“Woo-hoo! A game I didn't actually lose for once. I could have done, easily, but Rory decided to go for the old tactic of destroying the opposition while stalling, instead of getting a couple more points on the board. To be fair, he would have succeeded - in the 2-1 bit anyway - if I hadn't made some unfeasibly lucky dodges to blitz his ball-carrier into the endzone for an early TD. This left me with two turns for the equaliser, rather than the one he'd been hoping for...

He got a blitz on the kick-off, but the ball was way back and safe, so all I had to do was long-pass it back to the line of scrimmage, catch it with a loner and then peg it through the empty backfield. Needless to say, he tripped on the gfi, but only stunned himself. Rory then failed his own gfi to get the ball so good old Martin Vileshield was free to pick up and run. This time his gfi was successful and he pulled a draw from the jaws of defeat.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rory was a bit cross after the game, feeling the win should have been his and complaining that the game was too arbitrary and suggesting you just toss a coin to decide the outcome. Well, yes, there is a certain amount of luck involved - it's certainly not chess we're playing - but then skill is also a factor. If we assume everyone gets more or less the same luck over a large number of games, how else can you explain how some coaches win 70-80%+ of their games?

I don't want to be overly critical of Rory here - after all, he was only one failed gfi away from a win - but sometimes your opponent will be super lucky, or you'll be super unlucky, with the dice. And when that happens, you need to be sure you have a strong enough position to keep the lead. The best way to do that (in my opinion) is to SCORE MORE! Don't rely on a 1 TD lead - especially against a desperate wood elf coach who's playing with a bunch of journeymen and doesn't care if they get injured. Of course I'm going to dodge into two tackle zones if it's the only way I can get to the ball-carrier. Of course I'm going to try the 1-dice blitz. I'd have done a -3 dice blitz if that's what it required.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again many times... I HATE STALLING. It's selfish and boring and I'll generally go out of my way to avoid a game against a coach who has a history of stalling against me. Maybe that's fine. Maybe you don't care if I don't want to play you, but maybe...just maybe, there might come a time when one of your teams could really do with a nice easy match against a team of underpowered wood elves and you can't understand why your favourable game offers are constantly refused on Gamefinder. Well, this might be why.

But perhaps even more importantly, stalling isn't always guaranteed to win you the game, as today's match amply demonstrated. If winning is really that important (and sometimes even I agree that it can be) then make sure the win is secure before you stall. Or failing that, make sure you know how to stall properly.”