Lost the final t20 for a drawn series, but it was a close loss and given the strength of the side we sent I think we can be pretty happy with that.
Cyclops
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I thought that Cousins had signed a 3 year deal, so at first thought this was just the Packers move - draft in the first round, and sit them for three years while they develop. But nope, Cousins blocks the whole rookie deal (there is an option for the 5th year, but that's a much less significant discount and has to be exercised at the start of year 4.
Ultimately picks are judged by what they do on the field, so if he's good all this will be forgotten.
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So that draft was Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Fields and Jones. Lawrence is a decent starter, who might be growing into more. The other four have all been traded away with the guy with the least starts getting the highest return. What a rubbish QB crop it turned out to be.
Kind of shows how tough the position is/how big the step up to the NFL is though - every one of those guys (except Lance I guess, thanks to injuries) dominated college, and none of them really showed more than the occasional flash that they could play QB.
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I see Forest are demanding the audio be released for VAR. I think it's a bit petulant (unless they have a real good source saying the var was saying 'fuck forest' after every check), but I think having the refs feed over the broadcast is one of the best things rugby does. I wish football (and most other sports) did the same. I don't think it'll change the quality of decisions or the frequency people complain about the mistakes though, I just think it makes the games more enjoyable to watch on TV.
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Came perilously close to a sending off though! What happens if a keeper gets a red in a shootout? I assume no subs are allowed but one of the 10 remaining players are allowed to take over as keeper?
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This is fun - some more what ifs with defeated finalists. The EPL could have had a third instance of 3-in-5 with an Arsenal win in 2006 (to go with Liverpool in 2005 and man u in 2008. If Chelsea won in 2008 and Man U in 2009 then the EPL could have had 4 different teams win in 5 years.
If Leverkusen win in 2002 then the Germans manage 3 different winners in 6 years (to go with Dortmund in 97 and Bayern in 2001).
The Italians could also have had 3 different winners in 6 years with a Roma win in 84 (was a loss to Liverpool in a shoot out), to go with Juventus in 85 and Milan in 89.
Doesn't look like there are any other 'near misses'.
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@MajorRage said in EPL 2023/2024:
I mean 3 diff teams win the big dog, the champs league
Aside from the other instance of EPL teams pointed out by @dogmeat, la liga almost did it between 2014 and 2018. All 5 years were won by either Barcelona or Real Madrid, but Athletico Madrid lost two finals (once in extra time and one on penalties) in that period. Winning either of those games would have meant the champions league was won three years in succession by three different Spanish teams. Over those 5 years, 7 of the possible 10 finalists spots were Spanish teams.
Athlecico Madrid have a particularly torturous relationship with the champions league - they've made three finals, and been drawn after full time in all of them, losing one after a replay, one after extra time and one after penalties. Basically the complete set of ways-to-lose-the-tie-breaker.
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@MajorRage said in EPL 2023/2024:
@DaGrubster bad season but remember ….
EPL has had 3 diff teams win it in the last 5 years. That’s pretty impressive.
Has any other league even come close to that?
Across next biggest leagues in Europe, not counting this year:
La liga: 3 different champs in the last three years (and last five)
Serie a: 4 different champs in the last four years (and last five)
Ligue 1: 2 in last 5 years, have to go back 7 years for a third
Bundesliga: 1 in the last 5, have to go back 15 years for three -
Wasn't there a bust up between Vardy and Mahrez the year the won the league and when Vardy was on that crazy scoring streak?
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@KiwiPie said in EPL 2023/2024:
@DaGrubster Agreed. I saw the FA Cup draw announced by a Newcastle journo on Twitter (Newcastle away to City) and lots of fans replying that the draw was rigged against them.
Bit early to call the title race over with just a 2 point gap and the Arse having a better goal difference. I know City don't generally drop points in April and May but they are looking much shakier at the back than previous seasons.
UCL first legs were all good games and none of them decided which should make for an exciting week. Hard to pick the final 4 without the away goals rule.
Congratulations to Bayer Leverkusen, winning their first ever title with 5 games to spare. They sold their best player (Moussa Diaby) and their biggest transfer in was Nathan Tella from Southampton.
Agree on Man city. They're favourites now but they don't feel quite as inevitable this season. I think there's still a couple of twists left, I think there will be more points dropped all round.
I was surprised that Leverkusen had never won a title, I was sure they had won one when Ballack was playing for them, but just series of heartberaks.
Ends Kingsley Coman's run - first time as a senior pro that he doesn't win the league title. Probably a fair few others at Bayern with similar streaks ending, but Coman managed his run across three different leagues!
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Given our top 7 players are unavailable, I'm actually pleasantly surprised at the strength of that squad. Pakistan will basically be full strength for this, so we'll get pumped, but with basically an entire top order unavailable (Conway, Ravindra, Williamson, Mitchell, Phillips) about as good as iswe could have hoped for.
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Comparing him with Brady is dumb. Not only has the salary cap massively increased since Brady's prime, Brady also happily took below market deals because he wanted rings more (and once you've earned 333 million extra money is kind of meaningless).
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@KiwiPie said in Black Caps v Australia:
@LABCAT said in Black Caps v Australia:
Our bowling attack still could have got the twenty wickets though, bascially our batsmen let us down the whole series. If just one of the batters who got a 50 in that second innings stuck arround to get a score like Green did, the we have an extra 100 runs and probably win the game.
Nope that's way too simplistic. 4 of the top 5 had to battle to make 50s with the ball regularly beating the bat and with Hazlewood and Cummins constantly probing. Eventually there is a ball with your name on it and you get a nick. We should have won that game from 5 down today - I wasn't able to watch much of it but from what I saw runs were being leaked away to low risk shots. With a target that size you need to make the opposition sweat for every run not bowl 1-2 an over at the leg stump to be tucked away.
Yeah at times we were bowling like we were defending 100 runs less; getting way too straight searching for wickets. We needed to stick to our strengths, bowl good lines and lengths and force them to work.
I was really hopeful that Southee would be a better captain. Williamson was solid but tended to be a bit conservative. Southee is a pretty canny bowler and I hoped he'd bring that tactical nous to how he managed his bowlers and bowling plans. Instead we too often look bereft of ideas, can never resist a review and bowl Southee too often. Worse than Kane ever was.
Who are the other genuine candidates? Latham, but he's struggling for form a bit so would the added burden make that worse? Mitchell, Conway and Henry are probably the only other guys that are automatic selections with sufficient experience, and none of them really seem to stand out as big time leaders, but that can be hard to judge from the outside.
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Brutal. No luck for us today, so many half chances and missed edges. But also only had 3 bowlers that were actually looking threatening (and one of those a part timer) limited us as did straying down leg to Carey in particular.
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Phillips looking good. Needs Henry to tighten it up and the pressure will start to build, but while they're scoring freely at the other end they won't be too worried about just blocking Phillips out.
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I'd bowl Phillips from one end and rotate Sears and Henry at the other for the whole session. I'd have an extra couple of close in fielders for Phillips too.
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Unfathomable that we come out after lunch, needing a breakthrough and our best idea is to bowl wide of off stump at about 125k. Insanity.
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We've bowled well in patches but edges haven't gone to fielders or moved too much and evaded the edge. They've cashed in when we haven't bowled well.
I'm still think we should win from here. Australia won that session but our bowling was better than the numbers suggest. Key thing is going to be staying focused, working to our plans and not panicking.
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I've always thought players should get at least 18 months (so two home summers and a few overseas tours) to figure it out. The step from NZ domestic to international is huge. I'd be disappointed if we dropped Ravindra before the next home summer. Phillips too, I think he's shown he has the tools, so he deserves a decent shot to show he can figure out how to use them.
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Broncos cut Wilson. $84m against the cap, split over the next two years. 35 one year and 50 the other - hits can come in either order depending on exactly how they do the cut.
The contract has 'offset language'. That means that whatever money he is paid by his new team will reduce what the Broncos owe him. In practice, this means his next deal will be a vet minimum deal because the money will be going to the Broncos not him. That makes him a super low risk prospect for a team that wants to take a punt. (Although there are also ways to structure a deal to get around the offset language but depends on the length of the contract, so will depend on how much teams want him and trust him to stay good).
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