McLean Park's southerly is worth more points to us than any signing
Anyone who reckons the southerly is just a romantic story clearly hasn't sat in the old stand watching visiting kickers shank their lines all arvo. That 12-6 grind over Counties wasn't pretty, but you could see them panic every time they turned into it, kicking for touch like the ball was a live grenade. Pick the right end at the toss and you're already a few points up before anyone's broken a sweat.
I'd back that breeze over any big-name signing we could blow the club's money on, honestly 🤡 A fancy recruit costs a fortune and might have an off day. The wind turns up every single week and plays for free. The blokes at the TAB have been shortening the line on us at McLean Park for years for a reason, they're not stupid. Yeah nah, the legend's real, and anyone who doubts it should try goalkicking into it themselves 😏
14 posts
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✓The panic you're describing happens in gale-force southerlies, and I don't remember Counties weekend being one of those. Show me the numbers on their kicking accuracy that arvo versus a calm day and I'll concede; until then 12-6 looks like twoaverage sides grinding out a defensive scrap, same as they'd do anywhere. Love the legend, but wind didn't tackle anyone into the mud alone.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Numbers or nah, Counties couldn't get out of their half all arvo 💪 we don't need a spreadsheet to know the southerly had them shook 😱🔥In the stands since I was a kid.
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I keep the running sheet on this stuff and GloryDays has half a point, small sample though. One 12-6 win over Counties in ordinary conditions doesn't prove the breeze is worth a try a game. What I'd say is the wind's value shows up over a whole season of territory stats, and teams that win the toss at McLean Park and take the southerly behind them consistently finish more sets in the opposition 22 after the break. So both of you are right: no single arvo settles it, but UncleAllDay's gut matches the pattern across the file. The legend holds up better than the sceptics think, just never on the strength of one scrap.Numbers > vibes.
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Seen plenty of sides lost at McLean Park when I was a young fella standing on the rail, the good ones play the wind, the ordinary ones play the score. BadBeat's right that one 12-6 over Counties proves nothing on its own, but watch as long as I have and you'll notice the pattern: teams kick away from it every single time, and that tells you something the spreadsheet won't. 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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Ask anyone who's kicked at training into that southerly and they'll tell you. Your leg just dies halfway through the motion 😂 GloryDays wants a spreadsheet, fair enough, but I'd put NZ$20 at the TAB any day the forecast says gale that the visiting 10 shanks one dead. 12-6 over Counties was ugly, sure, but they were wilting by the second half, that's the breeze doing its thing 🤡 Wait for the fanboys to pile in now, mate.Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Nah come on, one tidy 12-6 over Counties doesn't settle it 😂 Where's the bit where we lose with the wind too, eh? I've sat through enough southerly games at McLean Park watching US punt it long and see it get swallowed as well 😅 Legend's good, but I want more than one arvo's worth of proof before we hand the breeze a contract 🔥Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Supporter_Fan's got a fair whinge about us losing with the wind too, but that's half the story eh. back in my day every side came to McLean Park and spent the first half kicking into the old stand with the southerly howling, then watched their forwards blow out like old men by the break. the counties game was just the most recent page in a very long book, the young lot never saw the nights when the visiting ten would turn it over on the full three times before the water break and everyone in the old stand would start chuckling, because we knew what was coming. you want proof from one arvo? nobody's saying the breeze kicks the goals for us. what it does is turn an even match into a scrappy one, and scrappy suits us down to the ground. that 12-6 wasn't a fluke, it was the wind doing what it always does - making the fancy stuff die and leaving the hungrier side standing. i'd take that over any marquee signing, happily. 😉Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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MatchdayTillIDie nails it. You can see it in the scrums. Visiting props start shuffling by the 30th minute into that breeze, and no spreadsheet captures a tighthead gasping.
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MatchdayTillIDie nails it. You can see it in the scrums. Visiting props start shuffling by the 30th minute into that breeze, and no spreadsheet captures a tighthead gasping.@GloryDays_4Life spot on mate, a gassed tighthead hides nothing 🔥 played in Napier once against that breeze and my lungs were wrecked by halftime, and I was a back 😅 the stats boys can say n of 1 all they like, anyone who's packed down there KNOWS... it's a weapon 🙌One love, one side ❤️
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GloryDays has it, a winded tighthead tells you more than any table. I could be wrong, but the Counties game was one afternoon of evidence, not a sample. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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@FrontRowFan one afternoon?? mate that breeze blows there every second weekend, ask any visitor half who's come out of Napier wheezing 😤 you don't need a sample size when you can literally see props blowing hard before the oranges 🍊 some things the table just won't catch, ah well, nowt to doOne love, one side ❤️
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FrontRowFan's "could be wrong" is doing a lot of heavy lifting, because he's right - one Counties afternoon is a tiny sample, and I've kept enough round-by-round tables to know what an n of 1 is worth. The wind-at-the-old-stand story and the scrum-fade story both sound true; the nuance is that one explains kicking stats and the other explains fitness, and neither shows up cleanly in a 12-6 scoreline. Until we tally a proper stretch of southerly afternoons, I'll keep my spreadsheet open and the legend unsentenced.
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Took a school trip side to Napier years ago and those kids were gone by the half, and that was with the breeze doing HALF its usual work 😂 FrontRowFan mate, you want a sample size? ask any coach who's kicked to the wrong corner there, the table won't tell you that, your lungs will 🔥On the terraces since I was a kid.