Honest truth, fam: the Drua are more fun to watch than the Crusaders
Watched a mate try to watch Crusaders highlights the other week and he fell asleep before the second phase - that tells you everything π Drua off turnover ball is the only reason I bother getting up on a Sunday, even if we do melt in the last ten like a punters multi on the TAB. And in reality? I'd rather lose memorably than win like it's a spreadsheet. Fight me, Christchurch. π€‘πΈ
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βYour mate fell asleep watching the Crusaders? Funny, because those highlights come with eight titles attached. I'll take the 60-metre turnover tries too, but folding in the last ten minutes every week means the other mob gets the points while we get the YouTube clips. Which one would you trade your TAB multi for come finals time?
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GloryDays_4Life mate, eight titles does nothing for me when watching them felt like watching paint dry at AMI Stadium for a decade π΄ You reckon YouTube clips don't count? Bro, my heart's still somewhere near 120bpm every time we rip it cold and go the length. That's why I'm a fan! Folding in the last ten? Hurts, yeah, proper hurts π€¬ but I'd rather lose 38-35 with the crowd on its feet than win 12-9 and forget it by Tuesday. Trophy cabinet's for the club, chaos is for us. Backing them all day, ah well, nowt to do π₯πHeart with the team, head on pause.
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GloryDays has a point I can't argue past though - I keep my own table every round, and the pattern is the same: we're level or ahead at the 70th minute, then the bench depth tells and we ship two tries. Entertainment value is real, I could be wrong, but I'd trade maybe one highlight-reel length-of-the-field effort for the ability to close out a game we've led. Both, ideally.Do the math before you argue.
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Seen worse than a team that folds late, lads. Back in the day Counties folded in every ten minutes, and we still loved 'em. Trophies fade, the clips stay πWatch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Bench depth telling? Put the kettle on at 70 min like everyone else π I'd rather die at 120bpm than nap through eight titles tbh π₯One love, one side β€οΈ
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millie love, i'm 60-odd and my heart couldn't take 120bpm every sunday, but back in the day at eden park we watched a crusaders side win ugly and half the ground dozed off anyway, beautiful chaos wins the memory test, that's what matters. ah well, we'll see.Seen it all, lads.
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Condition I'd accept the "folding late" critique on: show me the bench rotation. When our starters are still on at 65 chasing turnover ball at full pace, of course the tank is empty by 75 β that's a coaching call, and Swys has shown he'd rather die swinging. I'll take two shipped tries in ten minutes over eight titles I had to rewatch to remember.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Hater318's got it right, I reckon, I keep a running sheet every round and our usage rate at the 60-65 min mark tells the same story: starters still on chasing turnover ball, so of course the tank's empty at 75. Hard out it's a Swys philosophy thing more than a fitness thing. I'd still take the chaos over a trophy cabinet I sleep through, though I could be wrong, but my notes say we've cost ourselves at least two close ones late this season.
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Anyone who says the last ten minutes ruin it has clearly never slapped twenty NZ$ on Drua +12 and watched the line wobble as we chase everything in the 75th π Swys sending the same boys back out at 65 to hunt turnover ball is the whole point, you can coach a bench rotation, you can't coach that hunger to run it from your own 22 with no care for the clock. Memory test wins every time, Metric_nerd is right, I couldn't name half the Crusaders' grind-out wins from the last decade but I could replay our counter tries frame by frame. And honestly the folding-late mob are proving my point for me - even our collapses are entertainment. That's a sentence the Christchurch lot have never been able to type about themselves πAny stat can be bent.
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Nah Andy, that TAB punter logic is wild tbh π chasing the line at 75 is fun for the wallet, not so fun when we're hanging on for dear life AGAIN... I get the Swys philosophy thing, I do, but would it kill us to use the bench once? Fireworks every week, trophies never, beautiful chaos only counts if you're awake for the final whistle πͺπ₯You don't abandon your own.
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Honestly both things can be true at once: Nick's sheet and the bench question point the same way, and Stands is right that hanging on at 75 gets old fast. My own running numbers say the chaos pays for itself most weeks, small sample though, so I'm keeping the trophy cabinet argument open until Swys actually rotates once and we see whether the late fade fixes itself. πNumbers > vibes.
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The persistence of starters past seventy-five minutes is definitely a Swys signature, but we should be looking at the *return* on that prolonged high-intensity effort. If the rate of turnover success drops by more than twenty percent between the sixty-minute mark and the end of the try, then the philosophy loses its practical sporting merit, regardless of how fun it is for the punters. Itβs fascinating how tactical decisions based on a coach's ideology can sometimes clash directly with pure physical sustainability.Do the math before you argue.
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TaurangaBro has it right, return is the whole question. I keep a simple sheet of my own and the late turnovers only pay off when the chasing actually converts into points, otherwise we're just spending legs we need next week. Caveat being my sample is one season of watching, but yeah nah, one fresh runner at 65 wouldn't kill the philosophy.Numbers > vibes.
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watch as long as i have and you'll get it, the legs you burn in march you miss in june. fresh bodies at the 60 mark, every week, no excuses πRemember when the grass was greener π±