TooSerious

Alright, I was going to wait til I had finally finished wiring TS up for the 2010 season, but there have been too many inquiries to hold off anymore.

So without further ado, allow me to officially open the Too Serious SuperCoach Leagues.

After last year, we learnt a few lessons, so things are going to be a little different this year.

Firstly, we are going to have a TooSerious administrator in each league that wont be eligible for prizes (So each comp will be out of 15.)

Secondly, we learnt that Paypal takes their cut on payment both ways, so Im gunna sift a little ($3.33) off the top to cover the admin costs. I hope everyone is cool with that.

And thirdly, the GF winner wont be getting a cash prize. They will be getting a mystery prize which hasnt been figured out yet. It could be something good, might just be a t-shirt, possibly a pack of pringles. Who knows, does anyone want to sponsor these things? Because we would love to give a shout out to your business throughout the season.

So, the details are as follows:
Entry fee: $50

1st prize based on overall ranking: $600
2nd prize based on overall ranking: $100
Grand final winner: Mystery prize

In addition to that, the boys over at <a href="http://yoursupercoachcoach.com/">Your SuperCoach Coach[/url] are trying to put together a league of leagues competition. currently the details are pretty sketchy, but the gist of it will be Elite leagues, brought together from the various SuperCoach sites off the web, competing against each other for both site-pride, and to scoop up the total cash prize pool. Tentatively, the entry fee for a league will be $250, so Im thinking a $10 entrance fee, with me picking up the rest sounds fair.

So, how to enter?

Firstly the TooSerious leagues.

I will need you to send an email to <a href="mailto: too.serious.team.management@gmail.com?subject=TooSeriousLeagues">too.serious.team.management@gmail.com[/url] with the title "TooSeriousLeagues" and following...

OK we are still thinking through the whole Multi Positional Players (MPP) thing.  And Im sure that people still need some rock solid examples to make their thoughts gel.  Im sure I do.

First lets get a few assumptions out of the way early.  Im happy to debate them.

1) You wont win just because you put a few MPPs in your team.
2) You wont win if you completely ignore MPPs through the entire competition - flexibility alone of players will be worth at least 1000 points which no-one (not even Chris) can afford to give up to his opponents.
3) The best value MPPs may never even play a match.
4) Not thinking before you lace a team with MPPs is the same as picking a team of players in the 350k range - will give you a quite easy wooden spoon in a competitive league.  This includes picking all MPPs in the same line so you cannot substitute them.
5) Thinking about MPPs is like thinking about cash-cow trades.  Two is the minimum to get the job done.
6) It doesnt matter (much) that Mitch Farmer is the lowest price MPP in the MID-DEF category at over the 150k mark.

Now I hear you asking wheres that Peace of Mind?  And for only $269k.  You cant get much for that, only Ladson and a bit of change.

Peace of Mind comes in the most unlikely of sources: Dylan McNeil, Matthew Lobbe and Jack Weston.  Combined, they cost 269k and look innocuous.  It would not shock me if we see under 15 games between the three of them this year.   But that doesnt mean you dont pick them in your team.  Walesy has tried to make this look easy and Im not sure if everyone here understands, but Im going to be simple and hopefully effective in this demonstration.  (Salesmans note though - buyer beware)

McNeil is the gutsy FOR9, Lobbe is the much-maligned RUC4 and Weston is the cursory DEF9.

Combine these three players with a few more for good measure - and keeping with the value theme - we will add to them a nucleus of: Waite (F), Pavlich (M) and Tippett (F) - three...

Looks like <a href="http://supercoach.heraldsun.com.au/">its open[/url]

Mah team is in! Im expecting a million changes between now and 52 days.

Interesting to see the price of the rookies. Things are looking good.

Though it doesnt look like the eliminator made it across, nor did the multi-positioning stuff.

Ah well, I gotta crash, but Ill put this here to start discussion.

Looks like reports of the first intra-club match are coming out of Tiger town.

I myself usually find these sessions to be a fantastic indicator as to which rookies will make it through their NAB cup games and into the season proper, so Ill be trying to track them as the pre-season goes on. If anyone hears any reports that I miss, give me a shout ok?

Anyways, the teams were Best availiable vs The rest.

The yellow team consisted of the following:

B: Edwards, Post, Rance
HB: Newman, Moore, Tambling
C: McMahon, Deledio, Cousins
HF: Hislop, Riewoldt, Taylor
F: Morton, Polak, Polo
R: Graham, Thomson, Martin

With Graham, Browne and Vickery rotating through the rucks on both teams.

While its great to see Martin starting right in the guts, youll need to remember the following players werent participating: Jackson, Cotchin, Foley, McGuane, Simmonds, Nason, Griffiths and Roberts.

But still, the boy is boding well for a round 1 start and is doing everything that could be expected of him, so lock him in!

(ps- A big shout out to RT off BigFooty- quality work man.)

Its official. Supercoach is opening the same time as DreamTeam this year.

February the First. Thats right- only 5 more sleeps.

I for one am excited! I cant wait to see what new tricks theyve got up their sleeves.

(Though I have to ask- did anyone else get a 5 minute TAC commercial sent to them in the email? Wipe off five peoples.)

And boy am I a happy man.

I dont see myself putting this thing down for a while- and plan on digging every last ounce of knowledge out of this lengthy tome.

Did you know, that Cyril Rioli is the best kick in the AFL?

Also, a polish- being part of the No Passenger group on <a href="www.bigfooty.com/forum">Big Footy[/url], I can find no way to say this without feeling like a knob for stroking my own ego. But Ive got to say, it is a fantastic read. From team selection strategies, to trading, Injury management and captain selection strategies, the boys have done an outstanding job.

That, combined with the stats and freako reviews, makes it an easy purchase for this time of year.

So what are you waiting for?

(or yanno, if you want to ask a question in the comments, Im more than happy to "answer" it for you. From player positions to Freako reviews.)

In 2008, 59 players averaged at least 10 more per game in their last 6 games of the season than they did for the entire season.

Of those, 15 players went on to improve their average by 10ppg or more in 2009. Of those, we find the following.

six were qualified defenders.
Duffield, Gilbert, Goddard, Goldsack, Maxwell and LRT.
*Though Goddard scored a move to the midfield.

Two were Forwards
Garland and Davis
*Though Davis scored a move to the midfield.

One was a Ruck - The big Kreuzer.

And the other 6 were mids

Mackay, Gibbs, Selwood, Lewis, Murphy and Morton.

So, why is it important? Because when you sum up every player that improved their average by 10 or more last year (and played at least 10 games), youll find a quarter of them coming from that 15.

Also consider though, out of the thirty players who increased their average by 18 or more last year, only 6 of them came from the above 2008 list so take the following list with the neccessary pinch of salt.

(Just as an aside though, the 2008 finishing average distribution for the best average improvers of 09 went as follows.
50-60: 13
60-70: 10
70-80: 5
80-90: 0
90+: 2 (Which shows how important finding this years Montagna and Swan is! - interesting to note that neither of these players were in the above list.)

This saw a trend away from the year before where the majority of value came from the 60-80 bracket of players.)

So, who are the alumini for 2009, who brought their 2009 season home with a bang?

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But the comments on that last post have switched off, so I figure will get it back up here.

Progress in updating the site for all the Oh10 new features is coming along very slowly. Not helped by my laptop deciding that it doesnt want to turn on anymore.

But if things just stop working for no good reason in the not-too-distant future, youll know why.

Also, I hear that DreamTeam is supposed to be opening in 2 weeks. (Feb 1.) and pre-registration, with additional prizes is <a href="https://entry.afl.com.au/">already open[/url].

I guess DreamTeam is trying to catch up for the ground lost in the 08 schamozzle.

Looks like those boys over at <a href="http://dreamteamtalk.com">DT Talk[/url] have dropped the first bombshells of the preseason.

Rumours of a rolling lockout and positional swapping.

Now, firstly, the Rolling lockout. This will be delicious. Getting your team sorted at 2am Friday morning will be fantastic (well, except for your Carlton/Richmond players- but they will already be sorted!). I feel that it will be a big positive to the game, removing the sadness caused amongst players who arent able to get into their teams on the Thursday night.

Secondly, position swapping. It seems the assumption is that you will be able to swap an M/F sitting in the mids with an M/F sitting in the forward lines. And so on.

Which looks to be a huge boon to coaches who put in the fore-thought and plan their teams well.

With one particular caveat- for there to be much benefit, youre going to need multi-positional rookies who also make good cashcows.

Otherwise, the only coverage gained is if the actual multi-positional goes down injured AND you dont have coverage for him where hes positioned AND you have additional coverage availiable that you can move over. (aka- unlikely.)

Whether or not VS decide to give us those, would be another kettel of fish!

The funny thing is though, To this caveat, theres also another caveat to consider.

What position dont you care about making money? The worst cashcows in history? Who, by virtue of having the worst cashcows in history, also have the worst bench coverage of all the positions. And play in a position where injuries should be expected?

Yes, Ive hinted enough- the rucks.

Throw in a multi-positioned rookie ruckman on your bench, with a Clark (or if youre feeling daring, a Tippett or Kosi) in the forward line.

And suddenly, your backup ruck becomes Clark, this years highest scoring ruck, and your forward bench then goes on to cover for that lousy Ruck division.

Add to that the posibility of decent...

Happy new year everyone!

And with the new year, I figure- why not throw out my very-early first cut of a team.

I reckon, even at this stage of the year, this team will be competitive next year- but to be honest, Im expecting a lot of changes (Particularly if Jesse Smith can stay fit!!)

Anyways, without further ado-

Defenders.

Keepers.
Sam Fisher
A solid defender who suffered a handful of bad games last year. Hes making the squad for his durability and my belief that he will raise in average next year a good 5-10 ppg.

Luke Hodge
Carrying an injury through most of last year, and averaging 118 the year before, I can see Luke Hodge be the single most popular player in every team next year. (With the exception of Ablett).

Grant Birchall
Should bring at minimum an average of 80+. Showed through the start and end of last year just what he has the potential to do.

Jason Gram
With runs through the a star studded midfield, Gram wont suffer any issues with a tag. has historically held a 115% ish SC/DT percentage, but a 14ppg DreamTeam average increase brought that ratio to 86%. If he can keep getting as much of the ball, but lift his disposal again, a 105 average is not unachieveable.

Speculative.
Rick Ladson
Will need to watch his preseason, but its hard to go past paying a 58 average+ discount for a player who averaged 91 over 22 games in a premiership team.

Tadhg Kennelly
Again, been missing a year, and will depend a lot of the discount earned. Even with his shoulders, if he can return to his 85 over 20 average of 08, then well be laughing!

David Myers
So Im biased. Perhaps I want him to do well. Played last year for Bendigo as an inside mid and being groomed to assist Watson. So if he can get gametime, he should be well worth it.

Bench.
Phil Davis
With Ottens going down, it has been hinted that Phil is on a short list to step into the role. Will be delicious if he does.

Andrew Moore
Picked...