TooSerious

For those who take it way too seriously

Well, if you picked Ablett youd be pretty happy - the untaggable Cat scored heavily yet again - Buddy struggled in Adelaide against Nathan Bock 'Choy' and got a few points in rubbish time against the Crows. This week throws up a few more of the usual suspects in for your considerations, and a few players who, thanks to Sizza and his Whos Hot and Whos Not blog, have punters looking to capitalise on their hot form.

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Scott Thompson (ADE)

Is there a bloke in hotter form at the moment. Goodes maybe, Cooney
and Ablett - its getting to be expected, but Scott Thompson has gone
along (relatively) unnoticed, but if you had him from the start youd
be laughing. Sizza tells us hes averaged 138.6 in the last 3 weeks and
with a 148 last week against the Hawks, comes right into calculations.
Averages big scores against the Lions with an average of 116 and a top
score of 124 last year, Scotty Thompson could be your man this week.

Gary Ablett (GEE)


Against the supposedly tanking Eagles, this could be a monty.
Having said that, I recall Abletts lowest score this year being at
Subi vs Freo, so perhaps hes a bit of a risk this week. It will
probably be either Selwood or Stenglein on Ablett this week so he may
have his work cut out for him - but Ablett is just a freak - and I
dont reckon anything would worry him at the moment. With a 106 the
last time these two teams met and an average against the Eagles of just
under 90, perhaps this is the week that the consecutive games as Ablett
captain breaks for many...

Matthew Pavlich (FRE)


The much maligned Dockers skipper has bounced into a little bit of
form with 164 and 111 in his last two, and with an undersized Saints
backline to confront him this week, Pav may be your man. Scores an
average of 120.5 against the Saints with a top score of 132 last year.
Definitely not the shabbiest option.

Adam Goodes (SYD)


With Melbourne this week, Goodes - Mr Consistency - might be a
better...
...VICTORY!

This week the Viking Quest recovered from an average round 11, and moved up a massive 679 places in the overall rankings to 449. It was a week inspired by a forward line, which averaged 140 points, and big games from the leadership group in Ablett and Goodes.

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[span style="color: #ff9900;">The V.Q. TEAM BLOG! - ROUND 13

<img border="0" alt="Vq_blog" title="Vq_blog" src="http://tooserious.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/17/vq_blog.jpg" />

&nbsp;

Team: Viking Quest
Round 12 Score: 2,419
Overall SuperCoach Ranking: 449
Cash stashed: $56,400
Trades to burn: 8


&nbsp;

BACKS:
Rd 12 Scores:&nbsp; H. Shaw (31), Mattner (72), Roughead
(96), Gilbee (88), C. Cornes (100), Goddard (88), Ibbotson (62), Myers
(46), Proud (0)

This week the Chad regained some much needed form. After an abysmal first half tagging Joel Corey.
It finally clicked in the second half, where he amassed 82 of his 104
total points. Port have a very reasonable draw here on end. I dont
think itll be long before the front-runner starts pointing at the
scoreboards and winding crowds up again.

Roughead showed again that, in this Buddy conscious
world, hell perform well on a consistent basis. It came as suprise he
was only rewarded a nominal 98 points considering his impact. Perhaps
Champion Data only reward stars with their game breaking stats? VQ none
the less saw some very good signs.

The weakest link, yet again, was Heater Shaw. His performance
of 31 was about as impressive as his bulldog-looking uncles special
comments... To state the obvious. Considering the focus on his game and
his coachs reluctance to release him further up the ground, VQ is
expecting a big game this week against. Theres hardly anything to be
gained by trading him in any event.

Ibbotson has very likely peaked in value and...
You couldnt miss the back page of todays Herald Sun and Tony Shaw bagging out Mick Malthouses handle on the way to use Shaw.<blockquote>'He (Gibbs) sets up a goal at the other end of the ground and gets them back into the game and Heaths still sitting back there agaisnt a mug, sitting down there in the pocket'</blockquote>Yes, Mick what is he doing done in the pocket? When his tagger moved up the ground. Cant Shaw bloody run? Useless.

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But, hopefully Tony coming out like this helps Shaw become that Shaw thing
again. The past 5 weeks have been hell for those that have him (even
more so for the ones that got him 5 weeks ago, which includes me) and
joy for those that once thought they missed the boat.


Round 8
- 45

Round 9
- 117

Round 10
- 31

Round 11
- 78

Round 12
- 31

Thats an average of 60.4, bloody hell even Nicoski is out
scoring him. Thats after he had a heathly average of 127 for seven
weeks. So, that works out to be a 67 point drop in form and a 187k drop
in price. So even if we did want to trade you we would get some hack
like Mundy. That brings me to the question...

Do you sell?
Hell no, he is capable of the big scores and although all teams now know he cant handle a tag, Mick Malthouse will hopefully listen to Shaw and move him up the gorund in the thick of it and make him run.

Do you buy?
Not yet, a breakeven of 123 should mean you
should wait one more week but next week, he is a must at about $383k
for those luckly bastards that dont have him. Chances are youve
probably had Gilbee or McLeod or Chadwick. Weve
all copped it. If anyone out there doesnt have any of those four give
us a yell - I would love to see how ya teams going.
Oh, rookies are going fast. This is your LAST chance to pick up a bargain. Prices cant go any lower. Thats what the crazy warehouse guy would be saying this week and he exactly right there are piss all decent rookies left with Gav and Dennis jumping in price this week. But, I will search through the 95k bin and see what I can find for those that need to downgrade.

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The pick of the group would be baby-boy Callan Ward. Juggling VCE, footy and a recent wild 18th birthday party, so snagging an average of sub 50 seems alright too me. Not only that you can get Wardy in both Back and Mids. Dogs only have 4 injuries on there list so the fact that he getting a game might mean he is a stayer. Cooney, Griffdawg and Cross will get him a heap of the pill. Decent looking fella too, which is important. Garry Hairy Lyon also labelled him the next Rocket Eade, which I spose is good? But, into the stats he has a Breakeven of -40 and an expected rise of 40k. He will set you back the normal 95k.

Kangaroos on the other hand has a rather long injury list so, there boy in Josh Smith might be a 2-3 hit wonder. Just like the great SDT and Proud. Oh, the memories. But, anyway, he is a forward. Averages 27. And, costs 95k. I would still get Valenti before him, even if he does play this week. V-train is bound to get a game soon.

The Bens are also cheapish at about 140k a pot. One from the pies in Ben Reid, the other in Ben Davies from the wounded Kangaroos. Ben Reid hit a minus 4 in his first week, then banged on 80. Another Buddy? Ben Davies has been more consistent. They are there if any one wants them, but Im saying NO DEAL, Andrew.

Polkinghorne also finally got his second game, now has a break even of -23 and youll find him in the Midfield. Atkinson is the same, but at an average of 19. Look elsewhere.

Nick Lower...
I got a good response last week from my look back through the year with all the running backs getting tagged, but for now I will just look at the weekend ferret and those that could shake them off and those that just coulnt break the lock.

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Adam Selwood has been in some fine form tagging people doing some excellent jobs on Heath Shaw, Andy McLeod plus many more he went to Stanton. This is a bloke who in the pass hasnt been able to break free all year. Well, on Friday he shocked us all escpaping from Selwood to net a cool 103 points. Which did include 10 tackles, but still. Andrew Welsh followed around last years favourite in Priddis. He done a decent job keeping Priddis to just 83 and collecting 112 with 14 tackles himself. Neagle also was believed to follow Embley but was off and on with an injury and Embley went on to get 103 points. Monfires was on Stenglien but it was barely a tag, both of them getting a fair bit of leather.

Woah, we are just through one game. Bloody hell. I will try to make it abit quicker. Dale Morris tagged Trav Johnstone. Travis struggled with a Hammy and only managed 19 points. Cross, Power, Griffen, Black, Adcock and Cooney all matched up on each other and they all ran free. Even Boyd stayed clear and focused on getting his own touches. Thats what we want to see more of.

This Ed Lower bloke is giving everyone the shits, going to another running back in Micheal Johnson who had a big fall from grace (183 points) to just 67. Bell got the ugly-looking Rawlings, and the Ding Dong could only gather 56 points. Crowley has been the tagger of the season (only one to keep Ablett sane, anyway) and kept Simpson pretty quite, only 76 points. Harvey was followed by Ibbo, while Palmer escaped any...
Ok, my predictions for this week were sensational. I said go for either Matthew Pavlich or Scott Thompson for captain in my last minute check. Pav got 164 and Scotty got 148. I also said avoid these two champions - Lance Franklin and Dean Cox. Well, what happened? Buddster only collected 66 and had to run up the ground to get those cause Bocky is the greatest backmen ever. Coxy could only get a season low 56.

In my best buys I didnt have that much luck with Bartel, Milburn and McLeod still below average. They will bounce back. Although, Gilbee got a decent 88, BJ wanged on 125 and Chapstick got 101.

You might listen now.
<p class="MsoNormal">[span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Another week
has gone, and most people have walked away with below average scores thanks to
the flops, but others like the Dog have bang on a decent score thanks to the stars.
Let’s quickly go through some of those stars and flops. Oh, and I love Nathan
Bock
. <o:p></o:p>

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<p class="MsoNormal">[span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">STARS[span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">

Hille had a career high score of 168
to kick the week off. COOONEY is in
some fine touch and continues it with a 177. Slice of Pav (164) finally got a bag. As much as I hate Goodes, who shouldn’t have even been
playing got another awesome score of 147. My boy Bocky (142) done some lovely kick to kick with my other boy Stiff (128). Also, Bock kept Budweiser to
just one goal. What a legend. Scotty
Thompson
also got among it with a 148. Jesus
Ablett
(161) is making me more and more jealous. Fevola is a another big forward that went bang with 8 sausages. Richoooo
is still shocking us all with a massive 169<o:p></o:p>

<p class="MsoNormal">[span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">FLOPS[span style="font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">

Cox was on a big flop Friday night
with 56, that was always going to happen. Palmer
and Rioli let down alot of Rookie
loving coaches. The saints midfield really got the Sydney curse – Hayes (69), Nicky Dal (45), Ball (28)
and ‘Tanga (24). Bateman twanged his hamstring and could
only collect 3 points. Bartel (60)
let me down in his first week. Kornes
handed out free kicks and easy disposal to Geelong and SuperCoach could only reward him
with 30 points. Didak had just a bad
game with 67. Heater Shaw is giving
90% of coaches the shits. Nicky Stevens...
As part of the latest upcoming update to TooSerious, Ive been tabluating teams For and Against scores.

Amusingly, Ive found that the current ladder (Based on for/against percentages for the ladder, along with any win-losses) would read like this.

<table style="BORDER-RIGHT: silver 1pt solid; BORDER-TOP: silver 1pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: silver 1pt solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: silver 1pt solid"><tbody>Team

Points

Percentage

HAW

40

111.1163

SYD

36

116.3856

GEE

36

113.5203

WBD

32

112.3152

ADE

32

109.4601

COL

28

108.5933

BRL

28

100.7520

RIC

20

103.9645



CAR

20

101.8575

PTA

16

99.1661

KAN

16

94.7696

STK

16

94.6065

ESS

12

82.5621

WCE

8

89.9383

FRE

8

86.6608

MEL

4

83.5211

Which is pretty close to the actual ladder.

Which makes me wonder, can we use this data to make predictions about how we think the ladder will look at seasons end?

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Teams 1-6, look pretty locked in. especially when you consider how much higher their percentages are over the rest of the league.

The both 4 teams look like they will stay down there (Based on percentages)

Which leaves 6 teams to fill the final two spots in the finals.

The current *real* 8th and 9th teams (STK and KAN) have the lowest percentage here, and as such, I dont think they will make the finals.

That said, the team coming 7th in percentage, Richmond, seems to have a nack of losing games the shouldnt have, and will be punished by a lack of wins.

Which leaves the final 2 spots in the finals open to Carlton, Port and Brisbane...

Im gunna lock in Brisbane and ... Port. Only because their run home is marginally easier than Carltons... (though round 19 might be a dooozy!)
This week provides us with some key players coming back into their sides and there are some few outs also. Watson is back for tonights game against the eagles, Houli out with a groin injury. Murphys back from suspension for the dogs, while Bradshaw is a big out for the Lions who welcome back Drummond into their side. Can this spell danger for Joel Mc? Wells and Josh Smith are back for the roos while the crown and hawks welcome back Griffen and Dew. Brent Renouf will make his debut for the hawks and may be a good downgrade in the ruck position this week. Big Bad Barrys back for the swans and will look to throw some punches against the saints who also welcome back King, Gilbert and Harvey. Out goes L.Fisher and Armitage. In Sundays games Pendlebury, J.Selwood and S.Burgoyne are back with Scarlett and J.King both big outs for their teams.

[span class="Normal">ESSENDON v WEST COAST EAGLES

Essendon

B:
Andrew Welsh, Dustin Fletcher, Nathan Lovett-Murray
HB: Brent Stanton, Patrick Ryder, Mark McVeigh
C: Kyle Reimers, Adam McPhee, Andrew Lovett
HF: Angus Monfries, Scott Lucas, David Myers
F: Jobe Watson, Matthew Lloyd, Jay Neagle
Foll: David Hille, Henry Slattery, Sam Lonergan
I/C: Adam Ramanauskas, Jay Nash, Leroy Jetta, Jason Laycock
EMG: Jarrod Atkinson, Ricky Dyson, Mal Michael

In: Laycock, Neagle, Ramanauskas, Watson
Out: Tom Bellchambers, Bachar Houli (groin), Tayte Pears (foot), Jason Winderlich (back)

West Coast Eagles

B:
Beau Wilkes, Darren Glass, Mark Nicoski

HB:
Adam Selwood, Adam Hunter, Brett Jones
C: Andrew Embley, Daniel Kerr, Tim Houlihan
HF: Brad Ebert, Brent Staker, Sam Butler
F: David Wirrpanda, Quinten Lynch, Mark LeCras
Foll: Dean Cox, Matt Priddis, Chris...
Oh, dont hit that C or T button just yet. Just a quick run down of what to do before making those changes.

1. Dennis Armfield and Gav might be the last two decent rookies all year - depending on Valenti getting a game - if you need any money. BUY NOW, they cant stay at this price any longer.
2. Scott Thompson loves playing Hawks (touches wise) with 34 disposables of the prune last time. Although, that only got him 87 points. Surely, he wont be that ineffiecentive this time round.
3. Buddy might be a Buddy bad pick for captain this week. Only getting 30 last time the Crows faced off with the Hawks. Who trusts him yet, anyway? Speaking of which, Big Cox also hates Dons. He just doesnt go well agaisnt them. Be careful.
4. Possible bargains this week include Jimmy Bartel, Andy McLeod and Paul Chapman. And, I better mention Danny Kerr to keep old Greg happy.
5. The Roos are struggling with big forwards lately with the Twin Towers getting 6 each agaisnt them and MOOOONEY snagging 7. Pav might be good choice for captain. But he does only average 90 against them the last 3 times.