(Image permission: Steve Brodie)
CAMBRIDGE, UK – The EIHA released a statement on June 10th confirming the make up and format of the various divisions of the NIHL, from NIHL2 up to the new National Division.
For our purposes we will look mostly at the National Division. Anthony Lowe has already posted his observations regarding NIHL1 North, these can be read here.
Probably the most striking difference to the old EPL is that, in line with the rest of the NIHL, National Division is split into two conferences – North and South divided as following:
South
Basingstoke Bison, (Hants)
Bracknell Bees, (Berks)
Peterborough Phantoms, (Cambs)
Raiders IHC, (Essex)
Swindon Wildcats, (Wilts)
North
Hull Pirates, (East Yorks)
Leeds Chiefs, (West Yorks)
Milton Keynes Lightning, (Bucks)
Sheffield Steeldogs, (South Yorks)
Telford Tigers, (Shropshire)
Each team will play the other teams in their own conference four times each home and away, (total of eight games), and then twice each home and away against the teams in the opposite conference, (four times in total).
This gives a season of 42 league games plus National Division Cup semi-finals and finals, followed by a round-robin format in two groups for the play-off finals, (expected to be held in Coventry again).
As a competition, the play-offs moving to a round robin format will give each qualifying team and additional minimum of three home games.
While these would come with expenses in terms of travel, wages and kit, the additional home gates will be quite welcome. The top eight teams based on the league competition will qualify for the play off and split into two groups as follows:
Group 1
1st
4th
5th
8th
Group 2
2nd
3rd
6th
7th
Following the qualification rounds, the top two teams from each group will proceed to the Play-Off Finals weekend.
In addition to the play-off competition, there will be a National Division Cup Competition. The first league game between each side will go towards a separate “Cup” Table to decide the four qualifying teams. The top seeded team will get to choose their opponent with the remaining teams facing each other in the second semi final.
Essentially this gives each team four trophies to shoot for: League, Conference, National Cup, Play-Off Championships.
By and large this is a good set-up. It’s an increase in the number of games in a season that will be welcomed by these teams and their fans alike, and with the league officially starting on the weekend of 14th/15th September, this allows a couple of weeks for preseason games for the teams that want them.
One small change that would be nice to see would be to find a way to ensure that the league competition can’t be influenced by relative weakness or strength of one of the conferences.
For example, if in the North Hull are head and shoulders above everyone else, but in the south things are much more even, then having eight games against “weaker” opponents gives more opportunity for that team to pick up “easy” points if the southern conference is far more even with all teams taking points off each other in any given game.
As there are four games each season, (two each home and away), that cross conferences, perhaps only the points from these games (the cross-conference games) should count towards the league title and seeding for the Play-Off Finals.
That said, better minds than this writer’s will have considered this and taken the decisions they have so we will wait and see.
In theory, the best guarantee against a disparity within the conferences causing such problems though will be the competitiveness between the teams. If this remains high, then this should all even out.
The South looks pretty much as standard, all teams that played in NIHL 1 (South), last season. In the Northern Conference, again, three out of five teams featured in NIHL1, (North), last season, the odd ones out being Leeds Chiefs, who will begin their first season in September, and the Milton Keynes Lightning.
At first glance, Milton Keynes, nestled in the valley of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire would not be the most obvious candidate to join the Northern Conference of the National Division.
In terms of travel alone, MK Lightning will travel roughly 5350 miles fulfilling fixtures in the Northern Conference as opposed to 4770 miles were they in the Southern Conference. This equates to an extra 10 hours on the bus over the course of the season. This sounds like a big chunk of time to be sat on the bus, it works out at less than 15 minutes for each away journey.
On the other hand, were Peterborough Phantoms, geographically north of the Lightning, to play in the Northern conference, they would have to travel 5,500 miles, against travelling 5,830 playing in the southern conference, a saving of over 300 miles, or an extra five hours on the bus over the course of the season.
Switching the teams – Peterborough to the North and MK to the South makes financial sense in terms of travel, however another angle was offered by Gary Dent in a reply to a post on Facebook.
This suggested that teams preferred night for home games also played a role in deciding which team played in which conference. Milton Keynes have traditionally played their home games on a Saturday, and tend to go out to make a night of it.
In the South, Peterborough prefer Sunday home games, as do the Bees and Raiders, while Basingstoke and Swindon are very definitely a Saturday home team.
In the North, Sheffield prefer Sunday games, Telford prefer Sundays, but had quite a few Saturday games last season. Hull also seem to split fairly evenly between Saturday and Sunday home games.
Leeds are a wildcard, with no history to draw on, they could work well for either, although with their location on Elland Road, they will be competing directly with Leeds United for attraction to start with.
In this respect, MK Lightning, with a clear preference for Saturday home games would be a good fit, although with the flexibility shown by Telford and Hull, this is less of an issue than in the Southern conference of the National Division.
Again, this will have been agreed between the teams themselves and not imposed against any team’s wishes, so while it may not seem logical, it will have been agreed by consensus between the teams.
It has been announced that the numbers of imports will not be changing, however, PHN has heard from a number of sources within the National League that a change in the definition of a “British” or “Non-British” player may be on the horizon and take effect from as early as this new season.
Previously, in EIHA administered leagues, the decider between a “Brit” and an “Import”, (non-British player), would be whether they had played two or more years as a Junior in an EIHA recognised, British-based league.
This was in contrast to the Elite League’s position that a British player was British Born only leading to situations where a foreign born player, e.g. Toms Rutkis or Edgars Bebris who had played two or more years as a junior in a British club, would be classed as British in the NIHL but as an import in the Elite League.
It is understood that a proposal has been submitted to update this and, it seems, to follow IIHF guidelines. In particular, if a player has a British passport and has played the last two full seasons in a British league, they will qualify as a British player.
If this definition is also accepted by the Elite League, (and to be honest, it would make a lot of sense if they did), it would instantly mean that any non-British born member of the GB team that kept their Elite Status in the recent IIHF World Championships, would be reclassified as British.
This is nice, but how would this affect the National Division or the other NIHL Leagues? In the first instance, Jason Silverthorn would be one of the earliest recipients of “British” status. After his commitment to the Telford Tigers over the last few years, it would be hard to argue against this.
Any non-British born player that qualified as a “British” player through the junior team clause, would retain their “British” Status, meaning that players like Bebris, Rutkis or Martins Susters, would retain their British Classification.
The key criteria to make this change worthwhile must be it’s adoption by the EIHL, a simple definition of “If you’re eligible for the GB National Side, then you qualify as British” is straightforward and easy to calculate.
It also offers another reason for players to commit long term to a club and for a club to commit to a player, whether or not they wish to play for GB.
This may have an impact on development of British players, however it would be expected that by the time these naturalised players make it to the National Division, they would be much older and would essentially be on a team for their experience and able to pass on that experience to younger players, something that will be a benefit to NIHL teams.
However, this is just a rumour at this stage, although one that has come from a number of different sources and so may not be adopted at all.
In summary, this announcement has it’s “interesting” parts but from the perspective of teams in the National League, it is generally a good start.
It also shows a marked difference in approach from the predecessor league for the National Division, in that this is quite a conservative set of changes and appears generally well thought out and considered prior to its announcement. All-in-all, this feels like a step forward.
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