Season 34 General Discussion

Season 34, here we go!

@donkeysaint fancy your chances to sneak in the playoff race?

That would be quite an accomplishment.. However, I believe I should start by looking to avoid auto relegation.

After all, I have two young U20's that need game time.

Nice work Donkey.

Thank you, Chewy!

We will see what comes of it.. @Sambo10 and @Brentton are also up from div II. Good luck to all of us!

Is this the season we spend stars on youths (R2D1 and R2D2)?

SmellyStuff wrote:Is this the season we spend stars on youths (R2D1 and R2D2)?

Yes, it is. Have a look here for a discussion about it.

Good luck ds interested to see how you go this season!

If Donkey can beat last season's 6th place team away from home by 28 points on equal intensity and energy he should be able to do fine in Div 1.

Thank you, both!

I'm gonna stick my neck out and say that my objective is making the play off, and at the same time playing my U20's in every game. Looking forward to trying!

@donkeysaint you know I love hearing that...

ivelostmysparky wrote:If Donkey can beat last season's 6th place team away from home by 28 points on equal intensity and energy he should be able to do fine in Div 1.

It appears that fine was an understatement. Donkey is currently smoking sparker by 40 points and he was good to his word by starting his 2x u20 players. If that doesn't put everyone in Div 1 on notice then nothing will.

Thank you, sparky! Not a bad debut, if I may say so myself.

One game does not a season win, though. Can I keep it up?

what a start to your League One career Donkeysaint! Auckland Katipos will definitely be one to keep an eye on now...cannot be underestimated.
Now how much will it cost me to get your tactics vs Sparker....I can never seem to get them right against him

who here is a journo and can add me? I wouldn't mind doing some write ups this season (no, I am not wanting to be voted in as journalist...but happy to contribute once more)

looking for some advice.

so I made my youth promotion this morning with 120 stars and got this...

Darren Beckett
16 y/o (R1, D1)   |   194cm   |   117kg   |   New Zealand   |  
120 stars
An aggressive player with controlled discipline

nothing flash physical wise (looks like a loose forward again).

I got him after promoting this guy and was hoping for a lock (he was my second tallest player in the academy).

20. Ben Galley

19 y/o (R1, D6)   |   101,125 CSR   |   $13,658 p.w.   |   200cm   |   119kg   |   New Zealand

Stamina: Sumptuous  13   Handling: Amazing  14  
Attack: Admirable  10   Defense: Sumptuous  13  
Technique: Amazing  14   Strength: Amazing  14  
Jumping: Amazing  14   Speed: Satisfactory  7  
Agility:  Limited  4   Kicking:  Horrible  3

He looks good to train and I do have some training sessions that I can offer him, with the goal of fattening him up for the transfer market at the end of the season (or 2 seasons?)

My quandary....I could promote this guy for another chance of a super lock for the u20s....(plenty of scouting stars left)

5. Garfield Bradfield  

18 y/o (R1, D5)   |   202cm   |   119kg   |   New Zealand   |  

Right handed, right footed, in decent form Stable.
A conservative player with reckless discipline, decent leadership, and despicable experience.
Stamina: Princely  12   Handling: Impressive  11  
Attack: Impressive  11   Defense: Princely  12    
Technique: Impressive  11   Strength: Princely  12  
Jumping: Princely  12   Speed: Satisfactory  7  
Agility:  Moderate  5   Kicking:  Horrible  3  

I had thought it better to keep him in my academy for another season to benefit from academy training before promoting him.
So I could either....
1) promote Bradfield....but then have to decide between Bradfield and Galley to train for the transfer market

2) don't promote Bradfield till his skills are better maxed out in the academy and keep training Galley

3) wait till Round 6 before promoting Bradfield, which would have bought him time to benefit from the Youth Academy, though his replacement in the youth academy (assuming he will be U20 material) would have missed out on 6 weeks youth academy training.

option 1 would be better for u20s.
option 2 better for the club
option 3 would be the middle ground

...I think im leaning towards option 3 but am open to ideas...

(btw...I cant train both Galley and Bradfield, am already maxed out with Druss the Legend and Ron Dooley (a 19yo lock in the making)

I think option 3 is the worst option. Promote Bradfield and sell him immediately while continuing to train Galley for a season or 2.

Rob I see you have been busy on the TM again Genaro Freijo is an excellent player but here is the question...what position will he play?

ivelostmysparky wrote:I think option 3 is the worst option. Promote Bradfield and sell him immediately while continuing to train Galley for a season or 2.

do you think Bradfield is worth much as an 18 year old now?
so hard to say these days with youths being promoted over 100k csr but getting nothing (I imagine Bradfield could be around 50 - 80k csr??)
.
I know he has the makings of a great lock, but not sure if he needs more skill development to be really more valuable...?

ivelostmysparky wrote:Rob I see you have been busy on the TM again Genaro Freijo is an excellent player but here is the question...what position will he play?

where wont he play?

ha ha...yes I am toughening up my backline with players with better strength and technique (and I have been slowing losing my reckless forwards). he will make a devastating centre combination with Robert Berthon, which means that Renee Ranger will need to move to the wing or fullback...probably fullback. Though with keeping in tradition, Ranger will hold his 2nd 5 position for cup games.

Im possibly giving away too much here....but with Berthon and Freijo, my retrievals from up and unders ought to increase a lot also! (17 and 13 jumping)....any ideas which positions in the backline contest for up and unders the most? Im assuming fullback when defending...centres and wings when attacking?

No I don't think Bradfield is worth much now (although I have little idea tbh) but the way I see it is ask yourself what he would look like in a season or 2 with training? Similar to Galley? If so, then get some 16s on Galley to bump up his price. After all there are plenty of young players on the TM with lots of skills at 14 so not exactly rare.


With your U&U questions, I did a really good study playing anytime friendlies against OS members testing out kicking types including U&U. Sadly I never saved that info elsewhere apart from the old OS so this is all from my memory now but most of it should be true.

• The most important factor in U&U contests is aggression. We were finding out that psychotic and aggressive <180cm backs with bad ~5 jumping could compete reasonably well with locks we were playing in the backline (~203 cm & 18 jump) if they were timid and conservative.
  
• The order of likelihood to be involved in U&U contests (same on attack and defensive I think) is in descending order 15, 10, wings, 13, 12, and 9, 8, 7, 6 all rarely. Tight 5 never compete in U&Us.
  
• The better kickers are more likely to kick an U&U (just like the other kinds of kicks) so a centre who can't kick at all will occasionally gladly hoist a bomb if he feels like.
  
• There is a large slice of luck involved. Even if your backline is stacked with aggressive and psychotic players it's no guarantee you'll win more than ~60% against an average U&U team.
  

So I would recommend that you tread carefully with the U&U because Big Bertha (great nickname) and Freijo won't be as useful as you think and the timid Ndemufayo @ 10 could undo your whole U&U gameplan on his own.

fetch used Genaro Freijo in the Irish NT at 12 and he reverted to a lot of U&U to take advantage of him. To be honest, I never quite saw that work.

Why would you train Freijo as a center, has always been my question.

@robelix are you tinkering with the idea of training reckless forwards? If you put them in the market, you won't get too much for them, and there is a reason. People don't like recklessness and I can't blame them. I would say sell them, but don't waste training resources in them and don't expect to make too much money, either.

robelix wrote:what a start to your League One career Donkeysaint! Auckland Katipos will definitely be one to keep an eye on now...cannot be underestimated.
Now how much will it cost me to get your tactics vs Sparker....I can never seem to get them right against him

who here is a journo and can add me? I wouldn't mind doing some write ups this season (no, I am not wanting to be voted in as journalist...but happy to contribute once more)

Thank you, Rob, I was happy about the game too.
With your new players, I don't know what to do, though. Will you field that 400K monster machine against me on Saturday..

I did message simon71 on BR and asked to make us assistant journos.

@ivelostmysparky,
Thank you for that insight into up and unders. It made my get rid of the few percentage points I still had in it.

tryasta wrote:@robelix are you tinkering with the idea of training reckless forwards? If you put them in the market, you won't get too much for them, and there is a reason. People don't like recklessness and I can't blame them. I would say sell them, but don't waste training resources in them and don't expect to make too much money, either.

no not at all....but it seems to be what I end up with from academy.
I don't expect a huge payload from them. I don't think they are entirely worthless (much like the rebellious), so hopefully there are managers out there who don't mind them. I dont think having the odd reckless player in your forward pack will do too much harm overall, as long as they have a decent skill set to make up for it in other ways (such as lineout skills as a loose forward).

I think I will train Ben Galley for a half a season (get him to around 150k csr) and then see what I get for him. Bradfield ought to be a better long term investment....I think I will bring him into the squad in a few weeks time when he has had a bit more academy training. After a couple of major purchases, I will need to focus on bringing money into the club for future survival...

donkeysaint wrote:
Thank you, Rob, I was happy about the game too.
With your new players, I don't know what to do, though. Will you field that 400K monster machine against me on Saturday..

I did message simon71 on BR and asked to make us assistant journos.

@ivelostmysparky,
Thank you for that insight into up and unders. It made my get rid of the few percentage points I still had in it.

yes it was a fantastic game on even energy/intensity.
I didn't quite reach the 400k csr mark....actually lost csr after todays training...and with Ranger due to leave, looks like I won ever to get to reach that mark at all (bugger). But yep, expect to see them all on the field this weekend....will tinker with the idea of going pltnt to somehow stop your giant killing spree

re: up and unders....always considered them to be random in regards to winning them. they can be useful when your attacking and the tactics in your opponents 22 is ineffective....sometimes a successful bomb can land you a try when your other tactics are falling flat