1) Hi, we want to make an interview related with Legendary Players. Firstly, how did you feel when you hear that?
Thanks Ismail (Isk42), I hope you don’t mind me going to your profile page and looking up your real name. The legends league is still a new concept, with each new competition being more competitive. In the first season most managers adhered to the have fun policy of picking players who may not have been the best, but were remembered most fondly in their respective starting teams. That has changed in this second edition, as the managers involved took things a lot more seriously. As a result, about a third of the way through this league crew issued an ultimatum that no more tactic changes can be made. Not every side was making changes, I ran the same tactic from the start, but a couple of sides that began poorly were wanting to make ongoing changes for each game. Given the extra work involved for Crew, mainly on Peter’s (Thunderexpress) end to accommodate these adjustments I can understand the decision to place a lock on the tactics.
2) What was your nation’s attitude towards legendary players/league? Especially in Forums?
Initially I began asking for submissions using a forum thread. Australia had many more managers in the past, producing a lot of great retired players and we still hold the record for most goals scored by a player in a single world cup with Ivan Hogan’s bag of 21 goals in the 2005 World Cup. Also I’ve run threads regarding our best players of the past, in order to name some of the A-League competitions.
I’m the current HRA for Australia and New Zealand, working as a reporter for the zone for around 3-4 years and written on the A-League for the last 10 seasons, along with a few stints as an NCA, so I’ve a good idea of who our best players were. But I wanted to hear from the community, it’s unfortunately getting smaller, but we still have a few managers with knowledge that reaches all the way back to the beginning of Managerzone and they were invaluable to providing insights on players around before I began playing and a sense of their story from which I could embellish. Not many Aussie managers post in the forums, but I want to thank the 10 or so that did during the early phases of putting this team together.
3) What kind of strategy did you follow to be able to collect the team? Were there pros and cons?
I used my knowledge of past international players through being involved in the National team setup and domestic players with a good story that weren’t involved with the National team like Downing Beer, the greatest name to ever be bestowed upon a player before the introduction of youth name change options. I went through every international tournament and made a list all the players that were given their starting debuts in each era, put these lists on the forums and had members of the community recall their favorite players.
Using their input I made the final selections. The original side was heavily weighted with strikers and light on defense. But I thought why not run with it and see what happens, so our 1st edition team was an entertainment plus committed attack, with no thought to defense. We scored heavily and conceded just as many. So at the seasons end I re-evaluated and went on a specific recruitment drive to bolster our backline adding 10 more players. I undertook this task by myself, but I did inform the community of what my intentions were, the reasons why I was doing so, who the recruitment targets were and no one objected. So with a new tactic and mindset we began the legends 2nd edition.
4) What was the most different story you wrote when you were making up the squad? And who did it belong to?
I had a lot of fun putting the biographies together, though they took a bit of time to create an original story for each player. I turned them as a creative writing exercise, combining the available international statistics for each player and manager’s recollections of each player using direct quotes by each manager from the forums. I further embellished each player with an individual personality as to what they have been doing since their playing careers ended. These have varied from working in the media, backpacking, elderly sea changes taking up surfing, wheeling a couple out of the retirement home, battles with arthritis and those who have settled down overseas to name a few.
Over the years I’ve also been able to gather information regarding why some managers have named their teams what they have. For instance, our longest serving manager without sporadically leaving and returning is Rookerman and his team Glasston. No team have spent more seasons in the A-League than Glasston, 3 of his players have made the Legends squad Cullen Rowden, Jessop Howard and Neale Christini. In his own words his team have been named after the Glasston Bottles factory, I don’t know if it’s a real of fictitious company, but since he rarely sells players and has the only two players Cullen Rowden and Neale Christini in the legends squad to have been a youth and play out their whole careers at the same club I was able to incorporate zonal drafting laws based around clubs only being able to recruit players living within the residential boundaries of the clubs’ territory. I made Cullen Rowden’s dad an employee of the Bottles factory whose family lived in the company built housing flats, so he was a local kid that became the star of the local team he supported as a kids, going on to become captain of the National Team.
5) When you were setting the tactics, how did you decide it? Did you get some help?
The tactic we used in the 1st legends league was a 3-1-3-3 formation chosen by Dagriggstar, I gave a few options on the forum and he suggested another formation that could fit all the strikers into the team. I went with it, organizing the nuts and bolts of who played where and what rules were used. It ended up being short passing, committed, attack. We scored as many as we conceded, but it was fun and gave me a lot of data on who were our best attacking combinations.
For the 2nd legends league I made known my intention to reinforce the defense and balance the side out. The changes weren’t radical, 7 of the starting players in the 1st edition were still on the pitch with 6 new players joining the active tactic as either starting players or bench subs. I changed the formation to a more standard 3-2-2-1-2. The changes I made were Paz Beattie in goals, Roger Miller to defense and Amos Fazey as a sweeper, Munroe Waterland moved from the bench to starting striker and Brandon Pickhills, Eliot Cuddihy and Zackery Forrest joined the bench.
I made any changes based on the data from the legends 1st edition. Bo Boylin remained in central midfield with Cullen Rowden as wide midfielder. Murdock Rizzardo became our main striker, Bickford Bundy wide striker and Munroe Waterland sat in behind them. Amos Fazey joined Berke Kean as our sweepers. Brain Beattie became the heart of the defense, flanked by Berry Beverley and Roger Miller, with Paz Beattie in Goals. Bishop Lawrence moved to the bench, with Zackery Forrest, Irwin Finden and Brandon Pickhills organized subs and Elliot Cuddihy our bench Goalkeeper.
6) According to you, how was the Legendary Players League? How do you see your own legendary team?
In one word I’d sum up the Legends League as ‘unpredictable’. Italy began badly before changing tactics and storming home, but they were the only constant in the second half of the season as Turkey, Brazil and the Netherlands all lost and drew games they were favorites to win.
Of the current legends season Sngtn from Argentina sum it up well saying ~ This league is weird, we have passed from champions to be the last team with the same players and tactics.
Given our results in the first legends league I had no expectation, other than a general thought we’d do better than the inaugural edition. But man was I surprised by how we got out of the blocks winning our first 4 games, opening a 5-point lead which remained steady until the end. We managed to beat every side in the league, maintaining our lead from the moment we got it all the way.
I never expected to win the league, but the team has performed above and beyond what I thought possible with all 6 strikers and 2 midfielders scoring at least once. Australia now has another trophy to add to our 2013 Confed Cup success.
7) Which players performed well and bad during the league?
Everyone played amazingly well. When you come from a smaller nation you expect to lose when you play nations like Italy, Brazil, Sweden, Argentina, Turkey and the Netherlands. Yet we beat them all, some twice.
Keepers – Paz Beattie in goals was the stability we needed, while Elliot Cuddihy remained on the bench the whole season, he was the only player not get on the pitch.
Defenders – Brain Beattie in the center of defense was his normal tough self. 2 draws and 2 losses came when he was either subbed off for receiving a yellow card, sent off directly or absent because of said suspension. Our other defenders Roger Miller, Berry Beverley and sub Bishop Lawrence played their roles well but it was all held together best when Brian was in the middle.
Sweepers – Berke Kean was going to play well anywhere, but the surprise was how effective Amos Fazey was. During his playing career he was as a striker that learned to defend in his 30’s. Unlike Berke Kean who was fast tracked into the national team as a starter in his early 20’s, Amos was lucky to get on the bench and spent most of his time in the reserves. In this tournament he found his true calling as a defensive sweeper.
Midfielders – These two stayed in the same positions they were from the 1st edition of the legends league. I have no idea what Bo Boylin’s (1 goal) ball count or skills actually are, but he was rock solid in a hardest position on the field. Then with Cullen Rowdon (2 goals) as our attacking wide midfielder, his love of getting forward meant we had a 2nd wide attacking midfielder/supporting striker on the field at all times.
Strikers – Everyone was brilliant as they shared the goals around, Murdock Rizzardo (16 goals), Bickford Bundy (15 goals) and Munroe Waterland (11 goals) all clicked from the outset. When one had an off day, another would step up and score. This combined with an equally effective subbing trio of past Crimson Eagles greats Irwin Finden (7 goals) and Zackery Forrest (5 goals), with wandering utility Brandon Pickhills (4 goals) playing Waterland’s role as striker/attacking midfielder.
This has been a team effort all over the pitch. We didn’t have any bad players, Brian Beattie got sent off twice, but in a league setup I’ll happily accept that for the safety of knowing we have a tough central defender not afraid to put in a hard challenge.
8) Which match was the most challenging one for you? (It would be the teams except yours.)
Turkey were the only side that ran a wing defense/wing attack for the full 90 minutes. Brazil had wings as an alternative formation triggered in specific circumstances, though I don’t know what these circumstance were as I couldn’t watch matches with my web browser at the time. 6 teams were running 4 defenders at the back. So with the intention of using the same tactic in every game, I chose a 3-man triangle defense, with a short passing attack to grab all the small advantages I possibly could. Knowing that I’d be at a disadvantage against Turkey, but calculating I’d make up the points difference against everyone else.
So with this in mind our most challenging game was the round 10 rematch against Turkey, we got lucky in our first round game as they were experimenting with a short lived tactic winning 3-0, but this return fixture was going to be different. Turkey won 8-1 as they wiped us off the park. Another drubbing followed in round 16 in our rematch with Italy losing 6-0, this was surprising as we won the first match in an even contest. It also brought Italy back into the title race as we’d still have to play Brazil, a loss or draw for us and Italy continuing to win would hand them the title. Thankfully Italy were held to a draw by Chile thanks to a red card and 2 very late goals, while we beat Brazil comfortably for the second time in the season to take the title with a game in hand.
Turkey and Italy turned out to be our most formidable opponents. Turkey for running a wing tactic and Italy because their short passing tactic caught fire and a red card was the only way anyone would get close to them, even Turkey lost to Italy 1-7.
9) What should be done to make Legendary League more popular do you think? Any advice?
The amount of work involved in organizing the teams, writing the bios and formulating tactic is very time consuming. Usually it falls on one person in each country, who realizing nothing is happening does the majority of the work. This can leave them feeling frustrated when only a handful of people in their online communities acknowledge what they’ve done or care about the results. I’ve tried to increase the awareness of the Legends League in the English speaking main forum, yet it’s a hard sell in its current friendly league format to actively engage with the broader community beyond the Admin forum.
Another thing is the declining number of Zone’s around the world, with overworked reporters struggling to balance their volunteer work with real life commitment. As you need a zone to publish the player bios in order to qualify for a team to be put together and the bios take a lot of work to put together. With the collapse of all but 3 English zones left in India, MZ Country and Australia because of a lack of new managers willing to be RA’s and fill the positions the left vacant by those who have left. Currently the USA and Scotland may have a zone returning, but they will be organized by 2 managers in Darkline and Whins who are part of the older generation that left their post a while back.
I don’t blame new managers for not wanting to be RA’s, it’s a lot of work for a voluntary position only past RA’s understand as a thankless task. Plus, new managers have watched those involved burnout badly and lose their passion for being a reporter, which can result in them leaving the game. There could still be many more Zones around the world or make a comeback in the future if crew allow them to operate like the current Aussiezone does with a once a season release. Without an active zone in the current setup, many countries are excluded from having a legends team even if they wanted to organize one.
I liked the overall league format and locking in one tactic for the season. As it forces people to get creative and choose carefully what tactic they will run. Because whatever you choose can be countered by someone else. It all depends on the risk and reward of who is playing what over the whole season.
Putting the teams under the control of the elected NC’s would allow for players to be added to squads, their full skills viewed by someone organizing the tactic and friendlies games to be setup without the involvement of crew, freeing up their time for other tasks.
Changing the current Clash of the Titans legends league format into an official international friendly league with matches that can be track through the creation of a third National team page called Legends.
U/21 National Team – A competition for U/21 players
Seniors National Team – A competition for current senior players
Legends National Team – A competition for retired players allowing each country to put together their best ever teams
Doing so would create a trophy for which more countries will want to win. Legends leagues would be the ultimate fighter version of all national team competitions, when enough teams join you could organize it in a way similar to the Bessie with a multi-tiered league promotion/demotion system. Southern Hemisphere vs Northern Hemisphere would be cool to see.
10) If you had been a legendary player, what kind of player would you be? Which position 🙂
In real life my name is Matt, I’m 31, I live in Melbourne, Australia studying for my Masters in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies. After this I want to begin a PhD, obtain my doctorate and earn a living as an Anthropologist. I was born with natural athletic ability I’ve played many sports, including both indoor and outdoor football. I’ve played every position across the pitch and in goals. I can tackle, pass and shoot with both feet, the right for power and swerve, the left for increased control, spin and dip. My favorite position is central midfield, as you’re involved in making forward runs, setting up the attack with through balls, firing off a few shots, taking free kicks, corners and penalties. But also tracking back, organizing the defensive line and putting in the tackles. I’d love to be where Bo Boylin is commanding the center circle.
Clash of the Legends 2nd Edition Final League Standings
Overall League Top Scorers
The Australian Squad Stats for Clash of the Legends 2nd Edition – Top Scorers, Most Ill Disciplined and Clean Sheets
Written by Isk42 and Scruttino
aussiezone 