cheers for doing this guys,im new coach and plan on being pretty active even if i tend to lurk on forums.very happy with end of season,nothing exceptional results wise but learning the game and upgrading squad.im hoping for a season of continued improvemnt on traing field and roster wise and hopefully this results in couple more wins...maybe season too early to think about playoffs

good luck dogboy.

This is my first time reading this, it's actually really cool.
I was just going through my team getting ready for kickoff and decided to drop in here to see if anyone else was excited about the new season.

This is the one time a season where I spend a few hours getting all my depth charts ready for the new season. Usually I just come on to make my useless rookie pull and check scores.

Keep up the good work

It's time for some more B S What? It stands for Blowing Smoke
Let's jump straight into it, starting with the AC East and Noodle's Lions are back and kickin' butt, with what looks like a firm grip on the division. Were you expecting this Monster?

Monster : With the departure of the Rebels, these Lions became the veterans of the division and did embrace this role quite well it seems. As I'm writing this, they've already secured their division title, they'll now have to brace for the playoffs now !

Going to the AC North now, it's a real "North" Division now, with 2 former Elite teams with the Panthers and the Werewolves, the battle for the crown is a very entertaining one ! I don't know yet on which team I'd bet though...
Any thoughts on a favorite ?

Jonny: That's a tough one! I'll be pragmatic about this though, i'm picking the Panthers, they're a game ahead, better points difference and the last game of the season between the two teams is at their place. I haven't looked to see if they both have GOTY's left, but it looks like 2nd place will get a wildcard, GOTY could damage them for that, but i would be impressed if one of them does go "all or nothing"

I'm excited to see what part the Outlaws will play in the division race, they have to play both those teams and i wouldn't bet much against them, it's easy to overlook a 3rd place team, but they're (at time of writing) an 8-4 team, they can cause some damage!

How about Quack Attack? It's a brutal division where you're bottom without a losing record!

Monster : When you (I) overlook an 8-4 team, you know it's a tough division.

Being last with a 0.500 record is hard to swallow, but it shows that they'll certainly play the role of the "trouble fête" in the Divisional matchups of Week 17, the Outlaws will have to fight hard for a Wild Card spot !

Still going though the divisions, I'll go with the AC South now, the Linstocks are red hot coming out of their Elite Season, with their famous pass rush again leading the league in sacks. Not all relegated Elite teams show that kind of performance.

Jonny: It's true, and their sack machine keeps on rollin'. It might be time to come up with a nickname for the Erudite defence
We might be seeing the resurgence of France 2018**, a solid offence highlighted by more passing TD's than any other team (only 1 rushing TD though ) suggests they could get back to their Elite level, probably not this year though.
The Walruses are a fun one to watch, season not going well then 3 in a row highlighted by a win over the Panthers! It's too late for them to make the playoffs this year, but if they can keep this up and roll it into next year they could be a challenger.

Monster : Well France 2018 #TwoTimesWorldChamps&The3LionsDidn'tBringItHome are finally on the good side of their rebuild, as shows their aerial attack, but I'm still bothered by their run game. Balance is key to success, and to my mind this case really shows it as even though their passing game is dominant, they'll finish this season somewhere around .500. Looks like this rebuild ain't totally finished yet.

Jonny: Is it their rushing attack as a whole though or focused on their red zone offence? Maybe we should leave that for their opposition to work out

Monster : As for the Walruses, they always play on a binary mode, one 1 season, one 0 season. This year looks like... an 0.5 season their nice winning streak puts they around 0.500 too, but they are unfortunately too far away to take the WC spots away from the Panthers & British Blu.

As fun as it gets, it seems that Milwall Footbal are also set to finish around an even record Very good sign for the future when you have 3 teams around 8-8 record and the fourth one having 12+ wins!


Since I started talking about the British blu, I think it's time to close our AC review with the AC West !
This year the Turnover looks complete with a loosing season by BSoD (formerly Gardians) and at best an 8-8 season by the Copenhagen Pumas, while the Bandits and BBLU have taken care of business.

Did you see this coming 1 & 1/2 season ago ? I personnally was far away from such predictions !!

Jonny: I agree, especially with the experience of the Gardians (BSoD) and Pumas, I did not predict this back then.
I think it shows though the difference in the game from when those guys started, money was a lot harder to come by for building a large bank balance before creating a top team, and I think that was the problem for the Pumas. Their wages are down now though so they can save some money, their 43 defence was fascinating and worked really well before they were forced to make cuts, they'll be back.

BSoD are the perfect example of a "sleeping giant", they're building and I believe they'll be back.
They've got a lot of young guys on the offensive side of things, only one player on the o-line over 26 for example! Need to load up a bit on D for the future I think, defensive line looks fine but maybe LB and CB need a bit more depth? As I say that though I remember only one team has ever gone undefeated in a Dragons 1 season, Drogon knows what he's doing

On to the NC East This was trial by fire for Honolulu Ali'i and I really hope they stay after such a brutal season.
They're set up well for the future with such a young team and have to know there was nothing that could be done about this season with those guys at their current stage of development.
HaynBuddah needs to focus on their SC game against the Wildcats, if they can win games like that at this stage then once those players get their skills up that could be a very strong team

What going on with the Shocks? Tough season and flimss hasn't been on for a while, I'm getting worried!

Monster : I didn't even pay attention to this ! Luckily flimss logged back in time to avoid getting botted. I'm afraid he will face a tough time to maintain, as I certainly don't want to give up the last regular season game and will fight as hard as ever to finish off this season on a win.

The Ali'is will, fore sure, build on this tough season to get back stronger, rather sooner than later, as a lot of managers, including myself, did before.

The Torpedoes have *again* been a pain in my ass, they got the division back last year, and didn't show any sign of letting it go this year grrrr... I think time has come to modify my punch drunk's interview and name these Tilburg Torpedoes as my biggest rivals ! I'm still 6 games behind in our league meetings

Jonny: You guys have built up a fun rivalry there, could even meet again in the playoffs
On to the NC North, not quite the ultimate division it once was but still has two of the top teams fighting all the way to a "winner takes the division and home field advantage" final day of the season showdown! What a game this looks like it could be, who's your pick Monster? (Let's try to get this out before Saturday :thumb

Monster : Oh yeah, perhaps the most excinting game of this regular season. I'll tell you one thing : Punch has lost two games this season : one against ssucram, and the other... against me . I'll go with the Muscles for this one, even if I trust the ability of these Jackalopes to learn from their mistakes !

The Orc Boys have a reaaly good chance to maintain, I think it is a good sign because more often than not you have a first test, get relegated and then you come back and get things tough for your opponents.

Then we go with the DAB knights, not a successful season, but it could have been worse. But I'm really worried by their player's salaries (6+M$ ) and stadium (less than 70k seats) they should focus on this before coming back to compete here...

Jonny; Oh wow, i hadn't noticed that! Beyond anything else sorting this out must be their number 1 priority, this could be a huge problem!

Monster: I guess it's the NC South turn now. What do you think of your last season surprise pick Trnava Saints ?

Jonny: It's been a tough season for them obviously, looks like they had about 6 guys retire last season and are trying to build back from that. I like their defence, they've got some guys in their 30's on that side of the ball but look like they should be able to replace them when they go. On offence they need some play makers, i like their QB and at 26 he' s got a good few years to get better, just need to make sure the guys around him can play well

At 9-3 the 'Dillos were looking hot! At 9-6 it begs the questions; did they peak too soon? Or is this a case of locking up the division and relaxing before a playoff run?

Monster : Tough question as I have to play it humble here. But being on a good streak and then facing two teams playing regularly in the playoffs is a cold shower. Plus their last win before this 3 game losing streak was a 13-10 victory. So yeah, definitely not the best form to have while going into the playoffs, but we all know everybody starts at 0-0 in the off season.

As for these Minnesota superiors, their 6-9 record seems very unfair with a positive points differential. It's a sign of pretty frustrating losses (been there before )

Then the PIT Steelers have started 4-2 and are currently sitting at 5-9. Crazy how quickly things change !

Jonny: That's a good point, going into the last regular season game both the Saints and Superiors have a better PD than the Armadillos yet sit 3 games behind them, small margins really do make a huge difference!

Before we throw out some crazy predictions let's look to the West: Fighters still in re-build, I feel like I've been saying this for a while now, which is good for them, money's growing, an average age under 25 and a fully stock YA, the foundations are there, Oliveh's virtuous patience means we're going to have to be patient too

I Expected a bit more from Wu-Tang to be honest, but they were out of the playoff picture a while ago!

Monster : Yeah, the Clan (no alcohol ad here) surprised us nicely about 2 seasons ago, and since then has worked with streaks : several wins in a row, several losses in a row, and bis repetita... When they will sort things out, thay will be real strong contenders.

Oliveh has been one of the best french managers for quite some time, and this long rebuild is quite worrying for me as I am competing for such a spot

Do not forget the Bigfoots, coming back from their restart season in Dragons 2 and being roughly at a .500 record !

Jonny: True, but the way i see it is they're spending way too much money, at risk of making an enemy i have to say it as it is, this looks like why restarts happen. I've not seen an example where a few highly paid superstars create a championship contender on an otherwise regular team, i do hope i'm proved wrong though.

So for now it's the Seahawks division, and i see it being that way for a while! That's a well built young team, and when you consider it's their first season in D1 it's hard to imagine them not becoming one of the heavy hitters in the near future...

...But i'm not predicting them going to Elite this season, looks like a safe bet that honour in the NC will go to a team from the (sorry Monster) North. I'm not going to pick a team as such, instead i'm saying the Bowl participant from the NC will be the loser of the Jackalopes v Muscles regular season finale game

Monster : Ohoh ! Look like you're making a mistake, the Seahawks are in their 2nd Dragons 1 season In fact they where in the NC North 2 seasons ago!

Jonny: Oops Sorry Feras!

Monster: I'm happy as their 1 and restart season served well as shown by this season's division crown ! They were very unlucky to get relegated as it was a very tough division with the Palermo Eagles, Brasilia Muscles and Juggernaut Jackalopes IIRC.

I do share your optimism on their future regularity as playoffs participants, but with the Clan, Bigfoots and rebuilding Fighters, this NC West won't be easy to conquer with regularity

Don't worry, I'll give a try at a spot in the Elite, and my playoffs games aginst NC North teams have always been pretty close contests



Jonny: I wouldn't bet against you
So who're you picking from the AC? I like the Panthers rushing attack, that RB FB two-punch is fantastic! But i wanna say the Bandits will make it, i always want to bet on a team that's not been to Elite yet and i really like the way they've embraced the QB rush.

Monster :
Well, for the Panthers, I'll wait to see how tonight's game goes. For now, I'll bet on either the Linstocks or the Bandits. The latter were a big surprise last year and still delivered this season, and the Linstocks have kept their good form, so I'll stay with them for now.

Jonny: Oooo Linstock, good shout! Ok, I think that about wraps it up, good luck to everyone in the playoffs, and anyone who's not there i urge you to watch some of the games, it's a great way to get hints and can ften be suprisingly exciting! I watched the end of Noodle's SC game the other night, check it out, it was amazing

Anything to add Monster? Maybe wish everyone else in the NC the worst of luck?

Monster : I may have an idea, but I don't want to be struck by a bad Karma

I'll wish everyone a good read instead

Fun write up!

FYI: I was going to MOTY for this game BUT win and yeah I have homefield BUT lose I'm 2nd seed and get a wild card game (extra income)

So win or lose its a win for me.

No MOTY.

You two do an awesome job I really look forward to these hope you keep them up. a toast to you both I assumed there were others that wanted in on this toast. So I bought the house around, and one more for Pete he always shows up to these events.

Thanks guys, these are always interesting reads. Thanks for the time you put in to writing them.

i hope to prove you wrong by beating the panthers in the wildcard play off they beat me 27-0 in the season opener but i had some unfortunate kinks that I had failed to work out of the playbook. so i'm hoping it will be a closer result, even if they do beat me. they are the favourites of course.

i was so glad the orc boys avoided a relegation play off this season (my real life friend).

good luck to all in the play offs.

Great job guys!

And Monster, congrats on the division win!

awesome write up guys makes me smile as i read this looking forward to next installment

Thanks Jonny Utah and MonsterT95.

The BSoD (formerly Gardians) are not "sleeping".

The depth in D is here :
2019-01-13 / S32 Farid Thebault leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Roh Jwa leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Ugolin Caillet leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Steven Maire leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Johan Lefrancois leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Rudy Soulard leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Bruno Montagne leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Yoann Bontemps leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Nathan Dubois leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Damien Legay leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Benoit Bossard leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Arnaud Guillou leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Emmanuel Lebas leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Christopher Lemonnier leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Stéphane Landais leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Oscar Hoffmann leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Franck Braun leaving No contract
2019-01-13 / S32 Damien Blot leaving No contract

Yes, Drogon knows what he's doing. But he also knows he's fed up !
The Gardians (BSoD) will not be back soon. Some day, maybe.