TooSerious

Co[span style="font-size: 0.8em;">Shock horror - actually having to think about a captain this week adds a little bit of spice to Round 16. With a fair few top 8 teams playing each other, most of the games youd assume would be pretty tight affairs - making captain selection pivotal this week.

So for the first time in 08 - barring Ablett - heres a run down of your likely options:

Adam Goodes

Against the Blues this week and likely to get some attention from..whoever their main taggers are - Gibbs, Bentick and co perhaps.. Goodes has been a model of consistency this year, having a plethora of games in the 100+ region. A good bet this week as your skipper however something to bear in mind is that traditionally Goodes hasnt been all that impressive in recent years despite the Blues struggles. Averaging just under 80 against the Blues with a 90 last time they played, hell cop a fair bit of attention but hey, in the SuperCoach form hes in - Id happily put him as captain if I had him.

Luke Hodge

Taking on the Saints midfield, Hodge has been good in the last few weeks, sidling up to be in the top 5 midfielders-SC-price-wise. With his last 7 games played all seeing him get 100+, I reckon hes due for a big one, Ablett-esque. With a good record against the Saints, despite some of their matches being dour, hard-fought contests, Hodge is as good as any option this week. Averaging just around 100 with 112 and 87 in their last two meetings, its not a bad option.

Adam Cooney

Disappointing SuperCoach wise in the last few games - dropping off a bit but still in the top 5 average wise for SuperCoach mids - you cant really complain.  However with the last two games failing to crack the ton - youd be looking elsewhere - especially with the tight tussle anticipated against the Cats. Still, with Ling out and Ablett missing, Cooney may have more free reign to roam, meaning better SuperCoach scores. Cats have had it over the Dogs in recent times,...

Who has any bloody trades left, anyway? For those lucky bastards that do...

Read on.

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BARGAIN OF THE WEEK.
Scott Lucas
I really didnt want to do it, but with the injuries to the Adelaide forwards in The Pleaser and Birdman. Alot of you would be looking for a forward and no one at this stage of the year can afford the good ol double trade. Everyone already has Buddy, so no point talking about him and ROK isnt officially a Best Buy*. Scotty is at only $387k and scored a massive 133. But, is he back? He has been a decent scorer in the past averaging about 100 in the previous three years. I dont really recommend him, but with the injuries and price sub $400k scoring 100+, is it really that bad? Its your call.

BEST BUYS.
I mentioned Mount Franklin earlier,&nbsp;well with only 10 effective disposals out of 21, 7 behinds, 5 free kicks against and to still put on 100+ on the weekend, he must be a bloody good SCer and only at $440k. Bloody bargain with TS Value Ranking of 3.6. Hands up who doesnt have him, though? Kane Cornes is sub $500k and owns an extremely low breakeven is well worth the look. Didnt buy Gentlemen Jim last week? Well, its still not too late. Better be quick, though. Simon Goodwin is also still in the mix, but cant seem to put on a real big score, lately. And, there are thousands of backs well priced, my favourite being Bock Choy at $442k, plus the Crows play alot of the top sides for the rest of the year, meaning all of ball for Stiff and Choy.

HOLD YA HORSES.&nbsp;
ABLETTTTT! Down he comes. He is now below $700k, bloody hell he is cheap and huge breakeven of 251. Little Jesus is the only upgrade anyone should be looking out for come finals time. But, while Im here I should mention ROK, whose form slump has push his price down, and another poor weekend means its dropping further. Other than that theres...

Injuries, dirty hits and alot of blowouts. Wraps up this week nicely. Lets see what it means in SuperCoach terms.

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STARS.
It all started Friday night when Nick-A-Roo shut up alot of SuperCoach Experts saying that Waite was going to smash him. Saint Nick ended up with 142. While the two popular midfielders in the game Judd and Nicky Dal both shot passed 100. Scott Thompson gets back up there after a quite couple with a 118. My man Bock Choy squeezed past the ton for 102. Enright for the 2nd week in a row does an Ablett-like 176. Milburn, Corey, Jimster, Selwood, Chapstick, Stokes, Mackie and Ottens all managed triple figures. While Freo top scorer was Grover with 91. The big forwards, Lucas (133) and The Brown Machine (116) were awesome. Lloyd and Bradshaw also picked up scores near 100. No real stars in the tight Roos vs. Port game, which is very unusual. Buddy still managed 112 after 7 misses and 3 out on the fulls. Imagine if another 5 or so went through. Bruce, Garland and Cross shared the honours as the highest scores with 109. Cox was amazing with 141, and Simmo was well above average for 98 and there were heaps of other Tigers, including Cotchin, McMahon, Johnson, Brown and Newman with big scores.

FLOPS.
The big flops were injuries this week. Read <a href="http://tooserious.typepad.com/tooserious_sc/2008/07/the-scores---ro.html#more">here[/url]. But, Stevens could only manage 68. Porps got 6, before his shoulder went pop. Heater only got 68, untagged. Ablett missed that long list of cats with 100, and injury being the reason, still got 81 before half time. Every Freo player, mainly Pav with 70. Power only managed 47 and The Drum 66. No stars in the Roos vs...

The best wrap up of all those SuperCoach trade and captain decisions in the country.

1. In my weekly segment of Dont Have Ablett? I look at who is likely to be the next best captain selection. Last week was Pavlova, who gave me a respectable 115 to kick it off. This week Im saying my favourite fantasy player ever. The bloke some people call the Mr. Handball, and others call him Mr. Cant Kick. Yes, you guessed it Dan Cross. Averages 130 in his last four agaisnt Melbourne, not only that but Crossy hasnt scored below 87 all year. Mind you, the last time I had him capt he scored that 87. Oh, and dont panic if he only on 60 at three quarter time, he will still come out and smash the 100. Dont cross out Cross and give him the tick for captain. Keep reading for 5 more interesting facts.

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2. I didnt do a Rookie blog this week and I do apolgise, but quickly the rookies playing their thrid game this week are Lachie Hansen (DEF), John Anothy (DEF), Rob Eddy (MID), Jarryd Allen (DEF) and Tom Collier (DEF) all priced between 83-102k. The pick of the bunch would be Collier with a breakeven of -62.

3. Who to sell? Well, its impossible for me to say who to sell, but this week seriously look at your 6th midfielder (ie Plamer, Stanton, Ling, Gibbs). If he is no good upgrade to Goodwin, Black or Bartel who are all price sub 500k.

4. Do not sell Richoman. Yes, you might be Rich-o if you do,
and can trade in pretty much any forward, but he should be back next
week and banging on 100s again. Lets hope Tippett can get up for us this week.

5. Heath Shaw averages 122 vs Crows in his last four games
and with two good games in a row, is worth sticking as captain again?
You would have to have balls, but I reckon it might pay off his week.

6. Chris Judd is back into your 22 this week, but dont give
him the number one role. He only...

Five games gone. How is your side going? Who are your ups and downs? On track for a 2200? Injuries hurting?

Read on for all the lastest on the injuries.

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Bloody injuries seem to be the real killer this week...

1. Jason Porplyzia - Dislocated Shoulder.
Could be a few weeks. But, it makes it worse that it was so early and the Porp could only manage 6 points.

2. Brett Burton - Knee ACL
Season done. Hope you have some trades left? ROK will be nice and cheap after this week and Buddy but most have him already. I will try not to rub it in, but if you downgraded Birdman to Roo after his head-high bump like I said, you wouldnt have to worry.

3.&nbsp; Cameron Ling - Broken Cheekbone
Now that would have hurt. Sauce will miss a month. He will be spewing missing the chance to keep Cooney tame.

4.&nbsp; Gary Ablett - Ankle
Rolled his ankle, and will be atleast a week. Maybe 4. Depending on how serious. This is the big one, but I spose he is just trying to even it out for those that dont have Jesus. He will also be sick that he wont get a chance to smash Boyd next week.

5. Johno Brown - Hip, Groin, Shoulder all left side.
This bloke is a machine. Nasty corkie on th hip is the big one, and has been playing with a sore groin and shoulder for a couple of weeks. But, he will play. No doubt.

6. Simon Black - Groin.
His OP got to him in the 2nd qtr. He will play next week, but might need a rest before finals.

And, we still have three games to play...

Oh, bloody hell. Its abit late again this week, sorry for those that have been waiting but I just been flat out sinking beer, among other shiz. But, anyway, its here now. So stop stressing. Lets shoot into it.

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BARGAIN OF THE WEEK
Jimmy Bartel
If you missed Boomer a couple of weeks ago and cant wait for the Dal and Blacky. Gentleman Jim is a must. Only $450,700 and an average of 105, which is about to fly up. 41 touches of the pill on the weekend and a handy 116 points. We will see alot more of this in the coming weeks. His breakeven is now only 75, which he likely to get in the first half vs Fremantle. Get on board, guys.

BEST BUYS
Kornes is another midfielder worth looking at, but a below average year, getting only 91 points per game and only 16k cheaper than Jimster. I say it everyweek, but BJ is still cheap at a sub $500,000 price. Heath Shaw is cheaper than chips at $417,100 and is averaging 97, which pulls out a BE of negative 4. But, like I said last week, every Tom, Dick and Harry should have him by now. Goodwin is never talked about, but averaging 108 at a price of $477,700, he has been very quite over the past several weeks, with only a couple of big scores. In the backs there are all the usuals, but Birchall at $369,300 is alot cheaper than he should be.

HOLD YOUR HORSES
Buddy has about the same BE as his height at 193, but is already sub $500,000. Here comes the Drums, her comes the Drums. Baby, baby, baby. You are my voodoo child. Thats the lyrics Old Mac didnt want too hear, cause since The Drum has been back he has not scored over 81 and is still falling. ROK has a massive BE of 183, and will be a awesome pick up in two weeks. Marshmallow has the biggest Breakeven of the week with 215, and I heard rumours that he is injured? Gablett is another with BE of 194, but he will probably get...

ME!! Not only does it take too long to finish it resulted in my getting knocked out of the eliminator (76 pt loss - thanks for the donut chad / peter....)

Anyway, like any good AFL coach i have decided that i will 'draw some positives' from the loss. Namely it eases any pressure and allows a shift in focus from the eliminator and national rank to solely league glory (and the cash on the line....).

But, much like everybody my backline is struggling. Without the likes of some sort of consistency (ie Bock, Fisher and / or Mackie) it is very ordinary. This is a sad breakdown of the average scores from each line for my team last week:

FWDS: 101.57
RUCKS: 113
MIDS: 99.5
BACKS: 63.5 (which ignores Chads zero - include it and we have a 54 average.....)

However with 6 consecutive scores over 2000, a national rank holding steady at around 500, a league position of 2nd, 5 trades left, 200k in the bank and a final month with games against teams ranked 7th, 14th, 11th and 10th in the league we are sitting nicely.Sure the injured Power triplets are a concern (Chad, Burgoyne, Salopek) but with the defenders hopefully returning and Cothcin filling the midfield gap nicely i can live with that. However, as usual there are a few players that i am keeping an eye on.

So, if your sitting fighting for a top 8 spot and looking for a gun here are a few players that i would be looking at:

This week or never:

Heath Shaw: $301,000 - BE at 26 and a backline necessity at this price, wont get any cheaper.
Brent Guerra: $320,100 - i think there are better defenders but if you want him its probably now or never, another with a low BE.

Jimmy Bartel: $396,700 - after racking up 41 possies in the Cats demolition of the Crows his BE is back to 53 so grab him now.
Daniel 'Mr Handball' Cross: $379,600 - sure he should kick it more but with an average of 101.5 and a BE of 61 he is cheep cheep.

Aaron Sandilands: $346,900 - one of about 2 upgrade options if your second ruck isnt...

Here we go, into Part 3 of this four part series of the highest averaging SuperCoach players. And, we are on to that horrible part of the ground, the rucks.

Here is the team so far...
Backs: Stiffy, Old Mac, Newman, Bowden, Goddard, Pratt and Heavy Waite.
Mids: Jesus, COON, Kirk, Goodes, Power and Hodge.

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I bet ya could guess who are going to fill in these spots. Yeah, your right, Cox and Sandilands. They are really the only two decent ruckmen, and if you ever upgrade a ruckmen, your wasting a trade if you dont get either of these. Hille has had a late push to get a gig, averaging a quite amazing 147 in the last three rounds, and makes Mountain roughly the same price as the great Cox. Jeff White is the other that gets close, but being dropped twice this year and only four scores over 100 and an average of 90-odd. He aint no star.

1. Dean 'Big' Cox
Everyones favourite number one ruckmen has not let anyone down this year with an average of 112, thats 9 off the next best, or a total of 127 points for the whole year. Should be the first picked player in every side, every year. Only those with balls will avoid Cox next season. Not only is he is averaging 112, he is doing it with one leg. I spose that stays true to his name. Imagine what he going to be like next year with two legs. Wow. But, the thing that has surprised be the most about looking through his stats is that this is Coxs best year ever, yes, you remember at the start of the year when everyone was saying you must have Cox, well, he only averaged 98 in 2007 and 99 in 2006. Then, I found out the next best in Ottens had an average of only 92. This year has been quite a good year for ruckmen, but most of us still sit on Troy Simmonds, the 17th best ruckmen, averaging 66.

2. Aaron '211' Sandilands
If you dont have Cox, you better have 211 cause it gets pretty dry after...

Can you believe its Round 15 already?? For some, the SuperCoach season is over, and the reconnaissance for 2009 begins. For others, the season is just winding up and the finals and bragging rights are well and truly up for grabs. Captains come into your scores in a big way, highlighted in brutal details when this blogger copped his first loss for the year, purely due to an unnecessarily risky and poor captain choice - nevertheless, well gear up again for this week and try and give you a good guide for who to think about.

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Gary Ablett

Week in week out he is the choice for many. Seemed disappointing
last week when he got 91, which isnt that bad, but by his standards, a
bit off for the season. Geelong get the Dockers this week at Skilled -
and Ablett will likely lock horns again with the only man who has been
able to curb his influence this year, Ryan Crowley. Ablett was kept to
a paltry 62, which was his lowest score of the year. Ablett has been
good otherwise at Skilled for the rest of the year, including his
incredible 254 at Skilled against Sydney in Round 5. Ablett averages
just under 90 against the Dockers - though for many the choice is
academic and you probably wont be disappointed if Ablett leads your
team out for this weekends round.

Lance Franklin

Buddys been a little off in the last few weeks. Sydney this week -
and the Sydney SuperCoach curse could mean his lean streak continues. The
Sydney defence has been good this year, and teams traditionally dont
score heavily against them. The last time Buddy played the G he was
held to a miserable 18 points but he averages 119 against the Swans -
Buddys a risk in my opinion, and I wont be going there because Ive
been burned in the past, and against the Swans I reckon hes a bit too
much of a risk - but you all know Ive been wrong before

Adam Cooney

Playing Melbourne this week, the Dogs midfield will be led by Cooney
who is in good SuperCoach form at the moment. With 105...

Im much more lazier than last week, where I spent all this time to give a full review of every game. Miles too much work. So, just let us know how you went last night and what you need tonight to win league games, break 2200, or any other shit you want to say. Not happy with Abletts 91? Burtons 51? Or Chappys 74? Over the moon with Bock Choy and Jimmy? Or just complain about how terrible the split round is, with Harry Taylor being dropped and alot of coaches copping another nil?