Team Rules

Here is a list of rules that are handy to know on gameday:

It is an automatic loss, at the end of the 1st quarter, if fewer than 5 registered players are signed on. Please find someone to "play up" before this happens.
One member of each gender must be in the field of play at all times. If this cannot be satisfied, you must play down one player.

If you are short a player:

Players may only be registered in one team per age division, for a single club. Players may not “play across”.
Players may “play up” under certain circumstances:

The player must be playing up into an age division of higher age than their own; and
The player must only play up into a team of their club; and
The player can only play up into a team if the team has less than 8 players. They cannot play up simply to be a substitute player; and
A player may only “play up” into a particular division once per round; and
Once a player “plays up” for a team 5 times, they cannot play for any other team in that division and become a member of that team; and
The player must seek the permission of the Game Authority in order to “play up”; and
There must be at least one member of the original team playing in order for any other players to “play up”; and
The game must be not be in a semi or grand final round.

Example:

Sam is a plays in the U14. He is able to play up into any Arctic U15 team, but only if they are short, and can only play for one U15 team per week.
In the first week, he plays up for the Arctic U15 Snowy Owls, who are short. In the second week, he plays up for the Arctic U15 Hippos, who are short, and later that day, further plays up into the Arctic U16 Huskies, who are short.
He has now played 1 game for each of the Arctic U15 teams, and has played 1 game for an Arctic U16 team. Once he plays 5 games for either U15 team, he automatically becomes registered in that team, is eligible to play in the finals for that team, and cannot play in any other U15 team. The same rule obviously applies to the U16 team he has played for.

To qualify as a trial player:

The player must certify that they have not played water polo previously, and
The player must certify that they have a legitimate desire to ‘try’ the game of water polo and will genuinely use the trial game to evaluate whether they will participate in the SSWPA competition further, and
The player cannot request a trial game after the halfway point of the season.

In semi final and grand final games, players must have played a minimum of five games across the season in order to participate.