My plan for the Air New Zealand Cup

Here is my hypothetical plan for a future Air New Zealand Cup competition layout. It is based largely on the system the NFL uses to decide the draw in its Championship.

There will be 5 Divisions, all of equal standing.

The Northern Division
- Northland
- North Harbour
- Auckland

The Lower North Division (unimaginatively named i know)
- Counties Manukau
- Waikato
- Bay Of Plenty

The Central Division
- Taranaki
- Manawatu
- Hawkes Bay

The Southern Division
- Tasman
- Otago
- Southland

The Unaligned Division
- Wellington
- Canterbury

For the Northern, Lower North, Central and Southern Divisions the draw will look something like this per team;

- Play at home and away against the two other teams in the same division. (4 Games)
- Play against one of the Unaligned Division teams. (1 Game)
- Play against two teams from each other division aside your own division and the Unaligned Division. (6 Games) OR a 2nd game against one of the Unaligned Division teams.

All equating to an eleven game season.

A hypothetical draw for a team like Taranaki would look like this;

1)Taranaki at Hawkes Bay (1st Inter- Division Game)
2)Canterbury at Taranaki (Unaligned Division Game)
3)Taranaki at North Harbour (1st Outer- Division Game)
4)Manawatu at Taranaki (2nd Inter- Division Game)
5)Taranaki at Tasman (2nd Outer- Division Game)
6)Counties Manukau at Taranaki (3rd Outer- Division Game)
7)Taranaki at Auckland (4th Outer- Division Game)
8)Hawkes Bay at Taranaki (3rd Inter- Division Game)
9)Taranaki at Waikato (5th Outer- Division Game)
10)Southland at Taranaki (6th Outer- Division Game)
11)Taranaki at Manawatu (4th Inter- Division Game)

The Unaligned Division's draw will be different considering it is the smallest division.

Therefore Wellington and Canterbury will play each other twice and the remainder of its games against teams from outside its division.

Post- Season Play

Eight teams will progress to the post season.
Five of those teams will be teams that have won their respective division by having more points or better strength of record than any other team in their division.
The other three teams will be the three teams that didnt win their divison but had the best records outside of the 5 division champions.
So by using this method on the 2009 standings who would of made the playoffs?

Teams Points
Canterbury 47 Unaligned Division Champion- 1st seed
Wellington 43 Wildcard Team- 6th seed
Southland 41 Southern Division Champion- 2nd seed
Hawkes Bay 41 Central Division Champion- 3rd seed
Auckland 39 Northern Division Champion- 4th seed
Waikato 37 Lower Northern Division Champion- 5 seed
BOP 32 Wildcard Team- 7th seed
Taranaki 28 Wildcard Team- 8th seed
Tasman 28
Otago 27
Manawatu 24
Nth Harbour 20
Northland 16
Counties 12

So the 1st round of playoffs would have been

Canterbury(1) v Taranaki(8)
Southland(2) v BOP(7)
Hawkes Bay(3) v Wellington(6)
Auckland(4) v Waikato(5)

Advantages
- More local derbies
- A bigger focus on provincial pride
- Playoff races
- 14 game season
- Room for expansion (15 teams would be more logical)

A FANTASY FIASCO.

My decison to chronicle the fiasco that has been my NFL Fantasy team the South Taranaki Spartans this season came out of both boredom and an eagerness on my part to analyse where i went wrong so next season i'd be a more seasoned campaigner.

I had high hopes that sunday afternoon as me and 11 other eager players from across NZ settled into our armchairs ready to select teams that would take our respective teams to glory.

THE FIRST ROUND

Collective groans as Adrian Peterson is taken with the first pick by the Wellington City Wolves, us all secretly hoping that the team owner of the Wellington City Wolves would throw a curveball into our draftboards by picking someone other than All Day.

Im up on the clock. fourth overall, the heart is racing as im one click away from determining the fate of my season. The first Spartan... ever iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis Michael THE BURNER TURNER!!!!!! I had grand delusions of Matt Ryan throwing beautiful crisp passes to Tony Gonzalez and Roddy White all sunday long forcing the defence to stop the pass as opposed to stopping the Burn. Unfortunately for me Turner spent the first half of the season playing like he had drank a bottle of whiskey prior to entering the field before ripping up for a few weeks then been injured for the latter half of the season. Dont bother turning up to training camp next year.

But i was lucky as far as first round picks in the NZ Gamer League went. AP, Maurice Jones Drew and Randy Moss (!?) all went before i had a chance to pick my man but at least i didnt pick Matt Forte who went pick 6. Shame CapitalCity Ninjas- you suck!! But i cant help but wonder what could of been if i had of picked Drew Brees.... Chris Johnston...... Steven Jackson hell even Deangelo Williams. Tom Brady was also in there BUT I WOULD NEVER PICK HIM!!

THE SECOND ROUND

I had a plan, a hunch you may call it and thanks to my Machiavellian tactics on the conference chatboard in dissuading every other owner how useless this player was and that he was a third round pick at the most (even though next season he will be a bonafide 1st round pick in my humble opinion). In front of my Dell (that wasnt a product placement im afraid) sweating as i see players getting picked...

11) LT (ouch)

12) Peyton Manning (i hope you also bought a lotto ticket that night)

13) Clinton Portis (hahaha and i though i was bad)

14) Larry Fitzgerald (how was he not picked in the first??)

15) Aaron Rodgers (doing his best imitation of Favre w/o the interceptions)

16) Frank Gore (fizzer much)

17) heart attack, brush away the second thoughts, click on the name, confirm. The newest Spartan, all the way from San Diego.... Phiiiiiiiiiiiiiilip Riiiiiiiiiiiivers!!!!!! What a pick. What great foresight on my behalf. 17 ppg, 7th ranked QB in fantasy. Great feeling!!!

THE THIRD ROUND

This is where, im sad to say- my draft naivette showed up. In my enlightened state, sharing the love i decided to pick a wide receiver. Not a bad decison by its own but it context i blame this pick for my dismal season. I listened to the hype, i got my popcorn ready. T.O.- what. the. fuck. Visions of Trent Edwards throwing deep balls all day long to ma boy Terrell Owens were quickly, and i mean Tiger Woods driving away from Elin quickly, dispelled after the lame duck efforts TO produced fantasy wise in the first few weeks. He aint coming back next season, he aint even on the bus for the Spartans this season. He got told to hand in his playbook a loooooooong time ago. Before Ryan Fitzpatrick started throwing those deep balls around the place anyways arghhhhhhhhh.

I coulda picked ma man Brandon Marshall (but i along with everyone else in my league except the owner of the Big Banana's thought the Denver scene was a no go and that with Kyle Orton under center big ole Brandon would be out wide getting his hands cold), i coulda picked my boyy OCHO but at this stage i was only buying into one hype merchant and that was ma (former) boy T.O. Still, what doesnt kill us makes us stronger...

THE FOURTH ROUND

Hunch #2, i thought this man would be posting massive numbers in a breakout season. Alas i was wrong. I thought he would be Jamarcus Russell's Tony Gonzalez but it was not meant to be. Tyler Thigpen had more success in double coverage with Tony Gonzalez than JaMarcus Russell could ever hope to have with my fourth Spartan picked, Zach Miller. I must admit i have a huge man crush on Zach Miller due to my Superstar days on 08 when i was Quarterback for the oakland raiders and stupid AI meant an average rush went for 2 yards so every 2nd passing play went to my boy Zach Miller. His struggles werent his fault, his QB should be working at McDonalds and his wide receivers fail to trouble the secondary. That said there is enough love left in this heart to give him a chance next season on the proviso that JaMarcus Russell continues to get wood spinters up his arse on the bench and Bruce Gradkowski continues his development or the Raiders go all 1st round on a QB like they did a few years ago with mr JaMarcus (but honestly using your 1st round picks in the last 3 years on a QB, RB, WR then another QB isnt franchise building, a 12 year old playing franchise mode on Madden 2010 knows this, sort your shit Al Davis)

I must point out my selection of Mr Miller came after Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten were taken so i decided to jump the gun a bit and pick ma boyy Zachary.

But if any experienced fantasy owners are reading this they will be able to spot the Spartans fatal flaw. Out of my 1st four picks three were arguably busts BUT i had only one running back. For the unenlightened running backs are a fantasy teams bread and butter- the one guarenteed to get you the carbohydrates (points) your body (team) desperately needs. In picking T.O. and Zachary i had missed out/ passed out on running backs such as Thomas Jones and Brandon Jacobs. Not superstar RB's but a guarenteed 10 odd points a week. This would come back to haunt me in regards to depth.

THE FIFTH ROUND

One day at the Hawera Pub, a man some consider a bit of a legend told me that everyman has two sides to him, the whiskey drinking side and the milk drinking side. And he said that when it came down to the crunch, when everything was on the line you had to back your whiskey drinking side. Well, this was crunch time for me- i needed a quality running back and fast... Derrick Ward... Willie Parker... Felix Jones... Ronnie Williams... None of them caught my eye although i was keen for my boy Ronnie but an idea came to mind that quickly pushed all other contenders out of contention. We all know Brian Westbrook is a little injury prone to say the least and his backup, the rookie LeSean McCoy is a star in the making. I figured that Westbrook would have about 6 good weeks until McCoy time and although it was a move that wouldnt pay immediate dividends at this stage of the season im profitting quite nicely from Mr McCoy.

THE SIXTH ROUND

Bernard Berrian. Handed in his playbook even before T.O.

THE SEVENTH ROUND

In my opinion this pick was the scoop of the draft. This man has what it takes to be a Spartan and i hope to select him for all my Fantasy teams until he retires (then i'll give him a cruisy front office position). Enter Vincent Jackson. Outstanding year kid, take a bow, have a drink. Its on me.

THE EIGHTH ROUND

I wont lie, i got REEEEEAL excited with all this off season talk about Rex Ryan dialing up blitzes left right and center and im a real sucker for that maverick attitude. I thought i got a steal when everyone else was picking the Ravens or Steelers. It was a great pick for a while then the wheels started falling off. Definitely has the talk to be a Spartan but would love to see some walk. A so so year for the Jets Defense/ Special Teams

THE NINTH ROUND

Fred Taylor. Still furious. Off to the pub. Will finish this later.

THE TENTH ROUND

Brett Favre. In the tenth!!!! This little brainwave came to me around the eighth round. Was sweating when it came to the crunch but no one else in the league had the foresight to pick him. Gave me a great situational combo with Philip Rivers as i could just swap around as i pleased and as of late has given me quite the selection dilemma. Great pick, the elder statesman of the team for sure, am and always will be a huge fan of his work!!

THE ELEVENTH ROUND

Derrick Mason. Should of stayed in retirement. Annoying. Everytime i started him he would get no points and everytime he was on the bench he rack up the big scores. Frustrating.

THE TWELVTH ROUND

Ryan Longwell. Solid pick. A very sound investment. Lehman Brothers take note.

THE THIRTENTH ROUND

Tedd Ginn Jnr. All that speed aint gunna count for shit if you cant catch. That dropped pass in the endzone against the colts. You bastard.

THE FOURTENTH ROUND

Ricky Williams. To be honest i wasnt happy with this pick, but WHAT a season. Ronnie Brown who?? Spartan Hall of Famer right thuuuuuuurrrrr!!!!

THE FIFTENTH ROUND

Heath Miller. Thought it'd be cool to have Zach's brother in the team. Found out they werent related. Pick fail. But a good week to week matchup option with Zach even though Heath saw more gametime.

THE SIXTEENTH ROUND

Jeremy Maclin. Another Wide Receiver who no longer has a Spartan's Playbook. Will be offered a tryout next year though.

The Current Spartans Squad as of the 13th December 2009 looks like this

QB

Philip Rivers

Brett Favre

RB

Michael Turner

Ricky Williams

LeSean McCoy

Jason Snelling

Beanie Wells

WR

Vincent Jackson

Sidney Rice (Replaced Terrell Owens)

Johnny Knox (replaced Jeremy Maclin)

Derrick Mason

Pierre Garcon (replaced Bernard Berrian)

TE

Zach and Heath Miller

D/ST

Jets

K

Ryan Longwell

Its been an interesting journey and with a record of 4 and 9 its a safe bet i wont make the playoffs. But i was 1 and 6 so to go 3 and 3 with a game to go before our leagues playoffs is heartening and bodes well for next season.

So what did i learn

1) Always pick two RB's in your top three

2) Sometimes its better to be a milk drinker.

3) Popcorn is never a good long term option.

4) Dont pick players on supposed family connections.

5) Dont select players who rely on QB's like JaMarcus Russell for points.

Thank you for reading the first and i hope not the last post from Musings from the shadowlands, i hope you did enjoy.