The more things change the more things stay the same at the
VMSL.
Yes Bandcamp, the rules during provincial and national play are as you describe - 5 subs during play stoppage and unlimited at the half from your 18 man roster. That is how I understand it.
Bonefish: As a former cat coach I brought this up with Willi via email and his reply to my polite question was very simple and went something like 'because we are the
VMSL and we make the rules here.'
A month or so later it gets brought up the Canadians CAT coach at the AGM and Willi goes into a tirade and rant that he'd quit first before that rule came into play. What was interesting were the number of coaches and clubs who supported this immediately including Sapperton, West Van, Burnaby Canadians, etc. I don't think either Westside or Surrey spoke up for this.
I submit that our
VMSL teams are at a disadvantage in provincial/national play versus clubs who use this sub rule all year round and who know how to work their bench effectively and what not to do given the team and its personnel.
It is interesting but there is NEVER a vote on this and teams mostly seem to favour this at least for CAT play.
I had situations crop up like a Premier player coming off an injury and wanting to get 15 to 20 min on a Saturday to see if he is ready to start Sunday with the Premier side. If I had too many of my own subs that day that would mean burning one of my 5 subs and possibly not playing a CAT player at all just to accommodate the legitimate needs of the Premier team and the player.