TooSerious

Hello again EPL fans,

The huge news is that Rafaael Van der Vaart has officially signed for Tottenham from Real Madrid right at the deadline while Arsenals pursuit of Socceroos keeper Mark Schwarzer did not eventuate. Further transfer news to follow but on to the GW3 review and the round was opened at Ewood Park where Walcott and Arsharvin continued scoring and Arsenal put 2 past Blackburn (was a shame that TooSerious was not represented at the Celtic Club - a great night was had by 80+ mad gOOners).

Next up saw Fulham scrape a draw away to Blackpool with a late equaliser after being 1 nil up in the first half. Chelsea strolled home with a 1 nil win over Stoke with Malouda grabbing the goal again, followed by Rooney breaking the longest goal drought of his career and scoring in a 3 nil win over West Ham (albeit via a spot kick). Then came one of the shocks of the round where by Wigan got up 1 nil over Spurs at White Hart Lane with a late strike from Rodallega. The Jordies took a draw at Wolves after Carroll continued his purple patch and cancelled out an Ebanks-Blake first half opener.

Sunday saw Villa got over the line after an early hit from Luke Young left the Toffees dwindling away near the bottom of the table, and Bolton managed to scrape a 2 draw after being 2 nil down at the Reebok against the Brumies. Liverpool snuck home in unconvincing fashion against West Brom at Anfield 1 nil after Torres marked his turf in the 65th minute, and the round was ended out with another surprise result after Darren Bent claimed an injury time penalty to sink Man City at home.

So at the end of Round 3, the top of the tree has Chelsea unbeaten with a whopping +14 GD followed by the Arsenal on 7/7, then comes Man Utd on 6/7 with Villa rounding out the 4 on 6/-2. West Ham are looking in dire straights bring up the rear of the table along with surprise slow starters Stoke City & Everton.

In terms of tipping, following the predictions made in last weeks...

Wiggles is trying to get up a group for the NFL. So rather than hijack the NBA thread, lets get it going in here. Heres what he has to say-

Alright-So Ive setup a NFL league on ESPN. I need another 9 people to enter to activate the league. If we dont get enough ill either open it up to public or delete it. I have set the draft time as This sunday at 10pm(EST), so it doesnt give us a lot of time but it can be changed if necessary however the comp starts in a week. Everyone needs to be online at once for the draft. Before then you need to enter the league and get your account set. The link is

<a href="http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/tools/join?leagueId=877899">http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/tools/join?leagueId=877899[/url] and the password is walesy

have a read of the info about fantasy NFL and the draft system. There are plenty of cheat sheets and lists as well as draft advice. Also you can participate in mock drafts for practice.

Anyway ill keep checking on this thread to see how it goes.

<a href="http://iscent.com.au"><img style="float: left; margin: 0 10px 10px 0;" src="http://tooserious.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/iScent.com_.au_RGB.jpg" alt="" />[/url]

So, were at the end of the year, which means the end of another comp. Now, we still have two more comps to announce the winners for, but well get there over time, probably next week.

But enough about next week- weve still got one last prize to give away here! So lets all make sure we give a big thanks to iScent. This comp has been a lot of fun!

For this week, I managed to post my best result, coming 5th! But I was outtipped by SuperBlues. You put in some great tipping this week mate.

For the record, the winning team was:

namescoreDifference

Leigh Montagna547

Dane Swan546

Paul Chapman1049

Chris Judd25

Matthew Boyd1062

Jude Bolton541

Travis Boak210

Brent Harvey125


Once again, thats to the crew at iScent- you guys have been great.

And the full results over the break...
<!--more-->

UserscoreDifference

Superblues40285

payney346252

worksafe47177

buzz49215

walesy49238

simonoz49275

joshuac51259

parlabane56239

mattybomb2256380

daveo1557177

stowie60196

Micka64313

pop73310

sikoseto73269

tyze80230

mkidd80320

spuddy80356

benj83301

fozzer85334

ajackl0787386

The Mob Goes Wild88425

celinef90411

Kel96526

griff99370

HSVKing99720

matty.hutch103309

AK105489

haysiebbh106429

anthak132261

OK, if you want, join in a simple competition. Its called name your All Australian team. You get one entry only and put it in the comments field.

The Team will be announced in almost a fortnight (Mon 13 Sep), so you have time to do some analysis.

Here are the 40 players selected...and to be honest outside of Scarlett (who I still think was close to the best full back this year) they hit the mark perfectly in my opinion. Obviously some players in this list like OBrien have no chance of getting in the team, but its more a recognition of development, and a good year from that player.

Heres the 40, and when you put a full strength 22 player squad in the comments, Ill consider that your entry. The prize can be worked out, something around the $50 mark and given out at the TooSerious End of Year Bash!

The squad:

Chris Judd, Carlton. Previously selected 2004, 2006, 2008 (captain), 2009.

Alan Didak, Collingwood. Previously selected 2006.

Darren Jolly, Collingwood. Never Previously selected.

Harry O’Brien, Collingwood. Never Previously selected.

Scott Pendlebury, Collingwood. Never Previously selected.

Dane Swan, Collingwood. Previously selected 2009.

Dustin Fletcher, Essendon. Previously selected 2000, 2007.

Jobe Watson, Essendon. Never Previously selected.

David Mundy, Fremantle. Never Previously selected.

Matthew Pavlich, Fremantle. Previously selected 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.

Aaron Sandilands, Fremantle. Previously selected 2008, 2009.

Gary Ablett, Geelong. Previously selected 2007, 2008, 2009.

Paul Chapman, Geelong Cats. Previously selected 2009.

Corey Enright, Geelong. Previously selected 2008, 2009.

Steve Johnson, Geelong. Previously selected 2007, 2008.

James Kelly, Geelong. Never Previously selected.

Harry Taylor, Geelong. Never Previously selected.

Joel Selwood, Geelong. Previously selected 2009.

Lance Franklin, Hawthorn. Previously selected 2008.

Luke Hodge, Hawthorn. Previously selected 2005, 2008.

James Frawley,...

So the question has been raised- whos interested in an NBA fantasy league?

Personally, I dont even know the comps that are running- but I do know that we have a number of readers out there interested in starting up a league- so if youre interested in playing, drop in a comment and let us know!

<a href="http://textoutsms.com.au/"><img src="http://textoutsms.com.au/images/computer_tower_mobile1.gif"><img src="http://textoutsms.com.au/images/textoutsms_logo.gif">[/url]

So, here we go- the results that "everyone" (well, at least a handful of people) has been waiting for! The results for the <a href="http://textoutsms.com.au/">textOutSMS[/url] TooSerious Leagues!

568133 - TS50 - 29th.
The first TS50 league saw last years 2nd place, PK Le Grand take home the gravy with a mighty overall finish of 25. Gotta feel for WHW who took second place with 123. On the plus side, he did manage to secure the Grand final win over PK by 29 points. Also, guys- I havent forgotten your deal.

1st- PK Le Grand
2nd- Windy Hill Wizard

GF Winner- Windy Hill Wizard.

568133 - TS50 - 186th
Here we saw The Dirty Thirty take out both the overall prize and a grandfinal win, really a smashing, over third place, tunas. I love trees came in second place, but a 1st round loss by The Dirty Thirty saw them take out Trees in the semi.

1st- The Dirty Thirty
2nd- I love trees

GF Winner- The Dirty Thirty.

977757 - TS20 - 41st.
Looks like the TS20 league has had Mash Sticks holding out to take the win over second place, Behind The Goals. Wally Fitz squeaked over the line in the grandfinal over Mash Sticks by 23 points. Its nice to see that the prizes are going to 3 different players. Just make sure you crazy kids dont go spending it all on drugs ok?

1st- Mash Sticks
2nd- Behind The Goals

GF Winner- Wally Fitz

235468 - TS50 - 35th.
A great league result here, and a fantastic effort by Spudlers BattleAxe. Taking out the win, but also finishing the season in 9th place overall. Great coaching mate! Well done! Even with such a great season though, it was second place winner, Do The Maths, who took out the grand final after knocking Spudlers out in the Prelim with a massive 2472.

1st- Spudlers BattleAxe
2nd- Do The Maths

GF Winner- Do The Maths....

The time has come...Ill be putting up two posts, one (this one...) detailing votes, leaderboards, team leaderboards, etc, + a second one with best bets (as more betting options come to hand).  Team odds are up with the TAB, so if you want to get in early on some multis - be my guest!

First - this weeks votes:

Freo v Blues
3. S. Hill (certain)
2. M. Murphy
1. M. Johnson
...A. Sandilands (could easily poll 2 here)

Cats v Eagles
3. G. Ablett (certain)
2. J. Kelly
1. D. Milburn
... no apologies

Hawks v Pies
3. L. Franklin
2. D. Swan (may not poll...)
1. S. Mitchell
...C. Rioli (comfortably best 4 playes, could go in any order)

Crows v Saints
3. S. Thompson (certain)
2.  R. Douglas
1. N. Dal Santo
...B. Martin, L. Hayes

Dogs v Dons
3. J. Grant
2. D. Cross (clearly best two on ground, Cross may poll 3)
1. C. Ward (although any of the below are a chance for the 1)
...J. Harbrow, L. Jetta, R. Murphy

Swans v Lions
3. K. Jack (certain, + great finish to the year, with 3 BOGs in the last month)
2. N. Malceski
1. J. McVeigh
...B. Staker

Power v Tigers
3. T. Boak (certain - may now pip Kornes)
2. D. Brogan
1. M. Morton
...no apologies

Roos v Dees
3. L. Greenwood
2. B. Harvey (will at least poll 2 here to maybe take the North lead)
1. A. Swallow (may not poll)
...B. Rawlings, B. Green

Leaderboards and analysis over the page:

<!--more-->note: all leaderboards are using adjusted tallies (if you missed last week, adjusted votes take into account both cheap votes given, plus where someone may have polled but didnt in the raw votes given out each week).  Minimums and maximums can seem very extreme, this is either everything going their way, or everything going against them.

OVERALL

Winner (35) - Dane Swan (24 min, 45 max)

Runner-Up (24) - Luke Hodge (15 min, 31 max)

Third (22) - Gary Ablett (15 min, 30 max)

Fourth (18) - Brendon Goddard (10 min, 28 max), Scott Pendlebury (8 min, 28 max)

Sixth...

So, weve finally reached the end of another long season. Injuries have taken their toll- but the final results are in!

Now, it feels a little redundant to be reviewing the games played this week- cause hey, its not gunna help us moving forwards anymore. Now, had I planned ahead better, Id have done a year in review- but hey, since when do I plan ahead.

What I do have to announce to everyone though is the boat load of prizes that weve got to give out. Theres the <a href="http://sideways.com.au/">Sideways cup[/url] to give out. The <a href="http://footysystembet.com.au/">FootySystemBet Tipping[/url] prizes to announce. Of course, weve got the weekly <a href="http://iscent.com.au/">iScent prize to give out[/url]. And finally, the <a href="http://textoutsms.com.au/">TextOutSMS TS leagues[/url] in which the grand final winner will be taking home 1000 free online SMSs (400 for the TS20 league) thanks to the good folk at TextOutSMS, while there are cash prizes to the overall point scorers in all those leagues. $600 to first place and $100 to second in the TS50 leagues and $280 to first place in the TS20 league. Anyways, all of that will be revealed through the week!

Now comes the part of the post where I reveal exactly how badly I did in this competition. I reckon based on my final score, Ill be finishing the season in an abismal 45000 place. Ouch! But there were a bunch of bad choices that went through the year- Mattner, LeCras, Gram, Dangerfield, Hall, Shuey and Tippett were all bad selections- mad worse by the fact that I traded a few of them out at the wrong time. Next there was a couple of bad trades, or non-trades along the way. Holding Hille and his "2 week" injury while coping zero after zero was a freaking shocker, and the less I say about Pods and Rockliff the better!! Least I didnt have the darkness though... On the other side of the coin though, I reckon Ill have broken through in DreamTeam to a top 4000 finish, which is a damned improvement on...

Batton down the hatches guys- cause the grand final is underway.

A years worth of toil and research all comes down to this one weekend in August.

Theres been a lot of ups and downs this season, but lets all put our heads down and cheer on our boys one last time.

Good luck everyone!

We have good people that read this site. Good, entusiastic people. Some so enthusiastic, they add- and create their own content- so how could I not post this gem from regular commenter, Owen!
---------------------------------

Holeys excellent weekly brownlow post and his patent pending 210 x $1 bet system got me, and Im sure many others, very interested. So I figured Id create a spreadsheet to check other combinations of players, their odds and potential winnings based on whether they are correct or not.

For people who are interested I have created a google docs spreadsheet that people can view (at the moment I have created it so people can download to excel to play with on their own computers, but am open to suggestions).

Link: <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AkML7G_k9VMbdElhZUZyWG9iVlp0ZFhlNlpscVRJWWc&hl=en&authkey=CL-dv_wG#gid=0">Spreadsheet[/url]

Good ol google supplied me with a VB code to output the different combinations - anyone interested can search for "Myrna Larson combinations" and you should be able to find the code."

Hopefully Holey doesnt mind me spreading his idea.

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Now, Im just gunna throw this up here as well- it’s still gambling- and with all gambling there is a chance that you’ll be walking away with nothin’.

So the standard of “don’t bet money that you can’t afford to lose” still definitely comes into play.

That being said- multi-ing on the brownlow has fast become the gambling highlight of my year with an informed minority doing very well for themselves. Seriously though- read around, do some research and come up with your own 10 players who you honestly believe are a good shot to make it- and with some solid research (as Holey has done all year) – then a hit rate of 6/10 if definitely more than achievable, with any more hits than that making for some potentially lucrative profit. (keep in mind, a 250k payout for a 200 dollar...