Hawke's Bay should stop chasing the Ranfurly Shield and blood the
Sat there freezing at McLean Park watching a bloke who'll be coaching Silverdale U14s in three years get ran over while our kid kept the bench warm. Riveting stuff. Everyone crowing about protecting the young fella from a Shield night - against what, exactly? Losing anyway? Plenty of punters on my TAB app had us written off regardless, and the result proved them right. If a 19-year-old can't handle one cold Saturday in Napier, he was never going to handle finals footy either. Play the kid, take the hidings now, win later. That journeyman's contract wasn't worth the paper, but sure, his experience was priceless 😏
13 posts
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✓I'll take "we lost anyway" as the honest part of your post, because that's the only bit with evidence behind it. My issue with the benching is that a cold Saturday Shield defence at McLean Park teaches a 19-year-old more in 60 minutes than a season of development caps — and the journeyman we picked instead gave us nothing to show for the "experience" argument. If the kid gets fatigued or targeted, fine, hook him at 50. At least then we'd know.Sample first, conclusions after.
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WHAT WAS THERE TO PROTECT HIM FROM?? 🔥 Kid learns more from a Shield night getting smashed than 10 development caps. We bottled it, plain and simple 🤬One love, one side ❤️
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Count me with Millie and GoTheDistance on this one. A Shield night at McLean Park is the highest-pressure data point you'll ever get on a 19-year-old, one entry, huge signal value, whereas development caps give you a bigger sample but nearly flat variance, so they tell you almost nothing about whether the kid owns the moment. We played it safe and collected neither the Shield nor the answer. 📊
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i was at the 2006 Shield challenge as a young bloke, standing on the embankment at McLean Park with me old man, and i can tell you what i remember isn't the score - it's who looked like they belonged out there. that's the lesson the selectors keep forgetting. back in my day we didn't have development caps, you learnt by getting your hands dirty on a cold Saturday, rain sideways, full crowd giving it barrels. so no, i don't buy the protecting argument one bit. watch as long as i have and you'll get it, the kids who come through tough nights are the ones still standing five seasons later. we had a 19-year-old warm the bench while the result went south anyway, so what exactly did we save him from? i've seen worse decisions, but not many that wasted a better one 😉 put the young fella on from the start next time the log o' wood's in town. if he gets pumped, he gets pumped learning.Been here longer than some have followed.
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selectors protecting the kid like he's made of glass 🤡 my TAB slips take worse hits every Saturday 😂 should've started him, sure thing, mate
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Nah, easy to say start him when it's someone else's Shield on the line 😅 I've seen young fellas chucked in too early and lose two seasons to it, remember a club final where our bloke got targeted all night and never recovered, ah well, nowt to do. Give him ten minutes off the bench and if he's smiling after, start him next week 💪You don't abandon your own.
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seen it all faithful makes a fair point, but back in the day we threw teenagers into Shield challenges all the time and most of them grew a spine for it. one bad club final doesn't outweigh what the lad could've learned under real pressure at McLean Park. ah well, we'll see 😉Seen it all, lads.
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Metric_nerd, which teenagers actually got thrown in and came out better? I keep seeing the 2006 memory invoked, but nostalgia is a poor substitute for evidence of what this particular kid would've coped with against a Shield defence. Until someone shows me a case where bloodings a 19-year-old in a one-off challenge paid off, I'm not convinced the selectors bottled anything.
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The trouble with asking for evidence on a 19-year-old is the sample size sits at whatever minutes the selectors gave him, which in this case was roughly none. I keep my own numbers each round and I could be wrong, but what I keep coming back to is this: GloryDays is right that 2006 proves nothing about this kid, and Metric_nerd is right that a Shield defence at McLean Park is the only classroom that teaches it. Both things true, which is why I can't land on a side. Depends how you count it - do we measure what the lad would've lost if he'd been pumped, or what we definitely lost by not finding out? I genuinely don't know, and anyone who says they do is having a go. Call me soft, but I'd rather we picked one policy, blood him every week in the Bunnings NPC or park him properly, than this half-way bench business where a journeyman eats the minutes and the kid eats the splinters.
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The trouble with asking for evidence on a 19-year-old is the sample size sits at whatever minutes the selectors gave him, which in this case was roughly none. I keep my own numbers each round and I could be wrong, but wh…@NickDiehard sample size of zero 😂 next you'll need peer-reviewed studies before picking a team. Just hold my pint and chuck the kid in, worst case we laugh about it at the club 🤣Memes are analysis too.
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@NickDiehard sample size of zero 😂 next you'll need peer-reviewed studies before picking a team. Just hold my pint and chuck the kid in, worst case we laugh about it at the club 🤣@UltraLife I half agree tbh, chucking him in at the deep end beats rotting on the bench 🙌 but a Shield challenge is a different beast, whole province wants it, crowd on his back, one bad burn and confidence is gone for a season. I coach juniors over here and we build them in proper, give him 20 mins off the bench somewhere first 🔥One love, one side ❤️
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Don't laugh, but I'm still learning this stuff. Is the worry mainly that a hiding in a Shield challenge could dent a young fella's confidence for good? My old coach reckoned one hard loss teaches more than five easy wins 😅 keen to hear what the blokes who've watched him at club level think.Learning from the veterans, go easy 🙏