Season 71 in the Broncos league concluded this past weekend with the Bowl game between White Apes and the BobBoy Magpies. It was an intense game with a hard-fought overtime win by the White Apes, winning their 6th title in the last 7 appearances in the big game. The Magpies kept it close, though, as they underscored their strength shown in the Conference Championship game. And the Devil Dolphins witnessed this first hand, as they were the opponent in that game.

What? Yes, that’s right. The Devil Dolphins were able to advance as far as the Conference Championship game this season, for the first time in franchise history. On their way there they eliminated schönspieler in the Wildcard Round (although the opponent has gone out of business shortly after, so they already were in the process of dissolving the franchise) and then posted a HUGE upset win at the up to this point unbeaten Blue Bunnies in the Divisional Round.

The latter came to everyones surprise, of course, as the Devil Dolphins over the course of the regular season did sometimes show these abilities against properly led teams, but lost the games against those teams that are true contenders for the title. That continued in the Championship game, of course, as they were only able to score 3 points at the end of the game.

So it’s still a lot of work to catch up to the really good teams. The approach that the coaching staff took at the beginning of the season did not work quite to the extent of what was expected, and another course correction was established. There already has been some roster movement happening, some players will drop out at the roll-over due to retirement. But new blood will come in as soon as next week, when the draft happens again, and the board is already sorted with some promising talent at the top.

Seeing that the current squad, though, was able to advance that far into the postseason pumps hopes to not be too far off anymore… and maybe next season the battle for the crown in the AC East will not be as clear anymore as it has been this season still.

The Devil Dolphins will continue to work hard to some day be the opponent for the White Apes in the Bowl game… and maybe annoy them, like the Litany Zone was able to do last season.

Season 70 was another insightful season for the Devil Dolphins. One might even say „a successful one“, but one would be advised to take that with a grain of salt, also.

Yes, they had another glorious victory in the Wildcard Round of the playoffs, as they beat the Jailhouse Rockers 24:14 on the road. Given that the latter had just the season prior challenged the dominant White Apes in the Bowl game it was a sweet victory and was celebrated as such. But the ensuing encounter with the Magpies again left a lot to be desired. And one should not oversee the fact that they have a record of 2–4 in those games of the season that they played against properly managed teams. So there’s still a long way to go to be a real competitor for the really good ones.

We are on track, though. The coaching staff is doing some great work, and when the recent ratings were published they were rewarded with the first 4.5*-rated player in franchise history. DL Machungwa Jang made exceptional progress this past season and will go down in history with this great rating. Despite being still only 23 years old, he has already gathered a lot of experience which helps to keep this defensive front as stout as they were this season, as they allowed only the fourth lowest points in the conference this season.

Experience is the key to true greatness, though, and that’s what the squad is still lacking. That’s why next season will have the main focus on getting the young players on the field to gather knowledge, security… an all around better feel for the game. We still have to experience having players beyond 30, but we’re getting there, and we do not know how long they will be willing to play this game. And they may even never get to the point where we need them to be, so the young guys might have to step up sooner than they expect.

The lack of experience also showed on the offensive side of the ball. Richard Sinapati did throw for 55 touchdowns and 4312 Yards, but he also had 9 Interceptions which occurred mostly against properly run teams. It surely did not help that the rest of the offense showed an equal amount of shortcomings on their respective positions.

Season 71, as of right now it is the belief in the front office of the Devil Dolphins, will be another developmental season in which the main focus again will be on the young ones on the team. The draft will bring some new blood, and there is an expectable amount of games in which the team will face competition that it is clearly better than, so that the upcoming players will get a good amount of playing time. We must be cautious with this, as we still have the goal, of course, to push the record against properly run teams to 3–3. So the team has to be properly coordinated.

We’ll see where it will take us

Season 69 is in the books, and although the Devil Dolphins failed to repeat to win a playoff game like they did in season 68, they nonetheless made a step forward in becoming more competitive than the previous season.

The Offense still turns the ball over way too much, and it’s still a lot experience to be gathered for the squad as a whole to match up well with the best teams. But that’ll come with time, and the management is working constantly to have the players ready to step up.

Not stepping up anymore are our retirees that left at the end of Season 69. RB Celal Schumacher and SF Konrad Weber left the team at the Roll-over, and although they did not contribute much last season we wish them all the best. Another retiree is CB-Coach Pira Nakpradith, whose work in the secondary laid the foundation for his successor to mold a great unit… once a successor is found.

Next up is the draft with again some talented prospects, and we’ll again look for some players that can be used in a multitude of ways. The OC is further working on his idea to set up a well rounded roster to complement the playbook, thus some interesting players will join the squad in the coming days.

And then we’ll again see where this season will lead us

To declare S68 a success for the Devil Dolphins would be a bold statement. And it would not be all that wrong to say such thing. We showed constant progress and the team got significantly better over the course of the season, thanks to some aggressive training sessions and repeated revision of the playbook in order to make the team play to it’s strengths. They were rewarded with a playoff appearance and even able to win the Wildcard Round Playoff game against the Long Island Islanders with a great defensive performance.

But to declare S68 a success for the Devil Dolphins would be a bold statement in a bad way, too. Even though they were able to win their first playoff game, getting there was not that difficult thanks to a very favorable schedule and some lucky coincidences. And it should, too, not be overlooked that the win against the Long Island Islanders, as well as the game was played, was one of only two league wins against teams with real management at the helm. All other such games were lost, and these losses were mostly by a large margin.

So to declare S68 a success for the Devil Dolphins would be a bold statement either way. But we’ll take it and continue our path. The team has become significantly better and gets more ready to play the game on a competitive level with every training session. We will lose players for key positions due to retirement, but we’ll add new players in the coming draft, too. The board is already sorted, with a lot of promising players waiting to get picked.

They’ll join a core group of players that’s evolving beautifully. And we’re looking forward to the games in S69 to see what they’ll be able to achieve then.

The second season for the Devil Dolphins, the first one from start to finish, is coming to an end these days, with the new one right around the corner.

This past season was all about refurbishing the roster and building the different units to become competitive. While it’s still a long way to where we want to be, team chemistry was built in both lines, with young players coming in to complement the veterans already present when the new regime took over the franchise in S66.

And while most games against long tenured teams were lost big time, the Dolphins were able to win 3 games against human competition and finish the season with a record of 9–7, even slightly sniffin’ at the playoffs.

But S67 not only was for the players to get acclimated. The Coordinator, too, coming over from the big sister RZA, needed some time to learn the nuances and differences of the game. His attempts to implement processes from over there did not really work out that well. But sources close to the franchise tell that he now has a better understanding of the mechanics and, maybe even more important, a long-term plan what he wants the team to look and play like. Now it’s about getting the team up to speed on the processes and the physical requirements that are needed to execute.

It would be foolish to think that these changes could happen in the preseason preparing for S67, so nobody expects wonders. Depending on how the season shakes out the Devil Dolphins maybe have a chance to sniff at the playoffs again, but there’s still a long way to compete for a postseason home game, given the fact that the Devil Dolphins share their division with a team that won the conference championship for the second season in a row, being the Litany Zone.

But the base is set to be competitive, while still having a lot room for improvement. So we’re looking forward to our second full season in the Broncos league.