In all of my close to 1000 matches on fumbbl, one skill I have never seen a player with, with the exception of Jordell Freshbreeze, the Star Plyer Wardancer with whom it comes built in, is Diving Catch (DC).

The reason no coach ever takes DC is obvious - it's complete trash, a skill that will almost never get used. All it does is add another +1 to catch accurate passes, or allow catch attempt if kick, pass, or crowd throw in lands in player's tackle zone. Whether the diving ctch is successfull, the player does not move, but instead affects where the ball lands - on a successful catch it is transferred to his square, and on a failed attempt it scatters from his square.

So - trash. Not likely to be helpful often, and not a convincing game mechanic either, as even though the player is doing the diving, they stay stationary and the ball moves - quite counter intutive.

But what if the player DID move to the ball, rather than the ball to the player? This might make Diving Catch a more useful skill (but still not useful enough to get picked). The effets would be

1: A completed pass to a DC player's tacklezone could effectively add a point of movement to that player. This could open up some interesting possibilities, particularly for One Turn TD (OTTD) efforts.

Indeed, it might even be argued that is going too far, buffing DC too much and making OTTDs too easy for some teams. As an offset, I'd suggest another rule that a player can't move or take other actions in a turn once they've used DC. This might make for some exciting action as players sprint close towards the end zone, diving in to catch a glorious long bomb!

2: A completed pass to a DC player's tacklezone could allow that player to dive out of trouble, escaping marking player's tacklezones.

Would this require a seperate Dodge roll? What about Tentacles or other skills affecting, like Diving Tacke? In answer to these questions, I would suggest using the same rules as Pass Block out of turn movement.

Of course, I realise this suggested buff of Diving Catch is not actually going to happen, that even if it did it would still probably remain one of the least popular skill choices, and that this post is therefore pointless - but that's for me, that's Blood Bowl!