bennymacca wrote:Ok so I thought I would hold off for a bit about posting my thoughts in the A1r vs A2 debate because of the fact that we ended up losing a close one, but here are my first impressions.
1. The difference between the overall standard isn't as much as I had thought. There were only possibly two players in their team that were clearly of a much better standard than us, and looking at the scorecard I'm sure you could work that out.
2. Coming from the A3s and into the A2s this year, suddenly having to play 75 overs instead of 65 felt like a huge jump. Those 10 overs don't sound like much of a difference but they sure felt like it. If course me being a far bastard who can't field wouldn't help that situation either. And it was probably only overs 65-75 on day one where lyndoch beat us. Maybe you could shorten it to 65 overs each, which would promote closer games
3. The one real problem I have with the system is what happened after we had lost. The next 70 overs felt like a waste, playing for time. Of course lyndoch were pushing for an outright, which is fair enough, but whether they got there or not didn't really matter to us. If we were directly competing with them on the ladder there would be a huge incentive for us to avoid an outright because of the obvious effects an outright has on the ladder, it could cost us a finals berth or whatever. But since they were gathering points for their own comp, the whole second day after we lost was playing for maybe a two points at most. If the same situation happens this week we would have been trying much harder to stop an outright.
Obviously there is pride involved and that is a relevant factor.
Big week this week, Freeling vs Angaston A1 and A2 double header, has the potential to shape both grades in the early part of the season
1. Agreed and as you proved you will be competitive but rarely win if you were to be in the A1res comp all year. Players at your club would soon lose interest if losing every week. It is that advantage of a couple class players over the b grade side that will always make the difference.
2.Agreed, yes that last 10 overs is a massive difference, but then again if your on your way up in your career its something you should get used to. I would love to have seen it stay at 65 but hey its only for one match out of 14. I love the fact in the 2s and 3s you can finish before 5pm, on the 1st day of our recent game 13 wickets fell and we still finished at 4 40. thus i have become a massive fan of the Melbourne spring carnival leaving the Caulfield Cup and Cox plate to the last race of the day.
3. I can see your point in that you had nothing but pride to play for but had Lyndoch been smarter they could have dangled the carrot for you guys more by setting a more than realistic target like say 120 off 30 overs. For the reasons you outlined it didnt matter if Lyndoch lost outright to you.
Hopefully you do find yourself in the same position this week
It is something I will push for in our crossover game vs Mallala. Would be a win win if we both got 10 points.
I was a fan of the rule for no outright points in these games but can see why we didnt go down that path.
Yes massive week in the Ango/Freeling battles.
Ango looking to go a very small way to atoning for 2 grand finals defeats at the hands of the redlegs last year.
The 2s has last years a3 premiers against a side that only won 2 games in the 2s last year. Should see Freeling smash the Panthers
Tip- Days to eat Bennymacca followed by a main of Tom Carmichael
