However, Group Three secretary Barrie Smith is concerned that some aspects of the rulings could make it harder for clubs to attract administrators because it will increase their workload.

"It's shades of Big Brother,'' he said of some of the new guidelines.

Under the edict referees must now run onto the field before the teams. Both sides will then file onto the ground, meeting in the middle and shaking hands before the referee gives final instructions. The coin toss will be effected on the field, not beforehand as is the case now.

"It's all about getting respect for the referee according to the CRL,'' Mr Smith said, adding he has no great problems with this objective. However, this is only part of the new guidelines.

Club coaches will now have to decide their replacements within 10 minutes of the match kicking off. This is a major change.

Until this season clubs were restricted to using four interchange players, however they could sit up to eight on the bench. The players the coach intended to use would sign the registration sheet before taking the field.

This is no longer the case.

"Clubs can now only field four reserves,'' Mr Smith explained.

"We have a 10 minute window from the start of the game to get them to sign the sheet.''

In first grade the reserves can be fresh or a combination of players from under 18s or second grade. However, there can be no deviation from the nominated interchange players.

All club trainers and coaches also have to be registered with the CRL by May 1. The CRL has warned teams or clubs the coaches and trainers are involved with that they will not be allowed to play if this isn't followed through.

"This is adding to the workload of club officials,'' Mr Smith claimed.

"It was alright years ago when the majority of clubs had big committees.

"But that's not the case these days, most clubs are struggling for officials and in some cases there's two or three people who are doing the majority of the work.''

Mr Smith said the group received notification from the CRL of the changes on March 31.

"We had a meeting management meeting on April 8 and then our competition started on April 11,'' he pointed out.

He said there's more than 300 pages in the document.

"Some of it is just mandatory stuff that you'd only deal with once in a life time,'' Mr Smith explained.

However, he said the CRL has given the clubs little time to digest the new guidelines.

"Clubs are run by volunteers. The majority of them have fulltime jobs and they just didn't have the time to get through all of this before the season kicked off.''

Group Three clubs didn't adhere to the rulings for the opening week of the season. The group has been censured by the CRL.

Mr Smith said the club will comply with the rulings from this weekend.