New Senior Nats

[boscorp]

Only just seen this, but definitely feel it’ll favour the larger nations with bigger resources. We’re definitely struggling to find 20 players already at the right level. A league format seems to reduce the achievements we’ve made of making it to div 1 as a small nation. Survival in the top flight and allowing us to compete in the World Cup has been an amazing achievement. It’d be a shame to lose that in some sort of champions league format

Zimbabwe is no longer a small nation The big country small nation era is almost a thing of the past. Finding 20 players at the right level is the challenge for all National managers. UAE & USA recently got their own leagues and Afghanistan & Nepal were introduced as new countries. I think adding the last 2 to the player pool may have diluted the distribution of quality players slightly as i have noticed a small reduction in total match ratings this last season. The "right" level of standard may have shifted slightly downwards but will recover as memberships grow.
There is little to no difference in the quality of sides in div1 compared to div3 currently and 1 league will place each country on an equal standing. Finishing in the top 12 to qualify for the WC will still be a great achievement. Previously you could qualify without playing any div1 sides(top 6) but now we will all play each other each season. I think this will be fairer to all.

[DangerDave]

I am fine with the change, but do not feel the need for an extra 2 players in the squad. After all, to win a WC, you need to play 7 games with a squad of 18 players. The new format proposes 6 games, so less than you need to play currently. As others have stated the 19th and 20th best players for certain nations will be considerably better than those for nations with fewer options.

Having less players available also makes selecting the squad more tricky and makes fatigue management more important as you go through the tour.

Finally, increasing the squad size makes those that protest about their players going on tour have more shouting to do. It also makes it harder for the manager to play the lesser players in games thus opening another avenue of complaint.


So, happy with the change, but keep it to a squad size of 18.


Dave

[MrMoose]

Tend to agree that an 18 man squad suffices and that 20 men squad will lead to “lesser” players not playing more than one match. (Which is detrimental in terms of exp boost?)

[Madcarrot]

Zimbabwe is no longer a small nation

Awwwww thanks Boscorp we love you