TooSerious

This weekend saw the FIXture committee elect to celebrate International Players Round, where all overseas players and coaches are held up to the sun like a baby Simba in Raffiki's hands. Not sure why the Lion King reference, but just like the Lion King the Brisbane Lions saluted on the weekend reminding all of us that when a club or player has to move, it can take a while for some players to adjust.
This round has particular relevance for our friends across the trench at Waikikamoocow, and also for our expat coaches in NYC (Gundagai is now a small neighbourhood just off Central park) and Thailand (the Whitsundays are going to be renamed Koh Whits in recognition of their Thai based leader, which is far better than some other options ending in 'Whits').
Also a lot of pre-game hype given to our players from overseas Myke Pyke from the Lilacs, Zach Tuohy from Gariwerd, and others.
Onto the round, and what a cracking round it was. 6 games decided by less than 50 points, a number by less than 20, and a total winning margin across the league of only 631 points. Last year some games would have pushed that as an individual winning margin and it is a very good indicator of how the league is evening up.
Individual game reviews below:

Birdsville Battlers 1223 def Lovely Banks Lilacs 1204
What a match, Big Myke Pyke led the team out to a stirring rendition of 'O Canada' and then it was the under rated Lilacs who notched their first win last week up against the vastly improved Birdsville team who can't really lay claim to being battlers anymore.
The Birdsville defence lit up with Tom McDonald (123) and Mr. Std Deviation Corey Enright (126) repelling countless attacks from the Hobbit (48). Mitch Duncan (153) owned the ball in the guts for the Lilacs, with Josh Caddy (107) and Adam Saaaaaaaaad (106) providing great support, but too much was left to too few, with seven Lilacs players scoring below 70.
It wasn't all roses on the Birdsville side either, with...

Yep, with Pendlebury only scoring 102 on Friday night, we put together a quick list of potential captains, which went to a vote.

The list was:
JPK - 135 points.
Beams - 111 points.
Danger - 90 points.
Goldy - 100 points.
Gray - 143 points.
Bonts - 113 points.
Guess which one we picked???

Firstly, the team summary. We had an average score this week: 2,111. This gave us an average rank: 41,494.
In the overall standings we're sitting at 33,117 with an aggregate of 12,384 points. There's no top-1000 scores coming from this side, yet!

Lets have a look at the team:
Defence:
K Kolodjashnij 94
H Shaw 89
J Newnes 87
J Gibson 83
B Smith 75
A Oxley 72
Bench of A Saad 106 (E), and K McIntosh 47.
Its always a good sign when your highest scoring player on a line is sitting on the bench. We had six chances to get that one right, and didn't. With Saad also being our only defender topping the ton, even though there were no absolute disaster scores, it was really only an average week down back. The Saad for Oxley swap would have given us an extra 34 points.

Midfield:
JP Kennedy 135
D Beams 111
P Cripps 104
S Pendlebury 102 (VC)
P Dangerfield 90
T Miller 85
N Krakouer 66
A Vandenberg 56
Bench of: I Heeney 41 (E), C Ellis-Yolmen 0, and J Nelson 0.
No points lost there, with our bench score being the smallest on the line. Some good scores from our premiums, with JPK and Beams doing well. Danger was a disappointment, although dropping Cripps would have been a bigger disappointment! He may end up being a D9 keeper if he keeps this up. Krak and VDB were both less than impressive, and with CEY out, Heeney out, and Nelson not making the final cut, there may be some culling to do.

Rucks:
T Goldstein 100
N Naitanui 77
Bench of M Cox 0.
Nothing has changed in the ruck line, although the NicNat ice is getting thinner.

Forwards:
R Gray 143
D Martin 124
M Bontempelli 113
M Clark 78
D Swan 72
J Hogan 65
Bench...

I brought in Barlow this weekend, so I'm pretty happy with that trade, but then, I also brought in Glenn, upon which I'm not so happy about.

Also unfortunately, I was one of those unlucky coaches who traded out of Salem this week! Missed his 117 and corresponding triple awesome price rise.

Ah well, can't win them every week. (Or any week so far! )

How have you guys gone this week?

ps- with tonight being Mothers Day, there's a good chance the stats will be delayed through to tomorrow...

super Saturday with games on at 145, 210, 435, 510, 720 and 8 something

don't get mixed up if you are playing the loophole for Clark, Oxley and Brown or anyone from the early saturday games

good luck to all

Round 6. Well and truly into the upgrade zone. Let's hope we've got a free run of it and aren't dealing with bloody outs!

(Suns, I'm looking at you!)

Teams as they come out.


<h3 style='color: #474747; letter-spacing: normal; background-color: #ffffff;]COLLINGWOODvGEELONG CATS</h3>
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<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='MCG' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]MCG</abbr>, 7:50pmAEST Friday, May 8, 2015

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<h4>COLLINGWOOD</h4>
<div>
<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Full Back' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]B:</abbr>Alan Toovey,Nathan J. Brown,Marley Williams

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<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Half Back' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]HB:</abbr>Tom Langdon,Jack Frost,Tyson Goldsack

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<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Centre' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]C:</abbr>Adam Oxley,Dane Swan,Jack Crisp

<div>
<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Half Forward' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]HF:</abbr>Jamie Elliott,Jesse White,Travis Varcoe

<div>
<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Full Forward' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]F:</abbr>Patrick Karnezis,Travis Cloke,Jarryd Blair

<div>
<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Followers' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]FOL:</abbr>Brodie Grundy,Taylor Adams,Scott Pendlebury

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<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Interchange' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]I/C:</abbr>Sam Dwyer,Jarrod Witts,Tony Armstrong,Tim Broomhead

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<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]<abbr title='Emergencies' style='border-bottom-style: dotted;]EMG:</abbr>Jonathon Marsh,Jordan De Goey,Corey Gault

<div>
<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]IN: Jarrod Witts,Tony Armstrong,Tim Broomhead

<div>
<p style='margin-bottom: 15px;]OUT:Corey Gault(Omitted),Paul Seedsman(Glute),Jackson Ramsay(Shin)


<div>
<h4>GEELONG CATS</h4>
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<p...

COLLINGWOOD v. GEELONG

Recent game: Round 3 2014 MCG – Geelong 87 defeated Collingwood 76.

Pendlebury v. Geelong

Rd 3 2014: 115 SC points, 26 disposals
Rd 8 2013: 118 SC points, 31 disposals
Rd 16 2012: 135 SC points, 36 disposals
Rd 8 2012: 147 SC points, 30 disposals
GF 2011: 143 SC points, 33 disposals
Rd 24 2011: 135 SC points, 30 disposals
Rd 8 2011: 109 SC points, 20 disposals

Average is 129 SC points with 29 disposals.

Note: Most recently tagged by Guthrie. He has previously played head to head against Johnson or Joel Corey. Four scores 135 or over since 2011.

Selwood v. Collingwood

Rd 3 2014: 138 SC points, 30 disposals
Rd 8 2013: 83 SC points, 20 disposals
Rd 16 2012: 107 SC points, 23 disposals
Rd 8 2012: 140 SC points, 36 disposals
GF 2011: 145 SC points, 28 disposals
Rd 24 2011: 121 SC points, 21 disposals
Rd 8 2011: 153 SC points, 29 disposals

Average is 127 SC points with 27 disposals.

Note: A great recent record against Collingwood except for the game in 2013 when he was limited to 20 touches whilst being tagged by Macaffer. In the 2014 game, Macaffer was sent to Steve Johnson. Four scores over 135 since 2011.

Swan v. Geelong

Rd 3 2014: 70 SC points, 23 disposals
Rd 8 2013: 84 SC points, 29 disposals
Rd 16 2012: 116 SC points, 40 disposals
Rd 8 2012: 97 SC points, 26 disposals
GF 2011: 71 SC points, 20 disposals
Rd 24 2011: 89 SC points, 25 disposals
Rd 8 2011: 98 SC points, 30 disposals

Average is 89 SC points with 28 disposals.

Note: Surprisingly poor numbers against Geelong. Only one score over 100 since 2011. In the past, Geelong normally chose to tag him with Ling.

NORTH MELBOURNE v. RICHMOND

Recent game: Round 12 2014 MCG – North Melbourne 116 defeated Richmond 88.

Goldstein v. Richmond

Rd 12 2014: 166 SC points, 20 disposals
Rd 15 2013: 131 SC points, 12 disposals
Rd 17 2012: 95 SC points, 8 disposals
Rd 24 2011: 96 SC points, 13 disposals
Rd 5 2011: 97 SC points, 11...

The Best Buys is here once again to help with your trading needs, in a week where it looks like many teams will be starting to upgrade. Unfortunately so far this year both Best Buy players of the week have returned their lowest scores of the year straight after being picked so hopefully this week will see a turnaround.

The Best Buy for the week is Scott Pendlebury, after a big game on Friday night and a surprising number of team selections to date. Given the efforts of Sloane and Goldy it will be an interesting game again on Friday, with Dependlebury putting his name to the test against what is quickly becoming a Best Buy curse. Can he come out on top with a big score against the Cats, or will the curse take it's toll?



DEFENSE
ROOKIES



Jake Kelly (ADE) DEF 161.7k 53 +27k
Kelly burst his bubble last week, but at around 160 grand is still pretty affordable. Averaging 53 so far he's been solid without starring, but seems to have decent job security for now.

MID-PRICERS



Tom McDonald (MEL) DEF 475k 112 8.1%

McDonald continues to impress, racking up 122 against the Dockers on the weekend to take his average to 112. Still well priced at 475 grand he is in just 8% of sides and is starting to look like a very solid option.



Jasper Pittard (PTA) DEF 451.4k 99 4.3%
Pittard has snuck onto the radar this week after a solid score of 104 brought his average to 99. Costing 450 grand and playing all games so far this season he sits in 4.3% of teams and could make for a decent POD.

PREMIUMS



Bachar Houli (RIC) DEF 540.8k 117 2.4%

Houli is starting to really stand out now, racking up a huge 165 points to top score for round 5 and take his average up to 117. Whether he can keep it going or not is debatable with several players injured or not performing at Richmond, but for the 2.4% of coaches who do have him they'd have to be loving his form so far.



Alex Rance (RIC) DEF 509.5k 109 9.4%

Rance has...

You thought the new Princess was big news.
You thought the Mayweather - Pacquiao fight was BIG news.
You'd be wrong.
The biggest news of the weekend was the fact that the TS Donor Team finally got a captain selection correct. Yes, you saw it here first (unless you've already read it in the donor forum ofcourse, in which case, you saw it here second), we put the VC on Pendles, and the bloke scored enough points to not have to think too much about using the loophole - which was good, because our original captain was Goldy!

I'm not going to pretend that we did any better than we actually did, its not like we were top 100 for the week or anything, but this is a big win for us after the past few weeks. Anyway, this past weekend we scored a much more respectable 2,167 points, which placed us at 35,546 for the round. That brings our overall score to 10,273 and has us ranked at 34,352 in the overall season standings.

The round 5 team summary looks a little like this (actually, it looks exactly like the below, but that doesn't have the same ring to it)
Defence:
H Shaw 122
K Kolodjashnij 88
A Saad 85
J Gibson 79
J Newnes 72
B Smith 45
Bench of A Oxley 148 (E) and K McIntosh 70.
To have your highest scoring defender sitting on the pine really hurts, and one of your premiums scoring the lowest of all players onfield doesn't help any. We had the emergency on Oxley, and after his stunning Friday night I was looking for a way to bring his score on the park. Unfortunately all our defenders were playing, so we had no loophole opportunity.
Cheater had a good one, and it fell away from there. We had the same problem last week when Gibson scored well, and no-one else turned up to play. Premiums with less than premium scores is to be expected down back, with a bit of volatility, but Newnes is on really thin ice...
While it wouldn't have been done, picking Oxley over Smith would have earned us an extra 103 points. More realistically, it would have been...

Birdsville 1415 d Cradle Mountain 1296

Best: Birdsville - Houli 165, Mayne 155, 4 other 100+

Best: Cradle Mountain - Pendles 158, Reddan and Goldsack (wow) 115.



The Skinny: Always reckon scoring nigh on 1300 and losing by 100+ is tough, yet the Devils have done exactly that after running into a rampant Battlers' line-up. Battlers' defence is scary-good - little wonder they are top four - while the Devils will play worse than this and win plenty of games. Top quality match-up.





Darraweit 1188 d Marble Bar 1010

Best: Darraweit - Armitage 137, Eddie 113, Hoff 98

Best: Marble Bar - Yeo 119, Ryder 89, Rich/Laird (they usually are) 89



The Skinny: Darraweit remain on top and undefeated after a win against an undermanned Misfits outfit. The Dirigibles dodging more bullets than Neo in the Matrix to keep winning despite subpar scores - though Armitage and Betts shone this week. The Misfits faith in Yeo is being repaid, while Ryder flies high. But a missing backman and a Kelly/WHE red vest-green vest two step was too much to overcome.





Larrikin Lagoon 1316 d Foul Bay 1236

Best: Lagoon - BJ 134, Mitchell 116, Priddis 112

Best: Foul Bay - Dangermouse 119, Heater 122, Mummy 107



The Skinny: The revamped Lefties have been threatening for some weeks, and came through with the win over Foul Bay on the weekend. Goddard justifying the trade (Writer's note - can I borrow him for a couple of weeks?) while solid consistent scores across the park boost the total. Talent left on the bench too. For Foul Bay, regrettably some good scores also left on the bench, while Pav being walloped into next week was a nail in the coffin. James Kelly's injury has most of us wincing.





Powlett Plains 1301 d Gariwerd 1041

Best: Packers - Dempster 134, Mundy 133, Clancee 129, the other Tom Lynch 119

Best Gariwerd - Masten...

5 rounds in, already my SC team has decided that it actually doesn't want to play footy. More cracks than any Western movie involving whips have appeared. Thankfully, Indiana Jones in the form of TS Div 4 has ridden in and saved my SC week from total depression with a highly respectable ranking of 37th, led by Ling's Bling with a rank of 25 overall! No need to mention who is letting the league down, we all know who we are. Currently leading the head to head comp is Nick and Michael, the only two teams with a 4-0 start. Both play current top 8 teams this week, while I'm in a struggle between 14th and 15th on the ladder. Division 4 has started strong, and based on current trends, will keep pushing upwards.

Anyway, how are your leagues going? Is Div 4 really the best ranked TS league? Have I somehow assembled[span style='text-decoration: line-through;] the Avengersthe best SCers in all of TS? Let us all know in the comments - banter is more than welcome!

League Rankings:

<tbody>

37


TS Div 4





111
TS Div 2





136
TS Champs CH





140
TS Champs GrpsABC





164
TS Champs GrpsBEG`





172
TS Champs DE





212
TS Champs ADF





433
TS ORFFL





446
Yahoo-TS-5.0



472
TS Div 3





1076
TS Eagles





1777
TS ORFFU