Proposed change to DT/SC finals.

[nillation]

So you work hard all year researching rookies, keeping your smokies secret, drafting a team, calculating trades, picking captains, selecting emergencies, comparing the match-ups and fighting your way into the top eight only to be eliminated before achieving premiership glory. Then you hear "At least I won the bottom eight premiership, you didn't win anything!" This is the call of the cocky player in your league who knew his team was average and tanked in the last few rounds just so he could stomp on all the nufty teams. It’s the equivalent of someone choosing to be kept back a few years in school just so they could push around all the younger kids.

This person, whenever DT/SC is mentioned in the offseason, always lets you know that they won something and seems to think that the only team that did better than his was the real premiership winner. They are arrogant and obnoxious (and usually really good at sledging!) and must be put an end to so here is what I propose.

First of all forgive me if this has already been suggested by someone else, I actually got this idea from The League (an amazing show for anyone even if you don’t play fantasy football).

Instead of the bottom eight cup being something to prize and cherish it should be loathed and avoided and anyone who has ever won one should carry the shame in their trophy cabinet forever. It should represent failure and incompetence. To facilitate this, I think that the bottom eight teams should continue to play finals but instead of the highest scorer progressing to the next round it should be the lowest scorer. This should continue until the two worst teams play off to avoid the shaming of the wooden spoon. It would be a exactly the same as the top eight finals structure (which would remain the same) where 9th â€" 12th would avoid progressing to the next final by winning their first finals while the losers in the 13th â€" 16th bracket go straight to the 3rd round of finals and miss out on a chance to get eliminated in the second round. You get the idea.

So instead of people saying “at least I won the dud cup” they would tout “well at least I didn’t win the wooden spoon/scrotum cup/unpleasant name”.

Do you agree with me, do you like the dud cup? Let me know your thoughts!

[Head Coach]

I agree with what ur saying. I usually just say to those people that they finished 9th... thats it. Winning the noob 8 shouldnt be glorified in anyway, but at the end of the day its just a bit of fun, so if a noob feels like they've achieved something, then let their little minds be happy.

[Fireballz]

And this thread was to address those being arrogant or obnoxious?

Pot... kettle.... anyone wanna finish that for me?

[nillation]

Thanks Head Coach. I think it could still be fun and competitive to try and avoid getting the dud cup and you never know, someone might put a bet against someone to see how hard they could tank. It happened in my tipping competition this year and picking the losers is just as tricky as picking the winners.

While I'm at it, another thing I think would be a good idea is getting rid of the percentage system on the ladder. Keep it there for interest and visual purposes but don't let it decide the ranking between two teams with equal premiership points. If two teams are tied for points then it should be decided by total points for because at the end of the day nobody has any control over what team their opposition fields. Unless they give us the tools to negate one of their players or reduce their scoring then points against shouldn't have an impact on ladder positions.

Sometimes people will burn extra trades to try and match it with a higher scoring opponent and other times a team will just be outright unlucky and play teams when they are hitting their stride. In my league the team on the bottom of the ladder scored 2300 against me when he hadn't scored above 1800 all season.

Where teams are tied on premiership points I think it would make a lot more sense to decide their position based on overall points and it would reward coaches who have had consistently strong teams all season.

[Nails]

And this thread was to address those being arrogant or obnoxious?

Pot... kettle.... anyone wanna finish that for me?

Pot... kettle....tea pot...pan...

Finished.

[nillation]

Also, it will be interesting to see if they make any adjustments to the number of teams in a league next year to reflect the 18 team competition. I imagine they wouldn't because they would have to invent a new finals system for either the bottom 10 or 9/9.

I wonder if they would also consider reducing the number of league byes at the start of the season to put one at the end of the season to avoid mass resting like we saw this year... I doubt it since it would reduce the DT/SC season length.

[Head Coach]

Huge fan of having ladder position decided on points for when it comes to teams with equal premiership points. Never thought of that, but its a really good idea! In general anything that makes it more about skill and less about luck is a good thing imo. Also how about rewarding the team who finishes with the most points overall at the end of the actual home and away season being given more credit in each league. Takes more skill to do that then it does to win the gf, so why not give it atleast as much recognition?

[GoldDigger]

percentage will generally favour the team on most points anyway, coz that's the top line of how it gets worked out ...

[mcwarne]

I dont know of anyone thats actually been stupid enough to gloat about winning the minor final. If my team ever finishes in the bottom 8 (which I hope never happens) I wouldnt play the damn game during those 4 weeks. My season would be over.

[Jugganauts]

So you work hard all year researching rookies, keeping your smokies secret, drafting a team, calculating trades, picking captains, selecting emergencies, comparing the match-ups and fighting your way into the top eight
Well if you were a good researcher and you treated your trades like gold you will be in the top either wouldnt you

[LaHug]

percentage will generally favour the team on most points anyway, coz that's the top line of how it gets worked out ...

I disagree!
I finished 5th on the ladder and missed the top 4 on percentage alone. I had 641 more points (in league matches - I had 2,643 more than him for the whole season) than the guy who finished 4th, but he had a better percentage than me.
I ended up losing the first week of finals (which shouldn't have happened) and was out of the league despite having the second most points overall.
So, percentage played a big factor in not favouring the team on the most points.

[nillation]

Happened to me too LaHug. I was second for points scored in one of my leagues but I barely scraped into the 8. At one point late in the season I was 12th. It was a tight league though but while GoldDigger is right, percentage will generally favour the team with the most points, I don't think it's the best decider to use.