TooSerious

While everything is coming out in bits, Im just going to randomly be throwing up posts filled with disjointed information that I pick up about various clubs.

So without further ado, can I present part one of Dribs and Drabs.

Adelaide
By now we all know, Andy Otten <a href="http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26466919-12428,00.html">is out for the year[/url]. First picked 2011. Good luck mate- get well.!
In short, it will be interesting to see who fills the hole.
<a href="http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=88002">Symes looks set to miss 6 weeks[/url].
Sitting on the sidelines with Nathan Bock (heel), Nathan van Berlo (back) and Brodie Martin (knee)

Brisbane
A bit of talk on Cornelius stepping into the departed Hendersons shoes. Could be one to look at in a year or two.
Leuenberger has bulked up which should help- and could place a question mark over Clark.

Carlton
Reports are all positive with McLean, Henderson, Yarran and Kruezer all being talked up at this early stage. To be taken with a grain of salt though.

Collingwood
Enjoyed a nice restful trip to Arizona. Not. Most players came back knackered.
The ruck work of Jolly brought “tears to the eyes” of the mid-fielders. Augurs not so well for Josh Fraser, but could prove a bigger bounty for Swan, Pendlebury, and … LUKE BALL.
Ball has settled in nicely. Leadership is his middle name.
No injuries to speak of, apart from the “rehab group” who didn’t get the trip to “Zona”. Players left in Melbourne included Davis, Prestigiacomo, Anthony, Harry O and a handful of other triers. Their benefit was catching up with new board member and mad (and I mean Mad) Magpies fan Alisa Camplin.
And the rumours of Travis Cloke and a knee injury. As fake as Tiger Woods’ drink driving excuse.

Essendon
Neagle- Surgery- Wont start training proper til after Christmas
Hille- Has been looking sore and is still in the modified...

Scully and Trengrove. Both were always going to make #1 and #2. And man, I cant wait to draft them into my own squad.

#1 and #2 selected. Provided all goes well in the off season of course.

Now, Im going to do the lazy man thing, and point you all in the direction of a fantastic on-line resource for doing your research into these fine young players.

<a href="http://www.afldraftinfo.com/">AFLDraftInfo.com[/url] - its a fantastic resource for doing a little digging- So much so, Ive included it in the links down the right hand side.

But its not just the new players thats important, the recycled players can be just as delicious. Luke ball and Simon Buckley, both at first glance look to offer some tremendous value.

But hey, who knows- still a long way til round one. Good luck all, hope youre all enjoying your pre-seasons.

(And on an EPL front- 5 goals to Defoe! What an effort!!)

But the move is just begining...

Im moving house next weekend, so post will still be scant.

And what is this we see- the pre-season is starting without me! How dare it!

Nothing ground breaking to report so far. Van Burlo and Bock are both missing the start of the preseason.

And it looks like BBBB Hall will be to.

Myers is once again training the house down and Brock is a brickshiphouse.

In other news, Richo retires, Kennelly returns and Ol Dickfingers has decided to try his luck over at Freo. Good luck to you man, just dont let those dickfingers of yours be a problem.

Meh, it just the start- so keep your feelers out their peoples.

And feel free to comment. Ive turned those suckers back on.

And updated the EPL results for the past three weeks... Alexander would have been a nice pick up last week had I been paying attention!

Bring on the draft~!

Hey the draw is out.

Web address: <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/fixture/tabid/10586/default.aspx">http://www.afl.com.au/fixture/tabid/10586/default.aspx[/url]

For what its worth I have done an analysis on this.  Best viewed in Comments section as otherwise it clashes with other text...

I calculated each team if they play every other team once (16 for Melbourne, 1 for Geelong.)

Then I added points for all their double up teams (e.g. 16 for Melbourne, 1 for Geelong)

Then I added 8 points for home games vs a team travelling interstate, 4 points for home games vs neutral team.  I also subtracted the reverse for away games.

Heres the results.  Unsurprisingly despite being given press saying they have the easiest draw, Collingwood and Essendon the Melbourne-based warrior teams have been stitched up.  Though they dont travel much, they play all the top teams twice and that makes a big difference.  The Pies actually do badly because though they only play 4 interstate, only twice do they play a non-Victorian side in Melbourne - the others they have to play only once and only away (the worst thing possible)

The best draw, well thats for the Power North Brisbane and Richmond.  Remember this when picking fringe players for your SuperCoach team.

So dont be fooled by media outlets.  This is one of the biggest fallacies about the draw in recent years - that its fair or reasonable or anything other than something to give the clubs the most money.  All driven by money, not by fairness.

In 2009, Geelong had a much harder draw than St Kilda and were arguably a better team in H&amp;A last year but the results didnt show that.  Collingwood had a very soft draw and were overrated coming into finals.  In 2008 Geelong won 21 H&amp;A games but had a remarkably soft draw.  The draw makes a difference, but when September comes around, remember the impact of the draw and this should improve your finals tipping strike rate....

Right, Ive made my soccer trades, and Ive locked down the comments.

Technically, you now can only comment if youve commented in the past, or something like that... Take THAT spammers!

So, catch you all in a few weeks guys!

Keep soccering it up!

And keep thinking about those delistings... whos gunna be recycled ala Rodan?

I swear though man, I can explain! Its quite simple really. This Saturday, Im getting married.

Then spending the next three weeks honeymooning it up in the UK.

Which will be excellent for the EPL fan in me. I doubt I can talk the missus into coming to any games though!

But, thats not what everyone has been talking about for this past week. Its been Trade week!

And as we all know, there is no off season. So lets see what has happened...

<table width="400px" style="border:1pt solid silver">
INFROM

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">BrisbaneAmon BuchananSydney Swans

Brent StakerWest Coast Eagles

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">Xavier ClarkeSt Kilda

Brendan FevolaCarlton

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">Andrew RainesRichmond

CarltonBrock McLeanMelbourne

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">Lachlan HendersonBrisbane Lions

CollingwoodDarren JollySydney Swans

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">EssendonMark WilliamsHawthorn

GeelongMarcus DrumFremantle

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">HawthornJosh GibsonNorth Melbourne

Shaun BurgoynePort Adelaide

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">Port AdelaideJay NashEssendon

Jay Schulz Richmond

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">RichmondMitch FarmerPort Adelaide

St KildaAndrew LovettEssendon

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">Brett PeakeFremantle

SydneyMark SeabyWest Coast Eagles

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">Shane MumfordGeelong Cats

Josh KennedyHawthorn

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">Ben McGlynnHawthorn

West CoastBradd DalziellBrisbane Lions

<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD">WesternBarry HallSydney Swans



All those trade, plus a swag of potentially Fantasy Football relevant delistings (Simon Buckley anyone?) - Makes for a solid amount of information to consider!

Way more than Im going to get to post about over the next few days...

So, whats anyones preliminary takes on what has happened?

The...

Good news everyone.

Old TS now calculates salary movements on the ol Virtual Sports EPL comp.

Heres hoping the Alumina misses just one more week, cause damn, that Arsenal keeper is gunna FLY UP!

A new monthly cycle is starting again in the iinet comp, so get thinking about your trades to capitalise best on the up coming matches.

Everton, Arsenal, ManU and Tottenham look to be your best bet over the coming game weeks. And if youre a fan of a little risk, Burnley have been in ravaging form at home this year. So could definitely be looked at in terms of a budget option!

The Too Serious league is still leading- but weve all got to keep the good work up if we want to finish the season on top.

So lets stay focused and win this thing!
(And yanno, if youre finding your enthusiasm lacking/going on holidays, feel free to contact too.serious.team.management@gmail.com, or our iinet organiser, JJ for some helpful tips and advise for getting the most out of your squad for each gameweek. )

As for AFL news, the NAB Draft camp is winding up, with all the usual names being bandied around. (Unsuprisingly).

But just a refresher for you all (yes- keep an eye on these kids no matter where they are drafted to.) -

Lewis Jetta - We all know how much fantasy gold is found in the words "mature-aged recruit"
Gary Rohan - Led the way in the shiny new Buckleys Kicking Challenge. Should help with his SuperCoach potential one would think.
Anthony Morabito - (definitely will be a player come draft week...)
Dustin Martin - Also did very well in the kicking test according to reports

Also, keep in mind that the highly rated Jack Trengove and Alex Carey arent attending due to playing in the SANFL GF. Which in my book lifts their stocks.

Also, dont forget about Scully and his knee!

Hopefully in the not too distant future, Ill be able to pull up some figures for you all to mull over!

But until then- Its trade week.

And if the talk is anything to...

So, theres been a grand final, the cats were victorious and now there is just one last prize to hand out for this season.

The Too Serious Best and Fairest.

So lets stop dilly dallying and get right into the count.

Round 20

Right after this word from our sponsors...

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Kidding...

SC
27 Gary Ablett
22 Leigh Montagna
21 Dane Swan
16 Nick Dal Santo
16 Paul Chapman

DT
25 Leigh Montagna
23 Dane Swan
22 Gary Ablett
19 Paul Chapman
16 Brad Johnson

Round 21

SC
28 Gary Ablett
25 Leigh Montagna
21 Dane Swan
17 Adam Goodes

DT
25 Leigh Montagna
23 Dane Swan
22 Gary Ablett
19 Paul Chapman
18 Bryce Gibbs

Round 22

SC
30 Gary Ablett
28 Leigh Montagna
21 Dane Swan
20 Adam Goodes

DT
25 Leigh Montagna
23 Dane Swan
23 Gary Ablett
20 Bryce Gibbs

So there we have it, the favorite from round 5 got ahead, and with it, the prize money of $500 is split between the 4 people who made the Ablett/Montagna selection.

Winner will be contacted by email in the not too distant future, congratulations!

Most importantly, we now know the Too Serious Best and Fairest player for 2009.

53 Gary Ablett
53 Leigh Montagna
44 Dane Swan

And for those who want to know, the final count for each of the comps went like this:

SC
30 Gary Ablett
28 Leigh Montagna
21 Dane Swan
20 Adam Goodes
18 Lenny Hayes
16 Nick Dal Santo
16 Paul Chapman
14 Alan Didak
14 Brendan Fevola
13 Ryan OKeefe
13 Brendon Goddard
13 Leon Davis
13 Andrew Swallow
13 Sam Mitchell
12 Joel Selwood
12 Kade Simpson
11 Chris Judd
11 Scott Pendlebury
11 Paul Duffield
11 Aaron Sandilands
11 Brett Deledio
11 Brian Lake
10 Jason Winderlich
10 Bryce Gibbs
10 Michael Doughty
10 Simon Goodwin

DT
25 Leigh Montagna
23 Dane Swan
23 Gary Ablett
20 Bryce Gibbs
19 Paul Chapman
19 Brent Stanton
18 Jonathan Brown
17 Nick Dal Santo
16 Brad Johnson
16 Kane Cornes
16 Lenny Hayes
15 Adam Goodes
15 Mitch Clark
15 Sam Mitchell
14...

While they needed to win last year to live up to their Greatest team of all motto, they put in one hell of a performance today.

Such a hard won final in such treacherous conditions!

Congratulations to all the cats fans out there! It was a well deserved win in the harshest of football conditions.

And St Kilda, you fought hard all year. And as Geelong showed from last year. The loss of a grandfinal can certainly spur you on to greater things. So keep your heads up. You put in a ripping year!

(and on a side note- the TS best and fairest is coming up this weekend... just gotta drink a few more beers this evening. - Just to give everyone the insider though, Ablett wins the SuperCoach portion of it... )

Yes, Im aware of the irony of posting this after bitching about my lack of time to post... but this is too big a news to not try considering the implications of! - <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/85230/default.asp">Brock McLean is now a Blue[/url]

The Melbourne midfielder was traded for the Blues 1st round (#11) draft pick.

The inside mid scored a 102 average back in 2006 but has since fallen away with an 82 average in 07, a 90 average in 08 and this year an average of 80.

Priced at a very tasty $430k, Brock could see his game step up to an elite level. Particularly a midfield of Judd, Gibbs and Murphy working around him.

Sadly though, with such a strong midfield, the question of game-time might come into question. But I cant imagine Carlton trading their first round draft pick for a player they didnt plan on playing.

The biggest problem Brock faces is that of Durability, with last year being his equal top output of 19 games. 14 games in 08 and 07, and 16 in 06.