Boy oh boy, it was a tough week for Supercoaches everywhere this week as crowd favorite after crowd favorite failed to live up to the dizzying heights that weve come to expect these past few weeks. And nowhere ws hit harder than defence as Gibbs, Deledio, Grimes, Newman and various others all failed to bring their usual clout to the table. In fact, the top score for the week only just cracked 2500.

<!--more-->

The week started off to a packed house with Collingwood unveiling their premiership flag in front of an undefeated Blues outfit. It was a tight first quarter, but the Pies kicked away in the second and managed to hold that lead for the rest of the game. The top scorer for the game was Jarryd Blair whos career high 5 goals took him to a 132SC. Judd played in typical Judd fashion and amassed a 112Sc off 24 touches. Chris Yarran will have a lot of coaches scratching their heads, after attracting a massive tag against Richmond, hes gone unchecked for two weeks and put his second ton for the year on with 111SC. I gotta feel for the coaches who traded him out after expecting him to do poorly again this week, but do have to wonder when his run will end. Shaw did well all game and without being subbed this week managed a fantastic 109 off 27 disposals at an 85% efficiency rate. Rounding out the top 5 was D. Swan, who picked up 34 touches, 17 of which were contested. That said, his relatively low score of 108SC is contributed to 13 of his touches being in the last quarter during what is commonly known as "junk time". It really doesnt explain to me how Dawes managed an 89SC when he was sitting at 20 at half time and picked up a lot of his points in junk time. Ed Curnow rewarded every coach who picked him up with a fantastic 92, though Im sure that most coaches had him sitting on the bench, fearing the black and white menace, just as Duigans 85 probably wasted away on many a coaches bench. Krakouer also rewarded all those who kept the faith, just 9 touches, but a fantastic 81SC. Didak managed a 87 which should see a sizable price fall and make him a solid upgrade target after his first bye. Also disappointing were the Carlton power-duo, Marc Murphy (79) and Bryce Gibbs (74), though prior good form should see them alright salary-wise. Jolly, if youve held onto him missed his 140 BE, scoring only 60SC and leading into another 140BE next week, so youre in for more pain if youve got him!

Saturday started with the Bulldogs running circles around the Gold Coast Witches Hats, but hey- at least they are wearing the right colour for the nickname! Despite a 70 point drumming, Gaz Jnr got straight back into his form of old amassing 34 touches and 141SC- Guess hes not going to be as cheap as we all hoped! I know Ill be starting a Gaz fund up and be chipping a little into it each week with my round 6-9 trades. Boyd proved to everyone why locking in a captain against the Suns is a good idea with 36 disposals and 131SC, while Cross was just behind with 37 touches and 130SC. Higgins outdid his already excellent 96 average, scoring a 122- which considering his 53% efficiency could have been a lot better! Griffen rounded out the 5 with a 31 touch 118SC. The crazy coaches who selected Brennan will smile after he backed up last weeks 18 with a 114- typical Brennan inconsistancy!. On the rookie front, Zak Smith again dominated with a 94SC and has looked like one of the GCs best on ground both weeks now. Coad got an 84, Prestia 77, Swallow 72 and Liberatore 71. A couple of disappointing scores from Stanley 58, Harris 58, Matera 44 and Hunt 41 will hurt a few coaches who fielded them, but remember- they still played well above their buying price and wih the exception of Hunt will definitely be better for the hitout. Dont forget about the heavy rotation policy thats going on at the GC though! I know a number are counting on GC boys to see them through the series 3-game byes that are just around the corner. On the upgrade watch, Cooneys 74 and Giansiracusas 46 could see them as tasty targets if thats the way you want to go. Sadly, Lake didnt give us too much scoring a sizable (considering it was his first hitout for the year) 81 to open his account- still, should be a tasty target in a few weeks time.

The other game on Saturday saw Fremantle kick 5 to none in the first quarter again the Crows and never give he lead up, running out as 4 goal winners at full time. Adelaides Scott Thompson top scored with a might 152SC off an fantastic 40 disposals. Fyfe scored a second huge game with a fantastic 139SC and is currently looking like a magnificent mid-pricer for those who gambled on his $353k price. Mundy scored a very nice 132SC off 132 touches. In 4th place for the game was Sandilands with a 108SC- however, this was a sub-effected score as he got subbed out early in the third quarter after Tambing brought a ladder out onto the field- then jumped as high as he could to cop him in the eye. 108 off a half! Can you believe that! Now hes a risk to miss next week as we await the results of his scans. Luckily we have Smith to cover- but hopefully he doesnt miss round 5, covering him and Cox will prove a mighty challenge for people. Brodie Smith turned a very nice 86 in his second game to secure a negative BE moving into next week, which could be a nice option to anyone needing to sure up their rookie numbers- Im keeping a close eye on him as a pair of mates have a prop bet on him making 7 games this year- 2 down, 5 to go!. Duffield finally snapped out of his funk with a solid 93, his owners will be hoping that this trend continues! While Rhys Palmer finally made it through a game without being subbed- notching up a pretty good 88. Lower flew the standard for rookies, with 21 touches and 80SC points, but the other cheap options here disappointing with Pitt (56) Knights (53), Otten (44) and McKernan (41).

Come Saturday night we headed to the G to see what Hawthorn could do with a struggling richmond outfit, in short, a 1.3 to 7.1 first quarter summed up the game. Luke Hodge showed us all why hes a premium, but certainly didnt do anything to allow us to pick him up cheap by scoring a mighty 149 off just 20 touches! Next up, Franklin showed us why we shouldnt worry, picking up 22 touches, 5 goals and 147SC. Josh Gibson continued his great from, this time scoring 133SC, not bad for $374k. 4th and 5th place were shared on 121SC by Burgoyne, and rookie revelation, Shane Savage! A might effort for the boy who I imagine will be on his owners field come next week. Foley showed a glimpse of what he could do for the year with a very nice 108, but sadly, it might have been a week too late with a lot of coaches trading him out this week Suckling continued his awesome form with a 96SC and at a price of $223k, it starting to look the real deal- I do wonder how Strattons injury could affect these high scores though, any thoughts on that?. Batchelor did alright for his owners with a 57, while Helbig (41) and Conca (38) probably disappointed his owners. Speaking of disappointing, Riewoldts 53 is going to see him crashing hard, possibly dropping below $300k in a few weeks- A delicious upgrade, provided he can get back to his form of last year. Meanwhile, Bruce is certainly causing his coaches headaches with a 35- which will see him drop pretty hard over the next few weeks.

The other game on Saturday night was a titanic struggle between West Coast and Sydney. A match that changed lead several times finally saw the Swans get up at the right time. And just judging by the comments thrown around in the live chat while this game was going on, there is certainly no love lost between the fans of these teams. Goodes, and his game winning goal managed to secure himself 133SC, which considering the circumstances, felt like a bit of a let down, but that feeling was quickly replaced by realising that he scored a 133!! while the other Swan choice at that price point, OKeefe only managed a 68. Jude Bolton scored himself a 130SC which included 20 touches and a phenominal 19 tackles! Everitt got the third highest score with a 125SC, and like Foley, probably burned a lot of coaches that would have been disappointed by his average leading up to it. Cox continued his awesome form with a 121SC off 20 touches and 38 hitouts- looks like his price is going to keep flying up. Rounding out the top 5 was Embley, who is continuing his excellent form, knocking up a 114. Darling put in another solid performance with a nice 71, and Gaff, the supersub performed again off the bench with a 61- when he finally starts getting full games, his owners are gunna be stoked!

It was on Saturday that live feeds the world over decided to crash out miserably, annoyingly, we copped it pretty hard, but it just went to show up a few flaws in my current design and Ive already started implementing a few ways to make next week smoother- it wont solve the feed issues from tonight, but it will allow us to keep on chatting while it breaks!

Anyway, Sunday came round and started with a pretty good battle between Melbourne and Brisbane. The Lions came out of the gate beautifully, but Melbourne wouldnt give up, clawing back the lead in the third and holding it despite a spirited 4th quarter. Gotta feel for the Lions at the moment, theyve been putting in some solid efforts this year and are bound to be rewarded for it sooner or later. We also got ourselves some massive scores in this game, Rockliff top scored with a mighty 163 off 27 touches, Rivers came next with a 146SC off 36 touches while Moloney got himself another huge 145SC, hes currently averaging 111 and is looking pretty nice. Another big score by mid-pricer, Adcock, scored himself a huge 143 as the 4th 140+ score. Sylvia (86) and Grimes (82) did, well, alright, but nothing to write home about, meanwhile we were all pretty disappointed by the efforts of Tapscott (50) and Polec (53), the former because weve come to expect better, and the later because he had a phenominal 1st quarter and really fell away after that. Lester (49) disappointed as did Beams (34) while Bewick did admirably for a sub, putting on a score of 38. The biggest disappointment for the game though was Green, getting a pretty miserly 56.

Geelong vs Port was an utter was, Geelong took the 4 points with a dominant 79 point smashing. Leading the charge and showing just how good a pickup he was, scoring a fantastic 159SC- I reckon if you were gutsy enough to pick him as captain, you would have flown up the rankings this week! Of course, the rest of the top 5 are all Geelong, with Kelly 147SC, Selwood 134SC - in a fantastic come-back game, heres hoping he can keep this up to make up for his round one 25, Ottens putting in a fantastic effortwith 129 and Cameron Ling- the little engine who could, securing a very nice 110. Boak top scored for the Power as the only Port player to ton up with a 100SC. Mitch Duncan put in a decent performance with a solid 91. With those big scores though, there were bound to be a number of downfalls- Enright 78, SJ 70, Varcoe 57 all contributed to a lower than average score for a lot of Supercoaches. Meanwhile, if you held onto Irons at the expense of trading into Curnow or Liberatore, then youre gunna be extra annoyed at the 15 that he turned out.

Finally, we get to Essendon v St. Kilda, Ive been looking forward to this game all week and certainly wasnt disappointed. I find it kinda amusing that everyone I asked, tipped Essendon, while St. Kilda still came out favorites with the bookies. It was a spirited first quarter with the Saints kicking 5.3, to the Bombers 8.2, but after that it was all one wat traffic with the Bombers dominating the next two quarters and coming out 52 point winners. Jobe played head-to-head with Goddard and for the second week in a row, Goddards direct opponent dominated and looks good for the 3 brownlow votes, that said, I was a little suprised to see him pick up only 136SC for his efforts, but regardless, it was a great game. Suprisingly, the second highest scorer for the game was Tom Bellchambers with a 120SC off a massive 41 hitouts. What the heck is gunna happen when Hille comes back? For one, I am certain that the GWS will be circling. Fisher top scored for the Saints and is proving a prudent selection with a solid 118SC, with 4th/5th was shared by Dal Santo and Crameri. Not too many disappointments from this game, Montagnas 89 will upset a few, while Stantons 73 will certainly upset his coaches. On the plus side, if youre sitting on Heppell, as you should be, youll be very happy with his return of 90.

So now that thats done, lets take a look around the TS traps. Meataxe took a bit of a dive and lost the coverted #1 spot, but he only fell as far as 9th so hes still well in the hunt. Meanwhile, resident TS Supercoach widow- turned Supercoach star herself, has jumped from 87th and into 13th place with a solid 2242. Keep it up Jo! Youre doing us very proud! Its pretty reassuring to see that 14th place jumped up from 1954th last week, still plenty of time to jump up the ranks if youre there abouts and can survive the byes of the next three weeks.

Speaking of the byes, let me remind you all- the Saints, Bulldogs and Lions are all sitting out byes next week, so I gotta suggest to you all, log in now and set your benches before you do anything else- that way, you wont accidently do yourself a Dr. Dreamteam this week. Gotta smile as he forgot about the Roos bye this week, left Petrie on the field and set Richardson as the Emergency. I reckon he might need to hand in his credencials after that effort!

Around the leagues, the platinum league outscored the leaders this week, but is still sitting in 4th- keep it up guys! The TS Superleague movedup to 9th, with the Donor Kebabs in 14th, TS-I am serious in 17th and Trading Games sitting in 18th. WaaaayTooSerious are sitting in 31st, the Donuts in 45th, Orange Boys in 40th, the Premier league is in 50th and the Donors in 26th- great effort guys, keep heading upwards and onwards!

I reckon the predictor did a pretty decent job, it over-estimated a little on the rookies, but did a smashing job on the premiums, I never got a look at the SuperCoach Gold predictions, but after hearing about their BEs I reckon we were closer.

So there we have it, the stats are up and the numbers done- It looks like its been a hard week for all of us, but the difficulty is only just beginning as the byes are firing up, so hopefully, here is where your toil in the offseason can really seperate you from the pack that havent focused quite hard enough on the fixture. So, howd you go? Dodge any bullets or was it all doom and gloom?