TooSerious

For those who take it way too seriously

So in the Age today (scabbed out of the bin - who throws away the sport section these days :D) I read with interest an offering from one of the best footy brains (Brendan Schwab, President of Australian Professional Footballers Association, and ex Richmond VP) about a possible two tiered competition starting from 2014.

Now after we have some wise crack about the fact that at least if theres 9 teams in the top half of the competition (AFL Premiership) that Richmond would therefore make it (hehe), we should then look at whether its a good idea.   Personally, I wasnt really in favour of it, but now I think its a cracker - and could even give a chance for fantasy competitions to move into the finals.

The basics:

Fixture: Each team plays everyone in their division twice, in the other division once.   Parity and fairness at least to some level.   25 game season, so sayonara NAB Cup and State Games
AFL Premiership - Top 9 teams.  Top 5 finalists, Bottom 2 (8,9) relegated, 6 and 7 in relegation playoffs
AFL Championship - Lower 9 teams.   Top 2 promoted, Next three in relegation playoffs, bottom 4 remain (but get top 4 draft picks so they stay rewarded somehow)

Personally my liking for this is mainly because it heralds an almighty return of the Final 5, in my view clearly the most equitable and fair (grand daddy one might say) finals system of them all!

More musing over the break...

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So the practical outworking of this is that when finals time comes along, there are two finals systems of a final 5 being played out.

The Premiership has 1 getting the week off, 2v3 and 4v5 playing in the qualifying and eliminations.

The Relegation Finals has 6 getting the week off, 7 v 12 and 13 v 14 playing in the qualifying and eliminations.

After week 1, you go back to the inspired McIntyre Final 4, where there are first and second semis, followed by one prelim, and one Grand Final (with the winner of the 2nd semi getting the "saloon...
After talking up CJudd-3votes and Joels chances last week, both had reasonably average games against lowly opposition.  So - who can we put the mockers on this week?  Both Pendlebury and Goodes will be close to leading after their BOG performances on the weekend...but seeing as theyre both in my SuperCoach side, lets not....

<!--more-->It did get me thinking however - does it really matter who is leading overall?  Yes - its definitely a point of interest, and yes, we all want to see our favourites do well, but it isnt our main priority.  Nope, were here to see wholl get the most votes for their respective team, and bring home the bacon.

Certainties (they can stop playing now): S. Thompson, J. Watson, J. Selwood, B. Moloney &amp; M. Boyd

Shoulds (in front, good polling history, but yet to put the nail in the coffin):

Judd over Murphy
Pendlebury over Swan/Thomas
Fyfe over Sandilands/Pavlich (will be good money here)
Ablett over Rischitelli
Swallow over NM (Harvey could turn it on, and has topped the last three years)
Goodes over OKeefe/Bolton
Priddis over Cox (Cox number 1 in SC, but not an umpire favourite)

After that, it gets a little hazier...Franklin just ahead of Mitchell but may miss a couple more, Black &amp; Brown - need a couple more wins but they have the history, Montagna line ball with Dal Santo in the wake of Hayes usual dominance, you could throw a blanket over 4-5 Richmond players and then theres Port.....youd expect Boak to pull away at some stage.

Anyway - who do you think is leading your club?  Let us know, but first - this weeks votes:

[span style="text-decoration: underline">Melbourne v Essendon

TS:
3 - B. Moloney (13)
2 - J. McKenzie (2)
1 - J. Trengove (3)

Holey:
3 - J. McKenzie (3)
2 - J. Gysberts (2)
1 - J. Trengove (3)

[span style="text-decoration: underline">Geelong v Western Bulldogs

TS:
3 - B. Ottens (3)
2 - S. Johnson (6)
1 - J. Bartel (8)

Holey:
3 - S. Johnson (10)
2 - B....
Congratulations to the perennial 23rd man from North, Cameron Pedersen for finally breaking his bubble, and what a surprise he took out the Rising Star.

A tough full back who has found his way from Mooroolbark to the big league via the Box Hill Hawks training centre, he is the type of player that would have proved handy backup at Glenferrie this season one would think.

This weeks votes were hardly surprising with Andrew Swallow almost taking the biggest increase with that awesome first quarter on the weekend.
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10 - Pedersen
9 - A Swallow
8 - McCarthy
7 - Delaney
6 - Vardy
5 - Hibberd
4 - Bailey
3 - Puopolo
2 - Evans
1 - Mattner

This brings the overall tally to:

23 - M Wright*
21 - Z Smith*
20 - Puopolo
19 - Curnow*, L Thompson*, Liberatore*
17 - Harris
16 - Lower, Petrie
15 - Hibberd*
14 - Heppell, Nahas*
12 - Darling, Duigan
10 - Matera, Lynch*, Pedersen*

Lots of players in the running for votes next week.   Petrie and Smith not far off the mark for a few crucial votes this week, and a similar performance will surely bring them closer to the leader.
Alright, you guys might have noticed that that ad that was next to the header has now popped up under it.

That was so we could fit in a pair of new features!

Well, ones just a better use of a current feature, allowing you guys to login from any page- which is nifty when you find yourself at a page that needs you to log in (say you want to join the chat in the live page, or want to enter a nickname in).

The second feature is the long awaited player search function! Simply type in a name and wack go (or enter) and itll find them for you! You can even search on nicknames, so now you too can easily figure out who people are talking about when they mention Juice! (Or any other wacky nickname that people come up with!). Dont forget though, if you search for a nickname that isnt in the database, dont forget to add it in when you get to their player page!
<a href="http://tooserious.net/competitions.php?competition=CCC"><img src="http://tooserious.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TSccc.png" width="400px">[/url]

<div style="float:left; padding-right:4px"><a href="http://www.combinedcars.com/"><img src="http://tooserious.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/combined_chauffeured_cars.png" width="190px">[/url]

Alright, two thirds of the way though the Combined Cars Challenge, and boy oh boy has our leaders, Here For Beer, picked the right part of the season to smash out some big scores!

After topping the chart last week with a 2448, hes once again topped the charts with a 2488- massive run mate!

The second highest score this week was Vanderlay Ind. whos 2430 saw him climb to 6th position over all while the 3rd highest score for the week was Lamb Shanks whos score of 2429 saw him rise to 2nd overall.

That all said though, Here For Beers massive score of 4936 is enough to see him going to the last round with a huge 200 point lead! Really, its all theirs to lose from here, and hell need a spectacular choke (or a massive effort from those who are just in the hunt) to miss out.

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,
,,<td style="font-weight:bold;">Team name
,,<td style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://tooserious.net/competitions.php?competition=CCC&ladder=1&sort=week1">Week 1[/url]
,,<td style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://tooserious.net/competitions.php?competition=CCC&ladder=1&sort=week2">Week 2[/url]
,,<td style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://tooserious.net/competitions.php?competition=CCC&ladder=1&sort=week3">Week 3[/url]
,,<td style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://tooserious.net/competitions.php?competition=CCC&ladder=1&sort=total">Total[/url]
,

,,,<tr >
,,,<td >Here For Beer
,,,<td >2448
,,,<td >2488
,,,<td >0
,,,<td >4936
,,

,,,,<tr >
,,,<td >Lamb Shanks
,,,<td >2316
,,,<td >2429
,,,<td >0
,,,<td >4745
,,

,,,,<tr >
,,,<td >Such Is Life
,,,<td >2337...
I think this week was summed up well in the live chat- Bi-polar. There have been some utterly massive performances, along with a fair number of average efforts. As such though, I wouldnt be suprised to see *somebody* crack that magical 2700 mark- though I reckon Buddys out will put the kibosh on that.

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Essendon vs Melbourne
Result: Melbourne by 33, 15.11.101 to 10.8.68

Well, it was mentioned in the chat- completely tounge in cheek of course, that the Bombers were unfairly disadvantaged by the bye, but sadly as a Bombers fan, I cant hang my hat on that. The Demons were fantastic and really put together a solid midfield effort with a rock solid defence. So often (particularly in the first half), the Bombers would drive forward and constantly be shut down by the super efforts of Rivers and Frawley. However, it was Moloney who top scored for the game with 28 touches and a pair of goals for a 132SC. McKenzie also picked up 28 touches for a 124SC while Jack Trengove was a welcome return, also picking up 28 touches for a 115SC. Brad Green looks to have played himself back into form, kicking 4 goals and picking up 113SC for his efforts while Jordan Gysberts got the most touches on ground, collecting 30 for a 111SC. You have to go down to Lonergan, to find the only Bomber to ton up who managed 29 touches but not a lot else. The villians were rife on the Bombers side with Paddys 65, Hilles 54 and bellys 40 leading the charge, meanwhile on the Demons side, a 1st quarter corky to Sylvia saw him subbed off for just 32SC. The rookie however were fantastic- well, not the sub Browne who only managed 17SC, but Heppells 79, Martins 87, Hibberds 89 and Howes 97 were fantastic. Meanwhile, Strauss put in a tidy 70 while Gawn got himself a 50 and Nicholson a 46.


Heros: Moloney, McKenzie, Green
Villians: Sylvia, Ryder, Hille

Geelong vs Western Bulldogs
Result: Geelong by 61, 23.10.148 to 13.9.87

It was all...
Theres a lot of pain around this week with Chappy and Buddy warming the pine and testing a few teams bench coverage particularly with JRoo having his bye. Add to that a few promintent under performers and injuries with Sylvia, Boyd, Swan and Selwood failing to live up to expectations.

Have you managed to dodge the bullets thus far? Or is your team limping in this round?
Round 11 is almost upon us. Pedersen is in if youre interested in a backline downgrade, but with the mighty Mzungu available, he should really be your first call in downgrading.

A quick reminder to all you free-betters, seems that the winnings of said freebet need to be turned over twice within 90 days- so if you missed that bit of fine print (Alright- I missed it and had it pointed out to me today!) Get in there and have a looksee- Swannies look pretty good value given they have only lost to top3 sides this year, while the Lions are coming off back-to-back wins against North and Adelaide.

Anyways, as always, join us in the <a href="http://tooserious.net/live_scores.php?page=gameday&id=10250395&process=live">Live Chat[/url] tonight- should be fun!
Perma-captain? No such thing it would seem. Everyone’s favourite choice for that role this season has been Swan. However, Swan is playing injured. He hasn’t cracked the ton for the last three weeks and has only averaged 88 in those games.

I started running some numbers for this week and I was extremely unimpressed by all of them. So I started to run some more – hence this is a bumper edition of possible choices. Based on the numbers, only one player seemed to stand out – and that player is …

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Ablett v. West Coast

Rd 22 2010: 176 SuperCoach points, 33 disposals
Rd 11 2010: 121 SuperCoach points, 24 disposals
Rd 11 2009: 175 SuperCoach points, 43 disposals
Rd 22 2008: 107 SuperCoach points, 30 disposals
Rd 13 2008: 169 SuperCoach points, 37 disposals
Rd 7 2007: 106 SuperCoach points, 23 disposals

Average is 142 SuperCoach points with 32 disposals.

Note: Unbelievable recent record against the Eagles – 157 SuperCoach points over the last three games. However, is he on everyone’s team (perhaps he will be traded in after seeing these numbers) and how will he go when he doesn’t have his Geelong team mates backing him up?? Lots of question marks but it is hard to argue with the numbers.

Selwood v. Western Bulldogs

Rd 20 2010: 142 SuperCoach points, 35 disposals
Rd 21 2009: 122 SuperCoach points, 33 disposals
Rd 9 2009: 109 SuperCoach points, 32 disposals
Rd 16 2008: 92 SuperCoach points, 27 disposals
Rd 16 2007: 130 SuperCoach points, 23 disposals

Average is 119 SuperCoach points with 30 disposals.

Note: Very solid record against the Bulldogs. Will enjoy playing at Skilled Stadium. Should have a big game.

Chapman v. Western Bulldogs

Rd 20 2010: 80 SuperCoach points, 27 disposals
Rd 9 2009: 69 SuperCoach points, 15 disposals
Rd 16 2008: 92 SuperCoach points, 24 disposals
Rd 16 2007: 115 SuperCoach points, 26 disposals
Rd 1: 2007: 138 SuperCoach points, 27 disposals
Rd 16 2006: 111 SuperCoach...
As it was said in the chat- anyone who traded in Chappy after his bye will be feeling right now like hed slept with your missus! The bald knight is sitting out on the sidelines this week. In the plus side though, weve got plenty of tasty ins.

Anyways, lets take a look at the big ins and outs for the round.

INS: Enright, Taylor, Richardson, Otten, Curnow
OUTS: Chapman, Gilbee, Liberatore, Matera, Pratt, B. Smith
Extended Bench: Suckling, Richardson, Otten, Jacobs

Anyways, jump into the chat and lets ride the weekly ride which is the Teams.

Full teams over the break
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Essendon
B: Kyle Hardingham, Cale Hooker, Dustin Fletcher
HB: Henry Slattery, David Myers, Nathan Lovett-Murray
C: Leroy Jetta, Brent Stanton, Travis Colyer
HF: Jake Melksham, Patrick Ryder, David Zaharakis
F: Angus Monfries, David Hille, Stewart Crameri
Foll: Tom Bellchambers, Ben Howlett, Mark McVeigh
I/C: Sam Lonergan, Dyson Heppell, Alex Browne, Michael Hibberd
Emg: Andrew Welsh, Alwyn Davey, Kyle Reimers
In: Travis Colyer, Alex Browne
Out: Alwyn Davey, Kyle Reimers
New: Alex Browne (Oakleigh Chargers)

Melbourne
B: James Frawley, Jared Rivers, Joel Macdonald
HB: Tom Scully, Jack Watts, James Strauss
C: Jordan Gysberts, Brent Moloney, Jack Trengove
HF: Cale Morton, Colin Sylvia, Jeremy Howe
F: Max Gawn, Brad Green, Jamie Bennell
Foll: Stefan Martin, Nathan Jones, Jordie McKenzie
I/C: Neville Jetta, Liam Jurrah, Daniel Nicholson, Michael Evans
Emg: Matthew Bate, Sam Blease, Tom McDonald
In: James Strauss, Tom Scully, Jack Trengove, Max Gawn, Jeremy Howe
Out: Matthew Bate, Michael Newton (Foot), Matthew Warnock, Ricky Petterd, Addam Maric
New: Max Gawn (Sandringham Dragons), Jeremy Howe (Hobart)

Geelong Cats
B: Josh Hunt, Tom Lonergan, Matthew Scarlett
HB: Corey Enright, Harry Taylor, Andrew Mackie
C: Jimmy Bartel, Cameron Ling, James Kelly
HF: Steve Johnson, Nathan Vardy, Mathew Stokes
F: Travis Varcoe, James Podsiadly, Daniel Menzel...