"Same procedure as every year....."

[Mario ADK]

you know that "Dinner for two"-slogan?

Well it applies again to Austria - even in the face of harsh criticism by the commissioner. Austria will rest the following players for the meaningless game in week 14 against Scotland:

QB1 Anes (so Cedric Bonner gets what probably will be his last snap of his great career....)
HB1 Simonton
WR1 Hatchette
G1 Dorenboos
DE1 Rasmussen
LB1 Barr
S1 Mayer
CB1 Shazor

"It is time to give those backups a chance to show the world out there that they deserve to be on this team", GM Kreiner ended ths short press-briefing.....

[Paul-London]

Must admit i'm sad to see Ken Simonton benched.  He was very close to 1000 yards

Can understand why you are benching some of your players specially what happened to Montreal this week with some major injuries.

Probably will change some of the awards / All-FWL nominations if some of the players are benched.  I can see why you are doing it, at least you arent starting a 3rd string FA QB which you picked up a day earlier !!!

Anes has had a big year throwing touchdowns, turned out to be a very good signing.  You nearly gave up on him after his awful first season with Austria then of course hes been excellent since.

[Niki]

Can understand why you are benching some of your players specially what happened to Montreal this week with some major injuries.

My idea is that it can also happen at teh first play in the PO! if it happens it will happen, I just think it could have influence on yoru team when a player is starting and then being benched and then starting again. If I am correct you had it once with Bouman: had a super season, you started 1 or 2 games Adamson and in the PO Bouman played crap

but I understand Austria is doing it especially since he has to play two weeks ina row against Scotland.

But I never would do it, I just hate it to lose a game, I am still not amused about the result of week 6

[Paul-London]

Well the only time i made the playoffs while i had Rob Adamson was Season 12.

The last game of Season 12 (i was already in the playoffs) i had Todd Bouman start that game as i just checked the play by play.

Adamson started Week 12 won that game.  Bouman started Week 13 and 14.  In Week 13 he was horrible with 2 ints and lost that game and Bouman lost the Week 14 game 21-18 on a last play Jose Cortez Montreal FG from 49 yards out.

In the playoffs my whole team played badly as i lost 22-7 to the Riders. 

Once i was in the playoffs i did start Adamson for a game but Bouman started the last two regular season games.

With the last few seasons my team has been out of the playoff race i have tended to start my backup QB the last few games when Bouman reaches 3000 yards passing on the season and my team out of the playoff race.  I personally get 'nervous' resting players before a playoff game.

[Paul-London]

Would have been interesting if you had won that game, imagine the pressure this week if Amsterdam were 13-0 !!

That game in Week 6 really was a bad one for you as you were at home, at least you were playing one of the best teams in Montreal.  However in the 1st half of that game you had a 20 yard FG wide !!  That could have been the difference as the game was 12-10 Montreal.

Second half apart from one long Huerta run your team was very poor and punted on every other drive and on their final drive went 9 yards and out.  Jose Cortez kicked a 51 yard FG for the lead with just over 5 minutes left.  On the 3rd down play Danny Wuerrfel fumbled the ball but a Montreal lineman recovered.  However if the recovery was for -4 yards not -3 yards then Montreal would have punted as teams dont try a 52 yard FG in the FWL.  One yard and Montreal wouldnt have gone for the FG !

On the ensuing kickoff Eddie Conti returned the kick 47 yards to your own 49 yard line.  But on 3rd & 8 WR Trevor Insleys 8 yard catch was ruled just short and you punted.  Montreal went on a drive to run time off the clock and you finally got the ball back on your own 20 with 1:36 left.  On 3rd & 5 Huerta caught a 4 yard pass, on 4th & 1 a pass to Insley was incomplete

Like they say its a game of inches !  If you had recovered that fumble or Montreal lost one more yard they would have punted.

[Mario ADK]

 
i liked that story as ADK will defenitely be the first team ever to go 14-0

Amsterboooooooooooooooooooh

[David-Montreal]

Wouldn't worry.... I am sure you will win anyway.  And let me guess... you will not suffer any injuries.

[Paul-London]

Been a funny year for injuries in the league this year, some teams eg Birmingham have suffered tons of them.  Montreal seemed to stay on the whole relatively injury free until last weekend.  Seems to have been quite a fierce game.

Rheins secondary have been hurt also by injuries as they have two stars inactive this week, unsure what would happen as Rhein have 7 Active players but no Open active players. So if a Rhein CB was injured who would then come in

When i have time i'll do a writeup of the other 13-1 teams and write about their only loss in the regular season.

Being at home for the final game i would give you the edge as we know homefield is normally important but Scotland are a very good team, gonna be two good battles.  Ronnies done a great job with the Claymores.  Reminds me of when i switched FB Roel van Teefelen to HB who then had a good year for me and surprised me, Malan from FB-HB  has been one of the surprises of the season.

[Mario ADK]

Wouldn't worry.... I am sure you will win anyway.  And let me guess... you will not suffer any injuries.

Hi David,

i do not mind about the win and with 6 or 7 backups starting i think no team could expect a win against a playoff-bound opponent.

Plus:
Injuries in week 14 for the Austrian franchise are hardcoded in the FBPRO-Software. Too bad that i can not crack the source-code to fix it ;-)

[Niki]

Amsterboooooooooooooooooooh

 

Amster...who?

 

must be German kind of humor I think

[Mario ADK]

must be German kind of humor I think

Austrian, please.....

[Niki]

Austrian, please.....

so think you get the hint 

[jcompton-Orlando]

It'll be interesting to see if Bonner goes out with a solid game, or has his career stats demolished by a lousy game under ADK center (the Stan White syndrome.)

[scottishclaymore]

For what it is worth I think you would be better just to play your starters Mario as you may lose momentum.
It certainly happens in the real game on occassions and the FWL software is so close to the real deal sometimes it is weird.

You are the GM though and whatever team you line up is fine by me, The Claymores will simply be trying to win as will you.
I have rested players in the past , but tend to only do so with a one or two players.
I know it is only a game (isn't it ?)    but I like to see players who have played well all season keep their starting spots, especially with the awards in mind as one good week could help a players chances.

Again, for what it is worth, I don't think any game is actually meaningless as the opportunity is there to try gameplans, roster changes etc and also in our own case see why you managed to beat us recently, apart from luck 

I am looking forward to it the Austria Scotland matchups are generally always good games.

It is difficult for me to make a sound call which is the best team in the American Conference as I usually only read the European Play by plays unless there is a direct reason to read a P by P from the American Conference. Having said that the American Conference has several teams who I would certainly want to avoid in a Bowl final as there are some very deceptive teams who would be hard to beat. Several GM's in the American conference have done very well in improving their teams and it looks like they have better still to come.

In Europe I do feel Niki has done an amzing job with Amsterdam and stuck to the task so well and it has totally paid off. It pains us that we only JUST lost to Amsterdam early in the season but they deserved the win and have done nothing but improve. There are probably five other teams in Europe who are on the rise and again all credit to the GM's for pulling them around. It would of course be crazy to ever write off Mario or Marco as they are so good at getting the job done when it matters.

I am a little optimistic though that The Claymores can rough out a win over Austria. The Claymores have no real superstars we have deliberatly built the team up from some awful seasons in past years on a basis of a broad coverage of tough street fighting type guys who will put it in every week, not just show ponies who turn it on now and again. Hopefully we have got somewere near that objective as guys like Mike Malan and Nachi Abe have shown. They are possibly not yet league superstars they just gets the job done and we are very pleased we stuck with Malan when he switched from FB to HB. keeping in mind training camps should show all three of our HB's to have the potential we hoped they would have when we signed them we look forward to future match ups.

The Claymores were not fancied to make the playoffs at the start of the season, all credit to the type of players and their efforts that we have.

Whatever happens in the next game Mario I hope we both avoid injuries and then go for it.

Be Happy all
Ronnie
-----------

[Mario ADK]

Ronnie,
i do not fear any "slowing down" as my team is playing average football anyway.

i cannot remember if there ever was a "slowing down" so i am not sure Wheter the software "recognises" this or not. I do not think so.

Anyways one thing is for sure: i had injuries to key starters so many times when it came toward POs AND i got nobody injured right now and did not have severe injuries apart from one this season so the software might think it is time to kick out one or two Austrian starters.

And i better have HB2 Allens leg broken instead of HB1 Simontons...

And as the game has no effect whatsoever on any other team (except my GM-stat) i would not mind losing. And it is indeed interesting to see the backups perform......

We will see.......

[Niki]

In Europe I do feel Niki has done an amzing job with Amsterdam and stuck to the task so well and it has totally paid off. It pains us that we only JUST lost to Amsterdam early in the season but they deserved the win and have done nothing but improve.

thanks Ronnie, well it cost me some years to built a team, and I have a very good season but like everyone we want to be at the top and stay there, just like Montreal, san Antonio and Frankfurt. The last couple of season more teams have proved that they are stable: Austria, New York and Amsterdam. But I am sure we have a very good group of GM's at the moment so it will be hard to stay at the top, other teams will knock on the door one of these days

[jcompton-Orlando]

But I am sure we have a very good group of GM's at the moment

You hear that, Battye? Niki's talking smack about us.

[Niki]

You hear that, Battye? Niki's talking smack about us.

hehe you know I told you to stay in the fwl, Battye was a shock he did not even say he considered to stop, I would have said the same if both of you were still a gm! I am more or less saying we have not those kinds of gm's that trade away a whole team for peanuts (nice food btw) and then stop

[Mario ADK]

But I am sure we have a very good group of GM's at the moment

You hear that, Battye? Niki's talking smack about us.

No problem, Jason and Andrew:
I´ll take revenge for Nikis saying next season when my team is going to sweep amsterdam.
Unfortunately Austria and Amsterdam won´t meet once more this season as Frankfurt is going to spank Amsterdams butt in the WC-game (before they are getting spanked by Austria in the EFC-game)....... 

[Niki]

But I am sure we have a very good group of GM's at the moment

You hear that, Battye? Niki's talking smack about us.

No problem, Jason and Andrew:
I´ll take revenge for Nikis saying next season when my team is going to sweep amsterdam.
Unfortunately Austria and Amsterdam won´t meet once more this season as Frankfurt is going to spank Amsterdams butt in the WC-game (before they are getting spanked by Austria in the EFC-game)....... 

how late shall I wake you up? I will do next week for the moment sweet dreams