The Ratz' Views

Heacham Hornets won't be joining us this season, so if you were counting on them as one of your 12 teams, Scott, then we only have 11 so far. Brian has become bored of Hattrick and will be taking a back seat this season, I assume it's sour grapes (hehe).

As far as the Fed Cup goes I have still not made up my mind... I love playing footie against you guys (Not because I have won most of my games :P) but it would be great to represent you as well! The way I see it, though, is that there will only be, at most, a couple more seasons of this cup the way it is. Most of our teams are getting better and will be surviving in our local Cup competitions for longer in the near future... so a season out of this comp could mean I don't get to play it again ever! Soon, most of us will not be elligible to start in week 5 or 6.

I am always keen to expand the number of teams as this is a great way of becoming known throughout the Hattrick world and so guaranteeing the Cup's survival in the future, even without the original teams. I suggest we try for 16 teams this season, in four groups of 4 teams. This first round would take 6 weeks to compete. The top three teams of each division go through to round 2. In round two we have four divisions of three teams. Each team plays one home and one away game against the others in their group. The winner of each division progresses to round three. Round two would be completed in two weeks. The four remaining teams play a single leg cup match against one of the remaining teams (semi finals) Home ground advantage going to the highest scoring team from round two. Then a two leg final (and third place final) as happened last season. Using this method the Cup would take 11 weeks to complete and so would have to start no later than week 5.

Alternatively I would like to suggest the following set up. 16 teams in 4 divisions of 4 teams. Each team only plays four games in this round (4 weeks), against the two teams from the opposite side of the 'pond' (North America v Europe). The highest placed team from each continent progresses from each division. In round two the qualifying 8 teams are arranged in two divisions of four again, this time each division is made up of teams from the same continent. Each team plays all the others in their division home and away (6 weeks). The winner of each of these divisions plays a single Cup match final, home field going to the holders of the previous season's cup (N.America or Europe); i.e. This season's home ground advantage, in the final, would go to the European side. This would also take 11 weeks to complete.

The first suggestion, above, would be not too dissimilar to the current set up. The second is wildly different but keeps the flavour of the Brooky Cup, a sort of football version of the Ryder Cup.

There are many possibilities here, lets hear some other people's ideas!

Next season

The league is currently at 12 teams, and we have the option of expanding by 4 more teams if we wish. So there are a couple of things we should talk about before next season.

1) Are we going to send Ratz off to the Fed Cup? At first I loved the idea, but I'm now leaning toward keeping things within the family.

2) Is group play working? I think last year was OK, but I'm beginning to think that it might be more interesting to have 16 teams in two 8-team divisions. That would enable more teams to play each other during the course of the season, but would also mean that teams could only play each other once during the season. Plus, since there would be 7 games during B-Cup play, some teams would play 4 home games, while others would play only 3. It's not THAT big a deal--they're only friendlies--but it would be something of a hardship for those of us who take it seriously.

3) Do we need two legs for playoff matches? Do we need them for only some of the matches and not all of them? That decision may end up helping us fit more regular-season B-Cup games into our schedule.

Thoughts?

Season XX Concluded

All games are now complete and all statistics have been updated. The results page and honours list are also completed so go look see if your team has won a position of fame or infamy!

I will leave the site as it is for now and will tidy it up ready for season XXI when we get a few weeks into it ;)

Best of luck to everyone with their new season.

I, for one, expect to be financially sorted this season and with a well established set of trainees I would expect the team to improve dramatically by this time next season. I hope you will all be able to do similarly :D

Crowd Goes Wild!

Yay! We have done it again!

Okay... so the rest of you may not see this as a happy event (especially Claus) but I am sure happy ;)

What a fantastic final... It has to be said that Claus should have just won the second leg, according to the stats, which would have made the scoreline closer but as it turned out... I won 6-1 on aggregate.

As for the Confed Cup thing... I am in 2 minds about it. On the one hand I want to defend my Brooky Cup title. On the other, it would be a great honour to represent all you guys in a champion of champions competition. I think I will sleep on it.

All I have left to say is thanks to everyone for making this competition what it is, especially to Scott, without whom this comp would never have gotten off the ground. Thanks to all the teams that I beat along the way, especially Claus, I couldn't have won without you guys ;D

I really hope that this comp does as well next season as it has done this. Never fear, however, even if I don't take part in next season's Brooky Cup I will continue to maintain this website for the rest of you. I love this cup... winning this has been far more important to me than winning my division this season, in this competition I have been playing against my friends!

Skol!

Devil's Advocate

I for one have mixed feelings about the Confed Cup idea. Since I'm not winning, it doesn't really matter much I guess, but HAD I won I'm not sure I would want to sacrifice a season of beating up on our merry band to play in a different cup. On the flip side, losing either Jeff or Claus for a season is a drag as well. But maybe that's just me. Do we have the possibility of making it a "winner's choice" thing?

Just an opinion. I'm OK either way, really.