TooSerious

Hello all and welcome to another installment of the TS Leagues Review, and what a week it has been. As previously mentioned by walsey, Freo are firming up as a contender to the top 4 winning in Melbourne for the second time this year, the Hawks are well and truly back in business having won 6 on the trot now but with a tough 4 weeks coming up, we will see if they are a (Too) serious contender for the flag or not. Adelaide managed to stay off the bottom for now with a thumping over a hapless Melbourne, the Roos continue to impress and remain hot on the heels of the 8, Brisbanes season continues to spiral out of control as does West Coasts, Collingwood looked very convincing against the Bloods and the game of the round proved to be just that with Saints holding the wood over the Cats in the home and away season.

Full league review over the break. <!--more-->

Now then, on to the TS leagues and we will start this week with the Pine Warmers who had a below par week averaging 2197 this round which has seen them drop down to 20th overall. There were a couple of huge results including top spot getting knocked off (thrashed in fact), and LiQuiD top scoring with 2441 however, the big news for the round was the mighty Krunchy Nuts leapfrogging the pack and moving into second on the ladder with a crucial win over 9/11WasAnInsideJob by 15 points. Other notable performances include whoknows? handing Veni Vidi Vici a 300 point flogging and Year of the CATS sneaking over the line against Razors to move into 6th position.

Next week brings some tasty matches where 6 of the top 8 will be locked in battles in what could be a make or break round for some.

ROUND 13 RESULTS

<tbody>

LiQuiD
2,441
def
2,226
fcmeh



Veni Vidi Vici
1,910
def by
2,211
Whoknows?



Year of the CATS
2,294
def
2,276
Razors



Krunchy Nuts
2,337
def
2,322
9/11WasAnInsideJob



Thunder Guns
2,191
def
1,999
steamed...

Man, I should have written the first half of this thing last week- the ol memory aint what it used to be.

It does remember the first game of the round, particularly Franklin single handedly dominating the Bombers with a couple of runs down the win and quite posibly goal of the year. He top scored for the game with 159, with Watson coming in behind him with 150. Mitchell has finally put in two games in a row with a 110, while Rioli brought up his 4th ton in a row, 102. Schoenmakers had a day out with 95, but Id hazard a guess that anyone who had him has traded him out by now. Hodge has finally had a bad game putting in a 67, but the effects on his salary wont be seen in force til next week.

Saturday night saw Fremantle keep back the Blues with Sandilands scoring a big 157 and Barlow following closely behind with a 146. Eddie Betts top scored for the blues with 129 with a 4 goal haul. Jarryd Waite broke a lot of hearts, not because of his 100, but because of his 2 week holiday, while Kep continues his solid form. The biggest news from the game was Mathew Kruezer, doing himself an ACL and is gone for the rest of the season. All of us here at TooSerious are hoping for a speedy recovery for the guy, and not just from a fantasy football front.

Richmond continued their good form knocking off the Lions. Chris Newman top scored with a 137, with Deledio (129), Tuck (126) and Riewoldt (114) following. Staker top scored for the Lions kicking 3 goals and scoring 113. Rockliff put in a solid 106 to put out the gauntlet in the Rock/Pod challenge.

North Melbourne and Port both continued there current form. Good and bad. Harvey top scored with a 152 with Ports Pearce and Schulz taking out 2nd and 3rd spot with a 138 and 127, With Schulzs seven goal haul not being enough to get them over the line. Lachie Hansen kicked 5 himself which got him a return of 116 points. Its around now that my memory of the Sundays games gets a little hazy. Honestly I blame the soccer- all...

Alright, so now were into the second part of the split round. I hope youve all got it worked out.

The big news at the selection table is a couple of big exclusions.

- Chappy is down with a hammy!
- Rohan was dropped, but was then a recall when Kennelly got pulled out.
- Fraser and Medhurst went out, but Diddles and Ball both made a comeback.
(in fact, Johnson, Goldsack and Ball are all in for Collingwood... *snigger*)
- Bock has gone out, but Vince, Jaensch and Davis are all back.
- Finally, Beau Muston has been dropped... wait, no- Gysberts has been dropped.

Good luck this week, hopefully your doing better than my 793 off 11. So many spuds spudding it up, I reckon Ill need to get Spud to name my team next year to get a fitting name.

Speaking about next year though- the U18s are going about it at the moment, Ill try to find sometime through next week to get a couple of reports up. - Its never too early to start preparing for next year!

As the World Cup campaign for our beloved Socceroos comes to an end, we can speculate the reasons why it ended early till the cows come home...poor line-ups and team selection by Pim in the opening game, dodgy red cards X 2, missed chances that my dead grandmother could have converted, etc, etc.

That being said, the focus switches back to footy and being in the middle of the split round, we have ample time to discuss whats happening in the league, specifically in relation to injury news and team selections.

Now obviously there has been some news and incidents over the last few weeks that have a huge impact on fantasy coaches including Missy Higgins rolling his ankle on a depleted Etihad Stadium, Waite being suspended for third time this season, Aka Daka being club suspended for comments regarding the sexual orientation of footballers, Diddles out injured with a hip (can be a very scary injury description for coaches), Voss finally admitting Brown Dog will be out for a month and a recent update on his injury speculating he could be out for longer, and the Kreuze Missile doing an ACL and electing for traditional surgery meaning he is out for 12 months. The other BIG news is that Roo could be back in the Saints forward line sooner than expected.

So lets start with the injury news (SC relevant) and in the mix for a return from injury for this weeks games are Davis (Adel), Luke Ball &amp; Alan Didak, Matthew Scarlett, Cameron Mooney &amp; Joel Corey (both unlikely), James McDonald and big arms Bradshaw.

Looking to Round 14 and we have McLean, Hille, Palmer, Broughton, and Gray due to return, while Higgins is a very good chance to come up against the Hawks.

Now lets get on to the 2 issues affecting tens (dare I say hundreds) of thousands of fantasy coaches around the country and they are "What to do about Kreuzer"...and Brown.

More over the break including the teams for week 2 <!--more-->

Ill start with Brown Dog...to trade, or not to...

 OK theres not going to be a Best Buys this week, because Im sure you are smart enough to work out the best players worth picking up from the teams available from last week.

However, what is needed is a way of getting the Socceroos through to the next round and a possible date with England or the Yankees.

Once again its 90 minutes of full effort required, as per usual, just the once every 4 years with no strings attached or safety net.

Id like to hear people making some reasoned cases as to why the Socceroos can advance.  Because frankly weve all heard and more than likely thought of the 97% likelihood of the end of the Cup for our lads, and it was just starting to get interesting, what with France imploding.

The Serbs reckon they are going to F the Kangaroos, so thankfully our Socceroos can get down to business with their best players handling our rugby players as a group.

Anyone up for the Birrarung Marr job tomorrow morning?  Will be a bit chilly particularly if then going straight to work.

Anyway Ive said enough, over to you, and more importantly the Roos tomorrow morning.

Short and sharp this week guys, with just the 5 games on offer.  Only 3 of the current top 10 leaderboard played this weekend: Hodge having a relatively quiter night on Friday, and then Judd and Barlow playing well on Saturday, with the latter best-on in a 30 possession, 4 goal performance.

This weeks votes over the page:

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Hawks v Bombers:
3. L. Franklin (5)
2. S. Mitchell (3)
1. J. Winderlich (3)
...J. Watson, C. Rioli, J. Lewis

Dockers v Blues:
3. M. Barlow (15, and outright 3rd)
2. A. Sandilands (9)
1. G. Ibbotson (1)
...C. Judd, D. Mundy, E. Betts

Tigers v Lions:
3. B. Deledio (7)
2. B. Cousins (2)
1. S. Tuck (5)
...D. Martin, A. Graham, C. Newman

Roos v Power:
3. B. Harvey (9 - Guaranteed-3-of-the-week)
2. J. Schulz (2)
1. L. Hansen (1)
...A. Swallow, D. Pearce, C. Garlett

Dogs v Eagles:
3. L. Gilbee (6)
2. D. Giansiracusa (7)
1. D. Cross (3)
...J. Harbrow, B. Dalziell, R. Hargrave

Full Leaderboard to come at completion of Round 13.

Man, it was a long drive home tonight, which is probably a good thing, cause I might have alienated the Hawks fans had I posted this right after the game. And theres a lot of Hawks fans in these parts who are awesome. JoshyC for one, was great to see you at the footy tonight- youre boys were just too strong for us. What hurts the most though is that you guys let us back in! Why could you have kicked straight and *not* gotten my hopes so high!

Also, another point of order came from tonight- Im not old! Well, sort of, Im still under 30; well for now anyways!

Gah! Im bloody shattered!! Im tossing up whether to hit the sack, bathed by the soothing sounds of the vuvuzela, or to have a couple of scotches and get myself banned form bigfooty for a bit...

And speaking of the soccer, weve got another big game on tomorrow night, so Ive opened up a chat in the comments here for tomorrow nights big game- Carn Aussies!

Hi all.  Will keep it brief, have been a bit sick this week and not able to do much analysis.

Advice for the week:  Keep trading 2 per 3 rounds on average from here if you have about 9 trades left.  Dont use trades without them being a good upgrade or downgrade.  Id even keep a trade rather than replacing a medium term injured player if you have cover on the bench.

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FRESH MEAT
Not that much.  Henderson with FD MPP looks the goods.

CATCH THE TRAIN
Rioli looking delicious, not for the first time this season but now looks to be ready to start churning out big points.  Is the Hawks revival a mirage?  Well find out on Friday night when they take on the Dons for the first time in 6 games.
Keep an eye on Rob Murphy also with him playing in that half back sweeper role.  If he gets this, he will get large points and take down Hargrave, Harbrow and possibly Gilbee.  If he stays fit could be a really good option.  Not yet but Im a watchin.
Tiprat Milne has played pretty well recently and if you can survive the stench of him in your team, is an option.

ON THE NOSE
Tadhg Kennellys value is being trashed by a poor game and an injury.
Josh Fraser could be a straight swap for Warnock soon and is almost guaranteed selection.  Micks love child.

BEST BUYS
Defenders: Gilbee, Grundy/Waite, Shaw/Hurn
Midfielders: Boyd, Bartel, Montagna, Murphy, Judd/Swan
Rucks: Cox, Bradley, Ryder
Forwards: Rioli, OKeefe, Franklin, Varcoe

Until next week, happy trading.

There is no “i” in team. But there is one in Split round.

Now, because of that, I feel its my duty to remind you all of the loop-hole a partial lockout can bring. (disclaimer- this worked in the round one partial lockout- but VS may or may not have closed it, so proceed with caution.)

The loop hole essentially lets you double dip with your captians, but also with your bench players. Let me explain how it works.

Just one thing though, you *need* to have someone who isnt playing, but would heve been playing next week. (ie- Sydneys McNeil or Collingwoods Seamus to those who went the cheap R4)

Step 1. You place your vice captaincy on a player whos playing this week (ie- Hodge), and your captaincy on someone playing next week (ie- Ablett).
2. You watch and see what Hodge does, if he scores an 80, you do nothing and your real captain will step up to the plate. However, if he belts out a 160, move on to step 3.
3. Move McNeil onto the field for someone else who is playing in week 2 (Didak, Goodes, OKeefe). And set them as captain, dont forget to set the star that youre taking off as an emergency.

Now, because McNeil wont play- your vice captain will now be your captain, while your emergency comes on to cover his zero. - double dipping.

A bit of planning needs to come into it though, for example, if youre going with Seamus, your #1 and #2 rucks will have probably already played, so make sure you set him up on the field with your real emergency named *this* week, you wont be able to change it next week. This could bite hard though if Seamus is a late call up (see: Lobbe last week)

The other thing to consider is that you dont want to name your other emergency, or else the lowest of the two scores will come on. So youll be playing without cover in that position.

The other option, is if you have someone who might play next week, that you might want to play- Like Playfair, you set McNeil on the Field, set your F8 as the emergency (ie- Fyfe) -...

Twelve rounds in, and a youd need a dozen votes right now to be in with a chance if the last 5 years are anything to go by.  Cousins, Goodes, Bartel, Cooney and Ablett each had 13, 12, 17, 19 &amp; 19 after 12 rounds in each of their Brownlow winning years - which gives us 5 main candidates who could take it out in 2010:

5th. Michael Barlow (FREM) - 12 votes, 15/1
Started his first season with a bang, picking up 11 votes in the first 6 games, but has managed just one in the same time since then.  You would expect him to slow down as the year goes on, so hard to see the young fella winning it from here - but a magnificent first year by any standards.

4th. Brendon Goddard (ST.K) - 13 votes, 9/1
Has become St Kildas most important player in Nick Riewoldts absence, and is enjoying a rich vein of form at the moment, polling in each of the last 4 games.  A chance to win it, but will need a few things to go his way from here.

3rd. Gary Ablett Jnr (GEEL) - 14 votes, 3.75/1
Whilst Geelong seem to stay ahead of the pack to remain the clear best team in the comp, there is no doubt that Gary has fallen back to the pack.  His first 6 games were excellent - yet still not at the level of the last two years, and he has certainly fallen away since then.  In the eleven games he has played he has gone under 30 possies on only one occasion, yet hasnt surpassed 40 once (last year he topped the 40 mark no less than 5 times).  Hard to see him going back-to-back in his current form.

2nd. Dane Swan (COLL) - 16 votes, 15/1
A somewhat controversial choice, but I have Swanny firmly in second place at the moment.  Whilst he is only playing marginally better than last year where he picked up just 12 votes for the entire season, there are a couple of differences worth noting:  Firstly, the core group of Pendlebury, Davis, Didak &amp; Shaw took alot of the votes away from Swan last year, whereas only Pendlebury is playing anywhere near 09 form.  Secondly, Dane did...