Home Improvement
This week, a prominent Sydney paper released an article written by a prominent Sydney tool entitled “Buzz Rothfield’s 50 ways to improve the NRL as the countdown to the 2014 Grand Final begins.”
Could it not have simply read “50 ways to improve the NRL”? The tool’s name is written (again) beneath the headline, and we all know that the footy is hurtling towards the finals series. And hands up if you know what year it is.
Well I figure I’m twice as smart as the previously mentioned tool, so therefore I only need half as many ways to improve things. So I present to you:
The Crystal Ballboy’s 25 really, really good ideas for making NRLCEO kinda better for fantasy football players who take things a little too seriously because they have little else going on in their lives, as the countdown to Round 24’s ‘Struggler’s Cup’ clash between the Sharks and Raiders begins.
- A live site/phone application that has realtime notifications of when your (and your opposition’s) players score, with realtime score updates.
- Fantasy football betting: Virtual money that everyone can use to bet on results of the Champions League. This will make it even more desirable/envious to be in the top comp, and will advertise it to the rest of the NRLCEO community.
- Making the top tier competitions viewable by the public.
- State of Origin round – where CEO’s can elect to play as NSW or QLD and select players (from their respective states) to play head to head against a random opponent during a regular round of NRL.
- Anzac Test (that follows the format above between Australian and NZ players)
- Pacific Island test (same as above with Fiji, Tonga, and Samoan players)
- A stats page for your NRLCEO team, including longest winning streak, longest losing streak, current streak.
- A system for legacy leagues to transfer over from year to year.
- Statistics for your team’s previous performances against other teams in your league throughout the years.
- A place to display your league’s/competition’s logo.
- A page to upload a picture of the trophy your competition is vying for.
- Automatically generated flair/virtual trophy cabinet for teams who have won the competition before, have won the wooden spoon, or won the minor premiership.
- A monthly NRLCEO vodcast. The Tantasy and Moneyball guys are great. But a video of a regular NRLCEO panel discussion would be great to see.
- A notification sent to your phone an hour before kickoff, notifying you if there have been any changes to the NRL lineups.
- A private message system within your league.
- A tipping competition for all of NRLCEO, with a leader ladder that is customisable by overall, players in your league, people who support your team/state/country.
- A ‘home page’ for your team that is customisable for your team’s colours.
- A page to upload/design a team jersey/kit for your club, and the jersey is displayed on your team’s homepage.
- A message board for the entire NRLCEO.
- A nominated “18th Man” who is able to be substituted AFTER a game, if someone within your 17 does not play (they cannot be used if a player plays but doesn’t score.)
- A backup kicker, i.e. a nominated second string kicker who can be named as a backup, and who’s goal points count if the first choice kicker fail to land any goals.
- A page listing all the new-to-first-grade players freshly available to CEOs each week.
- A page listing the most recruited and most dropped players each week.
- A page listing the percentage of ownership of each player throughout ALL competitions.
- A public polling option where CEO’s can ask ALL other CEO’s “Who should I play, Player A or Player B” or, “Should I trade Player A for Player B: Yes or No?”
There you have it. Much better suggestions done in half the time! Let me know what you think of my suggestions. Tweet me at @CrystalBallboy, drop me an email at CrystalBallboy@gmail.com or tell the Commish @Fantasy_NRLCEO
If you’ve read the weekly NRLCEO email that got sent out yesterday, you’ll know that the Crystal Steeden was quite wrong in it’s predictions. Sure it said Souths would win, but it stuffed up the margin. It said Hodges would play, but not score – wrong again. It said that Maranta would be the player dropped, not Granville.
So while I send the Crystal Steeden out for repairs, I’m going to employ my Magic 8 Ball. The Coin of Destiny was good for one week, so here’s hoping the 8 Ball has some tipping magic for us all.
EELS v BULLDOGS
Will the Eels win? DEFINITELY
Will the Bulldogs win? YES
So a draw? DEFINITELY
Dafuq? Well I wouldn’t have picked it. The good thing about tied games, is that when it goes into extra time, it gives those forwards who are ‘Close but no Cigar’ contenders, the extra time they need to get over the line and score a WHT. So the Magic 8 Ball suggests you
RAIDERS v DRAGONS
Will the Raiders win? YES
Will the Dragons win? NOT YET
Will the Raiders’ backline fire? IT’S FATE!
Ho-boy! Is there a longer standing hoodoo in the NRL than the Raiders over the Dragons? The Magic 8 Ball is predicting that the streak won’t be broken just yet. And with the Dragons performance last week against the Panthers, it’s easy to see why.
Edrick Lee is back in the Canberra lineup, and if they’re to fire like the 8 Ball predicts, it’s highly likely he will be amongst the point scorers.
STORM v SHARKS
Will the Storm win? PROBABLY
Will the Sharks win? IT’S FATE
Are you kidding me? YES
Damned smartarse 8 Ball! I’m going to stick with it’s original prediction of a probable Storm win. Makes sense too. Melbourne are back at home after a two week road trip, and they will be smarting from their last minute defeat by the Knights. Expect Melbourne to storm through Cronulla’s defence repeatedly. Gallen back in the pack will keep it from being a complete blow out, but yeah, I predict the Storm backs will run riot.
TIGERS v ROOSTERS
Will the Tigers win? MAYBE
Will the Roosters win? IT’S FATE
It seems like the Roosters will take this match, but the MAYBE suggests that Wests will be putting in a little more effort than last week. A bigger effort from the Tigers means one or two more WHT’s from their ranks.
Saturday night at Leichhardt will provide the Rooster backs with several tries, and one to their forwards. Is Chris Lawrence the most useless guy in NRLCEO this year? If not he certainly makes the top 3. I predict a try to Lulia though.
KNIGHTS v WARRIORS
Will the Knights win? DEFINITELY
Will the Warriors win? DOUBTFUL
Makes sense. Warriors away – Warriors loss. Newcastle will be buoyed by their last start win over the Storm, and will be looking to make it two in a row. There’s absolutely no reason why they cant do it either. With Boyd ruled out for the rest of the year, Gidley will be cemented at fullback, and wont get another WHT for the rest of the year. Clydesdale on the other hand will get one every week.
TITANS v SEA EAGLES
Will the Titans win? PERHAPS
Will the Sea Eagles win? NOT ADVISABLE
I’m willing to believe the Magic 8 Ball on this one. Manly have had their troubles this year, and I predicted their downfall weeks ago. They proved me wrong and kept up their winning ways. Last week they and Souths were equal favourites with the bookies. But Souths blew them out of the water, and I am predicting that Manly are in a freefall. Boom! This is my upset of the week. Manly forwards to tackle their asses off while the Titans outscore them.
PANTHERS v COWBOYS
Will the Panthers win? YES
Will the Cowboys win? PERHAPS
I’m predicting that the ‘PERHAPS’ means ‘NO.’ Though it also means that the game will be close. The Cowboys are terrible on the road, and a cold Monday night in the Blue Mountains wont suit the North Queensland team at all. Moylan and Mansour are killing it for Penrith, and I can’t see why they wont score again on Monday. With Sims suspended, Cooper should return to the starting lineup and get himself back on the WHT scoring list. In fact, several of the Cowboy forwards should notch up a WHT.
So fingers crossed the Magic 8 Ball is on the money for us all this week! Good luck in your finals.
The Crystal Ballboy
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