a recommendation if further action is warranted.
• Also as per the APF Rules the Tournament Committee shall obtain statements from the offending player and witnesses – this is essential to enable the NSWPA to assess if any further disciplinary action should be taken.
• All Incident Reports, statements and accompanying notes on the action taken should be sent to the NSWPA by email nsw@australianpolo.com.au  within 24hrs of the tournament.

Based on these reports, statements and evidence the NSWPA Disciplinary Committee (DC) will:

• Review all reports received for further action in accordance with the NSWPA Disciplinary Regulation and forward a copy to the APF for their records.
• As per the Regulations, the DC may determine that the penalties awarded by the Umpires were sufficient and no further action is required. However, serious offences as recommended by the Umpires and/or the Tournament Committee will be more closely reviewed based on the report, statements and evidence provided and the matter may be referred to a Tribunal hearing.
• The NSWPA shall keep and publish a record of Red and Yellow Flags on the NSWPA Website – Red & Yellow Cards (nswpolo.com.au)
• Tournament Committees will be able to check with this list to see if there is an accumulation of Flags that may affect their decision on level of penalty and reporting.

None of these principles or guidelines are new – they have been extracted from the APF Rules and NSWPA Regulations and collated here to form this series of clear guidelines to be followed.

If the Umpires and Tournament Committee have enforced the rules well at tournament level, hopefully there is no further action required and no need to get into time consuming and costly Tribunals hearings.  Notwithstanding, the NSWPA Disciplinary Committee is prepared to act should incidents be deemed serious by Umpires and Tournament Committees by referral to a Tribunal hearing. If repeats or trends in misconduct are identified action may be initiated at NSWPA level.

Note – if a player receives a Red Card, they will need to sit out the next game (or number of games depending on the level of penalty awarded) they are scheduled to play.  If this is carried over to the next tournament, the Tournament Committee is responsible for checking this list.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact Shauna in the office of NSWPA.

We thank the clubs and players of NSWPA for following these guidelines and we look forward to a successful Spring season.

Kind regards

David Head & Stephen Philip

NSWPA Disciplinary Committee

PO Box 957, Bondi Junction, NSW 1355
M | 0409 764 607  E | nsw@australianpolo.com.au  W | nswpolo.com.au