Warm-up weeks are here: what changes this season
The warm-up weeks begin this Tuesday, and three small changes to the league rules come with them. None of them needs any action from you except reading this post.
Three weeks before the fixtures
Every season opens the same way. For three weeks the league is paused, squads are drawn and rebuilt, and everyone runs a connection check with a volunteer so that Thursday night does not become an argument about a lost packet. It is the least dramatic part of the year, and the part that makes the rest run smoothly.
This time the draw will be held on a voice call at the end of the first Tuesday, with captains announced a week in advance. If you would like to captain a squad, tell a moderator before the draw rather than after it. Nobody has ever regretted offering, and several quiet members turned out to be excellent at it. The squads usually ask for a captain who is calm rather than loud, and that is a quality the crew has in good supply.
What is different this season
Swaps close earlier
A fixture may still be swapped by agreement between captains, but the referee now needs to hear about it by Tuesday rather than the afternoon of the match. Luke Davidson reports that the late swaps were the biggest source of confusion last season, and he is probably right.
Captains rotate sooner
No one captains the same squad for more than two seasons in a row. The idea is not to push anyone out; it is to make sure the job is understood by more than one person, and to give quieter members a go at running a plan.
A shorter trial block
Trial nights on Tuesday now run for four weeks rather than six, with the vote on the next genre held at the end of the third. Heather Mason will post the shortlist in the announcements channel as soon as the draw is finished. Anything you want on it should be sent to her by the Wednesday, together with a sentence saying why it deserves a place. Short, specific and cheerful pitches tend to do best.