TooSerious

Ok, its a pretty easy thing to have a ping at Collingwood. They are a very easy and soft target.

But for so long the Magpies team has come under a lot of criticism for purely lacking the class needed to win big games. And to be honest I agree with most of it. If it werent for a brilliant team effort, and some of the best coaching strategies implemented, the Magpies would not have got over the line.

Which brings the points to make, and its important as we do our Fantasy Football pre-season...

Who out of your team would improve the Collingwood 22? Or, who out of the Collingwood 22 would improve your team?

Lets remember, here are the members of the Pies 22, in what I consider to be A+, A, B+, B and C grades...
(On looking at this list, should give teams quite a bit of hope for next season, that they can do better with their lists...)
A+ - Pendlebury, Swan
A - Didak, Shaw, Thomas
B+ - Maxwell, OBrien, Ball, Reid, L Brown, Jolly, Sidebottom, Cloke
B - Goldsack, Johnson, Macaffer, Dawes, Beams, Wellingham, N Brown, Toovey
C - Blair

Heres the <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/103656/default.aspx">link[/url]

And the crux
<blockquote>
AFL TEAMS will have three interchange players and one substitute on their benches in 2011 after the League acted to curb the dramatic rise in the number of rotations during matches.
</blockquote>

And now the question that we need to think about- How will this affect our game? Will stars be completely rested when a game is dusted? Or does it simply mean that there is now one less spot for a rookie to be getting TOG? Its certainly going to make things interesting when we consider picking up players that are on the fringe of the 22.

I wonder if there will be a general "type" that is used in that #22- I certainly doubt that youll see talls sitting there. More than likely, I imagine itll be an outlying mid that will get the job.

That was fun!

It went a lot quicker than I anticipated and 30 seconds wasnt enough for some of my picks. I had to grab one bloke that i had never heard of as when my second last pick came around, I needed another C and there werent many left - picked Jason Maxiell from Detroit.

Only once for me was a player i was planning to pick, taken with the pick immediately before mine - was hoping for Josh Smith with my first pick at 22, but settled for Zach Randolph when JS was selected at 21 - but i think this happened to quite a lot of people throughout the draft, amazing that it was such a regular occurrence.

Anyway, I havent got time to review the whole draft. I just wanted to get a new thread up as Im sure there will be a fair bit of chat about it and therefore it would be good to have a thread up the top of the page!

Was anyone surprised at where a particular player went? or surprised that you got someone you thought you had no chance to get?

And I suppose now its time for a RMT...   post up your teams below if you want; it will be interesting to see how each other went.

Over the break, ill put up the results of the draft - every pick......

<!--more-->
<pre>Round: 1
(1) Dannys Lebronts - LeBron James SF
(2) Do Something Knicks - Kevin Durant SF
(3) Adelaide Maggots - Chris Paul PG
(4) Stevos Nuggets - Pau Gasol PF
(5) Team DaBombers - Dwyane Wade SG
(6) Too Seriouseses - Dirk Nowitzki PF
(7) Jasmines Mob - Deron Williams PG
(8) Run TMC - Rajon Rondo PG
(9) Kings of Karlos - Dwight Howard C
(10) Team HEAVER! - Kobe Bryant SG
(11) Team El Bonanzas - Danny Granger SF
(12) Ruddys Cavaliers - Steve Nash PG
(13) Pikus United - Stephen Curry PG
(14) Westside Hardcore - Carmelo Anthony SF
(15) Team Fezkat - Amare Stoudemire C
(16) Fudges Sixers - David Lee PF
(17) Doobia Dominators - Chris Bosh PF
(18) Under Achievers - Jason Kidd PG
(19) Too Seriouseses - Chauncey Billups PG
(20) Team Stowie - Brandon Roy SG

Round: 2
(21)...

Well...Better late than never, right?

After last weeks nail bitters, this week anything could of happened.  What did happen was that Stowie continued his league dominance with his third straight win and Sam Crow broke his string of ducks and posted his first W for the season.  Ive noticed the waiver wire has been running hot over the last couple of days as everyone scrambles to patch over the cracks starting to appear in their team sheets caused by injuries or the realisation that the fella you took in the third round is just a spud, even worse if that spud gets injured (Reggie Bush, Im looking at you!).

A few of you were able to put last weekends dissapointing loss behind you and post a win this week and there were those of us whose season are just heading South, still theres plenty of time to turn it all around.  On a better note the Pats also got back on the winners page with a less than convincing win over the Bills and for anyone who saw Carolina play Cinci on Monday morning must be wondering what the hell this sport is all about, seriously, that was the worst game Ive ever seen, carolinas QB looked like a third division hack.  Boldin Showers must be pretty happy with his decision to draft Peyton Manning because he just puts up big points every week.  Manning knows that Indys defence is shot and it is up to him to outscore all-comers meaning big fantasy points for BS.  Well anyway time to launch into the games review...<!--more-->

Ill start with the undefeated TEAM STOWIE(e).  He obliterated my boys, MR WIGGLES(e) to the tune of 56 points.  Just an all-round A-grade performance with only two of his team not reaching double figure scores, and to top it all off the highest individual point scorer for the week, Bolden from Baltimore with 32 of his own.  Seriously, Stowie top work mate, more of this and youll leaves us all in your wake.  Walesy this week its your turn, cmon big fella do it for all of us.

Next up SAM CROW(w) took on walesys...

Gday all Fez here filling in for the injured JoshyC. Rumour has it he broke his wrist punching the telly seeing his beloved Gunners go down to West Brom.

The early kickoff this week was at Eastlands as Manchester City played host to Chelsea. Chelsea starting off the season on fire with 21 goals 1 conceded all be it against the most likely bottom 5 teams so there was always going to be a test against Chelsea, Manchester City were the only team to do the double over Chelsea last season with the corresponding fixture finishing 2-1 to City. The game was a tight battle with Citys 3 defensive midfielders blocking up the space and blokes like Essien, Malouda werent getting the shooting space they needed. There weren’t many chances in the first half with the only one going to Alex who hit the post from point blank range. The second half started a lot like the first was but coming to the hour mark City hit Chelsea on counterattack, Ramires losing possession and all his teammates were forward for a corner Toure a short pass to Tevez who from half way run at the defenders and shot on past Petr Cech from on the edge of the box to go 1-0 up. After that City had the better of the play and to the delight of the City crowd Drogba was subbed off for one of Citys old boys Sturridge.

Sunderland travelled to Anfield with week to take on Liverpool who have had a shocking start to the season. Many predicted the reds to get back on track but I did always see this one turning into a draw. Liverpool opened the scoring in 5th minute which will go down as the most controversial goal of the season (and funny that same goal with the beachball occurred in the corresponding fixture last year with Sunderland won 1-0) Sunderland had earned themself a free kick due to an offside, the Sunderland defender then softly kicked it back as it saying the goalkeeper take it, Torres was first to pounce take the ball and pass it to Kuyt who put it into an open net. Bent again got on the scoring...

Gardiner out for McEvoy that was the easy selection for mine.

Davis gone for Goldsack, and yep, Mick Malthouse has finally lost his favourites.

No:
Presti
Fraser
Lockyer
OBree
Davis

I think Goldsack in is a good move. Not because he is a good player, but like in the Prelim Final, the dumping of Davis seemed to fire the players up. Heres hoping from a Pies perspective it does the same.

Thoughts on this weeks team selections welcome, though again a "Davis is $#!+" comment doesnt really need to be added, as if youre a non-Magpie fan, thats what youve thought for a long while.

Cheers.

And hes going, hes going.... hes OUTTA THERE!!!

Apparently the word was Hird, but is now <a href="http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/3aw-football-blog/gary-ablett-signs-with-gold-coast-suns/20100929-15w8f.html">Ablett[/url] and with a presser at <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/ablett-to-announce-switch-to-suns-today-20100929-15w7u.html?rand=1285711832930">12:30 today[/url].

$1.9 mil per year they reckon. Well, I reckon the GC have got to be full of stars now right? Surely with Gaz on that, Campbell on $450k and Risca, Bock, Harbrow and Krakouer on whatever they are on- the cap has got to be starting to hurt!

But- more importantly, what will the implications be on fantasy football! I spose were going to need to see what the final midfield is around Ablett before we can make a real call- but as with the last two years, hes gunna be a huge talking point. Not just from a GC point of view, but from a Geelong point of view. We all know how Supercoach scales, and that a huge amount of points getting tipped back into the pool to go around (provided they can keep on winning!).

So, who do we think will be the big winner? Selwood? Kelly? Varcoe?

<a href="http://tooserious.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/newcoach-landinghead-short_1.jpg"><img src="http://tooserious.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/newcoach-landinghead-short_1-300x78.jpg" alt="" title="newcoach-landinghead-short_1" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-2009" />[/url]

Ok, I think the big news item for today is Hird, and probably tomorrow will be Ablett.

But who knows? If it ends up todays big news is Bomber Thompson, then it becomes something incredible.

Any thoughts and comments are welcomed on this breaking news. Id prefer them to be more knowledgable ones such as "Hird will be a failure because he is a perfectionist FIGJAM without experience" rather than just a pure "he is a tosser" style.

That way the reasoned debate can go on between the Bomber hopefuls and the rational rest of the footy world!

Dear Everyone,

On November 14th 2010 I will be climbing all the way up the Eureka Tower to level 88. The purpose of this event is not only to test my fitness levels but also to raise money for the events charity partners Whitelion and Interplast Australia & New Zealand whom both work tirelessly to rebuild young lives.

In order to be involved in this event I need your help as I have to raise a minimum pledge to participate but more over I would like to raise money for these charities that do such great work. I would greatly appreciate any support which you could offer me with my fundraising efforts (all donations over $2 are tax deductable).

Im in a small team named Loco. If you would like to sponsor me and my team by way of a donation (it will only take a few minutes of your time), please visit <a href="www.eurekaclimb.com.au">www.eurekaclimb.com.au[/url] and follow these steps:

1.Go to <a href="http://www.eurekaclimb-interplast.com/fundraiser-loco">http://www.eurekaclimb-interplast.com/fundraiser-loco[/url] (This will take you to my sponsorship page)
2.Click on the Sponsor Loco button and then simply fill out your sponsorship details.
All donations are tax deductible.

Thanking you in advance on behalf of myself, Whitelion and Interplast Australia & New Zealand.

Cheers, Walesy.

Alright- so thats the "Official" please sir- here it is again from me- guys, Ive enjoyed giving to this site all year- so now its my turn to mooch and ask if you all could part with some of your hard earned to a good cause. (Particularly if you won big in the Brownlow )

I cant offer anything in return, though I do plan to complain a lot about sore legs in the week after it (which Im sure youll all appreciate!)

Alternatively, if you do want to donate directly to the costs of running this site- dont forget, theres a donate button up the top there still.

And hey, if you felt like doing both- then hey- Youre a good person.

I try not to spruik for cash...

I hope everyones had a bit of a chance to work out a strategy for the draft or scout some players etc. At the time of writing this we only have 3days, 7hours and 30minutes until Danny10 is on the clock to select the #1 pick!

An important thing to note at this stage is that trades take 2 days to finalise after they are accepted, and all trades need to be finalised at least an hour before our draft begins. So anyone still bargaining or planning to trade any draft picks need to propose and have the trade accepted sometime in the next 30 hours or so - cutoff for the trade to be accepted is Tuesday at 9pm AEST.

Trading can be very worthwile - There have been 3 completed trades involving my team, and im rapt with the outcome - 6 picks within the top 88 and another at 102 should help me set up a good core group of keepers for the season. I dont have great knowledge of the NBA players these days, so it was important to me to try and get extra picks inside the top100 as i wont have much of a clue from there on in the draft, outside of a few players that I suspect most other GMs will be looking at as well.

So get trading, its fun and its your last chance before the draft!

Now, I would highly recommend  that you all do a mock draft.  Hugely important IMO as it will give us a chance to get a handle on the format of the draft and how the application works etc.

Im not sure if anyone has found a mock draft with 20 teams in it - please let us all know in the comments if you have - as on the ESPN site they only have 10 teamers available, which is still good to get accustomed to it all, which IMO is the most important aspect to doing a mock draft. Here is a link to where you can access a mock draft: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://games.espn.go.com/fba/mockdraftlobby"> http://games.espn.go.com/fba/mockdraftlobby[/url], choose the ’snake’ version.

Now thats about it for this week. I cant wait for the draft! Is everyone expecting to be there?

One last...