SMC EXPRESS May 2023

Run Your Best - Mr. O'Connell
Title Race to Remember - Thiseas Zabetakis
Home Stretch for FPL - Calum Brewer and Jack Hannon
Creed 3 Review - Shane McLoughlin
St Munchin's College Rugby Recap - Adam Naughton
The Last of Us - Rhys McSweeney
Formula 1 2023 season - William Kenehan
Sci-Fest 2023 - Rory Specht

Run Your Best

By Mr. O'Connell

Running tips from a teacher that recently broke the sub-3-hour marathon barrier

Run more

By increasing your weekly mileage you will build a strong aerobic base that gives you the stamina required to hold a faster pace in race situations. Instead of doing two or three days running, ramp it up to four (or more) to enhance your endurance capacity.

Run easy

I use the 80/20 principle whereby 80% of my runs are done at a comfortable pace. Don't underestimate how important this is. By running easy most days you then have the ability to execute the faster sessions (20% of your training) with more energy.

Run long

Introducing a weekly long run into your schedule is essential in preparing for races like the marathon. But it will also help those doing shorter distances. It develops resilience and a strong mindset - key ingredients that make a good distance runner.

Eat well

When you are training hard over a prolonged period it is important to fuel appropriately. Eating lots of carbs and plenty of protein will give you the sustenance you need. If you don't have enough gas in the tank, your engine won't go.

Sleep well

This is too often over-looked, not just by runners but by people in general. A good sleep pattern puts you in the right frame of body and mind to take on the day's training. Sleep is a critical factor for recovery after hard sessions, in particular.

Title Race to Remember

By Thiseas Zabetakis

Arsenal fall at the final hurdle; City for the win

The Premier League title race is red hot. With only a few games left in the season the title race couldn’t be closer as Man City look likely winners.

In all three games vs Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton, the inexperience of the Arsenal squad was on show. Xhaka woke up the Anfield crowd which led to Liverpool coming back into the game. In the second half Liverpool were much the better side but Ramsdale made save after save to keep the reds out. Firmino got a late equaliser to blow the title race back open. In the end a point was a solid result for the Gunners as they could've easily lost the game in the dying moments.

Arsenal looked to get back to their winning ways at the London Stadium 7 days later. As they usually do, they flew out the blocks getting an early goal through Jesus after only 7 minutes followed by an Odegaard volley 3 minutes later. It looked like they were cruising their way to 3 points. Complacency started to show though as Thomas Partey gives away the ball and Gabriel takes out Lucas Paqueta, awarding the home side a penalty. Said Benrahma slotted it past Ramsdale to get one back for the Hammers going into half time. 7 minutes into the second half Arsenal were awarded a penalty. Bukayo Saka stepped up to the spot but blazed it wide. 2 minutes later a long ball by Thilo Kehrer found Jarrod Bowen inside the box who calmly finished the chance to level the match. Arsenal were unable to find a winner and dropped another 2 vital points in the title run in.

Arsenal hosted the Saints on Friday Night Football in a must win game. Straight away though things didn’t go as planned as Ramsdale recklessly gave away the ball to Alcaraz who slotted it in to open the scoring. Things got worse for the Gunners as 10 mins later Walcott found himself in on goal and calmly placed it pass Arsenal's No. 1 to make it 2-0 vs his former club. Arsenal clawed one back through Gabriel Martinelli. In the second half Duje Caleta-Car doubled the Saints advantage. In the 88th minute Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard smashed one in from outside the box to ignite a spark in the Emirates and a belief that all was not lost. 2 mins later Saka levelled it and with 8 mins added on anything was possible. Trossard hit the bar as Arsenal bombarded Southampton. Thomas Partey thought he was him as he blazed one over the bar from 35 yards out in the dying seconds despite the Arsenals desperate pleads to not shoot. Arsenal got their 3rd draw in a row and if they go on to not win the league, they will look back at this 3-game period as one of the main reasons.

Going into the game called by many the title decider between Man City and Arsenal at the Etihad Arsenal were top of the league by 5 points but City had 2 games in hand.

City started off well and grabbed the lead after just 7 mins when Haaland slipped KDB in who placed it pass Ramsdale from just outside the box. The blues were dominant throughout the match and went 3-0 up in the 54th minute. Rob Holding grabbed a late consolation goal before Haaland finished the game off in style to by grabbing his 50th goal for the sky blues.

City are now perched atop the table and will surely emerge victorious at the season's close.

Home Stretch for FPL

By Calum Brewer and Jack Hannon

The clock is ticking on the Premier League season so here are some final tips to consider

Coming up on the last stretch of the Premier League season here is a season review of FPL’s biggest flops and team heroes.

Biggest flops:

Heung-Min Son
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Joao Cancelo
James Maddison

Unlikely Heroes:

Miguel Almiron
Martin Odegaard
Oliver Watkins
Kieran Trippier

Old Reliables:

Mohammed Salah
Kevin De Bruyne
Harry Kane
Alisson Becker

Assist Kings:

Kevin De Bruyne (16)
Bukayo Saka (11)
Leandro Trossard (10)
Michael Olise (9)

Goal scoring machines:

Erling Haaland (35 and counting)
Harry Kane (25)
Ivan Toney (20)
Marcus Rashford (16)

What to do if you have spare FPL Chips

Any remaining chips must be used within the remaining weeks in the Premier league so here is when we would recommend using them:

Triple Captain: The standout option is Erling Haaland. He has good fixtures left and is a safe bet There are a few good differential picks like Marcus Rashford or Mo Salah, who also have 2 fixtures each.

Free Hit: Gameweek 37 could be a good option as it is a double gameweek giving you an opportunity to bring in as many players playing two games as you can.

Bench Boost: We would recommend bench boosting as soon as you can so that you can start shaping your team for the run in. It is important to make sure everyone on your bench will start their game. If they probably won't start, you should look to transfer them out for someone who will definitely play.

Creed 3 Review

By Shane Mcloughlin

An insight to the final movie of the Creed trilogy

Following the first two movies Creed 3 follows the journey of an unsung hero who defies all odds and with the help of a former boxing icon Rocky Balboa to become the boxing world champion. The movie swiftly follows the ending of the last movie and lets us see into the life of Adonis Creed son of famous boxing legend Apollo Creed and his life after boxing. Creed 3 follows the main cast of Adonis Creed, Damian Anderson, Bianca, Felix Chavez, Viktor Drago and Tony.

He opened his own gym and produced some of the next best prodigies in boxing. His best boxer was Felix Chavez who was the current champion and was about to fight the challenger Viktor Drago but after an attack he had to pull out. Out of the blue an old friend appears and meets back up with Adonis and asks for a title shot and gets his chance.

From the start it was clear to see that Damian was aggressive and physical and liked to use dirty tactics to help win his game. When it came around to fight night both boxers were ready, Damian clearly being the underdog looked like he had no chance but all was up for grabs. The fight started and both boxers looked strong but as the rounds ticked away you could tell Damian was targeting the weakened shoulder of current champion Felix. Damian would go on to defeat Felix using his dirty style of boxing and Felix would end up badly hurt in hospital.

Adonis was outraged and went to confront Damian but Damian didn’t care and said he didn’t need him anymore and hit him. Damian publicly had a go at Adonis and Adonis responded by accepting his fight. Adonis came out of retirement just to seek revenge for his fellow boxer. Tensions were high and both boxers were eager to go. It was a high intensity match and both men were giving it their all. Throughout the fight both boxers were experiencing flashbacks from their childhood back to when they used to be friends. Adonis would eventually prevail by KO and would obtain the belt to silence Damian once and for all.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would definitely recommend to anyone who is interested sport movies or movies in general.

The Last of Us

By Rhys McSweeney

A brilliant game and a brilliant TV show

The Last of Us is a 2023 action-adventure HBO show, based on a beloved video game from 2013 developed by the game developer “Naughty Dog”. Set in a post-apocalyptic world following the outbreak of a horrific fungus which causes infected to transform into zombie-like creatures who attack non infected. The show premiered its first episode on the 15th of January 2023 and released each episode weekly. The show was both a critical and commercial success receiving a 96% critic score and an 89% audience score on the film review site “Rotten Tomatoes” as well as an 84% rating on the site “Metacritic”. So, let’s see what made this show such a strong outing from HBO.

Firstly, I’ll get negatives out of the way because it won't take long. The main criticism I have is that two of the show's episodes are essentially flashbacks, which isn’t necessarily a problem but given that the show only has nine episodes total, it can give you the feeling that time is being wasted on unnecessary backstory instead of focusing on the main plotline. Had one of these episodes instead been devoted to the main story, it might have given the writers more time to further develop our characters relationship with one another, which may have ultimately made the events that transpire in other episodes feel more impactful.

However, the show has a lot more positives going for it than negatives. It is surprisingly faithful to the source material. It has become an all too common occurrence for live action adaptations of beloved video game franchises to almost entirely ignore the game's story, and instead just take the characters and the setting and do want they want with them. This is certainly not the case in this show, the storyline is extremely similar to that of the game, in certain scenes the camera angles are identical to the game's which helped calm down the purists who were drawing their pitchforks already.

Secondly, a fantastic job was done with both the writing and the casting. Almost all the jokes present in the show land quite well, and don’t feel forced in. And the cast delivers them perfectly. Our two main characters, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have just as much chemistry as they do in the game, which was absolutely crucial to the success of this show. The supporting cast also did an excellent job, with some characters being intimidating when they need to be, being lovable when they need to be, and being incredibly frustrating when they need to be.

Finally, the atmosphere and setting of this hellish world was perfect and immersive, in no small part thanks to the lifelike CGI and atmospheric score. Special effects are not overused here, and a good amount is delegated to practical effects, allowing them time to make the scenes where CGI is necessary look realistic. The original score composed by Gustavo Santaolalla is a perfect musical representation of the show's setting, and the hit songs they chose to incorporate fit well with each of their respective scenes.

In conclusion, I think “The Last of Us” is completely deserving of its praise and serves as a perfect blueprint for how video game adaptations should be tackled in the future.

Sci-Fest 2023

By Rory Specht

A recount of Sci-Fest from a TY student POV

I’m a Transition Year student and took part in this year’s Sci-Fest and it was one of the most worthwhile experiences of my time here at St. Munchin’s College. Sci-Fest is a competition where groups from different schools come to show off a scientific experiment, investigation or anything of that sort that they’ve made. It’s a truly unique opportunity for any student to branch out their academic prowess and to develop important skills for the future. The competition allows for teams of three max. I got together with two of my friends in Transition Year who I’ve done several projects with before. Together we got to work on our project, but what would our project be? Coming up with an idea took us an entire day of just brainstorming and eventually we all settled on one. A soil app, would you believe it. Seeing as we had just finished another competition, the VEX Robotics event where we had to build and code a robot and organize a project around it, we wanted to carry over some of the experience from that, so we chose to develop a simple app about soil. We had around two months until the competition since we entered in the event the day of the deadline for applications. We quickly got to work. We needed a way to build the app, we needed ideas to implement into the app and we needed information about soil so we can use it to flesh out the features we want.

The team consisted of me, and my teammates Adrian and Colin, both computer savvy and creative which were 2 important qualities to have for this task. I was in charge of researching soil, Adrian would be coming up with ideas and designing said ideas, and Colin coded the app itself. We were recommended MIT App Inventor by our coding teacher as it’s a free, block code program which offers an easy way to create a decent app. Our school’s library was the perfect place to work on our app, it had a lot of computers and was a quiet and relaxing environment which increased productivity, for me at least. With everything ready we could finally begin our project for real. I had created a word document where I put down as much information about everything to do with soil. This included the importance of soil, soil’s impact on climate change and the problems with soil. Adrian was designing a simple quiz on soil trivia. Colin was making the app perform basic functions while watching tutorials and reading forums to learn how to better use MIT App Inventor. We were still brainstorming different ideas for the app. A section to read all about soil, a trivia quiz, step by step guides anyone can do at home with little minimal equipment. These were the main features we absolutely wanted to have in our app. Around this time, we came up with the name for the app, SoilSmart.

It was simple, had alliteration to make it catchy, and encapsulated our app’s idea perfectly, since it’s an educational app about soil. The Easter holidays were coming up soon and we had a lot of work to do, so we couldn’t afford to waste the entire two weeks of no school, since there was only 3 weeks until the competition. Over the Easter we continued to coordinate our efforts to progress our project and reduce the time crunch when we got back. I designed a poster; Colin continued to polish the app and had an idea. What if when someone wanted to do a soil test, they could input the results of the test into the app and from there, the app could tell them what common garden plants could grow in their soil. Adrian would be in charge of getting data on 40 different plants and what conditions they grow best in and input this data into an excel spreadsheet where Colin would transfer it into the app. Easter holidays was over and we had four days to have our project ready. I designed a second poster giving brief descriptions of what our app could do and wrote an 11-page project book, summarising all the parts of our project we worked on and our thoughts about it. Colin finished the quiz which meant our app now had all its intended features working properly, but the UI was unsightly. I created designs using a program called Canva to make the app more pleasing to the eye as well as repositioned the buttons and labels to feel more like an apps interface. With that, our project was ready. Adrian had been writing a journal describing each day we worked on this project and our thoughts as we got by which we would display at the venue along with my project book and the two posters I made.

On the day of the event, we were all a bit on edge but still held confidence in the work we had done for the last two months. It was an enjoyable day of speaking to judges and other students who did projects. We had 6 judges come to our display and all have appraisals of what we’ve accomplished. We were unfortunately unable to bring home any prizes but that’s just fine by me. The opportunity to work on this project in school and then get to proudly display our hard work was more than enough to leave me satisfied with the entire experience. I couldn’t recommend partaking in Sci-Fest enough to any students who have any interest in science or want to pursue science in the future.

All photos sourced from Google. All videos sourced from Youtube.

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