TooSerious

The parties involved in the Lockout arent giving much away - understandably; however, I get the feeling they may be making progress. They seem to be meeting more regularly now, and just today, several sites are reporting that its been leaked that the owners are willing to back down on their demands for a "hard salary cap system".

Currently the NBA has a "soft" salary cap system in place, where (basically) it is possible to exceed the salary cap - with relatively small penalties for doing so. The "hard" system that the owners are trying to introduce would not allow teams to exceed the salary cap at all; so it seems to be the general view that the owners backing down on this factor (if they even are - nothing solid has been reported yet) would be a significant step in the right direction for an agreement to be made.

Anyway, whether we are close or still a long way off is hard to know, so we should push on full steam ahead in setting up our fantasy comp.

We now have 36 players interested! Which is perfect for 3 leagues of 12 - Premier league, Div1 and 2 - but Ive just realised that there is one guy that played last season that hasnt come fwd yet for this year and last years players should get 1st preference imo. Each league will be split into two conferences (Too & Serious). There are 22 weeks during the season, so everyone will play the teams in their own conference twice, and the other 6 teams only once. Then there will be 3 weeks (but actually 2 weeks per matchup) of finals with the winner of each conference getting a bye in the first game heading straight through to the Semi Final. -- Later, over the break, Ill outline who is in each league.

Now we just have to work out our scoring... Last year we had a pretty good system imo, but I think everyone agreed that it needed a small amount of tinkering. I personally think that we only need to change a couple of stats - increasing the points awarded for Blocks and Offensive Boards, and I think we...

Ever since I stood on the Holte End, Villa Park as Ally McCoist scored a 20 yard screamer against Switzerland at Euro 96, Ive had a soft spot for the Villians. Theyre a big club with a large support, great history and a cracking stadium. Theyve got a new manager this year in Alex McLeish - who committed the ultimate betrayal by joining from city rivals Birmingham. This didnt go down too well with Villa supporters either as they greeted the news with demonstrations at the stadium. McLeish has three scores against his name, he managed Birmingham, he managed them to two relegations and hes perceived as a negative manager.

Theres no point arguing the first two as they are cold, hard facts and to be honest its quite hard to argue the third point when you consider how few goals his Brum team scored.

Villa are a different proposition though, and despite the loss of Young and Downing, the potential for goals is there. Whether McLeish maximises that potential remains to be seen.<!--more-->

He has brought Warnock back into the fold at left back after Houllier last year banished him to train with the kids. Warnock is well capable of assisting Villas attack and can realistically set up a few goals and possibly chip in with the odd one or two goals (he started his Liverpool career as a midfielder). Dunne and Collins the centre halfs will always offer a goal threat from set-pieces. New signing from Spurs, Alan Hutton finishes off the back four at right back.

Hutton hails from my part of the world, and as such, Ive kept a close eye on his career. Its fair to say that things didnt quite work out for him at Spurs. The manager that signed him (Ramos) got sacked, there were injury disruptions as well as fallings out with Harry Redknapp. None of this helped Hutton showcase the talents that he has shown previously, for instance, against the then world champions Italy in Glasgow. It was these kind of performances that had Ramos splashing out £9 million for him (its maybe...

Just a quick post here to discuss the results.

A win to Swannie, with a record breaking 35 votes was a massive effort for the Seagull, he had a fantastic year, but wow- didnt see that coming. Gotta say, my Multis would have been a lot healthier with him in them.

That said, had Pav gotten up, I would be thousands of dollars richer right now rather than hundreds, but hey, hundred up with an enjoyable night out is way better than the alternative.

What Im hoping to hear though, how many hit the perfect 10? Heck, I reckon hitting 9/10 with Pendles the only miss (and none of the 1.03 wonders) would have paid alright as well- any success stories you want to share?

And Holey, reckon youll refine your model next year to take into account the Brownlow Medal curse? Juddy got smashed by the umps early, just as Ablett did the year before. How prevalent has that been in years gone by?

Wowsers, does time fly these days- looks like the Brownlow will be upon us in just a few short days.

And as such, we have our annual TooSerious brownlow night to plan!!

Im thinking the Lagerfield @ crown, at around 7:30. Should make for a good night as we count down to the various winners (ie: us!)

There will be door prizes, elephants and other things that dont exist, so get there early!!

Cheers!

17 teams started, only 4 remain.

Will we see another classic Geelong/Hawthorn next week? Or will the Pies be successful tonight?

Anyone give the Coasters a chance in hell?

Anyways, as always, the live chat is up and running tonight!

When <a href="http://tooserious.net/ts-donors-supercoach-team" target="_blank">we proposed this idea back in March[/url], we really didnt have much idea what to expect would come of it, except that it would be interesting and probably fun. Therefore, we have not been let down, as it certainly has been an interesting exercise, and probably fun too; however, in terms of other methods of evaluation... as we didnt really have many expectations, its kinda hard to decide the success of this team. We finished in 737th place, which is pretty darn good i reckon for a first go at this type of thing (and probably beat the majority of donors personal teams)! We also won 2 premierships even though it was never our aim to win one, but nevertheless, its still a nice feeling to get some silverware for the trophy cabinet . And despite the interest of donors seemingly being up and down throughout the season, we still had a heap of contributors over the journey, and at the very lean times we still always had at least a handful contributing at any one time, which is also pretty good IMO.

For those of you that are still unaware, this team was set up and managed collectively by the Donors of this wonderful site. After you donate to TS, you are given added benefits to your TooSerious experience - such as the exclusive Donor Forum, and the ability to see more rows on the stats page at one time etc - and the Donor team has been one of those benefits this season.  FOr anyone out there that isnt a Donor yet! <a href="http://tooserious.net/donate.php" target="_blank">Head over here[/url] where you can find out more about how to donate and join in the fun!

Now, join me over the break... where Ill go into a bit of detail about how our season went - including our starting team, our weekly scores and ranks, our trades, and links to the weekly writeups etc.::::::::::

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The Beginning

This idea was first mentioned to the TS community back on <a...

Wow, is it Thursday already?! How the week flys.

Lets check out the teams for this week, nothing overly suprising in there though

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Collingwood
B: Alan Toovey, Ben Reid, Heritier O’Brien
HB: Nick Maxwell, Chris Tarrant, Heath Shaw
C: Dayne Beams, Sharrod Wellingham, Dale Thomas
HF: Ben Johnson, Leigh Brown, Alan Didak
F: Steele Sidebottom, Travis Cloke, Luke Ball
Foll: Darren Jolly, Scott Pendlebury, Andrew Krakouer
I/C: Leon Davis, Dane Swan, Chris Dawes, Jarryd Blair
Emg: Tyson Goldsack, Cameron Wood, Alex Fasolo
In: Dale Thomas, Ben Reid
Out: Tyson Goldsack, Alex Fasolo

Hawthorn
B: Thomas Murphy, Josh Gibson, Benjamin Stratton
HB: Grant Birchall, Ryan Schoenmakers, Paul Puopolo
C: Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell, Isaac Smith
HF: Luke Hodge, Lance Franklin, Liam Shiels
F: Chance Bateman, David Hale, Cyril Rioli
Foll: Max Bailey, Shaun Burgoyne, Brad Sewell
I/C: Brent Guerra, Michael Osborne, Brendan Whitecross, Matt Suckling
Emg: Jordan Lisle, Shane Savage, Luke Breust

Geelong Cats
B: Josh Hunt, Matthew Scarlett, Tom Lonergan
HB: Corey Enright, Harry Taylor, David Wojcinski
C: Jimmy Bartel, Andrew Mackie, Joel Selwood
HF: Steve Johnson, Tom Hawkins, Allen Christensen
F: Travis Varcoe, James Podsiadly, Brad Ottens
Foll: Trent West, Cameron Ling, James Kelly
I/C: Paul Chapman, Joel Corey, Mathew Stokes, Mitch Duncan
Emg: Shannon Byrnes, Darren Milburn, Cameron Mooney
In: Joel Corey
Out: Daniel Menzel (Knee)

West Coast Eagles
B: Will Schofield, Darren Glass, Shannon Hurn
HB: Sam Butler, Eric Mackenzie, Beau Waters
C: Andrew Embley, Matthew Priddis, Scott Selwood
HF: Mark LeCras, Josh Kennedy, Mark Nicoski
F: Nic Naitanui, Quinten Lynch, Jack Darling
Foll: Dean Cox, Daniel Kerr, Adam Selwood
I/C: Chris Masten, Luke Shuey, Patrick McGinnity, Andrew Gaff
Emg: Matthew Rosa, Bradley Ebert, Ashley Smith

Man Utd v Chelsea was undoubtedly the EPLs game of the week, which meant for a lot of us it was on at the hated time of 1am Monday morning. Its times like these that I glance westwards jealously and think how lucky the good people of WA are to get what might resemble a half-decent sleep. This lasts as long as mid-week Champions League matches and I realise that they get stiffed for a good sleep also.

With an Old Firm match kicking off at 9.30pm followed by Spurs v Liverpool or Fulham v Man City or Sunderland v Stoke (if youre so inclined) there was no chance of an early night with a 1am alarm call.<!--more-->

It was a chance to see United take on a Chelsea side that have been their main challengers for a few years now. It was also an opportunity to see if Chelsea - under the new management of Andre Villa-Boas (AVB) and Roberto Di Matteo - have what it takes to challenge United this year. Torres, the 80 million dollar man, with one goal in 23 games for Chelsea, started as the main striker. While at the other end all eyes were on Rooney and his diminutive side-kick Chicharito.

Rooney with eight goals from four games in the league this year, added goal number nine before the half-time interval. This was preceded by a Smalling goal - that was actually marginally offside - and an absolute screamer from Nani.

There were defensive mistakes for all three goals which would have been unthinkable for Chelsea only a year ago, and it now leaves Chelsea with only one clean sheet from five games.

It wasnt just in defense that mistakes were made though. Ramirez missed an absolute sitter in front of goal that led to De Gea making a save that although was outstanding, he should never have been given the opportunity to make it in the first place.

Then there was Torres who had as good a game as weve seen from him in a Chelsea shirt. Unfortunately for him, after scoring a lovely goal that gave Chelsea the merest sniff of a comeback, he produced one of the worst...

What we have here is the Western Bulldogs season review with thanks to Jason.

There’s no way to sugar coat it.  Whichever way you look at the year that was season 2011 for the Bulldogs, it was very disappointing.  Not very much went right at the kennel in 2011.  And plenty of things went wrong.  A lot of fixtures for the club during 2010 were well and truly gone by the end of season 2011.  The coach Rodney Eade, leading goalkicker Barry Hall, the bearded one Ben Hudson, Spotswood-born-and-bred Callan Ward and long-serving property steward Noel Kinniburgh – all gone.

Having made it to the Preliminary Final weekend in each of 2008, 2009 and 2010, finishing 10th with a less than 50% win-loss record was a long way short of where the Bulldogs were widely tipped to finish.  Before the season, Mike Shehan and plenty of other media commentators had the Bulldogs as a likely Grand Finalist.  Most had Bulldogs finishing at least in the final 8 at season’s end.   The President went on the public record (albeit slightly quoted out of context) saying he wanted a Grand Final berth.  I did too.  But it wasn’t to be.  (Start rant.)  And the haters rejoiced.  Go get a life, seriously.  What did the Bulldogs ever do to the haters to deserve the vitriol.  (End rant.)

Only 4 players played all 22 games with not enough senior players on the list getting on the park often enough to make it count.   To fill the voids in the 22, there were 10 AFL debutants blooded by the Bulldogs in season 2011.  Whilst theoretically that should have been a reason for Supercoaches to get excited, sadly the facts of the matter were that most of the hidden Supercoach gems weren’t actually to be found in the red-white-and-blue during 2011.

<!--more-->THE GOOD

Matthew Boyd – elevated to the captaincy for 2011, Boyd showed genuine leadership skills on field and relished the responsibility.  All Australian selection for the second time (2009 also) was a...

So once again we have some contentious calls in forming the All-Australian team, goal of the year and mark of the year.

All Australian Team for 2011:
B: Scarlett, Glass, Enright
HB: R Murphy, Reid, Davis
C: Thomas, Mitchell, Pendlebury
HF: M Murphy, Cloke, Swan
F: Milne, Franklin, Goodes
R: Cox, Judd, Ablett
INT: Boyd, Dal Santo, Petrie, Kelly

Goal of the Year: Ballantyne (Freo)
Mark of the Year: Krakouer (Coll)

My initial thoughts
- Good to have a "Leigh Brown role" player as all clubs have a ruck that plays a dual role these days. Petrie was the best of a bunch that would include players of the ilk of Paddy Ryder and Leigh Brown himself.
- Old Man Bob Murphy lucky to get a game, though if this was a team for a real game, hed be very handy with his ability to go forward.
- Scotland over Davis every day of the week.
- Scarlett v Gibson a difficult choice but I can understand the selectors choice
- SJ the most unlucky, had a huge year. Maybe ahead of the underrated Kelly
- The side seems to have too many mids.
- Correct choice of captain. Suck on that Robert Walls.

- The best goal of the year probably wasnt in the top 3. Personally thought the Judd and Thomas "reverse bananas" took the most skill, but neither in the top 3.
- I have always rated pack marks as better than individual "speckies". I can understand those who rate Walkers mark better as the leap was amazing and the camera close up absolutely perfect. Foxtels work with the other two left a bit to be desired in comparison. Naitanui over Darling was a bigger leap than Walkers, and took the ball at the highest point of all 3 marks. In the end Krakouer not just took the mark over his head (unlike Walkers chest), he took it in a pack of 5 and possibly most importantly at a crucial stage of the game, inspiring his team to victory. (Regardless if Id voted I probably still would have voted for Walker to prove my "unbias")

Discuss...