Raiders furious as 'monumental mistake' results in finals expulsion

A mistake dating back to the first game of the two-day season has been blamed for an inaccuracy in the first-grade ladder which saw the Northern composite team drop to fifth and miss out on this weekend's semi-finals.

The league has apologised but Raiders coach Alistair Taylor responded by saying it was "a monumental mistake".

The shock development follows an emotional rollercoaster for the team's players who lost their final match of the season but appeared to have squeezed into the top four on bonus points.

New Town won on first innings at Invermay Park at the weekend and the online ladder had Raiders in fifth place on Saturday night.

However, Taylor told The Examiner that the ladder did not take into account bonus points and, when they were added on Sunday, Raiders moved up to fourth place 0.4 points above Kingborough.

On Wednesday the live ladder still had Raiders in fourth place and facing a semi-final against minor premiers North Hobart at the TCA Ground on Saturday and Sunday.

But Raiders were informed that a mistake had been made in the points from the big Round 18 win against South Hobart Sandy Bay at UTAS Stadium back in January. Raiders scored 6-272 (declared) and dismissed the Sharks for 75 and 9-125 in that match.

The CTPL issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon acknowledging "an administrative error" in the men's first-grade final standings.

It said: "Due to a mistake in calculating two-day bonus points, an extra three wickets (.6 of a bonus point) were given to Greater Northern during a game in January. This has potential implications for the final positions on the ladder, which Cricket Tasmania is currently investigating."

Cricket manager Sean Stevenson explained the process of the investigation.

"We understand the importance of ladders being correct, particularly in a season where seven teams could have made the finals going into the final round of matches, and the implications for the Greater Northern Raiders," he said.

"We believe we had done our due diligence regarding the final bonus points total, but regrettably an error has been found.

"As the manager of the competition I take responsibility for that and apologise to all impacted.

"We are re-examining all results to confirm the final ladder positions ahead of this weekend."

Raiders responded saying they were "disappointed, frustrated and upset" by the error.

"Heading into the last round the ladder was extremely tight and we expected it to be correct as the game in question was in January," Taylor said.

"If we were made aware of this prior to the commencement of the last round we would have known exactly what was required.

"We strategised a game plan on Saturday afternoon to gain the points we thought (off the live ladder) we needed to make finals. Knowing the information we know now we would have changed our tactics to gain maximum points.

"The playing group as you can imagine is disappointed in finding out second hand rather from our own GNR staff.

"This is a monumental mistake on behalf of the Premier League and we are appealing the decision via the premier league committee but we know it's a long shot. This isn't just a disappointment for the players, but for the staff, families, friends and all stakeholders especially those in the Greater Northern Region."

Kingborough will take Raiders' place in the semi-final against North Hobart.

The controversy comes just a year after a similar administrative error saw Mitch Owen stripped of his CTPL player of the year award.

Six days after the awards were presented, Cricket Tasmania announced that the New Town player should not have received the Emerson Rodwell Medal. Despite polling 22 votes, Owen was ruled ineligible in accordance with competition by-laws, due to being found guilty of a code of behaviour violation early in the season.

A CTPL statement at the time said: "Failure to recognise this prior to the awarding of the medal was an administrative oversight and action has already been taken to mitigate such circumstances in the future."

North Hobart duo Yousaf Iqbal and Jack White were subsequently named joint Emerson Rodwell Medallists for 2022-23, after both tallied 16 votes.