TooSerious

The midfield is full of talent and you really don’t know where to start so I’ve decided to just concentrate on 5 players and will post more thoughts throughout the comments and discussion. We will also leave the rookies for the next article as there are loads of those.

One thing a lot of people have been contemplating this season is to run a 4-5 rookie midfield due to all the talented rookies that appear to be available this year. One thing to keep in mind if going for this strategy is to ensure you have a quality captain to lock in each week. In other words you would really need to run Ablett, Swan or Pendlebury alongside your rookies to ensue you get those extra 120+ points each and not playing  russian roulette with captain choices.  <!--more-->

Gary Ablett - $689K – After a slowish start to 2011 little Gazza turned home after Gold Coasts 2nd bye and went bang. From Round 8 to Round 22 (taking out 19 point game where he injured his knee) he averaged incredible 144. If you take out his injury effected game for entire season his average jumps up from 127 to 133. So in essence you are getting him relatively cheap. Ablett has a relatively good draw leading into GC round 13 bye, playing North Melbourne twice, GWS, Port Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle (at Metricon), Adelaide, Bulldogs The play top 8 sides StKilda (twice), Essendon &amp; Collingwood. We all know what to expect from Gazza, he is the ultimate supercoacher and one the only true perma captains in the competition!

Dane Swan - $661K – Swan started 2011 relatively slowly, due mainly to few small injuries. This saw Collingwood send him off to Arizona to get some high altitude training around their midseason bye. Once arriving back home he averaged 127 in his final 11 games of 2011, which was up on his 115 average leading into the bye. Dane Swan has already hinted that he wants to go back to Arizona midyear again so you must keep that in mind when selecting him. Its not a matter that...

Weve see everyone come out for their first bash now. Gotta say, weather-wise, its been a ridiculous time to be playing footy! But, every team will be better for the run out, shaking that rust from out of the systems.

Tune in over the break as I review the best from the 9 games over the weekend. (and apologise profusely for not! Youll see )

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Friday night:
Saints v Cats v Swans.

Some decent football here, while its still tough to make any real calls on the season, I cant see any reason why any other these teams miss the finals this year. While the Saints were pressing higher up the ground than last year, which did (and will) leave them open to the odd rebound, I reckon that with more gametime put into it, theyre only going to get better at it.

Saints:

Tommy Ledger: This is the exact story you want to see in the NAB. Last year Tommy averaged 18 disposals in the VFL before earning his call up to the AFL. Once there, he played two games as a sub, before doing a hammy and ending his season. Two fantastic games of 8 and 9 touches sees him come right back onto the radar. It will be tough to see him get a game over some of the blokes missing tonight, but if he keeps up this form, hell be tough to avoid.

Milera: He only played in the second game of the night, and although he grabbed a goal, he wasnt great. Still on the list, but definitely further down.

Saad: Very happy to see this bloke play, he kicked the first goal of the night, but only two behinds in the second game. His possession count wasnt great, but his forward pressure should be enough to see him getting games. As for if hell be a decent cow, hes never been a prolific ball winner, so Im thinking hell suck a lot of people in.

Ross: Seb was pretty good I thought for a first gamer. Had a bit of the yips early, but really played into the night. Word has been that hes "on track" for a round 1 birth, but I reckon Ledger might have put a little spanner...

In his first of 3 parts, Bearfly takes us into the seedy underbelly of Alberton.

Well, technically not a seedy underbelly, but boy, its tough to get much news from this place, and this article is a gold mine!

So without further ado, the Defenders

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Having gathered from several comments here on TS that there is very little info about Port outside of SA, I thought it would be good to keep the TS community informed of developments from Alberton.The information provided here comes from a variety of sources, including coaches &amp; several observers who attend all training sessions &amp; mingle with players and staff. The first positive news during the off-season at Alberton concerned changes in Primus’s coaching staff. Out went Dean Laidley who was only part-time in 2011 and based in Melbourne. Also, Jason Cripps moved from an assistant coach role to being list manager based in Melbourne so the club can prepare for the new era of free agency.In to the fold comes Brad Gotch (assistant coach - defence), Josh Carr (assistant coach - midfield), Shaun Rehn (assistant coach - midfield). On top of these 3 appointments, Tyson Edwards joined the clubs development coaching group, and the club has for the first time been able to appoint a full-time assistant head fitness coach and full-time physiotherapist.Retained from last season are Gary Hocking (assistant coach - forwards), Daniel Healy &amp; Matthew Nicks (development coaches). During trade week, Port was able to secure Brad Ebert from West Coast and Brent Renouf from Hawthorn, then added Chad Wingard, Brendon Ah Chee &amp; Nathan Blee from through the National Draft and John McCarthy through the pre-season draft.Moving on from the club were the following players - Daniel Bass (rookie, delisted); Dean Brogan (retired/GWS playing assistant coach); Chad Cornes (retired/GWS playing assistant coach); Jason Davenport (delisted); Callum Hay (rookie, delisted); Danny Meyer (retired); Daniel Motlop...

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Man City v Blackburn

Overnight Blackburn sold Samba to Russian club Anzhi and his presence in defence and attack will be sorely missed. Aguero will fancy his chances today and so do I. Tevez has “sincerely and unreservedly” apologised to all and sundry, no doubt that will include his wife who has missed out on £10 million quid of housekeeping money.

Mancini believes that Tevez will be available in 2-3 weeks but surely means off the bench as even at the start of the season he looked far from full fitness. Although personally I’d rather not see him rewarded with an opportunity to engineer himself a move to Paris or Milan. Indeed anywhere that will help cure him of his “homesickness” for Buenos Aires. He has a real chance to redeem himself. A winner against United with three games of the season to go? Watch this space…

Yaya Toure is back and will undoubtedly play in a match that could see City have 13 wins from 13 at the Etihad this year.

Chelsea v Bolton

A disoriented Chelsea get the chance to focus on getting their fight for top four back on track against relegation threatened Bolton. They’ll need to do it without Captain Terry who is out for 4-6 weeks after a knee operation. Bosingwa came off with a hammy against Napoli, while his replacement Ashley Cole is fighting a calf problem but should play. As Bolton are the visitors then one would expect the focus to be on Chelsea’s attack. Torres however hasn’t scored in his last 20 Chelsea appearances, Drogba midweek looked hungover from his efforts at the African Cup of Nations. Sturridge and Mata again look to be the main source of goals for Chelsea.

Arsenal v Spurs

Things aren’t getting any easier for Arsenal. After getting all but knocked out of the UCL after a 4-0 trouncing in Milan and deservedly losing 2-0 in the FA Cup at Sunderland, they now have their hated rivals roll into town....

** DISCLAIMER: One thing i noticed when writing up the forwards is fact it was hard to justify players outside my current team! As everyone knows im a sucker for high risk "midprice" strategy! Also struggled to find any value in players from around $200K-$400K. Anyway hopefully its not to biased either way!! **

2012 sees the birth of the mid/fwd approach in supercoach. Champion Data have been good enough to give us 7 of the best up and coming midfielders as forwards. It also spells the end of an era with key forwards no longer relevant fantasy football. Why would you pick a forward like James Podsiadly that might kick 8 goals and score you 100 points every blue moon when you could pick a midfielder who will get 15 touches week in week out!  <!--more-->

PREMIUMS

Lance Franklin – $600K - 111, 107, 88, 107, 91 – Franklin is one most frustrating supercoachers in the land, his good is very good but his bad can be really bad. If he could stop giving free kicks he would probably average over 120! Will score 140+ or 50! Overall he is a very solid pick &amp; Clarkson has hinted he will spend more time in midfield, but if you believe that then he’s got you sucked in. Why would you play the best forward in league in midfield!

TOO OLD?

Adam Goodes - $586K – 108, 94, 114, 105, 105, 120, 107 – There is no doubting Adam Goodes is one of the true champions of supercoach, but is he now past it? He is 32 years old which puts line through him for so many people, but we were saying same thing last year and he came out like a 21 year old! His MPP will come in handy, however he has tended to start season little quiet and come home like strong. Might be handy upgrade target so we can judge how he is travelling before spending so much on him. Personally think better value in some of the other MPP young guns!

Brent Harvey - $548K – 101, 100, 87, 112, 109, 100, 109 - Boomer will turn 34 during 2012 which would make him one oldest players in...

The second group of lightning games sees a few interesting matchups, tonight should be some good footy, then its onto watching our cows

So join us in the chat, chuck on the footy and lets see what happens.

So, we learnt a bit last week, we learnt that Conca is a thug (Hi Damen ), that the Bombers are looking at the spoon next week, that Walesy is a flake for not getting around to reviewing said Bombers spoon game and that Boyd and Franklin are LOCKS!!!

We also learnt that a single week of the NAB is in no way enough time to judge anything. Each game, each bit of knowledge that weve picked up through the pre-season paints a rich tapestry of information to draw from.

Then panic and throw out when the round 1 teams are announced.

And onto this weeks teams.

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Sydney Swans, Geelong, St Kilda
Etihad Stadium, Friday 24 February, 6.40pm AEDT

GEELONG
1. Mitchell Brown, 2. Billie Smedts, 3. Jimmy Bartel, 4. Andrew Mackie, 7. Harry Taylor, 8. Josh Hunt, 12. Trent West, 13. Tom Lonergan, 14. Joel Selwood, 15. Jordan Schroder, 17. Shannon Byrnes, 19. Taylor Hunt, 22. Mitchell Duncan, 23. Orren Stephenson, 25. Tom Gillies, 26. Tom Hawkins, 27. Mathew Stokes, 29. Cameron Guthrie, 32. Steven Motlop, 33. George Horlin-Smith, 34. Simon Hogan, 37. Cameron Eardley, 39. Shane Kersten, 41. Jesse Stringer, 42. Josh Walker, 43. George Burbury, 46. Jonathan Simpkin, 47. Ryan Bathie

Personally, Ill be looking at Smedts here. Huge interest in the bloke with his DPP. Horlin-Smith is a maybe, but Scott did say that hes unlikely to play games early.
Stephenson of course will be watched by all and sundry- 3 rookie rucks were all the rage when Giles went well- imagine if Stephenson dominates!!
No Christensen is a little interesting though, havent heard of any injuries though, so he might be scheduled a rest this week.

SYDNEY SWANS
1. Mark Seaby, 2. Rhyce Shaw, 3. Jarrad McVeigh, 5. Ryan OKeefe, 9. Nick Malceski, 10. Mitch Morton, 11. Jed Lamb, 12. Josh Kennedy, 13. Andrejs Everitt, 14. Craig Bird, 15. Keiren Jack, 16. Gary Rohan, 17. Tommy Walsh, 18 Jesse White, 20. Sam Reid, 21. Ben McGlynn, 23. Jordan Lockyer, 24. Jude Bolton, 25. Ted...

** Thanks to port_leschenault for writing up the Defenders article. What we will do is just concentrate on the premiums, midpricers &amp; possible breakouts and then at end of the 4 position articles we will do up one designated to the rookies. Will do that last as then we get bit more time to see them in action during the preseason! Ive also added a few things at bottom of article **

In AFL the defence is one of the most important areas in a game and perhaps the most under-rated. Forwards may win the match but the defence will save it, just ask Hawks fans about Luke Hodge about the ’08 Granny. SuperCoach it is no different, the defence may be the weakest of the lines in terms of points but that just makes it even more important to get the right players into the team. Below I’ll list some of the main defenders who will figure in most of our teams with a bit of an overview on their situation to get the ball rolling on the discussion. I’ve split the premiums into 3 groups: Elite, Premium and Sub. “Premium” is always a subjective term but hopefully this will allow a bit of flexibility.

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[span style="text-decoration: underline">ELITE PREMIUMS


Brendan Goddard - $584,700

2011:  2373pts @107.8avg, 22 games

PastAvg: 130,115,103,90,106


It’s hard to peg down Goddard’s 2011 season, on one hand it was shocking, he dropped 23pts on his average from 2010 but on the other hand he was still the best DEF option in SC. His ’10 season was just that good, second only to the SuperCoach freak who’s now at Metricon. So he’s a potentially an undervalued premium who can score 110+ and he’s in the backline.  The interest will be to see how he plays under a new coach but at 26 years of age, there’s absolutely no indication of him slowing down or why he shouldn’t be in every team.

[span style="text-decoration: underline">PREMIUMS


Brett Deledio- $568,700

2011: 2308pts @104.9avg, 22...

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** We know we have these topics in forum but thought it would be better to get post on main page to try bring some more discussion on each position. They seem to get lost in forum. Will be posting other positions over next few days **

The rucks are possibly the biggest talking point of supercoach this year, with what appears to be abundance of choice. Not anymore is there your stock standard Cox/Sandi ruck combination that everyone locked in. Last year saw the emergence of the new brigade.

One thing to keep in mind when selecting your rucks is the fact last year their scoring got a little tweak, with hit outs to advantage becoming a major player. Rucks scores across the board seemed to be inflated by about 15-20 points, whether this was due to new points or fact the AFL sub rule forced ruckman to spend more time on the ground as clubs didn’t want to waste precious interchange spot on one of their big men.

One of the big talking points amongst supercoachers this preseason has been whether you run a 2 premium &amp; 2 rookie ruckline, or you take bit of risk and run 1 premium &amp; 3 rookies. Or if you’re really brave you could always run 1 midpricer &amp; 3 rookies!

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The popular option (&amp; most safe) is to run 2 premiums, eg 2 of Sandilands/McEvoy/Mumford/Cox/ Leuenburger/Goldstein and then 2 rookies, which should be Giles &amp; Stephenson this year.

But there has been lot talk about running one of those “premiums” and spend the $400K+ elsewhere by running Giles as your second ruck. This theory allows you to upgrade midpricers elsewhere to top premiums, or say a Gibbs/Thompson/Watson/Hodge to a super premium like Swan/Ablett/Pendlebury. A lot people will say you will lose points doing this, but it all comes down to how you spend the extra cash. Use it wisely and you have some massive upside to your team. Breaking it down most people will start about 5 or 6 rookies on field, so you all Giles has to do is beat whoever would be...