These Thursday games are killing me-let me see the teams before I have to tip! Tips are in bold, as usual.

	Brisbane Lions	vs	Carlton			Gabba – Thursday April 1 8:40pm Top Scorer: J.Brown, 136
	Collingwood	vs	Melbourne			MCG – Saturday April 3 2:10pm Top Scorer: D Swan, 145
	St Kilda	vs	North Melbourne			Telstra Dome – Saturday April 3 7:10pm Top Scorer: N Dal Santo, 140
	West Coast	vs	Port Adelaide			Subiaco – Saturday April 3 8:40pm Top Scorer: A Selwood, 135
	Adelaide	vs	Sydney			AAMI Stadium – Sunday April 4 1:10pm Top Scorer: S Goodwin, 151
	Essendon	vs	Fremantle			Telstra Dome – Sunday April 4 2:10pm Top Scorer: J Watson, 131
	Richmond	vs	Western Bulldogs			MCG – Sunday April 4 4:40pm Top Scorer: R Griffen, 137
	Hawthorn	vs	Geelong			MCG – Monday April 5 2:10pm Top Scorer: G Ablett, 160

Fev v Carlton in the first round will be interesting, but I think it will be big Jono Brown who leads the Lions to victory. Collingwood and the Saints are fairly obvious, the Eagles home ground advantage should see them overhaul the Power and Adelaide will play a lot better than last week to deny the Swans for the second straight week. Never tip Fremantle in Melbourne and just never tip Richmond. The Monday game sees the return of Buddy and we will see if Hawthorn really can compete for this years flag.

Captain tips: 1. Ablett

2. Swan

3. Any other Magpie premium.

4. Brown

5. The Saints:  Montagna, Goddard, Riewoldt, Dal Santo are all reliable

6. M Barlow (just kidding, but he was good wasn’t he?)

So, we had a great round of tipping this week with 14 people picking 7 winners. Sadly, nobody got all 8.

Bryce Gibbs was by far the most popular pick, but sadly, came up short.

Eddie Betts was the highest scorer for the game, but neither of the two people who picked him got 7.

Amusingly though, we had three people pick 7 and an equal highest scorer. (2 on Marc Murphy and 1 on Kade Simpson)

So we had to go to the predicted score to break the ties, and here luckily we found a difference.

This weeks winner, picked 7 winners and a point difference of 6. Second place had a difference of only 8- So it was a *very* close finish!

Made me realise though that had that been a tie, the final tie-breaker would have been based on the earliest timestamp on the entry. But I dont think I’ve explicitly stated that before. (So get your tips in for next week sooner rather than later!)

I’ll be sending the winners details through to FootySystemBet and they will contact you with further details.

Please note though that it’s probably bad form to go post the tips given up here (I mean, they do charge a pretty penny for their services), but if you could give us an impartial review of how they went at the end of the season, that would be awesome!

As usual, the ladder is over the break.
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Alright, here’s the current standings for the Sideways cup. Please, if you haven’t entered you code in yet and want to enter, you still can as I’ll be pulling in the scores again on Thursday.

Don’t forget, there’s a $500 corporate event give away from the good folk at Sideways to the team who puts in the highest round score for the year – so get in there!

Alternatively, if you can ensure that you’ve entered in your code correctly by finding yourself on the below chart, then that would be great.

And if you’ve entered in the wrong id (ie- if you can’t find your team below), let me know (via email) and I’ll put in the scores of your real code.

Also, the following players have a Supercoach id entered that couldn’t find a team:
hocjb001, jake01, joshs heroes, master_mick and stone

And the following players have a Dreamteam id that I couldn’t find:
dadavid, Gerco, master_mick

So, here’s the tally: (over the break)
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I’ve said this a number of times this weekend, and I’ll do it again- Footy’s back! and doesn’t it feel good!

The season opened up with a fairly dominate performance over a hapless Richmond, with Betts and Carrazzo stealing the show. Connors and Martin put in a more than servicible effort from the rookie front, while Newman disappointed evert coach that has him.

Friday night saw a gallant Bombers outfit run over in the final quarter by the mighty cats. They were rusty in the first quarter, as seen by Gaz scoring 1, but he managed to finish on 127 – To the relief of coaches everywhere. Selwood, Bartel and Chappy were their dominant selves, but it was Stanton who stole the show with a 133.
Howlett impress from a rookie front, while Hooker made many the coach who gambled on him happy. Gumby dissappointed while Hille is going on a holiday.

Saturday started with the Demons, wresting the title of wooden spoon from the Tigers. Hodge impressed everyone top scoring with 121 and Ladson impressed on debut with a 91.
Peterson was the pick of the rookies in this game with a 71 beating both Scully and Trengove.

Saturday night saw the Swans get within a whisker of the Saints, with mis-kicking hurting their chance. Riewoldt dominated with a 163 while Malceski and Goddard proved beautiful pickups in the backline.
Kennelly and Seaby put in impressive opening games playing well above their average. It looks like Taghd hasn’t missed a beat since going to Ireland.
Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum, Mattner just took himself off my Christmas card list.

Rischitelli top scored against the Eagles, but I think the story of the night went to Brennan with 31 touches.
Shuey and Waters scored impressive debuts while Clark and Cox hurt many of the Premium ruck supporters.

Sunday saw Kornes knock up the highest score for the round with a massive 173, while Harvey and Ziebell impressed with a ton each. Harvey got a report however. Haven’t seen it yet, anyone see it?
Campbell did well after scaring us all at lockout, while Hitchcock put up an impressive 75.

Dane Swan and Heath Shaw went to town on the Dogs, getting the Pies a 6 goal win. Not huge suprises except for Jolly underperforming. (Though seriously, how many ruck have disappointed this week?)

The story of the round came from the last game of the round. A debut game from rookie Barlow, knocking up a massive 151, on my bench – Which has got to be a record for a rookie doesn’t it? I’ll look though my records tomorrow!
Sandilands broke the drought on rucks with an impressive 124, however 7 Dockers broke the ton in their 50 point win over the Crows, keeping them goaless in the final quarter. (Even Suban brought up an impressive ton).
Ballantyne and Dangerfield looks to have rewarded those who stuck with them while Tippett and Thompson disappointed.

Overall, there were some massive scores this week, with the top scorer bringing in a 2625. Makes my 1989 (2150 with better bench selection!) seem lousy in comparison. Hilariously, that has me sitting in 98,000th- Seriously, I didn’t even know it went down that far!

Remember though, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

And because of that reason, please, at this point remember. Trades are precious. So don’t be wasting them now.

Don’t even *think* about using a trade in week one. Todays 150 could be tomorrows 50. And as we can all see in the calculator, this weekends score will only account for one week of salary movement.

So, unless you’re new to this place and are holding Presti, or an LTI pops up (and even then, waiting a week will provide important information), then *please* don’t trade yet!

Looks like Barry Hall is the leagues most popular player of the season. Not suprising considering his pre-season! He *nearly* broke a lot of hearts this weekend!

The most selected “rookie” priced in each position are as follows- Maguire, Warnock, Martin, Gumbleton.

The TS Leagues are doing great (even *with* me bringing them down!), sitting in 9th, 17th, 20th, 36th and 99th.

If I’d put in a decent score, that 17 would be 6. Ah well, great effort everyone! It’s a fantastic result to all of you!

Competition updates will be up thoughout the week as I collate the results.

Stats are sort of up. It looks like there is a bug in my new weekly update (cause there hasn’t been many weeks to test things yet!) – and because of that the salary predictions are *way* off! I’ll try to get them fixed over my lunch break!

So, how’d you go? Let me know in the comments!

Alright, we’ve got the post below to talk about last minute changes.

This post here is to talk about the results for the weekend!

So, Betts and Carrots dominated last night. I guess we can’t all play Richmond every week though. Not to take anything away from the Blues though, they did exactly what they needed to to get the 4 points. But we’ll reserve judgement for a few more rounds I think.

Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. And early fixtures to make a big difference on early perceptions, so don’t go jumping on anyone just yet!

Onto tonight. Mah boys are taking on the mighty cats! And at this point in the season, SuperCoach, as with real footyball- anything can happen.

We haven’t been crushed with injuries, or poor form yet. The sky is the limit! So I’m excited!

And to those of you who are planning on a few post work cleansing ales:

DON’T DRINK AND TRADE!

Alright, I’m sick of seeing that error post up top. They’re currently restarting the server every time it gets too bad until they can fix it. *rolls eyes*.

That said. 3 hours til lockout! Are we excited! I know I’m excited!

I’ve got three people to watch tonight and boy am I excited to watch them! (Well, two if I decide to cash in Warnock now for a 50k payday. )

Since the server has recently been reset, get in and get your tips in while we’re still smashing along!

And don’t forget, the live scoring should be going for it’s maiden voyage tonight. And I say maiden voyage because it scored a bit of a recode and is completely untested. So if it’s broken, then fixed, then broken again- then there’s a chance it’s me tinkering and *not* the servers for once!

*sigh* I do long for the days where the only errors were me tinkering…

Enough on that though- FOOTY’S BACK!!! Go you good thing!!

(ps- we’ll get the team posted up over the break as they come in)
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Just putting up a quick post to apologise for the server issues we’ve been getting around here recently.

I’m hoping that the hosts have got it sorted (it seems to be working now, but perhaps there’s not so many hitting it now) – But I’ve a feeling that we’ll cop some more issues as the hits keep climbing.

I can assure you that I’ll keep on their case until we get it sorted, and if I have to, will look into getting bigger and better servers elsewhere.

Ah well, all bad timing with lock-out tomorrow, but let it be a lesson to us all, lots of people love supercoach, so get your team in early in case you can’t get in near lock out! (And I did notice that Supercoach went down for a little bit tonight- so watch out!)

By popular demand (or at least one), and because Walesy was nice enough to make a footy tipping competition (sponsored by Footy System Bet), Knighty’s footy tips are back for 2010 (I love referring to myself in the 3rd person). Round 1 is the hardest round to pick, so I normally just go for the obvious picks. There’s plenty of time to get creative with tips when you know how the teams will perform. Tips are once again in bold, and this year I am also including a highest SC scorer pick just for the Footy System Bet TooSerious Footy Tipping competition.

Thursday 25 March

Richmond V Carlton,

Top Scorer: M Kreuzer, Carlton, 136

Richmond is likely to miss Foley and Cousins in the engine room, but really who needs to analyse this game-its Richmond playing! Last time they played Chris Judd and Marc Murphy tore it up for the Blues, but with Judd missing and Murphy recovering from a hip problem, I’m tipping Kreuzer to be the highest scorer by demolishing Richmonds weak ruck division (which is on par with the rest of the team by the way).

Friday 26 March

Geelong V Essendon

Top Scorer: G Ablett, Geelong, 164

As much as I really really want Essendon to win, I can’t see them getting close to Geelong. Hey, I’d be happy coming within 10 goals of them given our record. Here’s some advice-unless you support Geelong, the Saints or the Bulldogs, tip with your head not your heart. Ablett to dominate as per usual with the only impediment to a really high score being the Cats dominating so much they all steal points off each other. In fantasy news, don’t be surprised if Hille is held quiet and Podsiadly is given lots of cheap goals in the square as the Cats act like they are on a training run. Prove me wrong, Bombers!

Saturday 27 March

Melbourne V Hawthorn

Top Scorer: Sam Mitchell, Hawthorn, (151)

Should be called  Casey V Box Hill with all those injuries, but its still an easy round. Repeat it with me: NEVER PICK MELBOURNE. Enough said. Rookies to do OK, but not great. Oh, and any fit Melbourne players who aren’t picked may as well retire, because if you can’t get a game here there’s very little future for you (you hear me Simon Buckley?) Next tip.

Brisbane V WCE

Top Scorer: T Johnstone, Brisbane, (144).

Please don’t laugh. I seriously think Johnstone will have a good game. He got 156 last year and had a pretty good preseason. Don’t pick him, but I don’t think he’ll do that badly this game. Its at the Gabba, so you have to go with Brisbane.

*Sounds of retching* I just realised what I wrote up there…

Sydney V St Kilda

Top Scorer: N Dal Santo, Saints, (150)

History suggests this will be a close game. I agree with that, but I just see the Saints having that tiny bit of extra class that will get them over the line. A great match to have a flutter on with Footy System Bet.

Sunday 28 March

Port Adelaide V North Melbourne

Top Scorer: Dom Cassissi, Port Adelaide (130)

Port should win this courtesy of that great thing called home ground advantage. I can’t wait to see how ‘Alfred’ Hitchcock plays on the big stage, but apart form that I have no idea who will score well. I say Cassissi because he’s the first Power player who popped into my head, but Brent Harvey also traditionally starts strongly. Porbably be better off playing with your Sideways Radio cars instead of watching this match.

Bulldogs V Collingwood

Top Scorer: D Cross, Bulldogs (140)

Match of the round by a long way. Call your friends and family over (using TextOut SMS of course) to watch this one, because it should be a beauty. Last year these guys were both preliminary finalists, and we will see straight away how BBBBH (the extra B is is for BYOBB, and that extra B is a typo) competes against a quality team in the real season. Could be a preview of September action right here.

Fremantle V Adelaide

Top Scorer: Kurt Tippett (147)

On preseason form, injuries and home ground advantage I should tip Freo, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Stop Pavlich, stop Fremantle has always been the way, and Nathan Bock has Pavlova’s measure.

Captain Tips:

1. Gary Ablett

2. Daylight

3. Your next best midfielder, Goddard, Riewoldt. Just pick your best player, there’s no science this round.

Agree? Disagree? Sick of my blatant advertising of Footy System Bet and Sideways Radio cars? Why don’t you text someone who cares with TextOut SMS. Or leave a comment, thats good too.

DISCLAIMER: Knighty is in no way responsible for any failures in footy tipping competitions and loss of money/pride/other things because of this.

I gotta put this up as a topic for discussion. Purely because it’s so damn important to so many side.

link

Ablett, last season’s Brownlow Medalist, is out of contract at the end of the season and is contemplating a massive offer from Gold Coast, which has already signed his brother Nathan, a former Geelong premiership player.

Thompson betrayed some frustration with the contract situation.

“I couldn’t care about Gary Ablett this week, apart from hoping he plays and plays well,” he said.

Personally, I’ve no doubt that he’ll be going. But with all the media attention, you gotta wonder about the effects that will have within the playing group.

Sure, they are all professionals, but they are people too. Surely I’m not the only one getting scared?

Firstly, the TextOutSMS TooSerious leagues are now FULL! As in, actually full this time.
Do you remember the talk of maybe a packet of Pringles for our grand final winners? Well, the generousity of our sponsors, TextOutSMS, we’ve well and truely done better than that. Each of our grand final winners from our $50 leagues will win credit for 1000 text messages from TextOutSMS. The winner of our $20 league will win 400 credits. Awesome. These guys are good folks (obviously) and if any of you guys have any need for bulk purchased text messages for your companies or teenage daughters, I suggest you make these guys your first stop.

Then comes the Sideways Cup. Jo is *still* hurting about not being allowed to enter this one. The prize is a $500 party for 10 with the guys at Sideways playing with their radio controlled cars. Fun! Even more fun – this is a FREE competition! How do you win? By entering your team and posting the highest round score for the season. How do you enter your team?

- Log OUT of your supercoach team, and go here: Rankings
- Search for your team.
- Copy the link to your team into a program like Notepad or something.
- grab the tid (The bolded bit in: http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/?p=other_teams&tid=24&lid=1 )
- enter that number into the SuperCoach Ref on the Accounts tab.
And you’re done!

If you have *any* issues, think you may have entered the wrong thing for your team or are unsure about what you’re supposed to do and think I may have had too many whilst writing the instructions, feel free to email me at too.serious.team.management@gmail.com. And, if you’re hankering for some fun before the season ends or looking for a unique team building activity for your work or just a great night with the family and friends, go and give Sideways a look.

Lastly but certainly not least…ly we have the FootySystemBet Tipping Competition. Log in to your TooSerious account to enter your team over here – Tipping. The twist is that you have to pick the higest SuperCoach scorer from round 1 to act as a tie breaker. You can do that using the drop down menu. In that little box next to the drop down menu, insert the score you think the player you picked will get. How much to enter? Again, this competition is FREE! What are you winning? The round winners from rounds 1, 2 and 3 will all get a free years subscription to FootySystemBet. A round winner and the overall winner at the end of the season will get a subscription for next years season. Again, awesome. Jason who runs FootySystemBet knows way too much about tipping and has a fantastic track record. Go over there and give it a look.

So, get signed up. You have nothing to lose but a whole heap of fun to be had and some great prizes to win for getting involved.

Again, any questions, ask in the comments or email and I’ll be more than happy to point you in the right direction or answer anything.

Also, I should be getting a competition tab up tonight, replacing the current Tipping tab. This will contain all the results for our different competitions and will be where you go to enter in your tips. But I flaked last night and didn’t get it finished.