Fact is if Petone hadn't fielded an ineligible player earlier in the season against North Wellington, they wouldn't have had a 4-0 victory turned into a 3-0 loss and would still be in with a chance of winning the league!
While yes we would still be in with a chance we turned out some really poor performances after the result was overturned. Realistically I think Wharfies have been the better side across the season and are worth their win.
As for the regrading of players I'm not overly bothered as long as its within the rules. I'm pretty sure any team would try do the same if they were in the same situation. I hope any potential rule change is well thought out.
Yep if you look at the current string of results, there's nothing suggesting that Petone deserve to be in the playoffs ahead of Karori.
I agree with this stance on regrading. I think there are a lot of club people on these threads posting fake outrage and pretending like their club doesn't leverage the rules in exactly the same way with dropping players to avoid relegation. The questions of morality around this are silly I think. I also think that the more sensible change would be to not allow reserve teams in Cap Prem, as every year this has a flow on effect for all grades in terms of 2 and even 3 team promotion/relegations in different divisions. It doesn't do much to stop the regrading debate though