Ideas for next season

by SirJohnnyEnglish Tue 19 May 2015, 11:29 am

If you have an idea for a change, please put it on here, with a heading saying what aspect of the game it relates to, and then in detail what the idea is.

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:I see a few issues with the game which I have been holding off on really commenting on till the season was finished.

I (and others) have strong suspicions of tactical predicting in the last few months of the season. I have seen some predictions completely against the grain, games 'accidentally' missed off predictions and have suspicions of predictions being held off to have a greater impact on the result.

I have seen grudges being held in predictions as well. It looks to me like some predictions have been given as payback for results given against them. There has been heavy player slating in some predictions as well in response to player discussions on the home page or in other predictions.

The wumming on the home page continues to grow and grow. Very hard to have any conversation on there these days without it kicking off. I appreciate there's some rugby opinion there but Pooly needs to tame in the wum attempts. It reads as if your disagreeing for the sake of it at times. The over hyping of players needs to stop as well. Many of the arguments start off the back of it. The double teaming on Pooly in these arguments should stop as well.

The wumming is an issue but so are the personal attacks. On any other part of this forum bans would have been given for some of the jibes this past season. If people want me to ban for wumming then they will have to accept me banning for unnecessary personal attacks.

by SirJohnnyEnglish Tue 19 May 2015, 11:36 am

To get the ball rolling foreigns will be structured with Irish/Welsh getting first dibs. Thinking potentially 2/3 signings each.

by Steven_Sharks Tue 19 May 2015, 12:21 pm

Neutral venue games - managers pm sides to whoever created thread. If home advantage is taken away then so should advantage of seeing opposition side before posting your own.

Matt/Pooly - Doing one less prediction each week should be reflected in their prediction bonuses. Fines for anyone deemed as taking homepage discussion off topic or fishing for reaction.

Something to spice up the Anglo Welsh. Unsure as to what. Player limits? eq or age? Two legged finals/semi-finals?

by Fluxy Tue 19 May 2015, 12:22 pm

Five academy bids and five national/released player bids.

by **Ozzy3213** Tue 19 May 2015, 12:28 pm

There is no Anglo Welsh next season Steve.

by SirJohnnyEnglish Tue 19 May 2015, 12:31 pm

Yeah the AW has been scraped for next season due to the world cup. But I do like the idea of sprucing it up on its return. Potentially putting an academy player limit on it. Will have to keep it in mind for discussions in a years time!

by Steven_Sharks Tue 19 May 2015, 12:58 pm

Didn't know that so that's not a problem.

by dammit_chris Tue 19 May 2015, 1:04 pm

Would like to see the teams who finish lower in the leagues given the opportunity to strengthen their squads more, by giving them extra foreign transfers. Thought it worked quite well when people at the bottom of the league got first dibs on players previously. Be good to try and even the whole league up, as guys who have been in the game the longest have the most settled squads.

Academy players can get called up at the start of the season and they dont count as bids.

Transfer windows for domestic signings similar to foreign windows.

Maybe an agreed structure for how to write out tactics, so that way it is easier to do and for people to read, as never sure how much emphasis is put on tactics.

Agree with Steve on the fines as well.

by SirJohnnyEnglish Tue 19 May 2015, 1:19 pm

Fluxy wrote:Five academy bids and five national/released player bids.

Just on this mate by academy bids do you mean EQ underage players or all academy age players?

by Sgt_Pooly Tue 19 May 2015, 1:30 pm

Top 4 teams use random.org and give up 2 players to Irish & Welsh

by SirJohnnyEnglish Tue 19 May 2015, 1:31 pm

Neutral venue games - managers pm sides to whoever created thread. If home advantage is taken away then so should advantage of seeing opposition side before posting your own.

I like the home/away advantage. Without it I think we would see the top sides just picking up more wins and the gap getting bigger. Its a great equaliser in some games. How do others feel on this?

Matt/Pooly - Doing one less prediction each week should be reflected in their prediction bonuses. Fines for anyone deemed as taking homepage discussion off topic or fishing for reaction.

Agree on both points. There's a fair bit of bad blood on the home page at times and I know there's some who don't post on it anymore. Would want help though in deciding off topic/fishing comments as could see a lot arguments over decisions.

by Sgt_Pooly Tue 19 May 2015, 1:37 pm

Anything personal should be a fine. You can't fine for having an opinion on a player.

Perhaps no bigging up of own player would stop this? Matt can big up 4/5 players a night. If you can't mention your own players it takes this away??

by SirJohnnyEnglish Tue 19 May 2015, 2:05 pm

Would like to see the teams who finish lower in the leagues given the opportunity to strengthen their squads more, by giving them extra foreign transfers. Thought it worked quite well when people at the bottom of the league got first dibs on players previously. Be good to try and even the whole league up, as guys who have been in the game the longest have the most settled squads.

As above Welsh/Irish will be getting 2/3 signings each before the rest of us allowed foreigns. There's a gap there that needs to be closed.

Academy players can get called up at the start of the season and they dont count as bids.

We had this previously and I don't see how it helps as the sides with the best real life academies will be the ones that prosper. London Welsh do not even have an academy so poor CJ would have no players to bring in vs the likes of Saints/Sarries having numerous u18/u20 internationals every year.

Transfer windows for domestic signings similar to foreign windows.

Can I ask how would you work this? Would you keep the 5 bids each but only allow them at specific times or would you reduce the no. of bids?

Maybe an agreed structure for how to write out tactics, so that way it is easier to do and for people to read, as never sure how much emphasis is put on tactics.

I know some place great emphasis on tactics while others predict strictly on the line ups. Its up to everyone how they want to predict. I personally try to read tactics every week. There have been some well thought out and some oddly mismatched tactics this year that have had direct impacts on some of my predictions.

Format wise everyone has a preference. I quite like Luke's so stole it when writing my tactics up this season. Its hard to dictate a format that everyone likes.

There was a word count in place although not written into the rules of 500 that a few have not been keeping to. Whistle

by Sgt_Pooly Tue 19 May 2015, 2:14 pm

I like how the academy system is working at the minute.

As Sarries I have one of the strongest academies in the league but think the bidding system gives everybody a chance.

I like the 5 bids too, keeps a bit of quality out there and you really have to think of who to buy.

by Sgt_Pooly Tue 19 May 2015, 2:19 pm

How about we all put 1 random.org player in a pot and pick a player from the bottom sides first?

by prop_lyd Tue 19 May 2015, 2:19 pm

Give me a 20point head start..........

by dammit_chris Tue 19 May 2015, 2:57 pm

I don't think we should punish anyone who goes over the 500 words lol. I think that used to be the opening chapter to my tactics, which could have gone on for days and days Smile

With domestics I wouldn't set a limit on number of signings as it is how people carefully manage their budget - can find some good players out there and would help with EQ for a lot of teams.

by Steven_Sharks Tue 19 May 2015, 4:53 pm

I'm completely against Random.org. I'd be livid if someone I'd scouted three years ago and has come good was taken from me. That isn't part of the game. It's skill not chance.

Maybe academy players should be first choice to bottom sides. That is where the world class players are coming from more than the foreigns nowadays.

Unlimited for lower sides. Limited for top 4/6/8?

by dammit_chris Tue 19 May 2015, 5:07 pm

Agree with Steve again there.

Difficulty is where to draw the line with clubs as a lot of the starting lineups are very hard to split, it is only squad depth that causes issues, luck with injuries in real life and how kind SJE is to you on generating injuries!

I'm letting go quite a few internationals to make some room for academy players, so if anyone wanted the likes of Mike Phillips and a few others they can go on a free.

by Sgt_Pooly Tue 19 May 2015, 5:20 pm

It would be nice if the better teams could help out the bottom 2 though, maybe not Mike Phillips though Laugh

by Driver Tue 19 May 2015, 8:51 pm

13 teams in the league.....

by BamBam Wed 20 May 2015, 10:53 am

I like Fluxy's idea of more bids on academy/released players ..

Also agree with sorting out the bickering on the homepage, but how I have no idea

by CJB Wed 20 May 2015, 11:12 am

Kinda like Poolys idea but make it you cannot start conversation about your player. If someone else mentions them you can get involved

by Sgt_Pooly Wed 20 May 2015, 11:14 am

Good idea CJB

by dammit_chris Wed 20 May 2015, 11:25 am

Could just ignore comments though - people all have their favourite players and there will always be some biased there, I know I talk a lot about Wasps players and England guys, but then I support Wasps and England, so not that surprising.

I don't think we should be limiting what people say as at the end of the day you'd hope we were all adults, but it is just trying to stop a lot of the bickering and player slating/getting reactions.

by BamBam Wed 20 May 2015, 11:25 am

I don't think that would solve anything .. it would just mean as soon as a player is criticised a slagging match would kick off

by Fluxy Wed 20 May 2015, 11:35 am

SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:
Fluxy wrote:Five academy bids and five national/released player bids.
Just on this mate by academy bids do you mean EQ underage players or all academy age players?

Sorry mate I wasn't clear, I was referring to EQ academy lads. So you have five academy bids and five domestic and released player bid to use through the season. That way lower clubs are not having a dilemma over to trying to pick up academy lads or bargains from releases to stay competitive

by Sgt_Pooly Wed 20 May 2015, 11:50 am

Most of the bickering comes from Matt bigging a player up and me disagreeing then on and on.

I don't see why I should ignore anything, if you have an opinion different from the poster there's nothing wrong with debating it.

by Sgt_Pooly Wed 20 May 2015, 11:52 am

There's been very little bickering with Matt not posting recently Whistle

by SirJohnnyEnglish Wed 20 May 2015, 1:30 pm

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Most of the bickering comes from Matt bigging a player up and me disagreeing then on and on.

I don't see why I should ignore anything, if you have an opinion different from the poster there's nothing wrong with debating it.

There's also the little spats over blatant wum attempts (from both sides at times!) Whistle

by Sgt_Pooly Wed 20 May 2015, 1:36 pm

Yea I agree but these are pretty isolated of late.

With Matt not consistently bigging up players (sometimes 5 a night) I've got nothing to respond to.

I like CJB's idea of not being able to bring up your own player unless somebody else does, could at least be worth a trial? I think the disagreements will thin out on my part at least.

by SirJohnnyEnglish Wed 20 May 2015, 1:41 pm

Fluxy wrote:
SirJohnnyEnglish wrote:
Fluxy wrote:Five academy bids and five national/released player bids.
Just on this mate by academy bids do you mean EQ underage players or all academy age players?
Sorry mate I wasn't clear, I was referring to EQ academy lads. So you have five academy bids and five domestic and released player bid to use through the season. That way lower clubs are not having a dilemma over to trying to pick up academy lads or bargains from releases to stay competitive

Cheers mate. I think 10 bids (5+5) might be a bit excessive though. What would you say to 5+2/3 but the extra signings limited only to the lower sides?

So 5 bids to be used on released players (can also be used on academy players!) but 2/3 additional bids to be used exclusively for academy age players.

by Sgt_Pooly Wed 20 May 2015, 2:30 pm

5 is pretty good I think Johnny, maybe 7 for the bottom 2?

by Guest Wed 20 May 2015, 2:39 pm

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Yea I agree but these are pretty isolated of late.

With Matt not consistently bigging up players (sometimes 5 a night) I've got nothing to respond to.

I like CJB's idea of not being able to bring up your own player unless somebody else does, could at least be worth a trial? I think the disagreements will thin out on my part at least.

Just seen all this and my opinion is I regulalry praise players ( not just my own) if players are playing well and you appreciate it then it's worth discussing. I post lots of articles from newspapers/ coaching sites. Pooly sets out to disagree with every post from me but not from others,

I have stopped posting as I am abroad 4-6 nights a week probably until September but secondly because it's tedious to read through arguments and nonsense.

My perception is pooly ruins the game and is rarely constructive in any discussion as he loves to be negative e.g Etzbeth or genia finished, Simpson rubbish, Heaslip rubbish, TJ can't pass, Cowan dickie useless etc etc ( mainly aimed at players I own. Coincidence ??)

Anyway it seems to have calmed down with me not posting as he has nothing to attack and I have nothing to react to. so if I carry on I will continue to rarely post and just play the game.

Those are my thoughts on everything rightly or wrongly. Personally don't think you should try and say people can't discuss playrrs of their own as its hard to police.
Also think this was the closest league so far so the rules seem to be working well so would not make massive changes.

by Guest Wed 20 May 2015, 2:46 pm

Ps meant to say there is
Fault on both sides but that was how I perceived things and I am as just as bad for reacting

by Sgt_Pooly Wed 20 May 2015, 3:29 pm

Fair points.

I agree if you didn't post (big up players) on the main page I think we would rarely clash.

We obviously have differing views on the game and don't like the same players, I'm often amazed how things escalate so quickly.

by Fluxy Wed 20 May 2015, 4:24 pm

I actually believe that if you were interested in how well another player is playing then you should be able to talk about them. I'm aware that we want our own players to get noticed to help with issues on form, injury recovery, and thus help/sway prediction, and that if someone else mentions it then it is fair merit.

It does feed into tactics as well, I will add...

by **Ozzy3213** Mon 25 May 2015, 7:51 am

Draws are pretty rare in real life, so I would bring in a rule that you cannot predict a draw, you have to decide on who you think would win.

by Steven_Sharks Mon 25 May 2015, 10:41 am

I wonder if a random element could be added. 0 - 5 points added to each side either way following predictions. Make it a bit more interesting as it can get a bit tedious at times.

by dammit_chris Fri 29 May 2015, 7:35 pm

I'd go with:

(i) A system where people are docked points in the league when there are blatant wum attempts as the game has descended into a farce at times.

Would give SJE the discretion to ask people to leave the game if it exceeds a certain number of times. Personally think SJE does a great job running the game and it can't be fun to have to deal with the wumming.

(ii) Agree with Pete that it would be good to not predict draws, but only concern is that it would just result in home wins or larger home wins and stop BP, which can make a big difference during a season.

(iii) Agree on giving the two bottom clubs 2 free transfers to catch up at the start for next season, but be good to see domestic transfers operate in same way (e.g. transfer window) so can spend all the money.

(iv) Be good in predictions if there weren't player slatings and instead focused on why another team would win as opposed to why someone is cr ap. Can just lead to arguments.

Think the game has been great for 7 seasons, but just think some changes need to be made that limit the amount of wumming, slating players etc as takes away a lot of enjoyment from the game.

by Guest Fri 29 May 2015, 7:55 pm

Chris I agree 100% ie the game when it started.

The rules are great now in terms of the structure Etc as evidenced by the the close proximity of most teams.

However I would say that when it started it was much purer results wise. Sometimes you see results that should be a hammering and people give a 3 pt loss to avoid that person marking them down. In old days there were much wider margins. Agreed the inequalites were more but even so there should be wider margins in a lot of games.

Few prem games are close. Only fluxy gives wide margins in tight games and myself very ocassionaly and Pete last week in the semi. To see a 5 point margin is rare and I will admit sometimes don't give as high a margin as I think for fear of getting clobbered.

Look at the s15 scores this weekend and I doubt come Sunday many will be by less than 5 points. It's way rugby is now

by Sgt_Pooly Fri 29 May 2015, 8:13 pm

Having a different opinion on a player is not wumming.

It's a rugby forum and we discuss rugby, if you don't like my comments you can ignore them with the ignore button.

by Guest Fri 29 May 2015, 11:30 pm

I would vote for this Chris

Would give SJE the discretion to ask people to leave the game if it exceeds a certain number of times. Personally think SJE does a great job running the game and it can't be fun to have to deal with the wumming.
If majority agrees then its
Law.

I am off for 3
Weeks from Sunday so please don't vote me out lol!!

by SirJohnnyEnglish Wed 03 Jun 2015, 9:16 am

I see a few issues with the game which I have been holding off on really commenting on till the season was finished.

I (and others) have strong suspicions of tactical predicting in the last few months of the season. I have seen some predictions completely against the grain, games 'accidentally' missed off predictions and have suspicions of predictions being held off to have a greater impact on the result.

I have seen grudges being held in predictions as well. It looks to me like some predictions have been given as payback for results given against them. There has been heavy player slating in some predictions as well in response to player discussions on the home page or in other predictions.

The wumming on the home page continues to grow and grow. Very hard to have any conversation on there these days without it kicking off. I appreciate there's some rugby opinion there but Pooly needs to tame in the wum attempts. It reads as if your disagreeing for the sake of it at times. The over hyping of players needs to stop as well. Many of the arguments start off the back of it. The double teaming on Pooly in these arguments should stop as well.

The wumming is an issue but so are the personal attacks. On any other part of this forum bans would have been given for some of the jibes this past season. If people want me to ban for wumming then they will have to accept me banning for unnecessary personal attacks.

by Steven_Sharks Wed 03 Jun 2015, 9:21 am

Hear hear

by Sgt_Pooly Wed 03 Jun 2015, 9:22 am

by CJB Wed 03 Jun 2015, 10:07 am

Something to stop that is Pm'ing results to someone and that person adding the results before posting all the feedback. A bit sad if we have to resort to that though

by SirJohnnyEnglish Wed 03 Jun 2015, 10:21 am

No issue taking private predictions. Will stop people holding off to have a greater impact on the result but doesn't really stop the tactical predicting or grudges that have been happening

by CJB Wed 03 Jun 2015, 10:25 am

I think Matt suggested discarding the best and worst results?

by SirJohnnyEnglish Wed 03 Jun 2015, 10:37 am

Best and worst results from who's point of view though? Would perhaps stop grudges reflected in the score but doesn't prevent the slating of players in feedback.

Doesn't prevent tactical predicting either. Most predictions are in and around the same margins but there have been weeks were one prediction has gone against everyone else or the scores are purposely kept down to affect tbps.

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