Season 35 General Discussion

ivelostmysparky wrote:I think it will be fun to try and maintain a top NZ club (not saying THE top club) while playing 3x U20 players from my own academy. I have two good prospects and some other okay ones. You have proven a team can be very competitive in Div 1 with 2x U20s, and my U20 Mallard got lots of game time too and did decently.

I have thought a lot about this comment, but haven't gotten around to answering it until now. It made me think about what makes this game fun. I enjoy BR because it is challenging, thought provoking, and for its depth (and many other things, too). But also because I lose games now and then. If I didn't, if I would only lose once every blue moon, or even worse, not at all, I wouldn't feel challenged and I would probably get bored very quickly. So thank goodness there are U20's to train and play!

Training and playing U20's also works toward another main thing that I enjoy with the BR. The long term perspective. In order to stay successful and have a very good, or even great team, in the long run, I need to give "weaker" players a chance to get good. Rinse and repeat every two seasons.

With the above in mind, I lost my game away against Sparker last weekend, just like last season. And that's okay. But I look forward to playing the Hercufleas on Saturday even more because of it!

All Black legend Joel Myatt started to decline today, five weeks short of his 35th birthday. I have been very lucky to have him increase in skills for so long. His Blurb Bio indicates how important he is for my club:

Veteran forward Joel Myatt is the Katipos most capped All Black, and a true stalwart.
His experience and skills are a huge asset for the club.
He is also the Club Captain.

Originally an Icemen player, he was already a well established All Black with great skills when I bought him back at the end of season 32. It was a bit of a gamble. I had never paid so much for a player before, and he was already near the end of his career. I held my breath for the first few Tuesdays, but he continued to increase. Pop even.

He saw my club through my second season in division II, and helped secure my promotion to League One. And he obviously played an important part in the success my team had last season.

Today he goes into my Hall of Fame. Not because I saw him through his early seasons or established him as an All Black, that honour, and excellent management and dedication goes to cornerflag, but because he deserves it.

Though he started a slow decline today (-1090), he will undoubtedly continue to be an integral part of my 1st XV, and captain, for at least another two seasons!

wow, it is awesome if you can get a player to retain their skills up to that age...it is a huge bonus! I imagine it can make or break some teams depending on when their players start to decline. im sitting nervously at the moment, as most of my players are in that 30-34 year age gap...my winger Gicheru just started a decline, but Marino Amador is still going strong but he is a few weeks out from his 35th birthday....

I guess if there was ever to be a season to tinker with u20 players in your league 1 campaign, this would be it. After losing 1.5 million worth of CSR in the last few weeks from 3 players leaving, I will also be having to tinker with adding in my young players into games. I think my average CSR got to a peak of 410k, but has now tumbled to 362k.

I was lucky with 2 of my players who left....Freijo and gigi976 sold for slightly more than what I paid for them last season! not so lucky with Fangupo though....but that was understandable.


Bought Genaro Freijo $2,166,356 @ 548,103 CSR
Sold Genaro Freijo $2,226,422 @ 501,250
Bought Mitico gigi976 $2,295,000 @ 564,541
Sold Mitico gigi976 $2,550,000 @ 540,491
Bought Mosese Fangupo $4,356,315 @ 461,374
Sold Mosese Fangupo $2,749,377 @ 480,692


I think Sparker could be the team to watch in this seasons League 1 campaign....he seems to have bought up well recently, 2 x 500k csr players...

A huge bonus indeed. And the day after Myatt's decline, his form starts to increase. Currently in moderate form, he might still reach a new top CSR. Good luck with your Amador too. It's not only nice as they grow, but they will also still be good enough for 1st XV rugby at 37 y/o. Pretty cool.

Congratulations for making those transfers, not bad! I guess you have a fearsome war chest now.

And I totally missed Sparkers R16 transfers, quite the players. I also didn't notice his average CSR going up. Gotta have a look and see what it used to be..

A funny story about Myatt. Have you ever wondered why he has so few U20 caps? He missed out on the first season when me and @Pantherus were in charge because his skills were a little low (late Bday didn't help) so he lost out to Sherman Lintern (now retired) and the infamous penalty machine Terrell White. Reckless discipline on a forward combined with non-existent exp made him completely unusable even with his very high skills. I see that chewy has managed to buy him and he has reached the milestone of 7 exp at the age of 35.  


Sparker's average used to be around 330k CSR. He replaced his 120k CSR 39yo lock and his 101 kg rebellious prop with limited exp. Oh, and if anyone was eyeing up his 270k back for sale make sure to check his exp

Aaaarrrggghhhh ffffxxxxck.
Ive been waiting 35 seasons to break the 200 point mark. Was right on target and with a minute to go just needed one try...

....all was looking good....set up in there half and on attack....and am awarded a freaking penalty! Ndwmufayo takes his time to land a stupid goal and the game finishes 199-0

2 words.
Rage quit

199-0 is pretty good too.

so I have had chance to reflect overnight and I decided I wont rage quit....though Ndemufayo is hitting the transfer market! or maybe I should be firing the captain...which is Stringer....but he did score 9 tries....this is a tough one....someone has to take a fall...

in other Hercufleas news....the stadium upgrade is complete, a full stadium will bring in over 50k people! I reckon if I can keep my contentment up with a win over ya this weekend donkeyman, I may be able to get that number when I play sparky the following weekend!

Do I feel an LTNT coming up?

Can you smell what the Rock is cooking

Is that an idiom?

(Had to google it. Funny! )

Oh dear. Fleas lose to Showtime due to the timid fullback Alexander Fairburn not being able to defuse the in-goal bomb with 5 minutes to go. Being 198 cm won't save you in U&Us if you're timid - especially when your aggression is literally 1.

oh dear....yes I haven't really thought about my line-up since some of my players left....forwards in the backline at the moment....need to think about this more before my game with donkeyman

is rage quit back on the cards then... has not been a good week at the helm of the fleas

If i lose today to donkeyman....then yes, rage quit is on the cards...

I hope not, as I'm looking good for a victory. But a lot can still happen, of course..

Half time score, 13-3.

Wow that was some severe humping.

I was lucky to have no injuries, unlike the Hercufleas. That meant I could bring on my much better bench exactly as I had planned, while Rob's weaker subs came on through injuries here and there.  I also got the green / red arrows balance my way. Tactics seems to have worked just right too. All in all, part planning and management, part luck.

(With that being said, I must admit the luck part was heavily on my side.)

I am also very hard to beat at my home ground. In fact, neither sparky nor Rob has beaten me at home yet, neither in the league nor in the NZI (a total of six games so far). And on Tuesday my stadium is expanded too, to 46,700. Here's hoping Rob and I both get a great home crowd next weekend.  

Boo, thought I'd stick my head in and say gidday. Have paid no attention to my team for about 2yrs and gutted to see the state of my players, especially my former AB's haha.
Gonna spend a week or so sorting my team so it can compete again. $16m in the bank too looks bloody good

Welcome back, Dirtyhands!

I see you are likely to have a huge amount of academy stars too. Remember, scouting season is next season, so please save them.

And if you have L5:s available and would like to train a youngster, please let me know.

Good luck on the rebuild. Great youngish players cost quite a bit these days so make sure not to blow through the $16M too quick.

@Dirtyhands,
I added you to the U20 and NT forums too, for some reason you didn't have access. Have a look, there is plenty of interesting stuff, I believe. Or not.

Also, don't forget to look at expanding your stadium. It looks like it could use some more seats. Use Jeolmaga's stadium calculator to get the proportions right, it's pretty handy:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d1zS58OsrnP6su0a472C0GJaaY62ftCdMpYWjxiJ4xo/edit#gid=0

Goodness! I just realised that Sparker's 270K, limited exp 25 y/o, sold for 2.9 million!
League One transfers

And @ivelostmysparky, congratulations for being ranked as BR:s no.1!!! You must have been there for a few rounds now, I guess?

Which also got me thinking. New Zealand has 4 teams in the top 10, 5 in the top 12, which really stands out. The "runner-up" would be England, with 2 in the top 4 and 3 in the top 18. Pretty far from us.

Do we really deserve that in terms of team quality, or are we "ranking point heavy"?
BR world rankings

donkeysaint wrote:Goodness! I just realised that Sparker's 270K, limited exp 25 y/o, sold for 2.9 million!
League One transfers

Do people even bother to look at exp?

donkeysaint wrote:And @ivelostmysparky, congratulations for being ranked as BR:s no.1!!! You must have been there for a few rounds now, I guess?

Which also got me thinking. New Zealand has 4 teams in the top 10, 5 in the top 12, which really stands out. The "runner-up" would be England, with 2 in the top 4 and 3 in the top 18. Pretty far from us.

Do we really deserve that in terms of team quality, or are we "ranking point heavy"?
BR world rankings

Yeah I've been number one for a little bit. Not really a big deal because I didn't earn it rather JRC threw it away.

For the world rankings, the best 2 teams in the world are clearly Diamond Geezers and Beginners Mind and probably Carugate in 3rd. The best way to determine the true world rankings would be to use WCC and similar comps. I deserve to be somewhere near the top due to recent wins over most of the top 10 teams in WCC and BRNCC. I think you do too with a good start in the top flight of the WCC and you got some wins against 4th placed Flints RFC. After that, Rob's successes in the WCC have been modest, and nobody really knows how good Sparker and Gunslingers are because they don't play in 3rd party comps against international teams.

So yeah, I do think NZ has some rating point inflation.