TooSerious

DirtyWhorks has been tweeting about playing keepings off.   Its not too difficult to do, except when you have the marauding hordes chasing you, and a few of my mates who are 600 down saying his team is pretty darn average and they are looking to grab some points off him.

Now sure, I think that 600 down is too far down to be playing in the big league, but it just shows how much people are prepared to consider themselves "in the game" with the occasional havoc the bye and team selections can play.

First, heres Dirtys team:

D: Deledio, Adcock, Goddard, Gibbs, Heppell, Suckling, Lower (Batchelor, Puopolo, Hibberd)
M: Pendlebury, Mundy, Priddis, Dal Santo, Selwood, Hodge (Savage, Prestia, Smith)
R: Cox, Sandilands (Smith, Campbell)
F: Pavlich, Fyfe, Franklin, OKeefe, Goodes, Petrie, Krakouer (McKernan, Matera, Lynch)

Some quick analysis over the break, then I give it over to you lot!

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Firstly, Im not going to really go into the trading of DW, but Im sure many of you are already well aware given the league function here at TS.   If not, Walesy can regale us in the comments.

The team, well its steady without being outstanding.   The fact is though, heaps of points already racked up must mean wise captain choices, and shrewd trading for value.

Steady meaning: Heppell and Lower still in defence.  No Shaw, Scotland or Fisher.   Midfield doesnt have Ablett or Boyd.   Theres no Petrie link, so Smith has to perform (still similar situation to lots of teams) in Sandilands absence.   The forward division is strong, but will come under heat when Hawthorn and Sydney have the bye.   It remains under Mick Malthouses whim to whether Krakouer is the sub, and the reinforcements, at least up forward and in the middle, arent what youd call super.

In the main, DW will need to upgrade his reserves, hoping a few more get good game time or at least maintain their performances.

How Id take DW on, remembering of course that POD is not James...

The final teams are in, and Heppell has survived the cut- sadly, the same cant be said about Hibberd.

Ah well, he was benched anyways

So, hows your team shaping up? Word is that Buddy will get up for the game, but hey- I plan on having an emergency set anyways!!

Drop us a comment, or join us in the live chat!

So, Buddy has been named as expected, but with Renouf, as the only tall emergency, hes probably a good chance to play- that said though, ensure that you have decent coverage as I reckon hes still a good chance to miss.

So, lets take a look at the big ins and outs-
INS: Liberatore, Chapman, Franklin, Savage, Kreuzer, Rockliff, Drummond, Jack, Barlow, Watson, Buckley
OUTS: Montagna, Siposs, Bewick, Swan, Thomas
Extended Bench: Carrazzo, Curnow, Tuovy, Rockiff, Drummond, Jack, Malceski, Hibberd, Browne, Heppell, Lower, Gawn, Evans, Buckley

Definitely a lot more ins than outs this week will come as welcome relief! Can I take this time to say welcome back to Kreuzer and Barlow!! Cant wait to see them get back into their strides.

Also, of note- check out the extended Bombers bench, with Hird saying earlier this week that hell be sticking with the 3 rucks, who do you reckon will miss out of: Nathan Lovett-Murray, Brent Stanton, Andrew Welsh, Tom Bellchambers, Dyson Heppell, Alex Browne, Michael Hibberd
Im gunna pencil in Welsh, Brown and Hibberd, but what do you guys think? Reckon Welsh will come back in?

Anyways, feel free to get into the chat to discuss it!
Full teams over the break
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St Kilda
B: Sean Dempster, Zac Dawson, Steven Baker
HB: Jason Gram, Sam Fisher, James Gwilt
C: Brendon Goddard, David Armitage, Clinton Jones
HF: Brett Peake, Sam Gilbert, Adam Schneider
F: Stephen Milne, Nick Riewoldt, Tom Simpkin
Foll: Ben McEvoy, Nick Dal Santo, Jack Steven
I/C: Raphael Clarke, Farren Ray, Tom Ledger, Ryan Gamble
Emg: Tommy Walsh, Arryn Siposs, Dean Polo
In: Raphael Clarke, Jason Gram, Ryan Gamble
Out: Leigh Montagna (Knee), Arryn Siposs, Dean Polo

Western Bulldogs
B: Liam Picken, Dale Morris, Robert Murphy
HB: Brennan Stack, Tom L. Williams, Easton Wood
C: Daniel Cross, Matthew Boyd, Christian Howard
HF: Shaun Higgins, Liam Jones, Justin Sherman
F: Adam Cooney, William Minson, Daniel Giansiracusa
Foll: Ben Hudson,...

Swan has left the country. Has Ablett now done enough to resume his mantle of perma-captain? There seem to be a number of players in great form at the moment. Picking a captain is proving unbelievably difficult - as shown by the low scores by Judd and Selwood last week. Do we trust them again? Can we trust any St Kilda player??

Hopefully the numbers assist some of you. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t really point to any particular player …

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Ablett v. North Melbourne

Rd 14 2010: 106 SuperCoach points, 33 disposals
Rd 21 2008: 83 SuperCoach points, 27 disposals
Rd 11 2008: 180 SuperCoach points, 39 disposals
Rd 20 2007: 153 SuperCoach points, 31 disposals
Rd 5 2007: 68 SuperCoach points, 16 disposals
Rd 17 2006: 9 SuperCoach points, 5 disposals
Rd 2 2006: 126 SuperCoach points, 17 disposals

Average is 104 SuperCoach points with 24 disposals.

Note: Take out the Rd 17 game in 2006 when he received a shoulder injury in the first quarter and his average jumps to 119 SuperCoach points with 27 disposals. Has been in vintage form recently – scores of 154, 106 and 198 at an average of 153 (to lead the league).

Cox v. Adelaide

Rd 15 2010: 101 SuperCoach points, 23 disposals
Rd 9 2008: 83 SuperCoach points, 12 disposals
Rd 2 2008: 146 SuperCoach points, 25 disposals
Rd 13 2007: 134 SuperCoach points, 25 disposals
Rd 2 2006: 128 SuperCoach points, 24 disposals
Rd 22 2005: 110 SuperCoach points, 19 disposals
Rd 1 2005: 87 SuperCoach points, 13 disposals

Average is 113 SuperCoach points with 20 disposals.

Note: Solid record against the Crows. In great form at the moment averaging 128 over his past 6 games. Scored a huge 166 against the Suns last week. Should have a big game against Sam Jacobs – even if the game is at AAMI.

Pendlebury v. Melbourne

Rd 12 2010: 123 SuperCoach points, 27 disposals
Rd 2 2010: 122 SuperCoach points, 23 disposals
Rd 11 2009: 108 SuperCoach points, 39 disposals
Rd 2 2009: 86...

This week we heard news that Sandilands is another 2-3 weeks away.   With Freo having an away game in 3 weeks time, you could really see that being a return in Round 15 against Gold Coast, followed by a bye.   Sandilands has a breakeven of 150 on return, and while hes  some chance of getting that against GC (even first up) it will take guts for people to hold him and his $550k on the bench until then.

Round 17 looks a good time to get him back, but its Mumford time.    Personally Im looking to trade him, and hope that I can then bring him back in Round 21 as an almost straight swap for Drew Petrie (when North has its bye).

Each to their own, but I know I still regret not moving Rioli on to say Steve Johnson when there was that "blood in the leg" problem.    Similar to what Buddy Franklin has.   Scary.

I dont have too much left over the break, just a summary of best buys and the All Australians.   Hope you can take the discussion further below, and I like what people do with the up and down thumbs giving the community a chance to veto your trades!

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Best Buys - Premiums

DEF: Newman, Deledio, Scotland.    Fisher and Shaw have a bye coming up too soon so if you have to move, do it now to a Tiger or Blue.   Get some stability and when their bye inevitably comes up, you can be prepared for it.   Or wait it out like Im doing for the other two hoping they spud it up the next 1-2 weeks.   A smoky option would be to trade Lower to Broughton, something Im considering as a sly move for this week.   Lower-Enright is an OK move, but Lower-Broughton team-wise makes more sense.

MID: Bartel looks the best for this week.  Back in form and cheap.  I know you ride the rollercoaster with Jimmy but when he is good he is very, very good.   Mundy, Mitchell, Dal Santo, Priddis and even Pendlebury represent good value for midfielders to bring in.   And Andrew Swallow is one readymade for those who love to chase the points.  ...

As most of you would be aware, we have already been busy this week, deciding the future direction of the team first, and now in the process of working out our 2 trades this week...

But here is an update on last round:

We scored 2219 which was about par, and we improved our ranking by a whopping 18 places!!  Well done Donors!

We are now ranked 3,259th. And after 5 league wins on the weekend, we are in the top 8 of all our leagues - but they are fairly easy ones, with only two ranked in the top 100...

Our 2 trades last week were as follows: Harris down to Smith; and Duigan up to Scottland.

Our bench selections were as good as we coulda done, but we were unlucky to have no playing forward benchers so we copped a zero for Buddys late withdrawal...

Over the break are the scores of each individual player for round 11:::::::

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<table id="scoringPlayers" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>

<td colspan="2">SCORING PLAYERS



<td colspan="2">



1. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/130">Scotland[/url] (DEF)
<td align="right">113



2. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/176">Shaw[/url] (DEF)
<td align="right">101



3. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/632">Goddard[/url] (DEF)
<td align="right">82



4. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/110">Gibbs[/url] (DEF)
<td align="right">89



5. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/241">Broughton[/url] (DEF)
<td align="right">114



6. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/411">Puopolo[/url] (DEF)
<td align="right">85



7. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/539">Jacobs[/url] (DEF)
<td align="right">48



8. <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/player/169">Pendlebury[/url] (MID)
<td align="right">149



9. <a...

So in the Age today (scabbed out of the bin - who throws away the sport section these days ) 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!