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Rockhill's Road to the Final

Written by Rockphil

Rockphil has made the final for the 2nd time in 3 seasons, and this time he faces Hairy Chinese Kids.

Last time we spoke was toward the end of May 2015 (18997) after you beat the Hairy Chinese Kids in R10 (526856742) two seasons back (going on to finish as runner up in the Cup in s58) You also beat them in this season's Prem mid season back to back fixtures shortly before Christmas (551644891) & (551644895) . These results must make you favourite to lift the trophy this season, please tell us a a little bit about your cup run and thoughts going into the final?

This cup run has been miles harder than I had previously. I've had league games against Bedworth, Hooligans, Afro and HCK preceding the last eight rounds, which has made it into a tricky management challenge, so I’m very happy to have made it to the Final. In s58 everything went my way, I had momentum and easier games in II whilst my cup opponents were concentrating on the fight in the Prem and even in the Final Afro were arguably concentrating on winning the league, so that went in my favour too, even though I still lost! I am chuffed to get to another Final though and whilst I’d very much like to win it, HCK are at least as deserving having sustained a great side at a high level for longer than I have so we’ll just have to see what happens. Regarding our previous meetings, it’s fair to say that I’ve not yet played HCK when they’ve been at full strength. In the first game in the league rbir had injuries plus a horrendous form update and in the second we both had the cup to think about. The fixtures have all been the sort to be decided by a coin toss, so it’s fair to say that HCK are probably due a win against me!

After the death of David Bowie this week, is there any particular Bowie track you'd like to link for your team to run out to for the final?

Let’s go for Dancing in the Street (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4jnaznUoQ) with Bowie and Mick Jagger. That was the first David Bowie song I remember. My favourites are Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes which came about from watching the TV shows of the same name (Gene Hunt etc). If it’s a tune to run out to though, then Dancing in the Street is definitely the choice.

Last time we spoke we were discussing the potential impact of match engine changes, and you said, "My concern is not so much that side attacks are nerfed but rather because of my defensive coach, that my central attack won’t improve enough to benefit. With the changes in mind, it’s probably fair to say this season will be my best chance to reach the Prem". You were then promoted at the end of the following season and are now battling with HCK (level on points, one GD apart) together with Bedworth and Livercrewe Tigers (also on 16pts after 11 games) over 3rd to 6th spot. I suppose that a mutual PIC in the final is out of the question, in order to help you both avoid the playoffs?

I hadn’t thought of asking! These are the kind of dark arts that great managers know about, and I really haven’t a clue! It’s going to be a scrap for all of us down there and even though all four of the Prem teams would probably be favourite at home, a play-off will be hard as you can always lose against good teams. Anyway, I still need more points to even get a play-off so I’ll worry about that if I get there! Regarding the changes, I never really got to find out about my attack with a defensive coach as I fired mine after failing to promote in Season 58. I’m very interested to see if Bedworth can win the Prem with their defence coach, as they’ve persevered much longer than I did and his attack is showing up much stronger than I managed with a defence coach.

We talked about staff changes a bit last time, and since then we've had further changes which further polarize training strategy from match preparation strategy. Which assistants are you currently using?

I’ve a psychologist as my players are unstable (Squid Gardiner (342744977) needs one on his own with his red card history) plus a form coach, medic and the tactical assistant. No assistant coaches currently but I’m quite looking forward to training again fairly soon, having started up my youth academy again.

How was your Christmas, where was it spent, with whom and what was on the menu?

Thanks Christmas was great, I spent at home with the family, all the traditional food with turkey and Christmas pudding, which ensured that the health benefits of doing the local park run on Christmas morning were all lost very quickly!

Lets talk about RL football, who do you think are going to finish top 4 in the Premiership this season, and who will be relegated, please explain your thinking here?

I reckon Man City to win because Arsenal usually find a way not to. Would love to see Leicester or Spurs last the pace though. I love that Lawro’s predictions on the BBC website have Leicester somewhere like 4th from bottom. It seems that every time he says they’ll lose, they win. I’m a Norwich fan and last time might have said I thought we’d stay up this season. I do hope that happens as Alex Neil is doing a really great job and the club doesn’t have a rich benefactor to bump up the transfer and wages pot. I’ll go for Villa, Sunderland and Swansea.

What tweaks does your team need in order to win the Prem next season (assuming this cup final doesn't lead to a relegation)?

Like Norwich, a rich benefactor and a big transfer pot! I haven’t looked into it really, getting to the Prem was brilliant but it kind of happened as a result of steadily getting better rather than planning for it. Linked to that I’ve a couple of players who’ve been central to everything, who are coming to the end of their careers, certainly at Prem level if I stay there. Angel Petkov (287625981) in particular has been a legend, but he will be very difficult to replace with the quality he has given us. I will see what division I’m in at the end of the season and see if it’s there’s enough cash to replace enough players to help maintain the current performances. Improving the team may need a level of shrewdness I've yet to demonstrate. I will keep looking though!

Last time we talked about movies, you recommended Anchorman 2. What's your pick from 2015?

Apart from the James Bond film Spectre I didn’t get to the cinema in 2015 so from a long list of one it will have to be that! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2379713/)

What was your favourite toy when you were young (link to an image please)?

I liked Fuzzy Felt and was very pleased to see they still sell it. Might buy myself some. 36 isn’t too old is it? I couldn’t find a good image of that but I did find Multilink which had loads of fun with at school (http://www.learningstore.com.sg/image/cache/data/G961-500x500.jpg) and the Etch A Sketch which was highly addictive (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91xEnOgBPbL._SL1500_.jpg)

With all the recent game changes there's not been much discussion of the impact on the use of the various team tactics. Which of AIM/AOW/CA/Press/longshot/PlayCreative would you be most likely to incorporate/utilise over coming seasons and why, and which of these tactics do you regard as 'broken' and why?

I’m not sure if any are broken but would imagine there’s an argument to say otherwise, as it is so hard to use anything except 'Normal' with any great degree of confidence that it is the right thing to do. Maybe a better range of tactics would be observable where it could be possible to build one of the best teams in England with any one specialist way of playing, so if (big IF) that team were engineered perfectly to suit that style of play, they could conceivably win the big prizes. That way, in the Prem, you might for example end up with the country’s best longshot team, as well as the the best CA team and the best Pressing team alongside the best AIM/AOW and ‘Normal’ teams where no strategy by itself would be more advantageous than any other. More than likely this ideology isn't possible, as I guess there will always be just one optimal way of playing and it would take some seriously clever game design by HT to get us to a point where perfecting each strategy could be equally effective for a shot at winning the big trophies.