Things n' Stuff

This is a place for you to thrash out your ideas about long term strategies, and/or rip mine to shreds

Whilst I was busy messing around with spreadsheets like the CSR Predictor and Youth Academy Planner it occurred to me that maybe I should be using the tools I so shamelessly plug for my own good. So I cast a thought to what stars I was going to put on my youths, which got me thinking what youths I needed to replace my ageing firsts (all of them) so I finally saw that I needed a fresh start.

I took it back down to bare bones, and looked through my match reports. It turns out playing By The Book was killing me at ruck time, and with a flawless back row I soon found out Normal didn't concede that many penalties. Aggressive did though - evidently my team is lacking technique. So the first thing I focused on is my youths. As you have undoubtedly seen, I like to boast about the quality of my youth players, so it's about time I put them to good use, learning stamina, speed, technique and strength to make them devastating at the breakdown. Meanwhile my seniors are on double stamina, handling and kicking (mostly due to the U20 halbacks, which I've had to work into the plan). *** side note: Double stamina kicks ass- in 2 seasons my team went from a range of 8-12 to 12-16. Now I have a bunch of 20-24 y/os with princely to grand stamina ***

Next step was to structure my team. I'm training an U20 flyhalf, fullback and winger, plus I have a young talented winger in the team as well. So I've decided to build my game around a dangerous back 3. Training wise, I know I'm committing 10 sessions to the flyhalf indefinitely, leaving me 20 to play with. At the moment that's going 10 to the fullback and 5 to the winger, as well as 5 to the young flawless lad I just got from the TM who could fill the space my future team has at hooker. He'll get that training for half a season before it moves on to another forward.

So, In 4 seasons time, I'll have an international calibre flyhalf, an U20 calibre fullback, two excellent wingers, and 5 well trained young forwards. This will be the team I take forward alongside some very experienced older campaigners, who will be approaching 30. During those four seasons, IGT will be maximised by playing the development players every monday, and WNWIM every saturday against opposition my firsts can't beat. Also, if there's a match my 1s could easily walk, then the young lads will play LTNT.

So, to sum up, in season 18, I will have 30 players, about 12 of whom will be approaching 30, but the core players will still be 20-25. I'll also have a young XV with discipline of controlled or better, who will be achieving excellent ruck ratings and hopefully winning by dominating breakdowns. And not one but two Legendary/Godly kickers. I'm sure I've missed a bit of info out, but it'll no doubt come up when you start quizzing me on this strategy so fire away...