RuneScape Forum Archive | The Amethyst Library

Dec

2023

Poller5

Posts: 11,421 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

For the whole final of the World Cup I was fighting the inevitable feeling that Spain was simply too good to lose. The way they played was simply amazing, and it's hard to begrudge them the win (though the non-call on Robben's breakaway was, erm, well... Frustrating, shall we say?).

Forum Lord, yeah, I am missing a few things on that list, but I think it's still long enough to make my point. Besides, it gives the impression that I'm not trying half as hard as I really am to seem impressive.

AFL is impossible to understand, NRL is not half sophisticated enough to pretend to be a sport, field hockey is nothing but a pale mockery of a much more exciting sport, and I could call cricket the same, but I'll concede that it's not bad to watch if you've got five days of nothing to do (though the fact that it goes to a tie if it's still incomplete after that time is utterly inscrutable).

We have remarkably similar histories, Mitch.

25-Aug-2011 05:13:20

Beep282

Posts: 904 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Yep, I remember that call, the ref decided to give him advantage instead of callin the foul. Imagine if the ref had called it though, it would have stopped a scoring oppurtunity, and therefore would have been unfair to Robben. It was a tough call, Haha I ref too so Im always judging the refs when I watch soccer.

25-Aug-2011 05:22:39

Sep

2023

Enheduanna

Posts: 16,566 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I've played a hundred games of AFL for my local club (before I gave up on account of being terrible) and I watch it when I can. I lay claim to being one of the few people who question the umpire's decision both FOR my team and against it whenever they stuff up.

It's easy to understand once you watch it for a little bit.

And I agree, the premise of NRL is far less sophisticated than AFL, but that doesn't itself mean it's a sophisticated game. Darren Lockyer case in point (the way he plays).

Field Hockey is the only hockey you can really play in Australia, and it's fun. Besides, you can do and watch people do some crazy things (can you do a 360 or a top-right tomahawk in ice hockey? I can't do it in field hockey but people in my team can do both).

And I agree, watching test cricket is not the greatest. PLAYING cricket, however, is.

When I say I like sports, they're sports I both play/have played/would play if I got the chance more than sports I like watching.

However, I like watching NRL slightly more than playing it on account of the fact I'm too lanky to be any good (I'm six foot and a little bit but only weight about 60, 65kg).

25-Aug-2011 05:26:46

Dec

2023

Poller5

Posts: 11,421 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I can't recall the particulars, but I'm pretty sure it was the last man, so people were calling for a red card. I could be way off, but that's how I seem to remember.

I've umped some baseball games myself, and I can certainly understand the pressure on officials to call the right thing and the very small amount of time they're given to make important decisions. It's a thankless job, and most of them don't get the credit they deserve for being right 95% of the time.

EDIT: Forum Lord, AFL just seems unnecessarily complicated to me, and I don't dislike it as much as I simply think it's just pointlessly odd.

I haven't a clue what those hockey moves are, but I'm sure similarly ridiculous plays can be made in ice hockey. Does field hockey have 160 KM/H slapshots, boards that are there just so that people can be slammed into them, and minimal penalties for bare-knuckle fist fighting?

25-Aug-2011 05:29:22 - Last edited on 25-Aug-2011 05:35:48 by Poller5

Beep282

Posts: 904 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Very true, haha some parents (I often ref kids soccer games) really are annoying haha

As for the world cup final, I think you are right, if Robben went down (no matter how much I hate it falling has become a strategy in soccer to attract a foul...) it would have been a red card, and a direct kick for The Netherlands, although in Robbens place I would have done the same thing and went for the goal, but I gotta say, breakaways are about the most stressful thing in soccer for both offense and defence. It might be even worse than Penalty kicks!

EDiT: hockey, of both sorts looks like a very challenging sport.

25-Aug-2011 05:41:09 - Last edited on 25-Aug-2011 05:43:40 by Beep282

Sep

2023

Enheduanna

Posts: 16,566 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The slap-shots? Probably. Our hockey coach made it into some Australian team (he isn't actually much older than me, strangely) and sometimes he shoots so quickly I can't see it and neither can the goalie. But the other stuff, no.

A 360 is when you spin around in a circle with the ball on your stick to get past someone or take a shot.

A tomahawk is when, instead of taking a normal shot, like a slap or hit or push, you flick the ball to your opposite side and hit it at the right angle with the inside of the hook so that it goes flying. Tomahawks are the collest kind of shot, even better than a drag-flick, but they're also the hardest to pull off correctly.

http://***.youtube.***/watch?v=E7MQcP8Ax_Y

I haven't watched it but apparently there's a good spin in it.

Can't watch this here as my computer is too terrible, but the title says it has a Tomahawk in it and it's by Australia so good enough for me:

http://***.youtube.***/watch?v=-bC5-i6l4VQ

I will be happy to watch anything in return when I can get on a beter computer. We can't be biased here (much).

25-Aug-2011 05:42:16 - Last edited on 25-Aug-2011 05:52:24 by Enheduanna

Beep282

Posts: 904 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Beyond me, I'm just good with my feet haha

25-Aug-2011 05:46:32

Dec

2023

Poller5

Posts: 11,421 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

My highly scientific research on W*kipedia reveals that field hockey shots can "exceed 70 mph", while slapshots in ice hockey "can reach speeds of 100 mph or more". Either way, that's damned fast, especially at the relatively short range whence they are shot.

The ability to use both sides of the stick in ice hockey kinda removes the need to do anything like a 360, since you can just "dangle" the puck on your outstretched stick, and there are some nifty things players can do using their skate blades to control the puck as well.

The most impressive thing, though, is probably when an offensive player in front of the net deflects one of those 100 mph slapshots past the goalie and into the net. The hand-eye coordination required to do that must be bloody absurd.

EDIT: The first one involves half a spin that's reversed into a pass for an assist. The second seems to be a pretty impressive tomahawk, based on my understanding of the concept.

The quality on some of these isn't the greatest, and I'm kinda cheating since it's a compilation of twenty great shots, but there's some great stuff in here:

http://***.youtube.***/watch?v=GTcu6rEOCws

25-Aug-2011 05:55:29 - Last edited on 25-Aug-2011 06:01:25 by Poller5

Sep

2023

Enheduanna

Posts: 16,566 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I usually play wing and it's my job to get those deflections.

It's damn hard most of the time when people do crazy shots.

Yeah, we can only use one side of the stick. Field hockey is, from what I can see, more about stick-skills than ice hockey.

I was about to say passing as well, but I think that's an unqualified assumption.

Edit:

Okay, I'll remember to watch that when I get home. I'd find a compilation of great field hockey shots or something but I should study for my physics test tomorrow. I'll still be here, though.

A quick plug for touch football and NRL:

http://***.youtube.***/watch?v=sMY0lvn52HM

If I could step half as well as this guy I'd be dominant.

25-Aug-2011 06:00:35 - Last edited on 25-Aug-2011 06:09:08 by Enheduanna

Dec

2023

Poller5

Posts: 11,421 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

It's not that field hockey is more about stick skills, I don't think, it's just that they have to be much more creative to be able to do the things they need to with only one side of the stick. At the higher speeds in ice hockey, it would almost impossible to handle the puck if they had to constantly flip their sticks around.

I don't watch much ice hockey, but it also seems to me that many more of the shots end up being goals; thirty odd shots regularly only yield about three goals in ice hockey, but I imagine that thirty shots would score many more goals in field hockey than three.

25-Aug-2011 06:06:52

Forums

The Amethyst Library