TooSerious

By<a style='margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none #84b714; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #84b714; text-decoration: none; outline: medium none; background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;' href='http://www.fridayexperts.com/]www.FridayExperts.com[/url]

Forgive us for stating the bleeding obvious, but the Melbourne Football Club is in more trouble than the early settlers, to whom some of its supporters can probably trace their ancestry.


In the past six seasons, Melbourne has won 32 games. In the Fitzroy Football Club's final six seasons, before it merged with Brisbane, it won 31. Since 2007, Melbourne has had the benefit of a smorgasbord of top draft picks and a wealthy supporter base of which Fitzroy could only have dreamt; yet on and off the field it has fared little better.



In 1993, Fitzroy won as many games as it lost, and lost several games by less than a kick. Three years later, Fitzroy was gone.



It has been six years since Melbourne won as many games as it lost. Even with the cyclical nature of today's game, that is too long.



In the past four years, Melbourne's off-field position has been propped up by a combination of the AFL, the MCC and a Debt Demolition campaign that will surely never be repeated. The place doesn't exactly reek of economic sustainability. A significant portion of their recent financial and moral gains was then lost in the wake of last month's $500,000 fine in relation to &amp;lsquo;tanking', whatever that means, and the associated stigma.



Then came Round 1, 2013.



They're not the first team to be booed off the ground by their own supporters. But they might be the first team to be booed off by their supporters in the first game of...

Everyone will be pleased to note that Sub notifications got sent off without a hitch tonight! Started the weekend on the right note and now everyone cross fingers that it continues in the same vein!



Join us below or in the chatto discuss how your weekend is travelling.
Big hits? Big misses? Just want to cheer on your team? It's all good.



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INS: Montagna, Petterd, Crozier, Leuenberger, Crouch, Terlich, Daw, Shaw, B. Kennedy, Rowe, Hodge, Sinclair

OUTS: Armstrong, Rampe, Broughton, Lycett, LeCras

xBench: Blicavs, Daw, Frost, Kennedy, Macaffer, Russell, Sinclair, Hodge



St Kilda v Richmond, MCG, Friday 7.50pm (EDT)
St Kilda

B: Jason Blake, Sam Fisher, Dylan Roberton

HB: Jarryn Geary, Rhys Stanley, Sam Gilbert

C: Adam Schneider, Lenny Hayes, Nick Dal Santo

HF: Arryn Siposs, Nick Riewoldt, Ahmed Saad

FF: Stephen Milne, Beau Maister, Leigh Montagna

Foll: Ben McEvoy, David Armitage, Jack Steven

Int: Sean Dempster, Jack Newnes, Terry Milera, Clinton Jones

Emg: Tom Simpkin, Nathan Wright, Tom Lee

Richmond

B: Steven Morris, Alex Rance, Troy Chaplin

HB: Jake Batchelor, Chris Newman, Bachar Houli

C: Shaun Grigg, Trent Cotchin, Reece Conca

HF: Brett Deledio, Shane Edwards, Daniel Jackson

FF: Luke McGuane, Jack Riewoldt, Ty Vickery

Foll: Ivan Maric, Dustin Martin, Shane Tuck

Int: Dylan Grimes, Jake King, Ricky Petterd, Brandon Ellis

Emg: Chris Knights, Nick Vlastuin, Ben Griffiths
Sydney Swans v Gold Coast, SCG, Saturday 1.45pm (EDT)
Sydney Swans
B: Rhyce Shaw, Heath Grundy, Nick Smith

HB: Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Ted Richards, Martin Mattner

C: Jarrad McVeigh, Kieren Jack, Lewis Jetta

HF: Jude Bolton, Sam Reid, Ryan O'Keefe

FF: Mike Pyke, Adam Goodes, Daniel Hannebery

Foll: Shane Mumford, Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker

Int: Ben McGlynn, Craig Bird, Andrejs Everitt, Nick Malceski

Emg: Dane Rampe, Jesse White, Mitch Morton
Gold Coast
B: Joel Wilkinson, Matthew Warnock, Thomas Murphy

HB: Dion Prestia, Rory Thompson, Jack Hutchins

C: Michael Rischitelli, Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow

HF: Harley Bennell, Charlie Dixon, Aaron Hall

FF: Luke Russell, Samuel Day, Steven May

Foll: Zac Smith, Karmichael Hunt, David Swallow

Int: Jared Brennan, Matthew Shaw, Jaeger O'Meara,...

[span style='font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit;]Much has already been written on this website about the merit of having
Ablett in your team. Everyone would be aware that he scored a massive
178 SC points last week against St Kilda (87 SC points in the first
three quarters before his match winning effort including 3 goals
and 91 SC points in the last quarter). This week, Gold Coast are playing
Sydney and his numbers are very impressive &amp;hellip;




<p style='text-align: justify;]Last week I mentioned
that the captain's loophole continued throughout the round. For those
who missed it, the new rule change this season is: [span style='font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, Arial; color: #414141;]You can change
your captain and vice captain as often as you like, prior to the start
of the round and during a round and Rolling Lockout, up until the time
that your currently selected captain's (or vice captain's) match has
started. At this point, your selection is locked in for the round and
cannot be changed.&amp;rdquo;
<p style='text-align: justify;][span style='font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, Arial; color: #414141;]



<p style='text-align: justify;]This means that we during
the year, we can select a player from an early game in the round as
our vice-captain and, if happy with that score, remember to put the
captaincy on a non-playing player whose team is playing later that round.
This week, the only game to be played before the Ablett's game (Saturday
afternoon at 1:45 pm) is the Friday night game between St Kilda and
Richmond. That being the case, I have included a number of St Kilda
and Richmond players for your consideration.

<p style='text-align: justify;]For those not interested
in picking either a St Kilda or Richmond player, why not select Ablett
as vice captain and give one of your other players a chance to better
his score...

[span style='line-height: 1.3;]The biggest issue I have week to week and season to season is knowing which rookies to play on the field and which to sit on the bench. In the trading post Walesy wrote here[span style='line-height: 1.3;] he talked about the winner of the SuperCoach season being decided by a thousandpaper cuts[span style='line-height: 1.3;]- little errors that gradually put you out of contention as the season progresses. Whoever suffers the fewest cuts, wins the day.



I have a team that I'm pretty happy with which went fairly well with a score of 2,423 leading to a ranking of 1,042. I really can't complain there except for the fact that I had so much sitting in reserve. Leaving <a href="http://tooserious.net/Player.aspx?id=2305&name=Jack Viney">Jack Viney[/url] on the bench? Pretty bloody dumb in hindsight! Had I fielded the right players, my team had the potential to score 2518 and put me in 32nd place. That's 95 points and a whole bunch of gloating to Walesy I missed out on right there!


If small mistakes arepaper cuts, my inability to field the right team in any given week is a gaping axe wound, particularly with my heavy reliance on rookies to fund my (spectacularly awesome don't you dare get injured) midfield.



I figured I can't be the only one, so what are your strategies? How do you decide which rookies warm the pine and which ones hit the field on matchday? Do you go off last weeks points? Position in the team? Coaches comments? Gut feeling?



Help a lady out, TooSerious!

<div>

<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Les Zigomanis for BackPageLead.com.au
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]I am going to be original and complain about the fixture<em style='font-size: 15px;]oneround into the season! How cool is that?
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Round 1 began thusly:
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Friday, March 22,Adelaide v Essendon AAMI Stadium;Saturday, March 23,Fremantle v West Coast Patersons Stadium;Thursday, March 28,Carlton v Richmond MCG;Saturday, March 30,Western Bulldogs v Brisbane Etihad Stadium;GWS v Sydney ANZ Stadium,Gold Coast v St Kilda Metricon Stadium;Sunday, March 31,Melbourne v Port Adelaide MCG;North Melbourne v Collingwood Etihad Stadium,Monday, April 1,Hawthorn v Geelong MCG.
<p style='margin-bottom: 1.3em; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 22px;]Nothing untoward there, really - other than the AFL bewilderingly deciding to stagger the round. Okay, there is something untoward then. Also, why inaugurate the season with Adelaide versus Essendon? No disrespect to those two teams, but the season should begin with a bang. 2012's second versus eleventh - two...

<img width='258' height='180' src='/Portals/0/Blog/Files/1/1661/Orffa.jpg ' alt='The ORFFA[/img]

What a round! What a series of matches! What a .... ahh, bugger all of that - let's just get to the review and write-ups for each game in the first round of ORFFA action - the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Round (kudos for black humour there).

Nunawading 1107 defeated Lovely Banks 1021
The season opener saw the Nunawading Nuffies notch a 1107-1021 win over a gallant but injury riddled Lovely Banks outfit.



Led by JP Kennedy (147) and Stanton in the midfield, as well as Tex Walker and Adam Goodes up forward, the Nuffies had too much firepower despite their own injury and form issues, which saw a number of goose-egg scores during the weekend.



For the Lilacs, coach Jen was left lamenting what might have been - with all manner of absent players across the weekend providing a tough initiation to ORFFA coaching.



Dane Swan (136) led the scoring, with Jack Grimes and old-man Chapman notching tons. Mike Pyke looks to have continued his late 2012 form, smashing out 104. But too much was left to too few.



Both coaches will be looking forward to some respite from injury and the return of a number of quality players in coming weeks.



Iron Knob 1422 defeated Foul Bay 1252



The match of the round produced a minor boil over, with the reigning champs comprehensively defeated by the Codpieces of Iron Bay.



Led by the brilliance of Gary Ablett Junior (178) and featuring 90+ scores from Minson, Griffin, Goldstein, Harbrow, Lynch and Douglas, Iron Knob simply had too much firepower for a, dare I say it, somewhat underwhelming performance from the Chickens.



Foul Bay enjoyed centuries from Libba, Mumford, JJ Kennedy, Selwood and Pearce, but a number of big names - including Pavlich, Roughead and Dangerfield - failed to fire. Aside from Danyle Pearce, Foul Bay's defence had a 'mare.



What is...

The team we've put together to begin this year was based on the votes of many donors, with the most popular players being selected in each position, and then some final changes to fit it in within the salary cap. As with everyone else on here, we changed our team a few times between Essendon beating Adelaide, and Geelong beating their bunnies! The final team for round 1 looked like this:



Backs:
B Goddard, B Gibbs, D Heppell, J Watts, J Pittard, L Stevenson, N Vlastuin, D Terlich
Mids:
G Ablett, S Pendlebury, P Dangerfield, T Cotchin, B Goodes, J Viney, J O'Meara, K Mitchell, O Wines, B Crouch
Rucks:
D Cox, J Roughead, S Rowe, D Currie
Fwds:
L Franklin, D Zorko, T Rockliff, T Varcoe, P Karnezis, J Patton, B Macaffer, J Neade



I won't go deep into the selection process, or our actual performance for this round, other than to say that we scored a total of 2,115 points, which was somewhat below par, and leaves us ranked 57,270 overall.



Join us over in the donors forum for the discussion on what to do for round 2, who to name captain and emergencies, and who to think about trading...

[span style='font-size: 12pt;]By TigersTooTough
[span style='font-size: 12pt;]


[span style='font-size: 12pt;]Accept the mission or delay, wait for the right time, then strike. This has been a popular issue over the past couple of days and it has seen many SuperCoaches who did not start with the little master, hurry to get him in. I have seen plenty of people, on Twitter and on other sites, prepared to offload a premium in one line in order to finance a trade to get Ablett in. This raises a few questions for me however, for those who started with the legend, I say well done. They have forked out top dollar and received 178 points on the weekend. 356 for those with who placed the captaincy of their SuperCoach teams on Gaz. You know what you are going to get from him each and every week and the money has been spent wisely. However, in this little write-up&amp;rdquo;, I am focussing on those, like me, who didn't start with the little master.
[span style='font-size: 12pt;]



[span style='font-size: 12pt;]First and foremost, for those who didn't start with Gazza, I also say well done. Chances are, you spent that money on someone like Pendlebury, Swan or JPK. And you saved some cash as well to build up other areas of your team. The risk of not starting with GAJ is now well-documented, and I must admit, I felt a little embarrassed watching him tear the game apart on Saturday night. But one question arises from this predicament we find ourselves in; and it's not how do we get him in. No, it's WHY DIDN'T we start with him? Each person will have their reasons. It could be that he costs too much. He's getting older. It could be that we were told that he would play forward more resulting in the possibility of less points. Whichever one it is, you had A REASON in not choosing him. So why should that change now? Why, because he scored 178? For that reason, I suggest we all jump on Ben Howlett who scored 164. Sure, it's different because Ablett is a proven...

<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 13.5pt;]Welcome all the first proper edition of the Best Buys for 2013.
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 13.5pt;]Here we'll be looking at the players that ripped it up in the first round, and in a bit more detail the Point Of Difference (POD) players among them.
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 13.5pt;]The Best Buy from me for this week, is no-one. I personally don't think anyone should be trading this week, even the 70,000 odd coaches with Le Cras would be best served holding for a week if they have cover for him, however you aren't here to listen to me tell you what to do with your trades, you're here for the Best Buys.


<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 13.5pt;]This week, and next, the Best Buys will be a bit different to the rest of the season. As we're only 1 round into proceedings a lot of the scores so far may be flukes, and it's hard to tell which are which until we see some more footy. Almost 80 players topped 100 points in SC this round, so there are quite a few players, like Michael HIBBERD for instance, that probably would normally make the list but didn't. We'll only look at players who scored over 100, and focus on the less popular picks of those.


<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 13.5pt;]The rookies again I won't go into detail, but will include those that scored over 60 and show the current number of selections for them also.


<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 13.5pt;]Best Buys is all about value, and as such some players who score well but aren't priced appropriately may not get mentioned. There will also always be some players who for whatever reason do not make the Best Buys, and you are encouraged to discuss them below in the comments section.


<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 13.5pt;]These guys below are...