TooSerious

Finals are GO!

I hope!

ROUND 18 (all times AEST)
HAWTHORN v RICHMOND
Friday July 31 at MCG, 7.50pm
HAWKS
B: B.Stratton, B.Lake, S.Mitchell
HB: G.Birchall, J.Frawley, J.Gibson
C: B.Hill, S.Burgoyne, I.Smith
HF: C.Rioli, R.Schoenmakers, L.Shiels
F: J.Gunston, J.Roughead, L.Breust
Foll: D.Hale, L.Hodge, J.Lewis
Inter: P.Puopolo, B.Hartung, T.Duryea, B.McEvoy
Emer: J.Anderson, A.Litherland, J.O'Rourke
In: B.Stratton, J.Frawley, L.Shiels, T.Duryea
Out: M.Spangher (hamstring), M.Suckling (hamstring soreness), A.Litherland, J.O'Rourke
TIGERS
B: D.Grimes, J.Batchelor, T.Chaplin
HB: N.Vlastuin, A.Rance, B.Houli
C: B.Ellis, B.Deledio, K.McIntosh
HF: B.Lennon, T.Vickery, D.Martin
F: A.Miles, J.Riewoldt, T.Cotchin
FolI: I.Maric, S.Grigg, K.Lambert
Inter: C.Newman, T.Hunt, R.Conca, S.Lloyd
Emer: L.McBean, C.Menadue, S.Morris
In: T.Vickery, R.Conca
Out: S.Hampson (ankle), B.Griffiths (finger)



GEELONG v BRISBANE LIONS
Saturday August 1 at Simonds Stadium, 1.45pm
CATS
B: C.Enright, T.Lonergan, J.Kolodjashnij
HB: C.Guthrie, H.Taylor, A.Mackie
C: J.Bartel, J.Selwood, S.Motlop
HF: M.Duncan, S.Kersten, D.Lang
F: J.Murdoch, T.Hawkins, S.Johnson
Foll: M.Blicavs, J.Kelly, J.Caddy
Inter: N.Cockatoo, B.Smedts, J.Thurlow, J.Walker
Emer: J.Rivers, D.Simpson, M.Stokes
In: N.Cockatoo
Out: C.Gregson (managed)
LIONS
B: J.Clarke, D.Merrett, H.Andrews
HB: D.Rich, M.Paparone, S.Mayes
C: D.Zorko, D.Beams, L.Taylor
HF: J.Redden, D.McStay, A.Christensen
F: S.Martin, J.Freeman, J.Adcock
Foll: M.Leuenberger, T.Rockliff, P.Hanley
Inter: M.Robinson, R.Bewick, N.Robertson, L.Dawson
Emer: L.McGuane, T.Cutler, H.Beasley
In: J.Freeman, D.Beams, P.Hanley
Out: B.Staker, J.Aish (hand), H.Beasley
COLLINGWOOD v MELBOURNE
Saturday August 1 at MCG, 2.10pm
MAGPIES
B: T.Langdon, N.Brown, M.Williams
HB: A.Toovey, J.Frost, B.Maynard
C: P.Seedsman, D.Swan, S.Sidebottom
HF: S.Dwyer, D.Moore, J.De Goey
F:...

HAWTHORN v. RICHMOND

Recent game: Round 6 2014 MCG – Hawthorn 118 defeated Richmond 52.

GEELONG v. BRISBANE

Recent game: Round 23 2014 Simonds Stadium – Geelong 143 defeated Brisbane 81.

Rockliff v. Geelong

Rd 23 2013: 117 SC points, 37 disposals
Rd 5 2012: 140 SC points, 32 disposals
Rd 17 2011: 126 SC points, 30 disposals
Rd 17 2010: 101 SC points, 31 disposals

Average is 121 SC points with 33 disposals.

Note: Good record against Geelong. He has missed the last two games against Geelong. Has always picked up lots of touches.

Selwood v. Brisbane

Rd 23 2014: 176 SC points, 29 disposals
Rd 2 2014: 140 SC points, 25 disposals
Rd 23 2013: 127 SC points, 25 disposals
Rd 5 2012: 114 SC points, 18 disposals
Rd 17 2011: 78 SC points, 23 disposals
Rd 17 2010: 175 SC points, 41 disposals
Rd 8 2010: 124 SC points, 32 disposals

Average is 133 SC points with 28 disposals.

Note: Great record in recent times; averaging148 in his last three games. Also kicked two goals in the most recent game.

COLLINGWOOD v. MELBOURNE

Recent game: Round 10 2015 MCG – Collingwood 110 defeated Melbourne 85.

Pendlebury v. Melbourne

Rd 10 2015: 114 SC points, 27 disposals
Rd 12 2014: 112 SC points, 26 disposals
Rd 11 2013: 132 SC points, 34 disposals
Rd 12 2011: 129 SC points, 23 disposals
Rd 12 2010: 123 SC points, 27 disposals
Rd 2 2010: 122 SC points, 23 disposals

Average is 122 SC points with 27 disposals.

Note: Solid average against Melbourne but no huge scores. Tagged by Vince in the two most recent matchups. Played head to head against Sylvia in 2013. He missed the 2012 game and was tagged by McKenzie in 2011.

Swan v. Melbourne

Rd 10 2015: 91 SC points, 26 disposals
Rd 12 2014: 89 SC points, 25 disposals
Rd 11 2013: 148 SC points, 39 disposals
Rd 11 2012: 160 SC points, 42 disposals
Rd 12 2010: 173 SC points, 38 disposals
Rd 2 2010: 93 SC points, 21 disposals

Average is 126 SC...

Brownlow - Top 10...

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Venus Bay Vultures 1161 def by Birdsville Battlers 1234

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]With a top two finish up for grabs, this top rung tussle didn't disappoint. Big Boy (124) dominated the tag team Martin/Kreuzer duo and readily fed candy into the Battlers guts of Smurph (114), Treloar (132) and Risky (99). The late withdrawal of Beams was telling but sub-par performances across all lines was the rub for the home side. Jetta (106) reminded us all that imaginary spear-throwing ultimately leads to war-dancing which leads to booing which in turn leads to more war-dancing and then even more booing. There is no place in the AFL for any of this shit and the sooner the AFL bans all imaginary spears, the better off this game will be.

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]



[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Best

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Vultures - Howe 108, Parker 105

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Battlers - Treloar 132, McEvoy 124, Murphy 114, Jetta 106

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Vultures last 3 - Nuffers, Warriors, Cows

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Battlers last 3 - Cows, Chooks, Guim

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Waikikamoocow Incorrigibles 1116 def Gundagai Grasshoppers 830

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]

[span style='color: black; background-color: #fcfcfc;]Unfortunately this was always gonna be a one-sided affair. The Hoppers were left stranded following the eruption of the long-dormant Wee Jasper volcano....

Last week was an especially tough one for many in SuperCoach, the Best Buys curse took a week off and then hit twice as hard with Gaz out for the rest of the year and Rockliff only managing a score of 50. Add to that the withdrawals of players such as Franklin and Beams and the scoring of guys like Hannebery, Armitage and Neale and you start to get the picture.

Hopefully this week will see some easier going for most, and that starts with the Best Buy. This week there are two of them, as they were so close in a variety of areas that I really couldn't pick one over the other. They are both reasonably priced, both scoring well enough to be in the leading bracket of players for their position and both in a relatively small number of teams. The players I'm talking about are Matt Priddis and David Mundy. Either one at this stage looks to be a good replacement for Ablett, and could well make a difference for your side come finals.


DEFENSE
ROOKIES





Hugh Goddard (StK) D/F 122.3k 60 +47k
Goddard is a familiar name at St Kilda, and a fair few fans have been waiting to see what impact he can have at the highest level. A score of 49 against the Demons has brought him to the bubble with an average of 60, bringing with it a likely price rise of around 47 grand after his next game. If he can remain in the side he looks like a great option, and his D/F eligibility will be a boon for many.





Alex Browne (ESS) DEF 123.9k 54 +38k

Browne looked the goods on the weekend, racking up 84 points in just his second match at AFL level. Now on the bubble with a price rise of 38 grand on the way his average is sitting at 54 and with a low price he looks like a good candidate for a backline downgrade.


MID-PRICERS





Rory Laird (ADE) DEF 493.8k 96 5.6%
Laird has been good in his break-out year, pumping out 124 points on the weekend to bring his average for the season back to 96. While he has been inconsistent and suffered...

There is no place for racism in the AFL.

It is as simple as that.

The booing controversy surrounding Adam Goodes currently, however, isn't quite as simple.

Goodes is an undisputed legend of the game; he has played 365 games (most ever at Sydney, 9th most in the AFL), kicked 454 goals (5th most at Sydney, 67th most in the AFL), won 2 premierships, 2 Brownlow medals and has been an All-Australian 4 times.

Those numbers stack up with anyone who has ever played this great game.

So why is he being incessantly booed at away games across the country this year? Racism appears to be the general consensus among the media and AFL luminaries, and even Goodes himself, but from what I have personally seen it's a lot less sinister than that.

The fact that Goodes has been racially vilified also cannot be disputed, there have been well documented cases of this happening repeatedly in the last couple of years, but to label the constant booing as racist in its entirety is simply not correct.

Take Sunday's game against West Coast as an example. Goodes was booed by what seemed to be the majority of the crowd whenever he touched the ball, and two spectators were ejected over racial abuse. Any more than zero incidents of racism is too many, but when there is a crowd of almost 40,000 people with a large number of them booing and only two cases of racism emerge it has to be evident that there is a separate issue at play here as well.

Again, racism should not be tolerated at any level of sport or society, but commentators also need to be careful when labelling things such as this as it can often be a case of adding more fuel to the fire.

I have talked to several people about Goodes' case, primarily people who have themselves booed Goodes this season, and the consensus I have received is vastly different to the one being portrayed by the AFL and media. The most common reason given for the booing? Goodes is a bit of a sook.”

Simply put, the more...

A pretty good round by the donors this week, even with a disastrous trade and the common midfield injuries. As I mentioned, we scored 2,313 points in round 17, which gave us a round ranking of 6,756. Our aggregate score is now 35,687 while our overall ranking, is 7,076. A rather satisfying round really, which started off by putting the VC on Hodge, and watching him rake in 140 points. That was more than enough for us, and we ran with it, loopholing Cox back into the captaincy.

Lets take a look at the breakdown, to see how Gazza and the Swans burnt us (its like the Elton John song Benny and the Jets”, with the only difference being we had some reprieve from Gazza and the Swans.

Defence
L Hodge 140 (Loopholed VC, 280)
H Shaw 127
J Gibson 98
B Houli 90
K Koldjashnij 86
N Malceski 57
Bench of B Smith 83 and B Maynard 58
Two Hodgey's was the great news down back, while cheater was also a good news story. Gibson and Houli were serviceable (even if Bachar lost” the game... he didn't lose it, his was just the last of many problems for the tiggers). Kolo was also good, while new recruit Eski was an absolute joke, being outscored by both our bench players, and nearly doubled by the man he replaced! 26 points lost there, thanks to the new boy.

Midfield
J Selwood 142
P Dangerfield 141
N Fyfe 134
S Pendlebury 108
J Kennedy 107
L Parker 105
G Ablett 21
D Beams 0
Bench of N O'Brien 107 (Emergency for Beams), R Knight 58, and J Nelson 0.
Good call that was to keep Selwood in the side, and drop Cripps instead. 142 points in the comeback is a star effort. He was closely followed by Danger and Fyfe, while Pendles and a couple of swans were alright but not spectacular. Beams failed to show up, but we had O'Brien to cover with a fantastic 107. The big news for around 50% of the SC sides, and the AFL in general, was the injury to Gazza, and a dismal 21 points. We never would have picked it, but Knight over Ablett would...

It was a big score from Gunston and a demolishing of the Blues which saw this weekend unfold.

Massive score for him. Any massive scores from you guys?

Walsh and Puopolo are the subs for the Friday night game
Which is your game of the round - Tigers vs Dockers, Eagles vs Swannies, Dogs vs Pies or Giants vs Cats ??
As always let us know if you have any last minute emergency or captain choice conundrums or want advice about who you should bring in to increase your chances of finishing in the top 4 or 8 in your most important league, advance in the Sc and RDT Eliminator Comps or do well in the overall stakes.

http://tooserious.net/Blog/tabid/90/Post/7789/Captains-Obvious-Round-17.aspx
http://tooserious.net/Blog/tabid/90/Post/7785/Best-Buys-Tackling-Machine.aspx

Let us know if you are still in the hunt for the SC Cup and RDT Eliinator prizes as the Round of 128 plays out this week.

Also be sure to check out who you are up against in the TS Shield (match of the round there is without a doubt Graeme aka Chels up against the Donor team powered by the TS Donors brains trust) if you entered a few weeks back or have received an automatic entry via being a participant in the Champions League comp this year.

http://tooserious.net/Blog/tabid/90/Post/7714/2015-TS-Knockouts-Draws-have-been-completed-TS-Shield-starts-this-weekend.aspx

Speaking of the Champions League it is Quarter Finals time as 8 teams seek to advance to within 2 steps of the coveted title.

http://tooserious.net/Blog/tabid/90/Post/7747/Champions-League-Knockout-Rds-16-to-19.aspx

Did I forget something - probably - so remind me and others if needed - and good luck in any and all leagues, comps and the overall standings race if you are still pushing for a decent finish

Cheers TTH