TooSerious

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!

<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!