TooSerious

For those who take it way too seriously

Sorry, we missed last weeks reports, had the draft, then a bit of a family emergency to cover for- then before I knew it, it was a couple of days til the next report.

So Ive rolled it all into one super report for you to enjoy!!

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Adelaide

30/11

Porps is the one were all watching here, and once again he got through the session in good shape (and form).

Johncock and Knights were on on ol modified program, while Otten was working with the midfield group.

Sounds like Adelaide will be playing Mckernan at Full forward, with Tippett and Walker pushing down the ground. Will be interesting to see how Tippett goes as surely hell stop teasing us and deliver soon! That said though, Walker did do a little bit of time training in the mids after Riley left the track injured.

Oh, and Riley left the track injured. Did a shoulder.

One thing that was noticed is that Adelaide look to be positioning themselves to take the game on- win the contested ball and get it forward, rather than putting numbers behind the ball as they did last year.

Brisbane

30/11

Missing from the session (Outside of the 5 in Arizona) were Raines, Drummond and Buchanan - Yep, you boys arent going anywhere near my squad this year! Meanwhile, Staker, Polec and Bartlett were on a restricted program

Still early days, but the Lions definitely sound like they are bulking up a bit, Dayne Zorko, while only 175cm looks good for early game time.

Carlton

23/11

1st training session and it was a pretty meh affair, getting the boys back into it with skill sessions and the like.

Curnow is moving freely and is looking very fit.

Krueze was also running freely- heres hoping for a massive pre-season.

Judd, Simpson, Waite, Garlett, McLean, Kreuzer and White spent most of the session running laps, but Murphy was unsighted.

Gibbs was looking good after getting back from Qatar- though his shoulder was still fairly strapped. Still...
Man United v Newcastle

Rooneys goal drought continues in league matches for United, thats now eight in a row. Hernandez has no such problems as he scored for the second game running. Phil Jones - one of Uniteds best performers this season - was surprisingly omitted from the match-day squad. While Anderson is going to be missing until February due to a knee-injury. Fabio started at right-back while Rio retained his place alongside Vidic. It was Ferdinands challenge that led to Bas equaliser, a shocking decision that was given on the linesmans say so. Young started for Man U but was largely anonymous after his injury lay-off, while Fabio showed his inexperience and there remains question-marks about his credentials.

Gutierez was red-carded and will now sit out a game. Krul made some big saves and Newcastle will be happy with a point. Chelsea up next at the Sport Direct... Direct Sport... Directcom.sport... Direct Arena... sorry I mean St James Park.<!--more-->

Chelsea v Wolves

Lampard, Bosingwa, Torres, Mikel and Malouda all started on the bench for this one. Sturridge is starting to put together a run of decent performers. Mata was the star of the show though with one goal and two assists. The assists were for Sturridge and Terry. Cole assisted Matas goal. A welcome performance and clean sheet for Chelsea. Summer signing from Barca - Romeu - made his first league start for the club.

Norwich v QPR

After some prompting from Anthak, Paul Lambert put in De Laet for his first start in weeks. Luke Young ensured there would be no clean sheet though as he scored his second goal in two weeks. Martin and Holt from a Hoolahan assist got the goals for Norwich. Barton served his suspension while Cerny got a rare start in goals with Kenny injured. Norwich 2-1.

Arsenal v Fulham

A brilliant goal-line clearance from Chris Baird brought a halt to RVPs sensational scoring run. While Vermaelen looked like he was making up for lost time by scoring both goals...
Well, there is a fair bit to cover this week. Firstly, it is fairly safe to say that the NBA lockout is over, which is obviously fantastic news :D , and it also brings our fantasy NBA leagues back onto the agenda. Meanwhile, our NBL Dreamteam league keeps ticking and Parasite has jumped up to 8th overall in that comp!

The NBA owners and players have come to a tentative agreement, and now we are just waiting for the votes of the 30 teams, and 400 odd players to make it official. The plan is to play a 66 game season beginning on 25th December. By most reports, there will be close to a 50% split of revenue, and the cap might as well be classed as Hard with the ramifications set for exceeding it being very large. December 9th is a massive day, as that is when players will be required back in team training, and FAs will be available to be signed. The votes should be taking place over the next day or two, and then the revised schedule will be announced after the vote passes. It is generally believed that there will be 3 games on the first day and they will be the ones that are already in the current schedule for Dec 25th. So, on our Boxing Day, you could watch the cricket, or maybe one of Celtics vs. Knicks, Heat vs. Mavericks or Bulls vs. Lakers. What a fantastic first day feast of entertainment on offer!

For those of you that are unaware, we had a fantasy NBA league last season, and we will go around again this year too. If you want to read a review of our first season, have a look <a href="http://tooserious.net/heat-v-mavs-dabomers-dan-the-inaugural-ts-fantasy-nba-champion-of-the-world" target="_blank"><HERE>[/url]. For this season, we have already set up 3 leagues of 12 teams, and most people have already joined. We are trying to track 3 players who registered their interest in the forum, but without much luck as yet... If anyone knows how to get in contact with any of smp67, Sainterz12 or brobyn, get onto them and ask them to come and...
A reminder to everyone playing NBL Dreamteam, that the lockout is this evening at 5:30pm AEDT - yes 5:30 on a Thursday again! I hope you are all onto this, and sorry for the late notice if you all dont read this in time. And another reminder that the Taipans and the Hawks are not playing this week, and Sydney play twice so make sure to have a look at players from these teams before setting your teams.

We had some huge news this week that Patty Mills has accepted an offer to play in China, and has left the Melbourne Tigers already. At first, I was disappointed in him for this as he is my favourite player and he still has so much to offer our game here, but I quickly came round and realised it was an amazing offer that not too many could refuse. He is a professional sportsman and needs to take advantage of such offers. He has already done so much for the NBL and hoops in this country by coming back for the 9 games he played this season. He single handedly created sooo much hype - setting up the Ambush Army, getting the NBL back into the media because of his presence and simply getting everyone discussing bball again, he is easily the most active Australian basketball player on Twitter that I know of. Moreover, the Tigers have played in front of sell-out crowds on many occasions this season, and are sitting equal top of the ladder on the back of his 18.6ppg and 5apg. For all this I want to thank you Patty, and wish you all the best in China - it should be an amazing experience. One very sad part of this is that I have had to trade him out of my Dream Team thats named in your honour :(  but Im glad I could have him as captain for all these weeks so far - very classy player! Actually the only week i didnt have Patty as captain, he ended up my highest scoring player, and it was the week I went to see him play,  haha.

In our fantasy league, we have a new leader on the H2H ladder in Parasite, who is also still our leading points scorer - sitting 18th overall at...
Alright, I reckon its about time to crack this one open.

Discuss away people, whats gunna happen tonight? How far will Kavanagh slide? How about Manson? Drop your thoughts in here, and if Im around the net when the draft starts, Ill fire up the live chat!
Man City v Newcastle

The only two unbeaten teams left in the league faced off this weekend. The game was only going to go one way according to the bookies though, who had Newcastle at a whopping $9.50. As per usual they got it right.

Mancini surprised with his line-up, with both Nasri and Aguero starting despite being under an injury cloud. Balotelli also started. Silva and Dzeko dropped to the bench. Ben Arfa started at the ground where he picked up his horrendous injury last year at the hands of De Jong who had a rare start in place of Barry. Cabaye recovered from injury to take his place in the Newcastle midfield.

Newcastle had a couple of chances in a first half dominated by City. Things went awry for them and Ryan Taylor in particular towards the end of the half though as he needlessly handled to let Balotelli score from the spot. Two minutes later he got the ball stuck under his feet as Aguero tried to feed the ball to Richards. With Richards taking advantage 2-0 half-time.<!--more-->

After Ben Arfas year and where the game was being played, I was willing his shot in at the 60 minute mark, unfortunately for him and Newcastle it hit the post. Nice build-up play from Balotellis replacement Silva led to Richards being brought down in the box after 71 minutes and after some discussion it was up to Aguero to kill the game stone-dead. Gosling scored Newcastles consolation in the last minute. Thats 42 goals in 12 games for City, the most for a top-flight club at this stage of the season for 48 years. Aguero has now scored 10 with four assists.

Norwich v Arsenal

The story of this game was about one man again. RVP, on a sensational run scored two more goals to give Arsenal a comeback win. Morison gave Norwich the lead after some more dithering from Mertesacker. Walcott and Song supplied the assists for RVPs brace. Thats ten wins in 12 games for Arsenal. RVP has scored or assisted 38 of Arsenals 58 league goals in 2011. A special mention for Dutch...
A with it just around the corner (and with StKildaThunda posting a pretty decent phantom draft in the forums), Im thinking what better time to get a little pre-2011-draft talk going on!

A few of my thoughts on it are as follows.

<ul>
,<li>Coniglio will go #1.</li>
,<li>Your top 4 look about right (order pending of course.)</li>
,<li>#5 through #11 are the right names, but who will Brisbane get, and who will Port get? Im thinking Port will grab Wingard, while Longer will slip down to Brisbanes #8 pick (unlikely to last through to #12 though!) That said, if they are to draft Longer at #8, they definitely make a play on Sumner if hes still there at 12.</li>
,<li>As for the Dons pick, I actually wouldnt be too suprised to see us pick up Elton with our first pick, particularly if were looking to grab Ross at #31.</li>
</ul>


Anyways, StKs draft is over the break, check it out and drop a few comments in to let us know your thoughts!

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#1 GWS - Jonathon Patton (VIC - KPF)
Height: 197cm; Weight: 95kg
DOB: 20/05/1993
Recruited from: Eastern Ranges

#2 GWS - Stephen Coniglio (WA - Mid)
Height: 183cm, Weight: 79kg
DOB: 15/12/1993
Recruited from: Swan Districts Football Club

#3 GWS - Dom Tyson (VIC - Mid)
Height: 186cm, Weight: 82kg
DOB: 08/06/1993
Recruited from: Oakleigh Chargers

#4 GWS - Will Hoskin-Elliot (VIC – Mid/Fwd)
Height: 182cm, Weight: 73kg
DOB: 02/09/1993
Recruited from: Western Jets

#5 GWS - Billy Longer (VIC – Ruck/KPF)
Height: 202cm, Weight: 95kg
DOB: 12/05/1993
Recruited from: Northern Knights

#6 Port Adelaide - Matthew Buntine (VIC – Def/Mid)
Height: 188cm, Weight: 83kg
DOB: 19/10/1993
Recruited from: Dandenong Stingrays

#7 GWS - Chad Wingard (SA – Mid/Fwd)
Height: 181cm, Weight: 73kg
DOB: 29/07/1993
Recruited from: Sturt

#8 Brisbane - Liam Sumner (VIC - Mid)
Height: 178cm, Weight: 71kg
DOB: 16/08/1993
Recruited from: Sandringham Dragons

#9 GWS - Toby Greene (VIC - Mid)...
Once again we go around the grounds to take a look at whats what on the training tracks this week.

As always, if youve heard anything that Ive missed, drop us a comment and let us know!

Go the draft coming up next week- starting to get fricking stoked for 2012!

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Adelaide

16/9

David Mackay has put on 5kg of muscle in the hopes that it will assist with his horrid injury run, Brodie Smith has put on 3kg.

Patrick Dangerfield looks likely to suck us in again, running personal best times already, while Matty Jaensch and Sammy Jacobs are also "training the house down".

Jason Porplyzia is back, Lock him in already. Sounds like Sanderson is very happy with what Porps has been doing so far, and the Fantasy Freako mentioned that hell be priced off his 2011 season, not discounted from 2010- which means a rookie priced 26 year old gun is availiable! Sure, he *could* write off his season in round 1 again, but the reward on this risk is huge. Forward keeper at rookie price huge.

Brisbane

16/9

Five lions arrived in arizona on Monday to undertake a 2 week high-altiture program and leadership course. They include: Jonathan Brown, Simon Black, Jed Adcock, Daniel Merrett and Tom Rockliff. From the sounds of Twitter, it looks like they are doing it pretty tough.

Carlton

16/11

I got absolutely nothing on the Blues this week- cant find a thing. Would love to hear word if youve heard any!

Collingwood

16/11

Once again, they shared the ground with Melbourne, though Ball, Jolly, Taz, jolly, didak, Maxwell, Heater, Swan, Krakouer, J Thomas, Keefe, N Brown, Dawes, Wood, Reed and Farmer didnt take part.

Macnamara is improving- his footwork was noted, particularly on his off-foot.

Witts is huge, but still has a ways to go from the sounds of things.

Essendon

16/11

Not getting much love from the Bombers so far this year, theyre looking to add another...
As it turned out, those rumours getting bandied about last Friday morning were just that - rumours. Nothing came of them and the NBA is still in lockout. Its so hard to know which way the negotiations will go, but there is a meeting of all the NBPA team reps in a couple of hours time, so hopefully something will come of that, and we will have a possitive anouncement in the next day or two.

In terms of the fantasy NBL, our league has moved up to be ranked 9th overall - pretty good I reckon. We still have 3 people in the top 100 overall. Parasite slipped 1 spot (to 13th) after a moderate score of 288, while Stowie and UnderAchievers both had huge rounds of 323+ to jump up in the rankings to be respectively 35th and 55th overall. Don_Cottagers thumped me in the H2H which left him as the only undefeated team in the league; and Dabombers and Bearfly both had their first wins of the season to leave Sainter and Maxweas the only two still tryin to find that first W.

Over the break will be the usual results and ladder etc::::

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Here are the results of the H2H matches for round 6:
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
<tbody>

<td align="right"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=212&amp;lid=1">Duncans Troops[/url]
209
def by
265
<td align="left"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=645&amp;lid=1">dabombers[/url]



<td align="right"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=661&amp;lid=1">King Kong[/url]
334
def
259
<td align="left"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=332&amp;lid=1">Cryil33s Crushers[/url]



<td align="right"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=531&amp;lid=1">Nothin But String[/url]
249
def by
306
<td align="left"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=416&amp;lid=1">Bearfly[/url]



<td align="right"><a...
Only rumours at this stage, but there is a lot of talk out there that the NBPA and the Owners have come to an agreement. I wouldnt go jumping for joy yet though - At one stage in the recent NFL lockout, the owners announced publicly that a deal had been done, and then the players came out and said there was no deal. As yet, neither party has even come out and said anything publicly so it is still likely to ammount to nothing... We will have to wait and see.

If something does come of the rumours, we will need to sort out the remaining points of our fantasy NBA leagues. But we are almost set with them, so I wont worry about it yet.

The NBL fantasy lockout takes effect in less than 7 hours, so I hope everyone is onto that. Its good to have a friday lockout again - I think the Thursday one last week caught a few ppl out.

Despite losing to me in the H2H, Parasite continued his great run and is now ranked 12th OA. Stowie has moved up to 56th and UnderAchievers is now ranked 96th to round out our top 3. At the other end Sainter and DaBombers are holding up the ladder and face each other this week in the H2H - one of them is likely to get their first W of the season. While on the H2H: Don_Cottagers and Deasend are both undefeated to date, just ahead of a mob of four all at 3 and 1 - including Crossy Crusaders, who we still do not know who they are.

Over the break will be the usual results and ladder etc::::

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Here are the results of the H2H matches for round 5:
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
<tbody>

<td align="right"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=212&amp;lid=1">Duncans Troops[/url]
160
def by
273
<td align="left"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=443&amp;lid=1">Don Cottagers[/url]



<td align="right"><a href="http://dreamteam.nbl.com.au/?p=other_teams&amp;tid=661&amp;lid=1">King Kong[/url]
327
def
153
<td align="left"><a...