Genuine Hibs Fan

Yeah I think also in that thread a while back he described the debate generally using the r-slur (tbf deleted it when called out); which I thought was weird because it doesn't have the same history of usage here as in the US and folk using it in the UK are generally trying to be edgy, which I never thought he was before. Know there's folk who disagree with that but until recently didn't think he was looking for attention/windups the way he has been more recently

Had a bit of a rough time (as did everyone) MH-wise during covid and went from probably the best shape I'd been in for years at the end of the first Lockdown, running 6 times a week and eating pretty well to losing interest in exercise and some dreadful eating habits, slowly putting on weight until the end of the summer. Getting married at the end of April and making good progress on getting weight back down to for that. IF is good for me, pretty strict during the week and a bit of leeway at the weekends if going for drinks or a meal; as is calorie counting which, if you're not obsessive about things being correct to the exact calorie, isn't too difficult. I try not to be too optimistic with protein etc but I'm trying to build a little muscle and strength without eating meat 7 days a week so do take some steps like having the protein yoghurts and a shake most days I can be too OTT with over-planning my workouts and runs and then when life gets in the way and I miss one session missing a few more, but back to the stage where I enjoy going to the gym or out for a run again. Think it's good to have goals around the exercise outside of just as a weight loss activity. I'm training to be able to run a decent half marathon time in the summer, get sprints and speedwork in for playing sport and trying to hit certain weight:bodyweight ratios on the big lifts. Also just some activity outside of that to make up for having a desk job - I usually get my 10k steps just from walking and try to get some bodyweight and flexibility workouts in during the week, although struggling with getting up to do that with the dark just now

I've listened to a few of the Decoding ones and find them quite interesting/the guys quite funny, although I think they ultimately struggle to go beyond the individual peculiarities of the people they're looking at. The Douglas Murray episode he mentions how popular he is with newspaper editors etc to which they are just like "yeah... that is true, and curious. anyway" when really it's much more interesting to think about why someone as disgusting as Murray is still invited to publish his horrible opinions in the mainstream, sensible publications in this country, and what that says about our culture and politics and how those things have encouraged the sort of characters they look into. Ditto the IDW figures, liberals in the Anglosphere who had been more than happy to put up with the New Atheist nonsense because they helped sell the war on terror largely welcomed the early IDW because ghouls like Harris were involved, and now it's correctly seen as an awful thing for discourse - there's no interest in the episodes I've listened to about that. It's just dunking on them which is fun, but there's a limit to how many 3 hour long pods I can listen to about that. The anti-Alex Jones podcast Knowledge Fight or Behind the b*****ds is similar in that regard. It ultimately just comes across as smugness for me I think there are podcasts about these types of people, like QAnon Anonymous that are much better at tying things together into a broader phenomenon, or TrueAnon which is more focussed but entertaining because of their acknowledgement that they are also mental

Yeah I thinh he said he didn't fancy it if he is there to hold pads, which is probably fair enough at his age and something we know Townsend does tend to do with his squads. He obviously is not a long term option but from now to the world cup if he's fit and playing (he was rarely playing for sarries till the last few weeks) he's the 3rd winger and most obvious 23 for me unless we want a centre on the bench. Centres are very interesting but do think that unlike say 2014-18 where we generally had a first choice pair and a few specialists who could come in when needed/for injuries we don't really know what the best combo. You'd have said Harris was a shoe in a year ago but he obviously really likes Tuipulotu and Redpath who could be interesting together, and Jones in form is very hard to ignore given his history. Glad McDowell is finally getting a good run of games and showing some of his potential. Kinghorn being an option at 10 as well as back three means our 22/23 could be very interesting/changeable depending on opponents. Assuming that those included at this stage have a chance, if only a small one, of playing against England? As from media reports a few weeks back seemed like Darcy/Darge and Zander/Watson were at similar stages so wouldn't make sense for some to be included and some not

It is indeed the man upon whom Brian Kerr modelled his Hibs career

We can dream though. Funny thing is I think in the past he's been a very good international winger

I went to the tannadice game in October there and must say I hope there's as much seethe (in the other direction, and without the racism) as some of the Hibs fans were showing that night. Imagine getting wound up by Tony Watt ffs

I was talking generally, I can't remember who but there were a couple of people I think were very vociferous about it and I don't think you were one of them.

I'd become quite pally with NTP over 2020/21 and met him once irl for some pints in December 21 when he was up. I missed all of the initial "drama" and it was deleted by the time I next went on that thread so only saw it in, I think, the HG thread a few days later. I was a bit weirded out tbh, it was the first time I'd really made a pal from the internet and made me realise you don't really know anyone that well that you primarily interact with online. Contributed to me not posting on here nearly as much (great news for everyone else) Think it's very strange for folk with no knowledge of the situation whatsoever to have jumped in two footed about things being made up because they liked the poster. Like none of us know for sure but leaving the forum so quickly (and I've never heard from him separately since) is a bit suspicious. FWIW, I don't know that I ever knew his surname but his first name was definitely the same as the person about whom the accusations were being made

Seems very strange that a 31 year old international captain with a decade plus of professional rugby can get a reduced punishment by attending "tackle school" but the rules are the rules. No idea what to expect from England this year other than Borthwick doing what almost every new England coach does, stripping away whatever fancy ideas the last coach had and immediately turning the barbarism of the play up to 11. Getting my 6N pessimism in early this year, think we'll really struggle. Seems strange that with all the chopping and changing we've done the injury problems leave us with a bunch of guys with a handful of caps. If the first choice back three is really going to be out for the beginning with Rowe, Forbes and McLean injured/not playing much you're probably looking at 3 from Smith, Kinghorn, Steyn and Maitland, presuming he's still interested. Not quite as bad as I'd have thought but not great. Ditto if Watson and Darge are both out then fagerson, Dempsey, Ritchie isn't too bad at all with Bayliss, Bradbury, Christie and Crosbie supporting, but again a shortage of guys with meaningful international game time. We're goosed at TH, second row don't know if we're sure what we want them to provide but Richie will hopefully carry on his little Indian summer. Exciting news is that the midfield should hopefully be better this year. Bennett, Harris, Redpath, Jones and Sione if they're all available gives us the sort of options in there we haven't had in a while, although lack of specialist 12s. 9 we're in a very good place and hopefully, whatever the long term plans are, back 3 injuries mean Kinghorn shunted there and Finn getting a clear run, with Healy given time to bed in from the bench.

Joe Newall with a completely pointless booking in the dying stages of a game that's already decided is it?

Been pretty impressed with Mcgeady today. Was very very sceptical about the signing from the outset but very surprised at how agile he looks, still fairly quick as well

Aye I made a wee joke of that myself. Tbh I quite like him, wasteful in front of goal but he is a dangerous player, and he's had a fair few assists. Lovely finish by Nisbet

That's my boy.

So far some vintage Youann "lovely touches, very sharp, looks dangerous until he has to do anything" moments

The player development of the SRU is clearly very broken and probably always has been, with the handful of world class talents who emerged in the 2010s seemingly more luck than judgement. The Thistle (fancy lads themselves) did a piece looking at the decline of private schools as a source of players which I found interesting. While I'm sure we'd all like to see rugby become a more mass participation sport there's no denying that the facilities, resources, presumably higher quality games and others advantages should give these schools a lead. https://thistlescottishrugbypodcast.substack.com/p/why-are-edinburgh-private-schools?r=lo623&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web For comparison, someone shared an image below their tweet on this showing where Irish national team players come from, showing a pretty massive difference between us and a team we'd probably all like to replicate. To continue the analogy I'd actually say our team of recent years is similar to the Irish team of the 2000s with a very decent squad of players, a couple of consistently world class ones and a couple who could be when in form. Of course, they managed to win some stuff Moving from the private schools to youth development in the 18-20 generally that seems to have completely cratered, especially in S&C with our 20s looking like boys against men most of the time, and while the super 6 is quite fun I don't think it's doing much to bring these guys on when they can even get a game. Into senior teams the recruitment for the pro teams has largely gone downhill in recent years. While there's still good project or Scots qualified players coming in, there seem to be fewer guys coming in to offer real quality (Boffeli being a notable exception) and far more guys just filling up rotational space in the squad. The third pro team argument is never going to go away but financially seems a non starter. Hard to argue we wouldn't be able to blood more young players at a decent level though, as at the moment there seem to be a lot of guys who make a little breakthrough at Edinburgh or Glasgow and then before you know it they're 24 and have played 24 professional games of rugby. Injuries also a factor there of course. Italy have made leaps and bounds with their youth development in recent years but like when everyone wanted the football team to copy what Iceland were doing it's probably not completely transferrable and other than some impressive youth results it hasn't translated to much yet. I don't know that we're fucked but I think the optimism of the 2010s was probably misplaced as we are still playing catch-up on how to do professional rugby properly and our development and pathway is in awful shape

Cole is out on his own as the best LB I've ever seen in that league. Was a great attacking fullback when it was a very different role to what it is now, and then reinvented himself to perform just as outstandingly in a more defensive role. Robertson is in the little group of players a bit behind Cole, for me pretty high up

I genuinely think he has some excellent moments as a poster but I love when detournement gets owned, disappears, and then pops up on the same thread the next day with something completely out of context like "everyone else is mental, the WC in the US is gonna be fun"

I have a mate who is pretty intelligent but has a weakness for self help books and won't hear a bad word said about him. Doesn't agree with his politics but says it doesn't matter because he wrote a book about standing up straight and cleaning your room.

Saw an interesting point on twitter earlier that a peculiar thing about a great deal of these guys - Peterson, Tate, Shapiro, Fuentes being some examples - is that they have no charisma whatsoever either. In the most literal sense of the word they are repellent - weird affect, weird accents, cringeworthy personal presentation. Given a lot of their followers are similar maybe that's part of the appeal? Like Tate talks as if the boy from school with a rash on his lip from licking them too much got a lot of money and a public profile

Boff re-signed for Edinburgh with his contract previously being up at the end of season. Superb bit of business there

Ok, done. He has a 7.7 rating in my first pre season game against Telstar so it's very promising so far

Would it help if I started a FM game with Brighton and played him a lot, then posted Mr Die Zebra some print outs of the results? Will delete this if they are not good

Is there something to be said for a joke about "you can't bend oak" or something if he rides a dirty challenge? @Barry Ferguson's Hatwould appreciate you looking into this for me