From my press entered this week. Thought it might deserve some wider discussion. Thoughts people? Is the 2CP deduction fair?

Cow resources were dealt a blow last sesh as a 6-1 away defeat to the ever improving Gretna meant COW were considered 'blown out' and thus had 2CP deducted. Yes you read that correct, 2CP deducted. Now I believe the point of the blow out rule is to punish deliberate weak team lineups. Consider this though, some teams in the CECIL cup have admitted to fielding 'weakened' teams. Was there punishment dealt???? COW boss Bishop insists that the team he put out against Gretna was not a weakened team. It was simply a team that could not cope with the might of GRE. He insists he would NEVER deliberately field a weak team. He will of course admit that his priority is his home matches and therefore will juggle the EL so that his star players are fit for them. Considering the next match after the GRE debacle is at home against league leaders Huntly then surely it's wise saving his best players for that match, one he feels he can win with only his best side. Bishop did however admit that playing L with 3 in midfield isn't the wisest. But the purpose of the rule was not to punish stupidity but to punish skullduggery! To the appeals forum with this one.....

Asking the commish to scour every match report for weakened lineups every week is very time consuming.

In SaSo, managers can appeal against a blow-out. This then sends the commish to the exact match, where he can decide whether or not the team was just out-classed rather than weakened. If the appeal is genuine, then the 2CP are reinstated.

Maybe bring this into SESL?

I guess if you had known you were going to be outclassed you would/should perhaps have played Stall to ensure the blow-out was far less likely?

Ultimately, as airdrieboss mentioned, this would be time consuming for Mark and therefore I'd be willing to support any decision he makes.

One tactical option you could use in future...

T,>=,1,G,<=,-4,S

May save future embarrassment?

Cheers,

Nigel

You just appeal it to Commish, COW.

If its in SESL then its usually in SASO. Do SASO not just copy SESL rules?

SaSo Rules was adapted from the SESL's (Season 11 or 12 i think), if I remember correctly, for the first season. But the managers all came together to make changes so it is different in many ways to SESL. Although they are very similar. Also, Mark did manage a team in SaSo, so he helped Kev greatly with the running of it and starting it up. So you'd expect the leagues to be very similar!

Sorry COW I didn't even realise I had beaten you 6-1 or I would have taken the chance to rub it in with some press this week!

The 2cp may have already been refunded, but if not, I can add my support to COW's request for one.
COW played many of its best players, including two aggressively, within the limitations of EL that he had at the time. COW also went Press in the final 15, hardly the act of a team seeking to deliberately field a week team. (Weak teams get shredded when they Press, if you hadn't already figured it out)

The 10 shots to 6 advantage for GRE was about right, and GRE got a bit lucky.

I welcome the chance to "Bring it to the Commish's attention"

Okay Commish, consider this thread as the official appeal!

I am sitting on the fence. While COW is correct: the purpose of the rule was not to punish stupidity but to punish skullduggery!, it is not a great argument to ask for a blow-out refund as you played 3 in midfield while going Long Ball.
Even worse was going Press tactic with a very average line-up!

I would vote for a half refund. 1 CP returned.

Over to the appeals panel then.....

Issue resolved with Commish. Thanks for the comments.

Glad the issue is resolved COW.

hey BUC, not sure what the problem is with playing Longball and 3 MF's..thats perfectly valid, in fact Longball will work (with teh right teams) playing even a 4-4-2 formation so that's not a reason to cast doubt

Maybe we'll see HIB playing Longball in the 1-5-3-Lee Hinds formation
no worries Matt, I'm just teasing you.

My own side played 2-5-3 Longball with just 2 DFs - having a lousy defense has its good sides
I am forced to experiment and it leads to many surprising results
This formation could break any Ball control team.

Sorry, but I disagree with some of you there.
In my opinion, blow out appeal should ONLY be successful, if a team, who lost by 5 or more goals was playing 90 minutes of Stall with Top 11 (including first GK)! And on top of that, this team should sell no star players earlier in the Season!
Yes, I know it is harsh, but here are my arguments:
1.It is ridiculous to play Press against a stronger team with 21 SL GK in goal (as it was the case in the match GRE-COW). COW’s manager should be aware of the big chance of blowout if you play with DEF Totals=40 against an attacking team as Gretna is.
2.If one team is reboulding, it’s manager should always pay attention that he doesn’t weaken his team too much (as it is a case with Livingston, currently). It would be just too easy to sell off of your aging stars, then concentrate a huge amount of TP’s, CP’s, vegetate a season or two and then came up with a super team. No, managers should afford to sell only so many good players that they will still have strong enough team to be safe from blowouts. Otherwise, blow outs are their responsibility and no CP's should be returned.

I know there are managers out there who would be glad to bring out Top 11 two matches in a row and then rest everything in third match. But here is a catch: a danger from blowout.

I just want to say that successful blow out appeals should be extremely rare. Otherwise, almost in every game a manager could find excuses why blow out happen.

You make some interesting and valid points Ciril, particularly around responsibility not to sell off the higher SL, older players to leave you vulnerable to blowouts. This particular case is closed but the debate is worth having around this particular issue because these sorts of things could easily happen again.

Cheers,

Nigel

Blowouts seem a big issue this season so far. Ciril makes alot of valid points above, and be assured I do not refund CP for blowouts very often (just ask LIV boss!)
I am looking for effort in the match, and poor team tactics alone is not a reason to have a blowout fine reversed.
Olmec software handles the blowouts automatically, so any refund on appeal is a manual one.

I do not want managers appealing every other week. If you have been blow out then its likely you deserved to lose by more than 5 goals. However....

Olmec software does throw up some bizarre results - as have been seen already this season - and one manager has quit this season over freak results, and another was sacked for continued personal abuse to me on freak results (its automated software, and it does not play favourites!)