gshc2020.com

Are Brighton's Maxim de Cuyper and Pascal Gross essential?

They are as close to must-have status as anyone in this game but it would be fair to argue this may not be the best entry point knowing they face Liverpool and Manchester City away in their next three games.

Admittedly Crystal Palace at home in the derby this weekend is a good match-up, but I wouldn't be ripping up my team to accommodate either. Given the choice, I would prioritise defender De Cuyper (£5.1m).

Should I sell Manchester United players?

Bruno Fernandes (£11.9m) is owned by a third of all FPL managers and, as the game's second most expensive asset with five blanks from six, he is an easy sell this week.

Arsenal's Bukayo Saka (£9.6m) and Chelsea's Cole Palmer (£9.7m) are both good replacements.

United defenders should also be shipped but there is an argument to hold Bryan Mbeumo (£7.9m) who doesn't break the bank and is ranked equal 10th from all midfielders with 33 points so far this season. He's clearly more of a hold than a buy however.

How many Chelsea attackers do I need?

With an attack-minded manager in Xabi Alonso, no European involvement and a full week on the training ground this Chelsea team look capable of scoring two or three goals every game.

Owning striker Joao Pedro (£7.8m), who is surely now a 'must have' probably isn't enough cover for an attack with such firepower. Choosing between Palmer and Morgan Rogers (£7.9m) isn't easy and probably comes down to budget and your view on how many penalties and set-piece goals Chelsea will score - with Palmer being the main beneficiary.

In open play, there is little to split the inside forwards and Rogers has slightly better underlying data and FPL points from the six games so far.

Should I triple captain Erling Haaland this week?

If you still have the chip, it's worth noting that a double gameweek before gameweek 19, when chips reset, looks unlikely.

Haaland has three standout home fixtures before the end of the year: Ipswich this weekend, Fulham in gameweek 11 and Hull in gameweek 16. There is little to separate them, but Ipswich do not usually sit deep away from home.

They have already lost 5-2 at Manchester United and won 3-2 at Crystal Palace in the league this season.

Who are the best long-term 'set-and-forget' defenders?

De Cuyper has been the standout option, but covering the Arsenal defence also looks sensible.

Under Mikel Arteta, they should remain as the league's best defensive unit, and Riccardo Calafiori (£5.9m) currently looks the strongest route in.

Elsewhere consider your defensive contribution points (defcon) magnets such as Leeds' Tarik Muharemovic (£5m), Brighton's Luka Vuskovic (£5.1m), Bournemouth's Antonio Silva (£5m) and Everton centre-back James Tarkowski (£6.2m).

Not only are all four reliable defcon performers but they all play for solid teams who do not concede too many. %!s()

The eight-year-old died on 7 January 2022 of diabetic ketoacidosis, after her father, Jason Struhs, stopped providing insulin to treat her type 1 diabetes at their home in Toowoomba, Queensland. A long-term sceptic of his wife’s beliefs, he had converted to them and joined her religious sect – which subscribed to an extreme form of Christianity and denied the use of medicine – in 2021.

Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard is holding an inquest into Elizabeth’s death. She has previously heard the eight-year-old came to the attention of child safety after a 2019 incident where she presented to hospital in a coma.

Child safety ended its involvement with the family after just 17 weeks of what was supposed to be an intensive intervention, assessing her as “safe”.

But the single child safety officer assigned to Elizabeth’s case told the court on Friday her approach wasn’t intensive and she didn’t make weekly check-ins during that period, despite departmental guidelines.

The department chose to release her back into Jason’s sole care over the objections of specialist doctors who treated Elizabeth in Brisbane, subject to a voluntary intervention with parental agreement (IPA).

The coroner heard just a single child safety officer was assigned to the case, and would often conduct home visits alone.

The officer gave evidence on Friday.

“Ideally I wanted to visit with the family at least once a week, in accordance with our IPAT (intervention with parental agreement team) guidelines,” according to her statement, presented to the court.

“During my management of the IPA for the Struhs family, I recall that I was not always available to conduct home visits with the family. I recall this being a very busy time for the CSSC (child safety service centre) and I also recall being regularly out of the office travelling to visit other families.

“I note that one of the home visits to the Struhs family was conducted by a student who was working in the team at the time.”

She said Elizabeth’s case wasn’t treated as a complex case, which it should have been due to the intervention.

But at the time, she had a “big caseload” – approximately 25-28 children in 15 families on the same intervention– she said. The coroner has previously heard that the Toowoomba region was among the busiest in the state for child safety.

Counsel assisting Simon Hamlyn-Harris said most of them were experiencing significant domestic violence, drug use, sexual abuse and it was not often that she was required to work with “upper class families” like the Struhs.

The case worker agreed that she may have been “overly influenced” by the presentation of the Struhs home.

“I believe that we may have prioritised other cases at the time for children who were presenting at more immediate risk,” she told the court.

She also told the court that she may have had a bias because her own child had nearly died of type 1 diabetes at age 6. She had asked not to be assigned to the case, she said.

Several witnesses have previously told the coroner they expected the intervention to last months or a year, but the case worker said they were supposed to not last longer than three months, because they were an intensive approach.

On Friday, Kirkegaard asked another child safety witness whether they felt “organisational pressure to get a matter like this finalised quickly”.

“Absolutely,” the witness said, adding an IPA could be intrusive and potentially harmful to a child if dragged out.

“I don’t believe it impacted our decision making,” she said.

On 13 November 2019, a more senior child safety officer assessed Elizabeth as “safe” and the intervention was ended.

The case worker told the coroner on Friday that she hadn’t appreciated the danger of Elizabeth’s mother’s church group, which was considered a source of support for the family.

All 14 adult members of the sect – known as the Saints – were convicted of Elizabeth’s manslaughter last year, including Elizabeth’s parents, Kerrie and Jason, and the group leader, Brendan Stevens.

In her statement she said Jason had agreed to continue to treat his daughter against his wife’s beliefs and that she had “faith” that should Kerrie stand in the way he would leave her.

None of the witnesses can be identified for legal reasons.

The inquest continues. %!s()

Having captained Munster to the 2006 Heineken Cup during a stellar playing career that also yielded 62 Ireland caps, the outpouring of grief that followed his passing was remarkable.

Foley - affectionately known as 'Axel' - has never been far from Munster minds in the decade since, but his immense contributions to the province will be highlighted by a series of tributes during their Investec Champions Cup game on Saturday which, coincidentally, pits them against Racing.

As part of the tribute at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork, the Munster players will wear commemorative presentation jackets featuring the club crest and the number eight, Foley's position.

Speaking on Tuesday, Munster defence coach Denis Leamy - Foley's team-mate for the province's 2006 and 2008 European triumphs - said his former captain's memory is "to the forefront of everyone's mind" this week.

"He was iconic really," said Leamy.

"When I came in as a young player, he was already one of the big leaders within Munster and obviously playing for Ireland as well. He was hugely influential on me around my game, my mindset in terms of how you developed and what you brought in a Munster jersey.

"His belief in a Munster jersey was unbelievable. He didn't feel that in a Munster jersey we could be beaten. He was uncompromising, he gave belief to everyone around him and he was just a super player, a super team-mate.

"A very, very special person, very special player. It's tragic that he's not here any more, but we'll try and do our very best on Saturday to do justice to his memory."

The son of former Ireland international Brendan Foley, Limerick-born 'Axel' made his Munster debut in 1994 and went on to make 201 appearances, including 86 in the European Cup.

He was instrumental to Ireland's 2004 Triple Crown-winning Six Nations campaign and won five All-Ireland League titles with Shannon.

After retiring in 2008, he joined Munster's backroom staff as a technical adviser. He took over as forwards coach in 2011 before replacing Rob Penney as head coach three years later.

During that time, he left an indelible mark that is still felt by the current squad.

"He's someone who's been spoken about from the very first day I arrived in Munster," said captain Tadhg Beirne, who has been at the club since 2018.

"Some of his quotes and actions are still spoken about in meetings and all around the building and I think that is a testament to the man. He was a pure Munster legend, a Munster man through and through."

Beirne added: "He's with us all the time and I don't think it's going to be any different this weekend. We're paying tribute to a true Munster man and rightly so."

Peter O'Mahony was Munster captain when Foley passed away.

After the postponement of the Racing game, the province made the difficult decision to play their home European match against Glasgow at Thomond Park a week later.

In the build-up to the Glasgow game - which Munster won 38-17 - a visibly distraught O'Mahony delivered a heartfelt tribute to Foley at a news conference alongside director of rugby Rassie Erasmus.

Grappling with his grief, O'Mahony said Foley's contributions to the province could not be "calculated". Ten years on, he admits it is still "tough" to talk about his former mentor.

"It changed me hugely," former Ireland captain O'Mahony, who retired last year, told Rugby Union Weekly.

"You talk about perspective on life and career. Indie [my daughter] was only a couple of weeks old, between that and then you lose your head coach and you're thinking 'where is this going, what am I doing?' and 'what's important?'.

"It definitely changed me as a person. As I said, [it was] probably the toughest period of my life to be honest."

In addition to the players' commemorative jackets, the tributes to Foley on Saturday will include a rendition of 'There Is An Isle' - the anthem of his club Shannon RFC, a photo display in Marina Park outside the stadium and a round of applause in the eighth minute. %!s()