So, we’re getting to the business of the season- well, at least for SuperCoach. One more round before the finals.

And this round got off to a real humdinger, a draw between the Saints and Hawks, and dare I say, with a little less contraversy, could have been a Hawks win- Cue the Hawks fans predicting September glory… Anyways, the game, Hodge top scored with a great 149. Burgoyne rewarded his owners with a 130 while Sewell rounded out the top3 with a 127. It seems I’ve lost my “Roo won’t break 100 til round 20″ bet, with the big man scoring a 106. Maybe one more week and bringing him in for the finals. Looks like we might be picking up a few bargins through the finals. Namely, Dal Santo’s 77 and Montagna’s 49 will see them both drop significantly from their current $600k pricetag, while in the backline a 45 to Gilbert will raise a few eyebrows.

Saturday rolled around and went off with a pair of thumpings. Firstly, a Dane Swan 190 lead the Pies to absolutely cream the Tigers. Holey, pencil in 3 votes for him mate! Macaffer did suprisingly well with a 150 while Didak tabled a 141. Really, it was all Collingwood, with only one Tiger, Morton, who scored above 100. Not too many suprises considering the score line, but for the Martin owners it was a little sad to see him score only 50.

And next up, the Cats missed doubling the lions by 1 point. This time, Selwood led the way with a great 175 off 41 touches. Bravo to all of you who picked his as captain. Milburn got a great 145, while Gaz returned to his Perma captain roots, with a 144. Worryingly though, it took him kicking 5 goals to do it! Personally, I liked having a chance to compare Rockliff to Pods- With the Pod getting ahead early, it good to see the Lobster getting a game back with his 101 to Pods 70.

Saturday night saw the Bombers fall over the line against a valant Roos outfit by 3 points. However it was the Swallow who took the cream as the highest scorer with a 156. Watson and Greenwood took the next two spots with a 139. I hear that someone’s opponent had Greenwood- did you still get the win mate? bloody unlucky though! Hardingham kicked 4 goals on debut for a 89, while MacMillian and Speight both got solid 40’s.

The other game saw the Eagles give the Blues a run for their money, getting out to a big lead at half time, only to get blown away in the 3rd quarter as the Blues kicked a massive 7.9. Simpson top scored with a 139 while Murphy and Grigg came in next with a 129 and 121. Le Cras top scored for the Eagles kicking 3.5 and scoring 113. Waite scored a 102, but scored himself another report in junk time- will he never learn?! Hams did magnificently scoring 95 off 13 touches, while newbie Strijkl did great with a 95. But it wasn’t enough to get them up with a number of disappointing efforts- Priddis 68, Hurn 60, NitNat 52, Cox 33 and Sheppard 27 were all telling of the Eagles game.

So, Sunday rolled around and bam, all of my tips went askew. Despite a trip to the NT last week, the Doggies managed to come back into town and destroy the Dockers. Unsuprisingly, the Dogs dominated the top scores, with the CoonDog top scoring with a 130. Griffen did well with a 124 while Harbrow’s 120 means that any neccessary back upgrades could be looking in his direction. Suban, Pav and Johnson all top scored for the dockers, and all on 99 points. The biggest news though was Sandilands. A 45 to the big man will hurt a lot of SuperCoaches. However, more hurt will be anyone covering with Fyfe, Roberton or Morabito- scoring 26, 16 and 7 retrospectively.

Next game saw the Dees destroy a near guarenteed September for Sydneys. In fact, were they not a game clear of 9th and 2 clear of 10th- with a heck of a lot of percentage, I would have written them off after their efforts today. But with 5 games left, they haven’t done themselves any favors today. Suprisingly, Goodes top scored, with a 141. Green and the maligned Sylvia came next with a 123 and 117. The biggest news for the game though is ROK. 25 points for the guy, anyone got any ideas on how that happened?

The final game for the round say me go 0/3 in tips for the day. The second team today to win from a trip back from NT. Port was lead by Chaplin who scored a 150, Cassisi with a 146 and Ebert with 130. Meanwhile, Adelaide only had 3 players who scored above 80 points. Adelaides barometer, the Tipster lost along with Adeliade, scoring a miserable 32. Not as miserable as Hitchcock or Stewart who scored a 20 and 17 respectively.

So that’s our week. A funny funny week in footy. In non footy news, apparently girls like Julia Gillard and boys like Tony Abbott. Seriously, since when did real life become high, no, primary school where you pick your team on gender lines? Bah, at least Masterchef is providing better watching

Joshy did a great job getting EPL talk into it’s own thread, and I believe he’ll be doing the same thing again this week- so everyone, wait til that thread before you get talking about the Drogba surgery…

I hear the good folk at iScent have extended their comp out to the end of the year, so as a thanks, I reckon you should all at least head over there and see what they have to offer.

So there we go- we’re getting close to the business end. Stats will go up once lockout ends and perhaps more importantly, how are you all doing?

Bloody hell, what a game! The amount of talking points to come out of this game will be huge.

The surface will be brought up again, but that interchange decision that killed the Hawks. boy oh boy, makes for an interesting week in footy.

Figured I would be a shoe-in with my iScent pick of Franklin considering his 5 goals- but what was I thinking going against old faithful Hodge- or even Goddard.

Man, big week already!

So, Round 16 and the king is dead. Gary “PermaCaptain” Ablett scored his second 70 in two weeks and his salary is TANKING! – And for mine, for the games sake, I couldn’t be happier! I love the strategies involved in selection captains- It’s a lot of fun! Might even need to bring back the weekly Captains post if it wasn’t just pointing at Hodge, Goddard or Swan.

So, the first game, with big news, Former #16 crows take down the Cats!! Ablett, got himself a 76, Corey 72, Bartel 70. How the mighty ABC has come down! At least the S kicked on with a 144. Taylor also did well with a 138. The Crows biggest scorers were Vince, Stevens and Johncock with 113, 111 and 111. I reckon if the Crows can keep this form through to the end of the year, they are going to provide a lot of value next year- so keep an eye on them, particularly Vince. I reckon Tippett will prolly go better next year as well, just needs to drop out his 23 point games as like today.

Saturday day saw two games, both of them whitewashes. First up saw Collingwood decimate St Kilda to the tune of 48 points, in the process securing top spot on the ladder. I think after this weekend, the premiership race is well annd truely on! and for mine, with 3 teams vying for the top2, 5 teams for the top4, means that it’s going to be tough for teams to rest players. Which should be great news for us fantasy coaches!! As for the game, Fisher top scored with a 147 with a massive 18 marks, but not far behind was Swan on a 145. Rounding out the top 3 was Montagna on 137. On the low side, Davis dropped further below $300k! While J. Gram continued the kind of form that will make him a delicious pick up next year! Gotta keep an eye on those bargains now!

The next game saw the Hawks smash the Lions to the tune of 75 points. Lewis top scored with a massive 170, while Hodgy did his thing and picked up 153. Skipper was the big mover though, picking up a massive 149 and proving himself a great cashcow. Sucks to be sitting with Warnock and Lobbe on the bench with that kind of score backing you up! No real big suprises from a scoring front though, the Hawks dominated both boards, with the Lions top scorer being J. Brennan, who might be a bargain trade-up if needs be…

Saturday night started with the Coasters putting possibly the final nail into the coffin of one M. Knights. In fact, LeCras himself put 12 nails in himself, all the while scoring a massive 226 points! Bout time you paid some back man! Priddis was next on 148 points while rookie, Ashton Hams rounded out the top3 with a 128. Delicious cash cow. A couple of stinkers in this game, Ryder 56, Waters 40, Sheppard 29 and Melksham 29. But perhaps the biggest news of all, since the first Bombers game young Eli has seen was a loss, it means 3 more years of winter for us Bombers fans.

The next game on Saturday night came from all the way up in the balmy temperatures of Marrara Oval where the NT saw the Dogs run out as 34 point winners. However, in his 200th game, Kornes top scored with 36 touches and 152 points. After that, it was all dogs with Cross scoring 138 and Boyd 130. Hargraves is finally starting to show some form with his 3rd decent game in a row. Moles did great for the coaches that haven’t cashed him in with a 102. At the other end, Higgins continued his low form with a 53 and Hitchcock is going way backwards with a 17- you’d almost prefer a Zero!!

Sunday rolled round and we saw another upset as Mumford led his Swans to victory over the blues with 33 hitouts and 124 points. Goodes came second with a 121 while Murphy rounded out the top3 with a 115. Plenty of good times in this game with ROK, Kennelly, Grundy annd Malceski all breaking the ton, while Waite did servicible with a 91. Kane Lucas however did the opposite, his 2 tackle, 1 Handball, 1 FA – 5, has taken his salary backwards.

The next game saw the inform Tigers go down hard to the under-the-radar Roos. Currently only percentage out of the top8, they might suprise a lot of people pinching one of the spots. Time will tell I guess. As for the game, Swallow did his thing and put on a fantastic 157. He currently the 22nd highest averaging midfielder at the moment, but if he- and North can work on their consistancy issues next year, I can see him being a big candedate for a break out to elite status. Adams second placed with a 137 while Tuck top scored for the Tigers with a 125. D. Conners put in another star performance with a great 110, while Martin did his owner proud with a 96.

The final game of the round saw the Dockers knock off a valant Demons outfit, though to be fair, they were a lot more inaccurate. Michael Johnson looked a huge benefactor of the SuperCoach scoring model more that doubling his DT65 with a score of 151. I feel for anyone who’s league opponeny had his playing for them! Duffield and hill both put in a great 115, while Garland top scored for the Demons with a 99. Scully did his owners proud with a 98 while Ballantyne kicked 4 goals on his way to a respectable 98. Roberton and Fyfe did well on the rookie front with a 75 and 71 respectively while Silvagni hasn’t done his BE real any favors with a 44.

So we finish round 16 with the finals race well and truely on. The top2, top4 and top8 are all well and truely up for grabs, while at the other end, 16th through to 12 are seperated by a single game- and percentage. Basically, 6 games to go and anything can happen!

On a different note, the Premier league Competition has opened to us all, and we all now have a month to get our squads in (To those of you interested. ). There are a pair of TS leagues availiable to anyone interested, they are- Classic: 32457-12154 and H2H: 32457-12169. I’ll get an official post up once the VS competition opens as well.

And if there are any other comps out there that run over the off-season that you guys get into, whether it’s one of the american sports or whatever, drop me a line- we’ve got fantasy sports nuts from all walks here and I’m sure we could drum up some decent numbers in any comp. Plus, I’ve been meaning to play in the NFL league, so I’ld love to get a few tips from some of you guys!

Cheers guys, I hope you’ve scored well this week, personally I’m sick of my DT team constantly beating my SC team- but hey, we can’t win them all! how’d you all go??

So, it’s Friday night, apparently- and there’s a footy game on tonight! So I get to teach my new born all about the virtues of selecting big Gaz as captain- C’mon, get a 180 for mah boy!

On the same note, fingers are crossed that the first Bombers game he gets to watch is a win, cause I hear he’s like the Groundhog- and if he first sees us lose, then it’s 3 more years of winter…

Ah well, it’s nice to be getting a little bit of normality around these parts, my team still sucks, but at least I should be able to catch a few games. Rock and roll.

So, the little tacker has finally arrived. But boy, he didn’t want to give up without a fight! Jo was in full blown active labour for a full 24 hours before he finally threw in the towel.

Needless to say, she put in an epic performance without going the epidural.

End result though, is a beautiful healthy young lad who goes by the name of Elijah Henry.

Or as we call him, Eli, weighing in at a respectable 4.07k with all ten fingers and toes.

Both Jo and baby are doing well.

Anyways, regular commenter Anthak has put in a great performance of his own, coming to the fore and knocking out a great post for this weeks review. It’s a big-in, so it’s over the break!- Anyways, time to get some sleep, stats are updating.

(more…)

So, here we go- round 15. Should be a couple of good games this round- Geelong v Hawthorn is always a beauty – especially big because the Hawks are on fire! Should be a cracker!

On a non-football related topic though, I just found out today that Review, with Miles Barlow is coming back with a second season- Love that show!

–crud! looks like it didn’t post- sorry it’s so late, I though I posted it up after the saints game… ah well, details are in the post–

Alright, I’m gunna open this week up with a brief announcement. The due date for the latest little Walesy is exactly 3 days ago. So as you can imagine, I’m a little pressed for time at the moment- and could possibly just dissappear for a few days without a moments notice.

But fear not, I’ll do my darnest to keep everything around here in order until it happens.

The round started off on Thurday- catching a few coaches by suprise I might add. And it was a shocker of a game. Though from the score line, I would have to say that Brisbane were *twice* as bad as the Blues. Simpson top scored for the Blues with a 151, Betts 5 goal haul helped him to a 138 while Leuenberger topscored for the Lions. I was happy to see Cornelius score well, it’s just a shame that he was nerfed as a downgrade option by his single game last year.

Hawthorn are officially back. The doubters were all over the shop of late due to the calibur of the teams they’ve beaten of late, but to take it to the dogs and win like they did- they are easily a top 8 side- And that Burgoyne trade is looking great; haven’t lost a game with him in the team! Anyways, Lil Delicious top scored with a 159- further hurting all those coaches who were fed up with him. Lake put in another 156 performance while Mitchell scored 135. Higgins scored a 60, which is a little under what you’d expect; but it’s good to see him get through the game unscathed. Bazza put in a disappointing 39 points with 7 touches and 2 goals- Though you do expect his inconsistancies.

Fremantle’s season rolled on with a 60 point win over the Power. Sandilands top scored with a 121, while second place was shared by Cassisi and Palmer on 109. Though Palmer has made the news for all the wrong reasons- breaking the leg of his teammate and perenial SuperCoach SuperStar, Barlow. I think just about every serious coach in the league will be affected by this, so I hope you’ve planned for this kind of injury. I reckon you could expect a fair few more of these by the end of the season, so if you have been going hard with your trades, I don’t want to hear the sob stories when you run out- you knew the risks.

Saturday night was about demolishions. Firstly Collingwood smashed to Eagles, sending them to the bottom to the ladder. Dane Swan top scored with 38 touches and 2 goals for 163. Collingwood had 9 players score over 100 to Westcoasts 1, Priddis on 118. Sheppard flew the flag well with a 96, but for the most it was an ugly day for Eagles and just about anyone else in your team scored pretty poorly.

It was a similar result over at AAMI stadium, with Adeliade smashing my beloved Bombers. The season is officially over peoples! Thompson top scored with a 155 while the TipRat came in just behind with a 153. I think he needs to be a lesson to us for next year- bloody back your picks at the start of the year! He’s been averaging almost 90 points per game since round 7 and about 100 for the last 5 games- He would seriously be providing welcome relief right now for all of the ruck issues we’ve been having. If you’ll excuse me though, I’ll neglect to comment much more on this game, else I might fall into the trap of ranting about out disposal and calling for Knight’s neck!

Geelong accounted for the Roos easy enough, and was led by the great Podsiadly! 145 points to the big man in a 5 goal haul. Geelong took out the top 10 spots in the game with Chappy, Selwood, Kelly, Ablett, Stokes and Enright all breaking the ton. My round 9 team is very dissappointed with Thomas though! I picked him up to make some quick cash over the last few weeks, but even with a 217 in his rolling average, his 18 this week has said goodbye to that plan.

Richmond got off the bottom of the ladder! Great job guys!! Still let Sydney get the top three scores, but thats fine. Particularly when ROK top scores with a mighty 149. Bolton came in next best with a 133 while Mumford did us proud with 117. Word around is that Deledio did himself a Hyper extended elbow, so anyone with him will need to keep an eye open- Yes, he came back onto the field, but who knows. TDL dissappointed in his first game with a 23, while the late names Playfair did even worse with a 21.

The round rolled out as expected- the saints got over the Dees pretty easily with Montagna top scoring with 155. Looks like Goddards 135 wasn’t enough to keep his salary in the $700k’s, while C. Jones rounded out the top three. Green top scored for the Dee’s while Trengove did pretty solidly with a 102.

Anyways, I’ll get the stats up when lockout ends- until then, what is everyones plan when it comes to Barlow? Is it the straw breaking the camels back? Or just a road hump on the journey that is SuperCoach?

Man, I should have written the first half of this thing last week- the ol’ memory ain’t what it used to be.

It does remember the first game of the round, particularly Franklin single handedly dominating the Bombers with a couple of runs down the win and quite posibly goal of the year. He top scored for the game with 159, with Watson coming in behind him with 150. Mitchell has finally put in two games in a row with a 110, while Rioli brought up his 4th ton in a row, 102. Schoenmakers had a day out with 95, but I’d hazard a guess that anyone who had him has traded him out by now. Hodge has finally had a bad game putting in a 67, but the effects on his salary won’t be seen in force til next week.

Saturday night saw Fremantle keep back the Blues with Sandilands scoring a big 157 and Barlow following closely behind with a 146. Eddie Betts top scored for the blues with 129 with a 4 goal haul. Jarryd Waite broke a lot of hearts, not because of his 100, but because of his 2 week holiday, while Kep continues his solid form. The biggest news from the game was Mathew Kruezer, doing himself an ACL and is gone for the rest of the season. All of us here at TooSerious are hoping for a speedy recovery for the guy, and not just from a fantasy football front.

Richmond continued their good form knocking off the Lions. Chris Newman top scored with a 137, with Deledio (129), Tuck (126) and Riewoldt (114) following. Staker top scored for the Lions kicking 3 goals and scoring 113. Rockliff put in a solid 106 to put out the gauntlet in the Rock/Pod challenge.

North Melbourne and Port both continued there current form. Good and bad. Harvey top scored with a 152 with Ports Pearce and Schulz taking out 2nd and 3rd spot with a 138 and 127, With Schulz’s seven goal haul not being enough to get them over the line. Lachie Hansen kicked 5 himself which got him a return of 116 points. It’s around now that my memory of the Sundays games gets a little hazy. Honestly I blame the soccer- all these late nights and early mornings aren’t helping at all!

Anyways, the next game for Sunday saw the Bulldogs dominate the West Coast Eagles. Gilbee top scored with 151, with the next highest scorers being Cross (136), Giansiracusa (131) and Griffen (127). Dalziell top scored for the Eagles with 106, while Scooter Selwood but in a great game with 99. Sheppard did just nicely scoring 89 as a rookie while Grant scored a 68. Steven put in a decent first game scoring 42 but sadly, Hurn scored a 33 and got himself injured.

Then we had an intermission. Australia made up for their dismal German performance, but it just wasn’t enough to see them get through. Which was sad because last night, Ghana managed to beat the USA in over time- should have been us!! Ah well, bygones.

This week saw three games, starting off with a grand final rematch. It started off as many would have expected, a tight game, with Geelong pulling away in the second. What no-one expected to see though, was Geelong being kept goalless for a whole half of football with the Saints running away victorious. Even in defeat though, Ablett still top scored with 154. Personally, I reckon second place, Dal Santo was a little ripped off, with one less handall but 4 more marks and tackles (149)- but hey, that’s Supercoach. Bartel and Johnson look to have done themselves some damage, so we’ll have to keep a watch on them throughout the week. While Podsiadly bottom scored for probably the first time this year, with a 24. (Another point to the Lobster!)

Saturday saw the Pies go about it, beating the Swannies by 25 points. Steele Sidebottom (and name of the year winner – personally though, I liked Spontaneous Gordon and Nohjay Nimpson.) top scored with a 133, while Shaw had a welcome return to form scoring 126 points. Mattner and Malceski both scored 118 points while Jolly had a day out against his old team scoring 115 points. Goodes on the other hand failed miserable, with a pitiful 16- shame shame mate, like the balloon boy, in the balloon town with a pin, you’ve let us all down.

Finally, Adelaide are playing themselves back into some form, getting home over the Demons. The top three scorers for the Crows were Goodwin (144), Johncock (132) and Symes (126). Bate top scored for the Demons with 120 while the TipRat brought it home with a 118. With three 110+ in the last 4 weeks, I wonder if any coaches will have the cajones to jump back onto him with Krueze going down? Slone and Jaensch did a great job for their price, both breaking the ton, while Scully scored a 89.

Anyways, I’m getting this post up early because I know that I’m not going to have the time to write anything on the post-lockout stuff later on, I will get the stats up though.

Now, with Hurn, Goodes, 2 zeros and a swag of failures, I reckon I’ll be lucky to break 2k this week- the season is in absolute tatters!! So, after the split round, hows everyone else going? Happy with your year? Or have the wheels fallen off? Give me a couple of good news stories! Cause surely some of you guys have got to be doing well!

Alright, so now we’re into the second part of the split round. I hope you’ve all got it worked out.

The big news at the selection table is a couple of big exclusions.

- Chappy is down with a hammy!
- Rohan was dropped, but was then a recall when Kennelly got pulled out.
- Fraser and Medhurst went out, but Diddles and Ball both made a comeback.
(in fact, Johnson, Goldsack and Ball are all in for Collingwood… *snigger*)
- Bock has gone out, but Vince, Jaensch and Davis are all back.
- Finally, Beau Muston has been dropped… wait, no- Gysberts has been dropped.

Good luck this week, hopefully your doing better than my 793 off 11. So many spuds spudding it up, I reckon I’ll need to get Spud to name my team next year to get a fitting name.

Speaking about next year though- the U18’s are going about it at the moment, I’ll try to find sometime through next week to get a couple of reports up. – It’s never too early to start preparing for next year!

Man, it was a long drive home tonight, which is probably a good thing, cause I might have alienated the Hawks fans had I posted this right after the game. And there’s a lot of Hawks fans in these parts who are awesome. JoshyC for one, was great to see you at the footy tonight- you’re boys were just too strong for us. What hurts the most though is that you guys let us back in! Why could you have kicked straight and *not* gotten my hopes so high!

Also, another point of order came from tonight- I’m not old! Well, sort of, I’m still under 30; well for now anyways!

Gah! I’m bloody shattered!! I’m tossing up whether to hit the sack, bathed by the soothing sounds of the vuvuzela, or to have a couple of scotches and get myself banned form bigfooty for a bit…

And speaking of the soccer, we’ve got another big game on tomorrow night, so I’ve opened up a chat in the comments here for tomorrow nights big game- Carn Aussies!