SAM GRAY will not play in the SANFL finals after failing to meet eligibility requirements set by the league.

Rules affecting AFL-listed players require they play a majority of their own season in the local league to qualify for the SANFL major round.

While Gray has played a majority of the SANFL season – 10 out of 18 minor round games – he finished up playing 10 of 22 AFL matches as well.

The SANFL’s former football services manager Matt Duldig last month said the rules are designed to ensure a player whose season is not spent primarily in the SANFL competition is prevented from playing finals.

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“An AFL player needs to have played more games at SANFL level than they do at AFL level [to play SANFL finals], so the majority of the SANFL is the first clause that they have to meet, the second clause is that they need to play three games after June 30,” Duldig told SANFL Radio in August.

“That means that they’ve played the obviously the majority of the time in the SANFL, but also a number of the games in the back end so predominantly they feel like SANFL players.”

All SANFL clubs are allowed to apply to the permit commissioner to consider allowances to eligibility rules.

Port Adelaide applied to the commissioner for an exception, however this was rejected as the majority of Gray’s season was not spent in the local competition.

Duldig said the commissioner generally allows permit exceptions on the basis of illness or injury.

“All of our clubs have the opportunity to write to the permit commissioner if they’ve just missed out on qualification for one reason or another, just to see if they can get him across the line,” Duldig said.

“Predominantly, the permit commissioner will take into account whether the player has missed qualification because of injury or illness or anything else they deem to be significant.”

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