Season 35 General Discussion

The NZI tables are currently broken but I believe this is the situation. If Catfish win, and get the BP, and deny Katipo a BP then Catfish win the NZI overall, if not then Katipo win.
Catfish vs Katipo

Then we have the WCC final Diamond Geezers vs Katipo. I don't rate the Katipo chances there but if they put in a decent effort then they'll be the people's champs and moral winners. Good luck Donkey!

Yes, you will need a BP win in the NZI. So no point trying to milk penalties, you'll need them tries! Looking forward to the game!

In the WCC, I already feel like a winner for just getting to the final. But it will be very interesting to see my team against what you regard as BR's very best!

What a pair of games!!

Well done Donkey.
A shame that you can turn off drop goals attempts but not penalty kicks.

Woohoo! Rarely has a 22 point loss felt so good!

I was down 4 tries to none at one stage during the second half, but managed to score three in a row. All those penalties, as sparky rightly points out, didn't make a difference!

Apologies for the unreliable data in the NZI website... I am trying my best but it's really tough without access to the source code. All I can do is react. :S :S

Saturday will determine the last stop it my league.... If I can sneak an away win I will scrape through otherwise other results have to go my way...
May come down to whether the hopefools log on to reduce intensity

I have tried to fix it (again). Normally all the fixtures should be ok and all the standings should be updated until round 13.

Question - do we need the NZI next season onwards?

If the narrowing of the pyramid happens then the main reason for the NZI is taken away - the unique opportunity of playing against evenly matched teams every week in a league format.

I don't think Do we need it is the exact question. I would rather ask: Do we want it?

I came to a similar question via a different route. I thought that with S36 changes a lot of the interest of 3rd party competitions (in which we expect to face opponents about the same strength) might be gone. Especially for the NZI.

However, I would be all for running it for S36 and only after we have experienced the new pyramid, to take any such drastic decision.

ivelostmysparky wrote:Then we have the WCC final Diamond Geezers vs Katipo. I don't rate the Katipo chances there but if they put in a decent effort then they'll be the people's champs and moral winners. Good luck Donkey!

Thank you!

37-20. I have to be pretty happy with that. I kept the score down to 11-6 until the 59th minute, when they scored four tries in 11 minutes. I then managed to score two tries before the end of the game.

A WCC Cup silver won.

congrats donkey man, an incredible result! well done..you really have your team humming along...

tryasta wrote:I don't think Do we need it is the exact question. I would rather ask: Do we want it?

I came to a similar question via a different route. I thought that with S36 changes a lot of the interest of 3rd party competitions (in which we expect to face opponents about the same strength) might be gone. Especially for the NZI.

However, I would be all for running it for S36 and only after we have experienced the new pyramid, to take any such drastic decision.

Well if you are happy to once again burden yourself with running the NZI then go for it.

A look through the WCC hall of fame sees you are the 3rd NZ team to finish runner up - the others being Hercufleas in S11 and Taita Hooligans in S7. No NZ team has ever won it (except for JRC but they don't count ).

In NZ we have a thing called per-capita bragging - e.g. medals at the Olympics. You can do a similar thing with your team's average CSR and their success.

ivelostmysparky wrote:No NZ team has ever won it (except for JRC but they don't count ).

Agree. Pirates have no land.

ivelostmysparky wrote:In NZ we have a thing called per-capita bragging - e.g. medals at the Olympics. You can do a similar thing with your team's average CSR and their success.

Agree as well.

Well done on your win Rob. See you on Wednesday.

cheers sparky...been a long time coming. I wish I could enjoy it more, but it came with a huge cost. my best player is now out for the entire playoffs

what are the odds on 2 in a row? gonna be a colossal task....

and....nobody beats the Hercuflean's 21 times in a row!

LOL. That reminds me of The Defeatables...

another under-achieving performance by the nats in the world cup under chewy.

Sorry, chewy has an abysmal record when it comes to performing at the world cup. With the talent that he has available, they rarely meets its potential on the big stage.

The B squad isn't good enough....I get that you want to reward developing players...but when it comes to the world cup, you pick the best squad available to win it.

When do I need to invest my stars in youths? Is it this upcoming season?

SmellyStuff wrote:When do I need to invest my stars in youths? Is it this upcoming season?

Yes next season is scouting season.
Don't scout in R1. R2D1 and R2D1 are the two optimal days.

ah playoffs week.
for me, still the highlight of the BR season.

I am in no doubt of the task ahead of me....getting back to back wins over the Catfish will be a monumental task. After 20 consecutive losses, the odds had to fall on me at least once. but to win twice in a row?

A quick review of the league history shows that the team who finished top of the league table inevitably goes on to win the competition. There has only been 2 occasions where a team who didn't finish in the top 2 went on to win the final....Freelancers in season 8 (originally 3rd on the table) and the Taita Hooligans way back in Season 4 (had finished 4th on the table).

History is definitely against me....looking forward to the challenge! (unless of course I get buried once more)

actually...the team that finished top of the league 1 table has gone on to win it 28 out of 32 finals.

Ever since season 16, the team that finished top of the table has gone on to win the final....19 seasons in a row now.

Looking at the stars, the Catfish Crusaders - Hercufleas United semifinal looks to be anybody's guess.
Perhaps the Katipos have the slightlest advantage against Sparker?

Anyway, very interesting semifinals. Unlike us in II.1

I'm calling it early.
All 3 kickers injured and best forward and best back injured = no way to win.

Well done Rob.