Season 35 General Discussion

Here we go again.

Tryasta, no one believes you when you say you won't do well. You will.

And congratulations to sparky! Not much of a game, in the end. I predict a double for the Crusaders this season! Can't wait for S37, when there will be three fresh Catfish U20's!

Great stuff, @sparky. Well done.

donkeysaint wrote:Here we go again.
Tryasta, no one believes you when you say you won't do well. You will.

Agreed. Nobody likes false modesty. And tryasta won't deliberately lose to make sure he ends up in Div 3 next season.

donkeysaint wrote:
And congratulations to sparky! Not much of a game, in the end. I predict a double for the Crusaders this season! Can't wait for S37, when there will be three fresh Catfish U20's!

Sparker got screwed over by the ME; fuck all chance of winning when you are -13 in the performance arrows. Still, I got my predictions spot on and chose the correct attacking split and defense type and completely shut down their game plan. Big shout out to my hooker who made 3 out of my team's 6 linebreaks and ran for 100 metres and my loosehead who made 93 metres.

Now to focus on the league

Guys, my team will struggle.

ivelostmysparky wrote:Now to focus on the league  

a massive congrats to you sparky! Was a tight first half, but really opened up for you in that second stanza.
hopefully I can provide a bit better competition in the league. I managed to get my hands on a decent lock so I don't have to play Ron Dooley all the time (needs to develop so much more)....I just need another decent backline player....

tryasta wrote:Guys, my team will struggle.

Are you aware of how many teams roll out default lineups each week?

robelix wrote:

ivelostmysparky wrote:Now to focus on the league  

a massive congrats to you sparky! Was a tight first half, but really opened up for you in that second stanza.
hopefully I can provide a bit better competition in the league. I managed to get my hands on a decent lock so I don't have to play Ron Dooley all the time (needs to develop so much more)....I just need another decent backline player....

Developing Dooley by playing him less? Bold strategy

ivelostmysparky wrote:Are you aware of how many teams roll out default lineups each week?

In my league, Hautapu and Papamoa look two steps away from what I can currently reach. Other teams like Fellas more or less play with different intensity levels and different lineups more or less every week. In other leagues there are some teams as strong as those. And then there are the teams that will be relegated from Div I.

Some players I bought are ageing fast and the players I am developing are not quite there yet in terms of experience and skills. The $1M I invested in Kirke will take at least some other season to produce a valuable return so the amount of money I have available to buy quick fixes is not very high.

Against default lineups or not, next season we are poised to struggle. Just like the Lions on Saturday.

ivelostmysparky wrote:
Developing Dooley by playing him less? Bold strategy

It is a tardeoff here: developing your player by playing him vs winning games by playing more experienced players.

When sparky develops players he likes to hide them at 15 or at 8. Gaining experience without a big performance impact. A challenge. When donkeysaint develops players, he likes to hide them at 9 or at 8. Activist liked to hide those players at 3, 5 or 8.

It is very easy to know where to hide your players on attack. It is a little bit more difficult o defense. For example, nr 9 makes more tackles than nr 10, where do you hide your developing kicker? If you get 70% possession like sparky does, does the defense come into reckoning at all? It is not the same defending against 20 phases than against 50.

In any case, if you want to develop Dooley, CSR will only be half of it. Experience and IGT is just as important.

with a new young lock (ok, 26), I will probably be prepping Dooley for the transfer market (only few people look at experience when they are looking to buy)....he will be a young lock with great starter skills....should bring in a pretty penny....always good to keep some cash flow coming in, specially with some of my older backs now declining.

Will be looking for one of my academy players to train up for the next u20 batch....so will need the slots anyway. Im not too attached to Dooley, he just isn't reckless enough


...though I guess it will be a slight shame. he is the only academy player I have ever had who has made the NZ national team!

robelix wrote:...though I guess it will be a slight shame. he is the only academy player I have ever had who has made the NZ national team!

Please, don't remind us about that..

tryasta wrote:It is a tardeoff here: developing your player by playing him vs winning games by playing more experienced players.

Or you can develop your players by playing them, and win games. It's perfectly doable!

donkeysaint wrote:Or you can develop your players by playing them, and win games. It's perfectly doable!

Sure, like NZ NT, for example; they dropped Nutimeki and Dooley and nec minit they won EE.1

donkeysaint wrote:
Or you can develop your players by playing them, and win games. It's perfectly doable!

Doable for sure, but it's rather tough to pull off unless you're an elite manager such as yourself.

tryasta wrote:When sparky develops players he likes to hide them at 15 or at 8.

I think everyone hides trainee/weak players at 8. As for fullback it is interesting. Traditionally thought as a spine of a team, yet unimportant in BR on attack because he doesn't eject himself into the attack nor act as a secondary playmaker. He has to be able to tackle of course but that's only important occasionally, and I have conditional subs to replace a trainee fullback if things are going pear-shaped.

wow, Herk utd, the katipos, and the Crusaders are all in the WCC quarter finals! don't really fancy myself getting past Canterbury of Carrugate….though would be great to see us all through to the semis!

Good luck guys.
I got who I consider to be the best club in the world - Diamond Geezers.

ivelostmysparky wrote:

tryasta wrote:When sparky develops players he likes to hide them at 15 or at 8.

I think everyone hides trainee/weak players at 8. As for fullback it is interesting. Traditionally thought as a spine of a team, yet unimportant in BR on attack because he doesn't eject himself into the attack nor act as a secondary playmaker. He has to be able to tackle of course but that's only important occasionally, and I have conditional subs to replace a trainee fullback if things are going pear-shaped.

So, when you starve them off possession, the fullback has a limited amount of chances to screw it.

Just like the halfback for donkeysaint.

Got ejected from the IGTWCC... but at least the saders won a trophy that used to be meaningful 10 years ago.

robelix wrote:wow, Herk utd, the katipos, and the Crusaders are all in the WCC quarter finals! don't really fancy myself getting past Canterbury of Carrugate….though would be great to see us all through to the semis!

ivelostmysparky wrote:Good luck guys.
I got who I  to be the best club in the world - Diamond Geezers.

Our very difficult WCC quarter finals are now less than a day away (a little longer for the Hercufleas). Well done us, for getting there. Let's hope we can go on even further!

Crusaders vs. Diamond Geezers

Katipos vs. Beginners Mind

Carugate vs. Hercufleas

I would say you all guys have very tough matches but Herk's away looks a mammoth task...

if one of us makes it, it would be a remarkable feat.
anyone here played Carugate or have any advice on tactics that may work against him?

yikes. just checked out his form.
of his best (CSR) 7 players, 6 are reputable form or better....I will consider it a minor victory if I can keep the points differential below 25.

I haven't played Carugate since S33 but it looks like the same things apply - they can be milked for penalties with that badly disciplined forward pack.

Stars look like 'sparky, and even I, could actually have a chance. But stars can be misleading, as we all know..

Beginners Mind are fielding three reckless forwards. I hope it will at least win me the penalty count.

24 minutes to kick off!

Yeah Koodoo have a massive 87k CSR advantage but that is not seen in the stars. Must be hidden in their stam and def gold stars.

good luck lads!

...10-3 at half time to both the kiwis! awesome, keep it up