Latest news with #Perkins
The Advertiser
a day ago
- Sport
- The Advertiser
Bombers wrap arms around out-of-form Archie Perkins
Archie Perkins has lost his mojo, and Essendon coach Brad Scott is committed to helping the top-10 draft pick become a tackle-bursting midfielder again. Perkins endured a forgettable moment during Thursday's 41-point loss to Fremantle when he took his eyes off the ball and fumbled what should have been an uncontested mark while running into attack. The 23-year-old had started the game as the sub for a second straight week, and he looked despondent as he ran to the bench following his third-quarter blooper. There were big hopes Perkins would develop into an out-and-out midfield star after he was selected with pick No.9 in the 2020 national draft. But after producing a breakout campaign in 2023, Perkins looked like a player who lacked confidence last year, and it's continued into 2025. Scott is keen to help the 93-game midfielder reach his potential. "Perkins is a strong, powerful footballer who, at his best, is breaking through tackles, competing really strongly," Scott said. "He's a really strong aerialist. And right at the moment, he's doubting himself a little bit. "And so my job is to remind him of what he's really good at - go back and have a look at those things, "He's just making mistakes through hesitation at the moment. "It'll come for him. We've just got to persist. It's easy to criticise, but coaches aren't critics. They're there to help." Thursday's 16.8 (104) to 9.9 (63) result marked Essendon's fourth straight defeat, leaving them with a 6-8 record heading into their bye week. The Bombers have already fielded an astonishing 11 debutants this season, and Scott is hopeful the worst of his club's injury dramas are behind them. Essendon currently have 13 players on their injury list. Kyle Langford (quad), Jordan Ridley (hamstring), Mason Redman (calf) and Zach Reid (hamstring) could all return after the bye, but Sam Draper (Achilles) and Nick Bryan (ACL) are among the players out for the rest of the season, while Ben McKay (foot) has no date set for his return. "We might get some players back after the break," Scott said. "We'll definitely get (Sam) Durham back, for example, from suspension, and there's probably five or six others that will be close. "But now we've got to balance, is it a risk to bring five or six back all at once? We'll have to assess where they're at. "Those players will have a really strong training session this weekend. "They won't have the same bye week that all the other players will have. So we've got two weeks really now to get them ready and then make an assessment as to whether we bring some back." Archie Perkins has lost his mojo, and Essendon coach Brad Scott is committed to helping the top-10 draft pick become a tackle-bursting midfielder again. Perkins endured a forgettable moment during Thursday's 41-point loss to Fremantle when he took his eyes off the ball and fumbled what should have been an uncontested mark while running into attack. The 23-year-old had started the game as the sub for a second straight week, and he looked despondent as he ran to the bench following his third-quarter blooper. There were big hopes Perkins would develop into an out-and-out midfield star after he was selected with pick No.9 in the 2020 national draft. But after producing a breakout campaign in 2023, Perkins looked like a player who lacked confidence last year, and it's continued into 2025. Scott is keen to help the 93-game midfielder reach his potential. "Perkins is a strong, powerful footballer who, at his best, is breaking through tackles, competing really strongly," Scott said. "He's a really strong aerialist. And right at the moment, he's doubting himself a little bit. "And so my job is to remind him of what he's really good at - go back and have a look at those things, "He's just making mistakes through hesitation at the moment. "It'll come for him. We've just got to persist. It's easy to criticise, but coaches aren't critics. They're there to help." Thursday's 16.8 (104) to 9.9 (63) result marked Essendon's fourth straight defeat, leaving them with a 6-8 record heading into their bye week. The Bombers have already fielded an astonishing 11 debutants this season, and Scott is hopeful the worst of his club's injury dramas are behind them. Essendon currently have 13 players on their injury list. Kyle Langford (quad), Jordan Ridley (hamstring), Mason Redman (calf) and Zach Reid (hamstring) could all return after the bye, but Sam Draper (Achilles) and Nick Bryan (ACL) are among the players out for the rest of the season, while Ben McKay (foot) has no date set for his return. "We might get some players back after the break," Scott said. "We'll definitely get (Sam) Durham back, for example, from suspension, and there's probably five or six others that will be close. "But now we've got to balance, is it a risk to bring five or six back all at once? We'll have to assess where they're at. "Those players will have a really strong training session this weekend. "They won't have the same bye week that all the other players will have. So we've got two weeks really now to get them ready and then make an assessment as to whether we bring some back." Archie Perkins has lost his mojo, and Essendon coach Brad Scott is committed to helping the top-10 draft pick become a tackle-bursting midfielder again. Perkins endured a forgettable moment during Thursday's 41-point loss to Fremantle when he took his eyes off the ball and fumbled what should have been an uncontested mark while running into attack. The 23-year-old had started the game as the sub for a second straight week, and he looked despondent as he ran to the bench following his third-quarter blooper. There were big hopes Perkins would develop into an out-and-out midfield star after he was selected with pick No.9 in the 2020 national draft. But after producing a breakout campaign in 2023, Perkins looked like a player who lacked confidence last year, and it's continued into 2025. Scott is keen to help the 93-game midfielder reach his potential. "Perkins is a strong, powerful footballer who, at his best, is breaking through tackles, competing really strongly," Scott said. "He's a really strong aerialist. And right at the moment, he's doubting himself a little bit. "And so my job is to remind him of what he's really good at - go back and have a look at those things, "He's just making mistakes through hesitation at the moment. "It'll come for him. We've just got to persist. It's easy to criticise, but coaches aren't critics. They're there to help." Thursday's 16.8 (104) to 9.9 (63) result marked Essendon's fourth straight defeat, leaving them with a 6-8 record heading into their bye week. The Bombers have already fielded an astonishing 11 debutants this season, and Scott is hopeful the worst of his club's injury dramas are behind them. Essendon currently have 13 players on their injury list. Kyle Langford (quad), Jordan Ridley (hamstring), Mason Redman (calf) and Zach Reid (hamstring) could all return after the bye, but Sam Draper (Achilles) and Nick Bryan (ACL) are among the players out for the rest of the season, while Ben McKay (foot) has no date set for his return. "We might get some players back after the break," Scott said. "We'll definitely get (Sam) Durham back, for example, from suspension, and there's probably five or six others that will be close. "But now we've got to balance, is it a risk to bring five or six back all at once? We'll have to assess where they're at. "Those players will have a really strong training session this weekend. "They won't have the same bye week that all the other players will have. So we've got two weeks really now to get them ready and then make an assessment as to whether we bring some back."
Perth Now
a day ago
- Sport
- Perth Now
Bombers wrap arms around out-of-form Archie Perkins
Archie Perkins has lost his mojo, and Essendon coach Brad Scott is committed to helping the top-10 draft pick become a tackle-bursting midfielder again. Perkins endured a forgettable moment during Thursday's 41-point loss to Fremantle when he took his eyes off the ball and fumbled what should have been an uncontested mark while running into attack. The 23-year-old had started the game as the sub for a second straight week, and he looked despondent as he ran to the bench following his third-quarter blooper. There were big hopes Perkins would develop into an out-and-out midfield star after he was selected with pick No.9 in the 2020 national draft. But after producing a breakout campaign in 2023, Perkins looked like a player who lacked confidence last year, and it's continued into 2025. Scott is keen to help the 93-game midfielder reach his potential. "Perkins is a strong, powerful footballer who, at his best, is breaking through tackles, competing really strongly," Scott said. "He's a really strong aerialist. And right at the moment, he's doubting himself a little bit. "And so my job is to remind him of what he's really good at - go back and have a look at those things, "He's just making mistakes through hesitation at the moment. "It'll come for him. We've just got to persist. It's easy to criticise, but coaches aren't critics. They're there to help." Thursday's 16.8 (104) to 9.9 (63) result marked Essendon's fourth straight defeat, leaving them with a 6-8 record heading into their bye week. The Bombers have already fielded an astonishing 11 debutants this season, and Scott is hopeful the worst of his club's injury dramas are behind them. Essendon currently have 13 players on their injury list. Kyle Langford (quad), Jordan Ridley (hamstring), Mason Redman (calf) and Zach Reid (hamstring) could all return after the bye, but Sam Draper (Achilles) and Nick Bryan (ACL) are among the players out for the rest of the season, while Ben McKay (foot) has no date set for his return. "We might get some players back after the break," Scott said. "We'll definitely get (Sam) Durham back, for example, from suspension, and there's probably five or six others that will be close. "But now we've got to balance, is it a risk to bring five or six back all at once? We'll have to assess where they're at. "Those players will have a really strong training session this weekend. "They won't have the same bye week that all the other players will have. So we've got two weeks really now to get them ready and then make an assessment as to whether we bring some back."
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
Universities face a reckoning on ChatGPT cheats
I commend your reporting of the AI scandal in UK universities (Revealed: Thousands of UK university students caught cheating using AI, 15 June), but 'tip of the iceberg' is an understatement. While freedom of information requests inform about the universities that are catching AI cheating, the universities that are not doing so are the real problem. In 2023, a widely used assessment platform, Turnitin, released an AI indicator, reporting high reliability from huge-sample tests. However, many universities opted out of this indicator, without testing it. Noise about high 'false positives' circulated, but independent research has debunked these concerns (Weber-Wulff et al 2023; Walters 2023; Perkins et al, 2024). The real motivation may be that institutions relying on high-fee-paying international cohorts would rather not know; the motto is 'see no cheating, hear no cheating, lose no revenue'. The political economy of higher education is driving a scandal of unreliable degree-awarding and the deskilling of graduates on a mass scale. Institutions that are biting the bullet, like mine, will struggle with the costs of running rigorous assessments, but know the costs of not doing so will be far greater. If our pilots couldn't fly planes themselves or our surgeons didn't know our arses from our elbows, we'd be worried – but we surely want our lawyers, teachers, engineers, nurses, accountants, social workers etc to have real knowledge and skills too. A sector sea change is under way, with some institutions publicly adopting proper exams (maligned as old-fashioned, rote-learning, unrealistic etc) that test what students can actually do themselves. Institutions that are resistant to ripping off the plaster of convenient yet compromised assessments will, I'll wager, have to some day explain themselves to a public Craig ReevesBirkbeck, University of London Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Why Dungeons & Dragons storytelling duo signed with Critical Role
Cartoons, comic books, video games and now tabletop games. The team at Critical Role Productions, the entertainment company that grew out of the web series 'Critical Role,' featuring voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons, continues to expand its media footprint with its newest hires — former Wizards of the Coast game gurus Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford. Perkins and Crawford, who led the Dungeons & Dragons design team for decades, have literally helped write the books on the most popular role-playing game in history. Perkins was the creative director for Dungeons & Dragons, overseeing the story direction, while Crawford was the game director, overseeing the rules. Their departure from the game publisher Wizards of the Coast earlier this year had fans wondering what their next move would be. Now the news is out that they will be joining Critical Role's Darrington Press game division. 'I was committed to staying with Wizards until after D&D's 50th anniversary, which gave me lots of time to work on succession planning and exit strategies,' Perkins said. 'What brought me out of retirement was the chance to work with Jeremy and the brilliant folks at Critical Role on things that have a lasting, positive impact on the world.' 'Chris and I talked about his retirement plan for years, so his approaching departure was long on my mind. When we sent the new D&D rule books to the printer last year, I felt it was time to explore a new chapter for myself,' Crawford said. 'I love the game and its team, but 18 years is a long time. I was ready for a new adventure. The chapter that we've now opened feels like coming home — resuming work with Chris and returning to Southern California.' Darrington Press CEO Travis Willingham, also a voice actor, stressed the importance of landing the game masters and what it could mean for the growth of this side of the Critical Role company. 'They are two of the biggest names that we're certainly aware of and that have influenced TTRPGs and the games that we played,' said Willingham, using the acronym for tabletop role-playing games. 'When we first caught wind that they were thinking about taking time off from where they were at,' Willingham continued, 'we said, 'Hey, listen, we're over here making cool nerdy things. If it's ever of interest to come over to Critical Role and mess around with what we're doing, we would love to have a conversation.' When you look at the opportunity to bring in 15, 17 years of experience, pedigree, pipeline, timeline, management, all of those things from really the granddaddy system of them all, that is always extremely interesting. It's a chance to level up everyone around here as well.' That mutual respect and a longtime friendship is what drew Perkins and Crawford to Darrington Press. 'Critical Role creates wonderful entertainment that is deeply meaningful to the people who work there and to fans around the world,' Perkins said. 'What brought me out of retirement was the chance to work with Jeremy and the brilliant folks at Critical Role on things that have a lasting, positive impact on the world.' 'Chris and I have had the pleasure of working with and befriending members of Critical Role over the last 10 years, and we've long admired their work and spirit,' Crawford said. 'When they approached us about joining them, we happily said yes. It meant we could continue our creative partnership in a company whose mission and people we believe in.' Beyond the Monopoly generation, tabletop games have seen a rise in popularity with titles like Settlers of Catan (now just Catan) and others. To continue that rise, Perkins and Crawford believe there have to be more people involved in not only playing, but creating the games. 'First, we believe there's strength in diversity,' Perkins and Crawford said in a joint email response to follow-up questions about their plans. 'Diverse creators and diverse games help to create an industry that feels more inviting to everyone. The more people we welcome into the proverbial tent, the more powerful the industry becomes. 'Second, we think it's important for the industry to acknowledge that friendly, introductory experiences are important for onboarding new generations of gamers. Third, we hope the industry never loses the joy of play. So many of us became game designers, game masters and players because of the spark of joy we felt when we first tried a role-playing game. Let's continue to fan that spark into a flame that fills everything we do with infectious delight.' So, are there already ideas brewing for Darrington and the duo? 'Oh, heaven's yes!,' Perkins said. And that's about all they'd say about that.
Fox Sports
6 days ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Defenders' rout of Panthers in UFL title game proves who the true MVP is
At the start of the fourth quarter, DC Defenders QB Jordan Ta'amu stood among his teammates as they chanted "M-V-P! M-V-P!" before sealing a 58-34 rout of the Michigan Panthers in the 2025 UFL Championship Game on Saturday. Ta'amu's evening was made that much sweeter with newly minted UFL MVP, Offensive Player of the Year and All-UFL QB Bryce Perkins standing on the opposite sideline. Ta'amu, the league's leader in passing touchdowns, continued what is the most impressive season by a passer in UFL history with 390 passing yards, completing 75% of his passes (21 of 28) for four touchdowns — in three quarters. At halftime, Ta'amu had completed 16 of 20 passes for 320 yards, as everything the Defenders did offensively worked. His counterpart, Perkins, finished with 338 passing yards, four touchdowns and one interception, completing 60% of his throws (21 of 35). Perkins completed eight of 13 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown in the first half. "I'd rather have a championship with the team than my own individual honors," Ta'amu said. Here are a couple of my biggest takeaways from Saturday's tilt. Unstoppable force vs. even more unstoppable force Heading into this matchup, the Defenders knew they had a large advantage: their No. 1-ranked passing offense against the Panthers' dead-last passing defense. Instead of outsmarting themselves, Coach of the Year Shannon Harris and Assistant Coach of the Year Fred Kaiss dialed up an offensive game plan that led to the Defenders putting up more than 500 yards of total offense and 50 points in three quarters against the USFL Conference champions. Before the game began, Michigan likely thought it had its own psychological and statistical advantages. The Panthers beat the Defenders by double digits, 38-14, in Week 6 of the regular season. That win was powered by a rushing attack that put up 213 yards and a Michigan defense that allowed just 250 total yards in the mid-season rout. While the Panthers' rushing offense didn't miss the bus this time around, their defense got left in the dust. Against the Defenders' big-play offense, the Panthers were left without an ability to sit on the ball, run it or play complimentary football. The Defenders ultimately turned the title game into a track meet and forced Michigan to keep up. The Defenders put up 379 yards and 37 points in the first half, including 31 points in the second quarter alone. Even with offensive success that led to 19 first-half points, the Panthers' defense could not give its offense any help, allowing 18 first downs on the Defenders' first 40 plays. Wideout Jaydon Mickens caught six passes for 132 yards and a touchdown en route to joining an exclusive club of men who have won both a Super Bowl and a UFL championship. Aside from Perkins, Malik Turner played best among Panthers players with 10 catches for a UFL record 168 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Both teams combined to score 92 points and put up more than 1,000 yards of offense. Defenders take over Michigan must've felt good about its chance of winning because of how difficult it was to survive the playoffs and punch its ticket to St. Louis. The Panthers beat the three-time defending spring football champion Birmingham Stallions for the first time; Birmingham won the USFL titles in 2022 and 2023 and the inaugural UFL title in 2024. The Stallions have been the standard every other franchise has been chasing since spring football returned in 2022. The Defenders would've known that too when they pulled off an upset win against Skip Holtz's squad in Week 1. With wins against the three best teams in the sport over the past two years, including two in the 2025 playoffs, it's fair to say that the Defenders are not just the 2025 champions. With Ta'amu, Harris and an explosive offensive identity that makes them a threat in every game they play, the Defenders are the team everyone else will be chasing in 2026. RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily ! FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience United Football League DC Defenders Michigan Panthers recommended Get more from United Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
