Season 14

mar-z

eoferrall wrote: »

anyone else get promoted up a division and looking at the league match on sat and going... not a chance of a sniff of a win!

Not this year but my first season in div II was probably my best performance in that division. It was also the season I was most outclassed having been promoted in the 1st(?) bot flush. Teams will underestimate you and a ltnt with the right tactics works wonders!

My simple plan was boost up my numbers to 30 and have two full teams. As this was back when intensity affected contentment I threw a lot of ltnts with both 1sts (while trying to win) and with 2nds (while not caring but preserving contentment). Surprisingly my 2nds almost got as many wins as my firsts!

Anyway, the intensity changes should be a real boost as you should be able to almost ignore the top 1 or 2 teams in the league who may just be too far beyond you without risking contentment.

Long story short, the same thing we say to newer members applies, choose your battles, but don't always pick the obvious battles. Their confidence is your friend!

Unfortunately the 2nd season is often as case of once bitten twice shy* and the teams you surprise wont take you for granted

*I have now used up my days worth of cliches

eoferrall

mar-z wrote: »

Not this year but my first season in div II was probably my best performance in that division. It was also the season I was most outclassed having been promoted in the 1st(?) bot flush. Teams will underestimate you and a ltnt with the right tactics works wonders!

My simple plan was boost up my numbers to 30 and have two full teams. As this was back when intensity affected contentment I threw a lot of ltnts with both 1sts (while trying to win) and with 2nds (while not caring but preserving contentment). Surprisingly my 2nds almost got as many wins as my firsts!

Anyway, the intensity changes should be a real boost as you should be able to almost ignore the top 1 or 2 teams in the league who may just be too far beyond you without risking contentment.

Long story short, the same thing we say to newer members applies, choose your battles, but don't always pick the obvious battles. Their confidence is your friend!

Unfortunately the 2nd season is often as case of once bitten twice shy* and the teams you surprise wont take you for granted

*I have now used up my days worth of cliches

Yeah it will be the first season in a long time I will have to plan from scratch to ensure I have energy up. need couple extra players alright to fill out squad, but hoping that I can do this with academy players for the cup teams for a while.

Sure see how it goes, Galway chiefs will be a bridge too far for me I reckon, but thinking of throwing a cheeky LTNT and some crazy tactics in there and see what happens. but sense will prevail and i'll likely wnwim to keep energy up and try get decent cup run with odd league win to hopefully get in 5/6th.

shall be challanging but think I can stay up and in a season or two have a much improved squad.

Zagato

Guy I'm playing first up is >11 rating points above me (and I'm over rated after promotion) Going to be a tough season, and of course the only 2 teams I have a hope of beating, I'm playing back to back, so there's no way I'll win both of them, can't see a way out of finishing 7th or worse and auto relegation again.

mar-z

Zagato wrote: »

Guy I'm playing first up is >11 rating points above me (and I'm over rated after promotion) Going to be a tough season, and of course the only 2 teams I have a hope of beating, I'm playing back to back, so there's no way I'll win both of them, can't see a way out of finishing 7th or worse and auto relegation again.

As I said, try to judge your opposition and see if a team is a bit cocky against weaker sides. If your team is that much weaker than others they may well decide to ltnt 1-2 matches before yours and play you with a weakened side on a lower intensity. Wont help much till mid-way through the season when energy gets hit hard.

You may also be able to sneak a couple of wins against teams in the cup. When in div II I threw cup games to try and take stronger teams who were trying to juggle league and cup.

Or if you decide to go for the cup run route and not pay attention to the league you have the benefit of playing teams >11 points better than you so no loss of contentment when your teams lose.

Overall you should be in a much stronger position no matter what at the end of the season!

mar-z

eoferrall wrote: »

but thinking of throwing a cheeky LTNT and some crazy tactics in there and see what happens.

Feels great when it works, but as happened to me a few times it can be a bit crushing when your, for want of a better word crushed by a team when you ltnt

Also think teams expect it more in week 1 than any other week

shall be challanging but think I can stay up and in a season or two have a much improved squad.

The challenge makes the game more enjoyable, I got more satisfaction scraping above the auto-relegate line in a tough league than I ever did doing well in a lower league. That with the improvement in my team while in a higher division always leads me to encourage promotion when the inevitable throwing the qualifier/final question comes up at the end of the season!

seanand

ill get 5th no question about it, was thinking of normalling for the first game but the next three are wnwnm anyway so better not chance it. might as well try to get a good run in the cup:D

Phonehead

Time to take my club team serious and get back to Div II! the signing of a 23 year old class hooker for over a million before the end of last season and the selling of over 2 million worth of reserves should leave me in a position to sign a World Class backrow player at the end of the season. Small steps butI am really happy with how my team is developing.

johnnysmack

Took a risk and went normal against the cork coyotes, usually id LTNT him but judging by the stars im slightly ahead so fingers crossed. Think he may have normalled too.

seanand

johnnysmack wrote: »

Took a risk and went normal against the cork coyotes, usually id LTNT him but judging by the stars im slightly ahead so fingers crossed. Think he may have normalled too.

same here but it wasnt as much a risk as yours tho and also think he went normal aswell so easy win for me

johnnysmack

17-0 up after 10mins. Better then i could have hoped. FOTG better not fcuk me up now.

johnnysmack

johnnysmack wrote: »

17-0 up after 10mins. Better then i could have hoped. FOTG better not fcuk me up now.

Damn it spoke too soon 17-7 now

corny

4 tries within 23 mins and you're thinking easy day at the office. Not a hope. When are they going to change this letting sides back into it ****e.

FewFew

Damn. Playing Couch Potatoes, only a try in it after 50+ minutes... looking at the stats I figure I could come back into it. Wrong. 47-21 with a few minutes to go. Damn.

johnnysmack

the good news is my normal well beat his LTNT. excellant start to league

ormond lad

Great win to start my first season in div 3, ltnt'd to win by 2 with a conversion as last kick of the game

Orizio

Lost 3-30 going WNWIM against someone going normal. Thought I was going to get hammered regardless so didn't bother trying, probably should have LTNT'ed.

eoferrall

Orizio wrote: »

Lost 3-30 going WNWIM against someone going normal. Thought I was going to get hammered regardless so didn't bother trying, probably should have LTNT'ed.

me too... wnwim'd as was going to get pasted... and yup lost 68-10 against his normal!

welcome to Div II ELAT!

TheVoodoo

92-0 win in my first div II game!

johnnysmack

TheVoodoo wrote: »

92-0 win in my first div II game!

Nice one. Living it up in Poland!! Are you in with a chance of getting to div 1?

TheVoodoo

Maybe within a few seasons.. I'm in the easiest of the 4 div II leagues..
TBH, i'm not overly 'bouncy' about wins this season as a few of the other teams would only be higher end div IIIish standard in Ireland.

I can see a few more cricket scores coming in DIV II.

Either way, it'll be nice to squad rotate and get a few young lads trained up. And I'll get to see matches 'live' as they'll be happening when i'm in from work at night time. Only real benefit of Poland tbh. Wish I hadn't been rejected from Korea/ Russia.

satory

TheVoodoo wrote: »

Wish I hadn't been rejected from Korea/ Russia.

How come you got rejected?

I was under the impression that all one really had to do was apply to move country after purchasing a move token...

TheVoodoo

satory wrote: »

How come you got rejected?

I was under the impression that all one really had to do was apply to move country after purchasing a move token...

Apparently there was too high a quantity of similarly ranked teams applying to move, and not enough places available in the appropriate leagues.

Meaning i would have ended up din DIV III / IV and that would not be fair as it would be considered an 'easy money run'.

Kinda makes sense.

ormond lad

Won cup game v bot as expected but in next round am playing the team who im playing in the league saturday

seanand

ormond lad wrote: »

Won cup game v bot as expected but in next round am playing the team who im playing in the league saturday

out of all the teams still in it now thats some coincidence ha. and a dilemma too, throw the league game and learn a few things or focus on your league what you going to do?

eoferrall

won myself also - next up some team in div IV, highest CSR 13k. think I will be ok.

Bot bashing makes getting thrashed at weekends a bit more bearable!

Zagato

eoferrall wrote: »

won myself also - next up some team in div IV, highest CSR 13k. think I will be ok.

Ditto

TheJims

ormond lad wrote: »

Won cup game v bot as expected but in next round am playing the team who im playing in the league saturday

That happened me last year! Ltnt him and won in the league! Then wnwim him of the lose in the cup .. he had a much much better team then me..

crisco10

Toulon RFC in the next round. Probably the end of the cup before its even started for me. :-(

Trippie

I have a few talents coming through my youth academy this season. I have already commited to training 1 prop for the u20 squad and another has potential to be a great club player for me. I only have 27 sessions per week so what do most people normally do, do we just train the younger ones for 1 year so they get over 30k etc or should i just sell them on straight away and focus on getting 3 really good players and then starting cycle again

eoferrall

Trippie wrote: »

I have a few talents coming through my youth academy this season. I have already commited to training 1 prop for the u20 squad and another has potential to be a great club player for me. I only have 27 sessions per week so what do most people normally do, do we just train the younger ones for 1 year so they get over 30k etc or should i just sell them on straight away and focus on getting 3 really good players and then starting cycle again

I would focus on 3 players to whatever level is the highest for your team, and get a cycle going, so over a couple of seasons you will have nearly a full team of fairly highlevel CSR players. Training for the u20's is an excellent way to develop your team, gives you the boost to keep training them for the full 4 seasons to end up with a quality player.

so I would training the u20 at ten sessions the good prospect at ten and then another decent youngster for the remaining 7 and then sell any other promising academy players for cash.