U.S 0 v 3 Olympic Mcalister pk 12.30 30.08.08

A few mid season acquisitions made by Olympic could be the reason they have made some good progress up the table of late,those additions were to be the difference on the field for them as well. As Olympic ran away with a flattering 3-0 win, in what appears to be the last game of the season.

The Stallions though can't be held blameless in what would go on to be possibly the worst display of the season,the Stallions would ship 3 goals.
Three pretty shite goals by any ones standards.

One of the new Olympic additions in the midfield helped create the first goal, setting up another Olympic player clearly 1.5 metres offside,with a through ball which split the central defence and was dispatched past Jamie (having his first start as keeper for the season) 1-0 after 6 or so minutes

When you chip the keeper from from the 6 yard line Aaron Lister,you'd think your team mates would be a little more forth coming in congratulating you,that is unless of course you chip your own keeper, as is the case in this goal the 2nd.

Aaron had come on as a sub and after two minutes and two touches of the football helped put us 2-0 down after less than 20 mins.one of those unlucky, as your running back the ball hits you and it goes into the back of the net jobbies, simply dumb luck.

Aaron however was looking for a hole to swallow him up, when that never came, he feigned a blood injury and left the field holding his nose like the Niagara falls was flowing out of it.
However stemming the non existent blood flow quickly enabled him to retake the field.

Maybe the sight of people drinking beer on the sideline @12.30 in rather fine weather had most of the team thinking of the celebratory drinks after the game as opposed to the game at hand.
because the football didn't get much better,giving Olympic way to much time on the ball, our first touches turning too poo and allowing balls to bounce on free headers it was making it all to easy for the opposition to hold onto the most flattering of leads.

Not much changed after halftime Brooks and Jamie swapped places with the lethargy from the first half continuing in the second.
There were some nice moments of football,moments of individual brilliance from players,but the game was well gone.

The big scare of the 2nd half was when Jamie went down,an innocuous challenge had Jamie fall to the ground in a screaming heap with fears he had dislocated his knee,a call was made to ring an ambulance, but thankfully, this was not required, Jamie would play no further part in the game however.

The third goal for Olympic came from a counter attack that left some of our defence for dead,we'd all pushed up trying to get at least one goal, but we were left short at the back and a cross from the right corner of the 18 yard box found the back of the net instead of an Olympic player, it's not how their scored I guess.

So all in all not the best way to sign off on a relatively good season for the Stallions.
With so much of the season lost too rain, it will be a long summer waiting for the start next season.

Stallions : Jamie(gk)Graham,Nick G,Brooks,Mike,Joe,Paddy,Panda,Nick W,Rob,Gus.
Subs : Aaron,Spencer,Jason.


Goals: Olympic 6mins,17mins & 78mins


for those dual Stallions playing Cricket this year, good luck

Magpie Madness

11-0 over Stopout.

Surely they have proven their worth, and us, well our randomness.

Curtain raiser

The curtain raiser to today's Olympic-Uni Stallions match will be a code switcher, as the Stallions cricket team face off against each other in a game of backyard in honour of the greatest supporter any team in any code in any grade has every seen. Fashie of the motorbike and tui and gray mullet and immortal 'Aaron bowls pies' chant turns 60 - and what better way to honour the great man.

Its just a shame that Jules, who shares this birthday, is not around to share in the umm festivities. Happy birthday Jules, wherever the hell you are.

The site for this game is sadly not Kelburn Park, but Mount Cook School, where many battles - all won by Aaron - have been fought.

First pie bowled at 10am, any other Stallions welcome to join in. Its damn early and late notice of course, but what the hell ...

May the best stallion win and then get a hatrick.

Oh yeah, and we are going straight to the soccer game - so no Aaron , Mike and Graham (Robin?) at KP.

Cap 7 Controversy

From YF site:
'Wat a joke. Pretty blatant that Magpies and sealords are the two best teams in the grade. How are uni second?? I think a bit of common sense could have been used here given that there will be two games left and realistically based on the games left the only possible promotion change would be who came first and who came second (if marists beat magpies and we beat uni). Obviously we are reasonably happy that we won it but it is a bit of a hollow victory.'

Best 2 teams in the grade, sure - the table says so. Deserving of promotion - definitely. But leagues above Marist and Stallions?

Stallions vs Sealords, 1-1
Stallions vs Magpies, game 1: 3-2 Stallions (in conditions where football could actually be played), Game 2: (in absolutely atrocious conditions where even a long ball looked like class football): Magpies 3-1.

Marist looked the best team to us - hammered us twice. And as for that Terrace ...

A funny old season ...

Sorry for the delay ...

... but here are the updated fine and awards docs.

A couple of notable things - with just 1 more angry man or half a missed shot Nick would have been the first Stallion to hit $100 in fines. Obscene. Have just checked the tallies and we have about $200 more than last season - despite having so many games rained off!

So either we are fining too hard (yes ben, we know - you have been harping on about this for ages and ages) or our skills are getting worse. The reality is that when the Stallions are doing well and morale is good the fines are high. No-one wants to fine people when the team are having a crap season - so let's take it as a good sign.

We could consider refunding some of the Stallions who got above say $80 - or (and this idea is more fun) - make sure they drink that extra amount at the end of year!

Anyway no doubt Paddy and Hodges will have something exciting to say on the matter, and Nick will just grin and bear it in good humour (his mind still on the missed pen).

Anyway, onto last week:

Stallion - Ben B - bled from the eye for the stallions - enough said. His 3rd stallion of the season - the most decorated Stallion player - perhaps ever?

MVP:
3 - Tristin - What can you say - dude got a hatrick on his birthday - while locking up the golden boot (unless Gus can sneak 5 or Saturday, or Nick White 14) and the most MVP points for the season. Great season. Shame you won't be there for the last game.
2 - Joe - Injury finally shaken off, back to his best, and didn't even hurt anyone.
1 - Graham - Good effort at the back, pushed forward well, no nakedness. Deserved.

Pony - Gus - thankfully there is no pre game drug testing, or post game greediness testing - cause he would fail at least 1 of these. Had the frustration of setting up Tristin repeatedly - but in doing so seeing his chance of golden boot drift away. Otherwise pants.

Best fines:
- Gus - Trying to get credit for a small graze on the knee alongside ben's facial wounds. Still got the blood fine.
- Ben B - The Mankind mask - see previous photo.
- Paddy and Spencer - The 'You are not Usian Bolt' fine - tying up laces as the action unfolded around them.
- Jason - Beaten by the big and old guy.
- Nick G - Graham Henry imitation - dropping players via text.
- Nick G - Poor micromanagement - 'you will all play for 22.3 minutes!'
- Aaron - 'I'm farked, can I go off before 44.8 minutes', 'No! Come back to centreback if you are tired', ' Umm, I'm okay - never felt better'.
- Nick W - Rebelling against the system - 'f**k the strategy, I'm subbing off now'.
- Nick W - 'I had a lot of play with Tristin'.
- Ben H - General bitching.
- Paddy - 'Its gone, its gone ... or sorry its not gone.'
- Joe - The Zoolander fine - can only turn 1 way.
- Joe - 'I can only turn 1 way because of my injury'

Oh yeah, and those missed shots tables are totally wrong - I have just found tucked into the back of the book the fines written on bits of paper when Jason kept forgetting the fine book early in the season. More missed shots for everyone (including Jason!). Although it does include the last Olympic game ...

Sorry, tables have gone bung again - click on them to lose all the grunginess.

Saturday vs. Olympic @ McAlister 1, 12:30pm

What a great feeling to finally get out on the football field last weekend aye? Nice to rack up a win too, even if it wasn't all that convincing ;)

Some good stuff on display though, it was nice to have pretty good conditions to get back to the Stallions style from earlier in the season. Let's hope the rain from this week is finished and we get to play again this weekend.

We are at McAlister Park for the early game @ 12:30pm. Taking on those annoying little Olympic kids and we know they usually get better as the season goes on (they've probably been training the last few months while we've been sitting on the couch) so it won't be another 10 goal hiding like the first round. Play the football we know and be aggressive and that should do the business.

Unfortunately, hat-trick hero from last week (on his birthday no less), Tristin is out this week (unless we really need him) and so is Hodges. It means we still need one more person to sit out and I am a little sceptical of Graham's tactics last week.

This is how it unfolded:
As you all know we had basically everyone available and rearing to go last week so it was inevitable someone was going to be 'rested'. During the week I had a few people let me know that they would be away the week after so it would be nice if they could play this week.
One of these people was Graham. But then…
On Saturday after the game, Graham gives me the old - "oh don't worry I am in for next weekend it's the week after I'm away."
Now the question has to be asked - an honest mistake? Or something more deviant? Let's see if Graham fronts up with an 'excuse'.

Otherwise someone may receive the dreaded text tomorrow night and it will be completely random as I have no other honest way to select.

I will not be going to KP to pick anyone up so if you are coming from the North can you please swing by to make sure the boys aren't left stranded. They'll be there from 11:40am.
And I'll see you all at McAlister at Midday.

Nick
PS. Mike bring the Pony, Gus the headband, and Brooks the Stallion
Also if anyone hasn't brought beers this season, please bring a doz or so on Saturday.

Looks like we got one more shot then ...

Cap Soccer Draw 30 August:

CAPITAL 7:
Petone Dreamers __ Wgtn Un Terrace __ Naenae 2;
Petone Stewsmum __ Marist Inter __ Naenae 2 (12.30);
Waterside Magpies __ Stop Out __ Benburn (12.30);
Wgtn Un Elite __ Waterside Sealords __ Newtown;
Olympic __ Uni Stallions __ Mcalister 1 (12.30).

Shame Marist have drawn Stewsmum - unless theres a decent upset there we won't be able to claim 3rd. Shouldn't underestimate Olympic either - they have improved a lot and managed to lift themselves out of the relegation zone after a shocker 1st half of the season. Well actually, if we beat Olympic and Stop Out claim a win Olympic are back to the relegation zone. Were we in that position last season? Stop Out are playing magpies though.

Shame - they are all kind of nothing games - top of table teams vs lower table teams. A clash against the Sealords would be a great way to end the season - a testy 1-1 draw first up, plenty to prove, humiliate the kiddies ...

Until Saturday then (hopefully - rain and Nick's selection policies pending) ...

Update: Looks like we are going to get 3rd place the easy way: 'all matches below div 3 are only

" friendly games this week " I believe. Looks like 1st round results will decide the leagues this season.'

Still damn tough on the Magpies.

Petone Stewsmum 1 V 3 U.S Petone #4 23.08.08 2.30pm

With no competitive football since the 19th of July, seeing the sun break through what little morning cloud there was would put a smile on footballers faces throughout all of wellington.

A quick check of capital football shows no ground transfer, so 2.30 at Petone memorial it is.

The fact we'd such little football over the last 4 weeks meant that no one wanted to stand down for this weekends game, so Nick G chose to rest Mike B,Panda and Robin.

After 7 odd weeks of none stop rain, the ground wasn't that bad really, having also had a week to dry out there were areas which were muddied bogs mostly in the centre of the pitch and also towards the outer areas of both goal boxes,but in general a nice enough pitch to play div 7 footy on.

It wasn't going to be great viewing, but winning ugly is still winning and both sides were out for three points no matter how they came.
Petone kicked off and so began a Topsy turvy first 15-20 minutes,with both sides having chances around the outer area of the box.
The first chance of the game fell to Petone a corner in from the right which was saved off the line with a clearing header from myself on the left hand post, a second corner shortly after found a Petone head but he smashed it into the ground and thankfully it bounced 9 feet up and over the bar.

Nick had spent several hours the night before,which came after much agonising all week, a rolling subs plan,which turned to shit pretty much straight away, the list was to give everyone 22.5 minutes on the sidelines starting after 22.5Min's, after 12 Min's Jamie who had been on antibiotics was seeing stars and colours so he came off with Tristin subbing in for him,some list. ;)

20 odd mins gone.
With Tristin, Gus and Paddy now in the game, the stallions became a more attacking threat,Gus loves to take the opposition on and really began to give the Petone defenders some problems, with Joe switching from right to left midfield also causing the Petone side some headaches.

On or around 30 Min's I took a throw in from the left channel which Nick G received just inside Petone's half, a long ball into the centre of the box catches Petone's defence out and Tristin is able to latch onto the ball and it bobbles into the back of the net giving us a 1-0 lead.

Petone would have a couple of chances late in the half to equalise,one such chance had them one on one with Brooks,never one to shy away from a hard tackle,Brooks goes in low to get the ball, he manages to deflect the ball away whilst colliding with the Petone striker, which the photos in an earlier post show left him with a nasty cut to the eye area, this would be his last involvement as a player, Jamie finally getting his keeping gloves back on since the warm up episode of round 1.

halftime

We kicked off the second half but the start of the 2nd half was a bit like the Benny hill show, we were asked to ref the 2nd half, Jason (who'd subbed off at h/t) duly came on begrudgingly to ref, after 2mins he realised he didn't have a watch to keep check of the time, then we found a watch and we changed Jason for Brooks who was not going to feature in the game anyway.

Only Petone seemed to show up for the first 10 Min's of the 2nd half oh and the Stallions defence,doing well to keep the attacking Petone side away from goal, the midfield at 6's and 7's with gaps as wide as the grand canyon opening up in the centre of the park.
Nick G was getting more and more fired up by the lack of midfield involvement and made his opinion known, this seemed to spark the boys back into life and after much toiling, some neat passages of play and a throw in,we managed to split the Petone defence again and Gus was on hand to tap the ball into the back of the net 2-0 65 Min's gone

Petone never gave up and were rewarded a great little goal on about the 80min a curling chip shot from just outside the box was too much for Jamie to deal with and the ball would sail into the back of the net giving the Petone side a slim hope of snatching some points,that slim hope soon evaporated.

After an attacking foray into the box, a lazy clearance from Petone found me on the left, i took a bit of a run sent the ball in with a brilliant cross (might as well talk it up, it was brilliant) which found someones head i think Tristin the resultant flick on found another stallion i think Gus who was surrounded by Petone players screaming for offside but the ball was in the back of the net and the goal would stand leaving Petone players fuming and the stallions 3-1 up.
The game would go on for another 5 minutes before the Stallions claimed victory

Stallions starting : Brooks,Graham,Nick G, Jason,Corey,Spencer,Aaron,Ben H,Joe,Nick W,Jamie
subs : Tristin,Gus,Paddy

Goals : Stallions Tristan 30 Gus 65,89

Petone 80

Next week who knows ?

Ben B - Another Stallion performance ...

What is scarier - Ben bleeding from the eye after a full body-on-the-line save, or coming back taped up as Mankind to ref the second half?

Top effort Ben!

Hits and Misses

Percentage of goals missed by stallions per player.


Now, this is far from scientific (taken from the finebook), but its stallions hits and misses. Of course it is determined by factors such as how many times people owned up to missed shots, or were pinged by jealous teammates. Surely Jason had 1 shot? Did Gman really have 3? We also didn't fine a couple of times, and there was 1 game where Tristin was not awarded any missed shots - got off lucky - and probably makes his stats look better than Gus's.

Overall, this proves my point - Paddy must be fined for scoring no goals.

Sorry the bottom one has gone bung, but click on either for a larger, cleaner graph.

Golden Boot?

With the unbelievable prospect of a game on Saturday (let's not get too excited just yet) - the question is who will take out the golden boot? Tristin is on 9, Gus on 8 - both totals heavily restricted by cancellations - but still a lot better than Hodges 'winning' tally last year! What was it Ben, 2.5?

I hope that because so many of Tristin's goals were dirty tap ins, shoulder badging, boring ones, that Gus gets his nose ahead. Come on, he scored with his first touch for the Stallions! then got a hatrick - mind you i guess that means he hasn't done jack since. And that goal against StopOut was bs. And the one against Elite now I think about it. And he loses points for his stupid arms-raised-in-the-air celebrations. I've changed my mind - Tristin deserves it. Go Tristin!

Then again, maybe Nick G will make a late run! Sure.

So i believe last year the fine was $5 for anyone who didn't score all season. Those of you in scoring opportunities (Joe, NickW, NickG, Panda, especially Patrick) should be offering a bit more. And as for Robin who played the whole season either upfront or attacking mid and only scored in 1 game (in the Olympic debacle) ...

Cancelled again

Cancelled are Capital 5, 7, 8, 10, 14 and all MastersGrades that are cancelled will be given priority for the 23rd August
Sorry lads, we're off again. Sounds promising to get a game in next week. Free yourself up for the fine session too, it'll probably be our last one and we need to organise the end of season piss up. (WHICH MEANS BRING YOUR FUCKEN MONEY!)

Here's Graham, setting up a game of 'risk'?

'OK, here we go again. I believe Aaron is setting up a game of diplomacy at the same time too, but Greg suggested a threesome and I'm always into trying new things, so I thought why not.'

Well, Greg for a start. Have you seen that guy?

End of Season '07

Just found the results of last years end of season celebration - framed on my wall! Nah, not really, but courtesy of the Lanes here's how the bowling ended up:

143 - Aaron
134 - Spencer
132 - Jules
128 - Nick G
124 - Robin
107 - Nick W
103 - Jason
100 - Gman (I've got a big bowl and I'm not afraid to use it')
99 - Ben H
93 - Ben B
91 - Patrick
81 - Lloyd
80 - Joe (headband for the rest of the night - nice).

A close correlation to goals scored I notice ...

Now I missed the go karting, but I hear Ben H came last by a long, long way - and was even beaten by 2 Stallions without a license and who have never driven. 'Ohhh Dad!".

So some thoughts to this year's end of season - hopefully we get at least 1 more game in - got to make a race out of the golden boot for a start!

Some suggestions have included: paintball, Phoneix game, laser strike, more bowling and go karting, mass hysteria, bbq, stallion tattoos, pimping Ben's ride etc etc. Throw suggestions this way. I kinda like the idea someone suggested of hiring out an indoor court for a couple of hours and releasing some football skills and high elbows on each other before going drinking. Obviously all events come with plenty of drinking. We got to celebrate a good season.

One other byproduct of the rain is that our fines have halted, so we don't have as much cash as we anticipated. And so few of you f**kers have paid up - so we need a decent collect.

Give it some thought ...

Hmmmmm

Here is the new pool at Memorial Park - right next to where we are scheduled to be ummm playing tomorrow. Good chance!

Meanwhile - heres a poll on Yellow Fever - should the 2008 season be canned now and save us all the weekly agony? My answer - HELL NO. Any playing time from now on should be treated like gold. Then again, as it stands I am 4th top goal scorer ...

Saturday vs. Petone Stewsmum @ Sladden, 2:30pm

Well it's looking a lot more promising for football this weekend with the sun out the last couple of days but it'll no doubt pack it all in just enough for us to be cancelled again.

If not we are out at Petone, on the Sladden ground which is the pitch over the bank next to the Memorial Park we played on earlier in the year (with duck crap all over the pitch).
Who knows what Sladden is like, but I'm betting it'll be pretty bad - wet and 'crappy' - so here's hoping we get transferred. When are we going to get our game on KP is what I wanna know!

Again, as far as I know we have a full squad to pick from and to be honest I am keen as anything to play (especially after seeing the Phoenix back in action last night!) so might just take Hodges suggestion that I don't have to sit out seeing as I organise. Cheeky? Yes. Fair? Maybe not. Happening? Yep!

So we need (at least) 3 people to take a(nother) week off. There is never going to be any fair way of selecting and I have thought of plenty of possibilities.

• Reward those who contribute most off the field, seeing as we are a social team.
• Reward those who have been in the Stallions the longest (last in first out logic)
• Try to get everyone value for money so those paying more subs or playing less games will play
• Pick our best team (oooo controversial…)
• Reward those who come to training (hmmm what training some of you say?)
• Random
• Make up a quiz to select the team based on results (or use previous tipping competitions results - no entry means 0 points)
• Make up a scoring system of how much everyone 'needs' to play based on their love for the game
• Make up a scoring system of how many brownie points each person would gain for spending more time with their partner/family (ie. The singles have only football to look forward to in the weekends)

And buggered if I know what the answer is so like the great procrastinator I am, I'm going to delay the decision as long as possible to give everyone the opportunity to take any decision making out of the equation.

So further communication to come (if you've been 'dropped' I might adopt Graham Henry's controversial communication method of texting), but otherwise be at KP at 1:40pm or the ground at 2pm.

Nick

Player Profile - Tim O'Leary

Bob has added Tim as number 1 in his 'to do' list

With more rain another week of cancelled football decends on the Soccer Stallions. So again it is up to the London Touch Stallions to provide the entertainment. This time it's the turn of Tim. You've read his match reports, you've heard his bitching, and he even managed to go one step further than Morgan Changarai by ousting the Stallions Mugabe.

Position:
Halves (Ed: Gotta love how everyone in the touch team is going to claim that their position in in the halves. Do we even have positions in the team?)

Stallion Hall of Fame:
Being the current Team Captain after Rauru “Mugabe” Walker threw his toys... An honour and a privilege. Most fines for ref abuse, in all honesty I can’t help it... They’re shit!

How many seasons as a Stallion?
Currently in my second season for the London branch

Are you a dual Stallion?
If so what game are you best at? Just Touch at moment, according to the Mrs I am a dual... (But don’t ask her ‘cos she’ll just deny it... Pew! Pew!) Nah in all honesty there have been rumours floating round that Rauru may be setting up a Stallions Volleyball Franchise over the Northern Winter, but at the mo there is only one Code up here. (Ed: Really? Was this volleyball idea decided at the post match drinks session cause I have no memory of this)

Greatest Stallion Moment?
Was on fire the whole game got a couple of tries, set up a couple and as consequence the confidence brimming over. As always there was some cheeky off the ball stuff and words in the opposition ears.... Aaanyway got into a bit of a scrap he got sent off, and I got Stallion!

Worst Stallion Moment?
In all honesty none, although being told to “f**k off “or “shut the f**k up” and then apologising at half time/full time takes some pride swallowing. Also when I tackled myself... luckily only a few fellow Stallion’s saw.

Describe your last try for the Stallions.
Maybe 15 metres out from the line and standing at first receiver, I showed the ball to the defence and shimmied outside my marker and through the gap.

Complete the sentence - As a player I am susceptible to ...
Getting angry, telling the ref how to do his job, expending all my energy yelling from the sideline, not subbing enough.

Most under-rated Stallion?
Dan Wharakura... Every week he plays (sometimes he has to cancel Stallion’s for Soccer) he manages to score a couple or set up a couple. Everyone else blows hot and cold but Dan is consistent every week. Honourable mention to Hooky, despite getting fined heavily and having no gas always seems to be in amongst it each week.

Finish this sentence. The Stallions need more?
Testosterone and Discipline. Testosterone to stop us bitching so much and start manning up. Discipline because our drives let us down every week despite us talking about them... every week. Also Cheerleaders, every week I hear about Cheerleaders but none ever turn up.

Which international player are you most like?
Was going to say Carlos or Dan Carter... But the reality is I’m like Andre Nel, the Saffa fast medium pacer. Apparently he has an alter ego called “Gunther” that he brings out occasionally to deliver beamers and bouncers. I’m a bit angry, competitive, don’t like loosing and yell and swear and curse on the pitch, but off it I’m fine.

Where will the Touch Stallions finish in 2008?
Top 2 – Our single loss was very unlucky and if we can get to the final...Sweeeet