TooSerious

Would you believe it…. City are now top. Are they going to throw it away this week at St James’ against a Newcastle team also desperate for points. Join me over the break….<!--more-->

Newcastle v Man City

The FA Cup final might be on this weekend but this is absolutely a cup final for both teams here. Newcastle are only 1pt behind Arsenal in 3rd place after a brilliant 2-0 win at Chelsea midweek. Cisse scored another two wonder goals (13 goals in 12 games) to seal the win. Tiote was stretchered off in the game.

Man City are top!! Two more wins and the title is theirs, what a turnaround. They’ve got to do it from here haven’t they?

Tiote could be available despite a nasty blow to the head midweek.

Blackburn v Wigan

It’s last chance saloon for Blackburn here as they face the rampant Latics who aren’t yet safe from relegation.

Wigan are certainly the form team and took four off Newcastle last time out, so will be favourites – but relegation clashes bring out exceptional performances and Blackburn need two of them.

Arsenal v Norwich

Arsenal are now sitting a solitary  nerve-shredding point above both Spurs and Newcastle and therefore 5th place. Norwich, in theory, shouldn’t cause too many problems, and really Arsenal’s desperation for points should see them through. Walcott might be back before seasons end.

Man Utd v Swansea

Oh dear! 4pts from 4games and all of a sudden from being 8pts clear United are now relying on others doing them a favour.

Swansea, who have already passed luminaries like Arsenal off the park, this season won’t lie down either. Especially after Mancini’s motivational speech that this would be an easy game for United.

United must win this or will most likely relinquish the title to their bitter City rivals. Evans and Welbeck are out.

Villa v Spurs

This is another intriguing fixture as CL chasing Spurs play Villa, who steadfastly refuse any help from other relegation threatened teams by continuing their...

Kreuzer out? Not so!
Gaz out? Yeah, still gone- love to hear how his run today went though!

In the meantime though- dont forget to join our <a href="http://tooserious.net/live_scores.php?page=gameday&id=10251146&process=live">live chat[/url] over the weekend. Should be fun as always!

As we turn into Round 6 of the ORFFL, let us reflect on the times we've had and what lays in store for the future. For many in the lower reaches the first five weeks have been sad ones, and the future is concerned with improvement and midseason draft picks. For those teams at the top, the past has been glorious, and midseason draft picks are an irrelevant sideshow to the main meal that is winning. And yet the present continues to be, well, present. The only true reality. Over the break, we preview it.



NOW WITH HAMEDAY UPDATES!



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SARAH ISLAND SAVAGES(1430) 1062/10 VSTARWIN LOWER PIGS(1220) 823/11



Match of the round! Well sort of, it features the Greatest Team in ORFFL history going up against Tarwin Lower. And who doesn't like to see the best go out and strut their stuff? Okay, that was rhetoric. Seriously though, the TLP have some heavy hitters in Pendles (avg. 126), McIntosh (avg. 106), NRoo (avg. 101) and first year ruck Giles (avg. 98) that will seek to inflict the Savages with their first beating of the season. I wish them luck.







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POOWONG POTOROOS(1249) 1093/13 VSJIMCUMBILLY JACKRABBITS(1217) 770/10



Nah, actual match of the round! 2nd placed Poowong go up against 6th placed Jimcumbilly in a topish of the table clash. With the Potoroos missing Gary for the second match in a row, the Jackrabbits would fancy their chances in knocking them off this week. In fact, they've said just as much. To achieve this aim they'll need Beamer (avg. 76) to stand up against Geelong at Cat Park. Which seems long odds. The odds of Hawkins (avg. 104) kicking a bag for the other team is, on the other hand, fairly high.







<img alt='' width='480px'...

Hi all,

Quick post for you Friday Night punters before the game starts:

Prediction: Collingwood by 10 points
Line: Western Bulldogs +38.5 points

Remaining games and further analysis to follow prior to tomorrows games...just not gonna get it up in time for your multis...

Round 5 recap: A couple of weeks ago I was thinking how easy this job was: Ablett, our perma-captain was back. Lock him in every week. Flip a coin for your vice captain and sit back and watch Ablett knock out a score over 130. Unfortunately for most of us, and football in general, he has injured himself and now we have to worry about whether we keep him and importantly, for my purposes, who we give the captaincy too. In Round 5 I am hoping that most of you would have used the captain’s loophole and put the “VC” on Pendlebury (140) (my pick) or Swan with his Anzac Medal and 180.

Round 5 regrets: Following the Collingwood players, I had expected Goddard to have a big game against Melbourne and he disappointed all with a score of 58: his second lowest score ever since 2007. My smoky pick of Harvey was looking good at quarter time with over ten touches but he faded for the rest of the game and only finished with 85 against Gold Coast.

The numbers point to a couple of clear choices …
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Swan v. Western Bulldogs

Rd 6 2011: 104 SC points, 28 disposals
Rd QF 2010: 186 SC points, 39 disposals
Rd 11 2010: 118 SC points, 35 disposals
Rd 1 2010: 145 SC points, 31 disposals
Rd 22 2009: 98 SC points, 21 disposals
Rd 15 2009: 136 SC points, 34 disposals
Rd 13 2008: 117 SC points, 17 disposals
Rd 8 2007: 80 SC points, 19 disposals

Average is 123 SC points with 28 disposals.

Note: Has played most of his games being matched up against Boyd. Has not yet been tagged by Picken. Came into form last week with a huge 180 (but remember that his average from the four games before that was only 106).

Pendlebury v. Western Bulldogs

Rd 6 2011: 103 SC points, 25 disposals
Rd QF 2010: 146 SC points, 30 disposals
Rd 11 2010: 145 SC points, 33 disposals
Rd 1 2010: 91 SC points, 21 disposals
Rd 15 2009: 85 SC points, 23 disposals
Rd 13 2008: 138 SC points, 28 disposals
Rd 8 2007: 88 SC points, 21 disposals

Average is 114 SC points with 26...

Wow, so many backs this week- where you might have had donuts last week, youll more than likely have coverage with 5 highly selected defenders making their comebacks.

Kreuzer out is going to hurt a few, but Longer, Lycett and Goldstein all coming back could aleiviate some of those concerns.

Ins: Hargrave, Shaw, Dempsey, Longer, Spurr, Porplyzia, Birchall, Bower, Lycett, Goldstein
Outs: DellOlio, Drummond, Fyfe, Kreuzer, Treloar, Wingard
Extended Bench: Bower, Greene, Smith, Pfeiffer, Goldstein

Full teams are over the break.

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<h3>Western Bulldogs v Collingwood</h3>
ES &#8211; Fri May 04, 7:50pm
Western Bulldogs
B: Easton Wood, Brian Lake, Dylan Addison

HB: Ryan Hargrave, Mark Austin, Robert Murphy

C: Luke Dahlhaus, Matthew Boyd, Daniel Cross

HF: Adam Cooney, Liam Jones, Patrick Veszpremi

F: Justin Sherman, Jordan Roughead, Nathan Djerrkura

Foll: William Minson, Ryan Griffen, Liam Picken

I/C: Daniel Giansiracusa, Shaun Higgins, Mitchell Wallis, Thomas Liberatore
Emg: Clay Smith, Michael Talia, Tory Dickson
In: Daniel Giansiracusa, Ryan Hargrave

Out: Jarrad Grant (Hip), Ayce Cordy (Back)
Collingwood
B: Heritier O&#8217;Brien, Ben Reid, Nathan Brown

HB: Simon Buckley, Nick Maxwell, Tyson Goldsack

C: Dane Swan, Sharrod Wellingham, Ben Johnson

HF: Heath Shaw, Chris Dawes, Ben Sinclair

F: Dayne Beams, Travis Cloke, Alex Fasolo

Foll: Darren Jolly, Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom

I/C: Alan Toovey, Martin Clarke, Lachlan Keeffe, Kirk Ugle
Emg: Cameron Wood, Paul Seedsman, Jackson Paine
In: Heath Shaw, Ben Reid

Out: Jarryd Blair (Leg soreness), Paul Seedsman
<h3>Essendon v Brisbane Lions</h3>
ES &#8211; Sat May 05, 1:40pm
Essendon
B: Dyson Heppell, Dustin Fletcher, Cale Hooker...

Welcome once again to the Best Buys.

Once again the SC gods seem to be punishing us this week, with a swag of new injuries, and some recurrent old ones. This week many people will be looking to try and claw back some early points with an early upgrade, whilst coaches such as myself will also be looking to stem the bleeding. Due to the all-around carnage occurring this year the premium stocks are awfully low outside the mid-field, and mid-pricers are looking better all the time. Hopefully the Best Buys can give you a few good options to choose from, or at least offer up a couple that you hadn’t previously considered.

My pick of the week this week is Daniel Cross, who at just over 500 grand offers great value and if the Dogs can start performing again will be an absolute bargain. Doubts will remain over his ability to keep pace with the elite mids but for an early upgrade he’s a great player and priced perfectly.

Join me for all the Best Buys, over the break.

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The Best Buys uses a mix of price, form, break-evens and projected salaries to assess the Best Buys of each round. These are essentially the players that represent the best “value” which is determined by the above factors. Some player will not be mentioned on here even if they are playing well, as value is the key for this article. If a player is averaging 110, which is certainly solid, but priced at an average of 112 then they will not be rated. This does not mean these players should be avoided or not picked due to this, but simply that they aren’t as good “value” as the others in the Best Buys. For all the player I’ve missed, and any more you’re wanting opinions on, the thumbs are always there.

The thumbs act as a polling tool for the TS community, if you pose a question with either a yes-no answer or a “thumbs-up X, thumbs down Y” in there then the community as a whole can give you some great feedback into your choices and what they think about it, while also catering...

It looks like the donor team has continued to improve – beating our average yet again, scoring 2068 this week (to an average of 2058.2). This put us in the top 24,000 for the week, and we’re inside the top 40,000 for the season, so a long way off the top 100 unfortunately.

In our leagues we won four and lost one, and are now sitting between 5th and 11th on each of the ladders.

Join me over the break for a detailed analysis of our week.<!--more-->

We had 21 scoring players this week, with a hole in our forward line. The donut hurt the score a bit. Here’s how the team went:

,POS,SCORE
1. Deledio,DEF,129
2. Goddard,DEF,58
3. Broughton,DEF,105
4. Bugg, DEF,101
5. Clarke, DEF,69
6. Morris, DEF,57
7. Lake, DEF,85
8. Kennedy,MID,173
9. Pendlebury VC,MID,280
10. Selwood,MID,114
11. Magner,MID,79
12. Shiel Em,MID,84
13. McDonald,MID,79
14. Giles, RUC,114
15. Cox, RUC,82
16. Dangerfield,FWD,141
17. Franklin,FWD,72
18. Martin,FWD,112
19. Milera,FWD,64
20. Smith, FWD,17
21. Treloar,FWD,53
,,
1. Ellis Em,DEF,42
2. Shaw, DEF,0
3. Ablett, MID,0
4. Smith, MID,0
5. Mumford Em,RUC,0
6. Redden, RUC,0
7. Porplyzia,FWD,0
8. Kennedy,FWD,0
9. Dickson,FWD,0


In the defence we had a lovely 129 from Deledio, nicely backed up by a 105 from Broughton and a 101 from Bugg. The big disappointment was Goddard and his sub-standard 58, while Clarke, Morris, and Lake contributed 69, 57, and 85 respectively. On the bench we had Ellis’ 22 and Shaw’s zero.

Moving onto the mids and we took advantage of the captains loophole, sticking with the fantastic 140 from Pendlebury, as with most coaches keeping this score (or Swans 180 if you had him!). New recruit Kennedy did really well with a 173, while Selwood’s 114 was also nice. Permacaptain GAJ was replaced in the side with emergency Shiel’s 84, while regular rookies Magner and McDonald each came...

Wow-chika-bow-WOW! A corker of a round in the ORFFL with five matches being decided by less than 40 points. as well as the most DOMINANT performance in ORFFL history. More on that later. Ive got a severe case of man flu, so lets skip the foreplay and go straight to the scores.

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TARWIN LOWER PIGS 1236 Def MILIKAPATI SNAKES 1175

Tarwin Lower needed a win this week, and a win they received, defeating Milikapati by 78 points. The Pigs were ravenous; Pendles and HMac both scoring 140, with Hocking (113) and Giles (114) also chipping in with fine hungies. This win takes Tarwin Lower to 2-3 and up into 9th spot with a healthy avg. of 1220.

On the other side, Milikapati dropped a match that they wouldve fancied winning going into the round. At 3-2 and in 6th spot, too much was left to too few, with only Lids (129), Gaff (103) and Duffman (95) posting scores worthy of being pinned up on the fridge. Their coach, Liam Johnson (?), must be sweating on the return of top-liners Kelly, Hurley and Birch; they need their quality players on the park to compete consistently.

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<img src="http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/679/popovspoopo.jpg" alt="" width="480px" />;

POPANYINNING PYRITE 1088 Def by POOWONG POTOROOS 1220

Poowong proved that theyre not a one man team on the weekend, downing Popanyinning by 132 points. Scotty Thompson (the RADelaide one) and TommaHawkins led the way with 141 and 139 respectively, but a large supporting cast in Murphy (81), Jamar (95), Darling (106), Mzungu (97) and the Sherminator (112) all playing their respective parts in victory. Jones (39) on the other hand looks like hes had his card marked, and will be lucky to play another game for the Potoroos while JDog is coach. Disappointing.

Their opponents in Popanyinning showed great courage (pumps fist) and pluck, but ultimately werent good...

I dunno man, I think we made a mockery of the SC gods last year, with our 2300 averages in the first few weeks, and our upgrading our bench coverage to premiums.

I think theyre getting there own back, and they are taking us all with them- yet another week where 2100 was a good effort!

Anyways, check out how it all went down, over the break.

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Collingwood vs Essendon

Result: Collingwood by 1, 11.14.80 to 11.13.79

It was mid week, with both teams coming off just a 4 day break, but that certainly didnt stop them from delivering an absolute cracker of a match. For the whole match, Collingwood keep inching out in front, only to have the Bombers sneak a few quick ones to bring the margin back down- culminating in a Stanton goal to put the Bombers in front with 2 minutes remaining. 30 seconds later, Blair soccered one through (after confirmation from the camera), to take the win for the Magies. Great game.

Swan was massive. 42 disposals, 20 contested touches and 3 goals saw him accumulate a massive 180SC, with his partner in crime, Pendlebury hot on his heels with 34 touches, 17 contested and a 140SC.

Absolute pie hogs with only 2 other Magpies breaking the ton Sidebottom (104) and Jolly (100).

Beams looks to be bouncing into some form which should level out his fall with a 98SC off 32 touches.

Clarke did enough for his owners with a 69SC off 13 touches, beating out the forward premium Travis Cloke who could only manage a 68SC from his 3 goals. Seriously, kicked a quarter of his teams score for a "below average" game.

Heppell and Zaharakis were fantastic, knocking up scores of 116SC and 113SC, to provide a tidy return to their owners, while Ryder knocked up another ton with a 104SC.

Watson was below average for his standards with just 93SC, but it was Stanton who will have the hecklers out in force this week, just 13 touches...