 | Forum
Reply | Headers.......
at 19:05 19 May 2024
Well the car example is an interesting one because it's one I've used myself when describing the situation in rugby league at the moment, which has been damaged enormously as a spectacle over the last ten years by the imposition of ever more rules and safety protocols, and next season will finally tip over fully into unwatchable as they start penalising people for tackling across the shoulders.
Driving a car into a brick wall is pretty dangerous. And so it's only right that we try and mitigate against that. We add air bags to cars, we add seatbelts and make them mandatory like you say, we make cars out of better materials, we add roll cages, we do endless safety tests, we improve braking distances. And in rugby we have rules about tackling and punching people in the head. To this point, I'm completely with you.
For me though, once you start saying that anything above chest height is a penalty, a red card, an eight week ban, you're fundamentally changing the sport. The very basic fundamental of rugby league is you put two men in at the tackle, one for the legs and one to wrap the ball up and prevent offloads. They're about to say you can't do the latter, and so the sport will become an offload and penalty fest - every tackle will literally be one or the other. When they ran the trials in academy games last season there were 55-60 penalties a match, basically one every minute and 30 seconds, would you watch a football game with 80 free kicks in it? (Incidentally the trial also showed no reduction in the amount of concussions suffered). It's a different sport, more akin to touch. Like I say, unwatchable, for me. And deeply frustrating when MMA is out there attracting millions of viewers, millions in sponsorship, millions in pay per view, while league and union are in steep decline for participation and viewership.
Same thing in football. You take away heading, it's a different sport entirely.
To come back to the car example, what I feel you're doing is not seatbelts, airbags, braking distances. It's basically saying there can only be one car on the road at any one time, unless they happen to crash into each other. Or putting every car in a protective 20-yard bubble. Or saying you can't have brick walls any more. It's a fundamental change to the whole thing, for the worse, and completely impractical.
Sooner or later you just have to accept that driving a car into a brick wall is a dangerous thing to do.
This post has been edited by an administrator |
| Forum
Reply | The Andy Sinton Scream…….
at 16:07 19 May 2024
Cifuentes has had him more involved on the football side of things as well I believe, which I think is very welcome and long overdue.
Genuinely one of the nicest guys, and so knowledgeable about the sport. Love chatting with him. |
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Reply | Pitch size
at 11:10 18 May 2024
Once they've dug down this will be open as a possibility. |
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Reply | Headers.......
at 11:00 18 May 2024
At those age groups it's hard to argue against, although tbh if you watch/referee games at that level it's barely an issue - small sided football on tiny pitches with little goals, a lot of them can't kick the ball off the ground anyway, the heading is minimal/non existent.
What would/will be a shame is when it starts to creep up through the ranks into the professional game over the next decade or so, fundamentally changing the sport as a spectacle for the worse. Seen it in both codes of rugby, driven into over-refereed penalty fests by lawyers and university professors because if anybody gets tackled above the stomach they might explode into a thousand pieces. And you can't have a debate with anybody about this because they just go "oh so you're in favour of 12 year olds getting dementia are you then right fine".
I think I'm much more on the side of freedom of choice. We let people drink. You put all the science and the warnings out there, and you let them make their own choice.
If you play rugby, you might occasionally get hit in the head. If you don't want to get hit in the head, don't play rugby.
If you play football, you might occasionally have to head the ball. If you don't want to head the ball, don't play football. |
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Reply | Petty Insanities
at 17:25 17 May 2024
People who go one stop on the bus. Sometimes standing and waiting ten minutes for one to arrive to do so. It's over there, I can literally see it. |
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Reply | Which will be strongest
at 16:46 17 May 2024
Very intrigued by Sheff Utd. They needed the promotion in the first place just to keep the lights on (they'd literally turned off their undersoil heating in the second half of the Champ season because they couldn't afford to have it on) so has a year getting trounced upstairs solved all of that or are they in the sht? |
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Reply | End of Term Report 23/24 – Goalkeepers
at 16:43 17 May 2024
Yeh I would never pretend that my Monday nights getting trounced by Hogan in Finsbury Park in any way qualify me to assess professional goalkeepers.
Mind you, Ademola Bankole is our academy goalkeeper coach so... |
| Forum
Reply | Which will be strongest
at 16:32 17 May 2024
Yeh pending what they do this summer it's been almost note perfect for a good season next year.
It's exactly as we should have done it, rather than going absolutely nuts trying to stay there with a load of signings that as soon as you do go down you have to try and offload and start again.
Luton won the play-offs 12 months ago. To that team they've added basically the best of the Championship, and stuck £50m+ in the bank. Bstrds.
This post has been edited by an administrator |
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Reply | Which will be strongest
at 16:16 17 May 2024
Well, yes, but they're a) a bit of a freak and b) haven't done this for free. Their most recent set of accounts, covering their League One promotion season, showed an £18.2m loss, which backs the Bolton chairman's claim up almost to the pound. |
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Reply | End of Term Report 23/24 – Goalkeepers
at 11:44 17 May 2024
Even if we agree to go with your C, which I obviously think is generous, do you think he'll be able to improve (or even maintain) your C next season, another year older?
Whether we think he was adequate or not this season, the idea we try and go round again with him next season is crazy talk. |
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Reply | Departures in the development squad
at 10:24 17 May 2024
We're considering doing "Christian Nourry's LinkedIn Match Preview No.1 In The Series..." as next year's running joke in the previews. |
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Reply | End of Term Report 23/24 – Goalkeepers
at 10:11 17 May 2024
We've actually recorded the panel discussion that goes into these marks this year, part one (keepers and defenders) will be on the Patreon later today so you can find out who/where that flag line comes from  |
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