Dreamteam

Under 18 Championships.

I figure, I'm going to want to review these reviews in about 8 months time, and what better way to preserve them than to throw them up here.

So, if like me, you're looking slightly towards the future, read ahead...

(Taken from the AFL Website)
Day 1

Xavier McMahon - Xavier won the most disposals for NSW/ACT and he was a pretty good player all day. He also gave his side plenty of run.
Patrick Heenan - Although the Northern Territory missed several key players, Patrick was one of side's best and won 20 touches - the most for his side. He tried really hard all day.
Tom Salter - Tommy was really good in the midfield. He was Tassie's highest ball-winner with 24 touches.
Matt Thomson - Matt was Queensland's leading ball-winner and he worked hard all day.

Day 2

Ranga Ediriwickrama - He was really good. He had a high work-rate and won a lot of the footy - he won 32 possessions. Ranga was good in game one, but he was cleaner with his ball-use and gathering. He really led from the front and was outstanding.
Patrick Heenan - I've liked what I've seen of him in the last two games - I haven't seen him much since he was in under 16s - and he's now at Melbourne Grammar. He played a loose role in the back-pocket and he's got a license to free up and attack, but he makes good decisions. What I like about him is that he's got great balance and takes the game on. He's been good.
Matt Thomson - A ball-winner, he's not the biggest kid going around, but he finds the footy and he uses it well - he's now had a couple of solid games. He got 28 touches against NSW/ACT.

Day 3

Ranga Ediriwickrama - Ranga had a good game. He's one of our scholarship boys and we've been really happy with his carnival and he's won a lot of footy. He worked really hard around the stoppages and has won contested footy, so he should be proud of his efforts.
Luke Breust - I thought he had a really influential game. He used the ball well and was quite creative with his hands. He's really clean with his hands. Luke booted two goals.

"Eye catchers" - Metro V Country
VICTORIA COUNTRY
Nick Suban* - Suban's ball-winning ability and ground work was great.
Nic Heyne - Heyne created a number of opportunities to work his way into the game. He used the ball effectively and also created a number of scoring opportunities.
Tom Rockliff - He was a very good player, booting four goals.

VICTORIA METROPOLITAN
Jack Watts - He finished with 12 possessions and booted four goals, including the match-winner.
Shaun McKernan - His ruck-work was excellent. Vic Metro had the better of the stoppages because of McKernan's ruckwork.
Tyrone Vickery - Vic Metro's ruck dominance was due to McKernan and Vickery. Vickery also won his share of the ball as well as influencing the play with his ruckwork.
Tom Lynch - He was dominant early, but drifted out of the game. He presented up extremely well early in the game, when he was playing as a leading forward, coming up to half-forward.
Michael Hurley - Hurley was the best backman on the ground. He just doesn't get beaten in one-on-one contests. He hasn't had high possessions, but whenever he's been in a one-on-one contest, he never gets outmarked. He also doesn't give his opponent easy possessions, so I'd say he was the dominant defender.
Xavier Gotch - He picked up good numbers in terms of possessions - he got 21 disposals the most for his side.
David Zaharakis - Zaharakis also gained 19 possessions, behind only Gotch for Vic Metro.   

Now, according to the Freako's latest, Suban is one to watch out for...

Not busy tonight?

Hey guys,

My live draft is tonight and I won't be here for the first hour and half, maybe even 2 hours. I'm shattered. So, I'm wondering if any one wants to do it for me. Pop me an email if your interested. brayden_eatme@hotmail.com

Thanks,
The Dog.

Are you selling too early?

note: this was written after round 8, prices / breakevens etc have changed, the principle remains the same.

Its at that time of year where everyone is looking at selling those rookies, claiming a healthy little profit and using the profits on that gun point scorer. However as usual making sure you use those measly 20 trades in the most effective manner is paramount, and this is where your rookies breakeven is important.

Often people will look at their rookies and as soon as their breakeven rises above their average they believe the player has "peaked". However this is not always the case and can cost you significant dollars, and those precious trades. To illustrate this i am going to use the Melbourne rookie midfielder Cale Morton.

Now Cale is one of the prime rookies looking at being sold for a profit. Before round 8 he had a price of $216,500 an average of 59.29 and a breakeven of 61. After putting in two weeks of 39 and 49 (and dropping $4,700) it looked like his time as a cash cow was over and i am sure many people decided to trade.

However what you must remember is that a price of $216,500 is not hard to maintain. Cale promptly dropped a 95 point game (which is not his highest score, that was 97 in round 3 so he knows how to rack them up) and he increased by $7,100. More importantly his breakeven has now dropped all the way back down to 10! Yep, 10!! Plus he gets the benefit of a score of 95 in his average for 3 weeks.

What does this mean? Well if he scores 63 (his current average) for the next 2 weeks he will increase another $32,000 and still have a breakeven below his average!!!!

So, which would you prefer? A used trade and a potential saving of say $5 - $10k if Cale puts in a bad one? Or to save the trade and maybe hold out for some more serious gains?

Now obviously this isn't always the case. Everyone's favorite cash cow, Josh Hill, is an example where holding out will have cost you over $25k the past three weeks (but he is still up over $100k) and I have heard many people say they got rid of him at his peak. Using the same principle would have seen these people sell Cale Morton before round 8 too - I wonder if they are talking about that decision?

At the end of the day trading will always come down to numerous other factors too – like the need to use those profits elsewhere but if you don't need to trade that rookie yet, it may be worth holding out for an extra week or two, at least until that breakeven is well above their average....

Want live scores?

FanFooty has a great live scores, but you have those tosser's in the comments bar. Some of the dickhead examples...

"I have [insert lowest scoring player's name] as captain... bugger".
"[insert stars name] has done a knee" when, really he is only off for a spell.
"Oh, get me another 20 points [insert a player on 130 already here]".

If their was a way to close the box I would be telling ya to go there... But, instead have some fun with the DT Talk boys and there Live Scores. They have a comments box too but atleast it ain't full with low life losers. Get on board.

• Carlton vs Fremantle - Telstra Dome - 2:10pm

• Port Adelaide vs Sydney - AAMI Stadium - 3:10pm

• West Coast vs Adelaide - Subiaco - 7:40pm

• Essendon vs Richmond - MCG - 7:45pm

Exciting news from the Fantasy Freako.

As written in the latest email from the Fantasy Freako:

In the pre-season, subscribers to my e-letter received exclusive DT stats on all players throughout the NAB Regional Challenge. It seems as though that information was highly valued by readers, so I have decided to offer up some more never-before-seen information that may help your DT player selections in the coming years. As a true fantasy freak, I am able to get my hands on weekly DT scores for this year’s potential draftees. Names such as Naitanui, Rich, Hurley and Yarran may mean nothing to you now but then again this time last year you probably hadn’t heard of Palmer, Rioli and Wonaeamirri, and they are 2008’s three biggest DT price-risers so far. If you knew like I did when picking your team that Palmer averaged 130 in last year’s U18 Champs then you wouldn’t be so surprised to see him rack up over 70 pts in six of his first seven AFL games. Division one of the 2008 NAB Under-18 Championships starts this weekend so in the coming weeks I’ll keep you posted with the players to keep an eye on for next year. I have had a quick look over the numbers from last year’s carnival and it paints an amazingly accurate picture of the players who turned out to be the steals of early 2008. Here are some of the more notable DT averages from the three games at last year’s NAB AFL Under-18 Champs:

• Player - DT Ave.
• Rhys Palmer - 130.3
• Cyril Rioli - 114.3
• Craig Bird - 110.7
• Cale Morton - 107.7
• Austin Wonaeamirri - 92.3
• Chris Masten - 92.3
• David Myers - 90.3
• Matthew Kreuzer - 86.7
• Brad Ebert - 86.7
• Scott Selwood - 85.7
• Steven Browne - 74.3
• Trent Cotchin - 52.3
• Jarrhan Jacky - 50.3
• Darcy Daniher - 38.3

This will be very exciting I reckon, in particular for Rising Star betting. :P

Seriously though, this kinda info will certainly give you something to weigh up against next year when looking at then then "pre-season" data. :)

Should be exciting to see how the kids go...

DT Premium League.

Howdy all DT'ers, there are still a few spots open in the TooSerious Premium Dreamteam league.

Anyone need a league?
(Oh, and I'm assuming that by the fact that you're reading this, you already know enough to know what you're doing. :D)

Just leave a comment, or email me, or PM yanno, it's all good.

The Eliminator...

So, the scores are up, and if you're like me, you go straight to the Eliminator.

Are you still in? After a 2048 last week, I was sure that my 1698 would see me eliminated this week.

Luckily, I drew a 1650 from the opposition and am through to the next round.

How many of you guys are still in?

9,885 DTers breathe a sigh of relief.

Trent Cotchin played his first game. And scored a very nice 66 (74 SC).

I think a lot of people will be looking to downgrade into him over the next few weeks... I know that I will be.

Bowden back for his first game in a while would have 6,328 coaches smiling... sort-of, knocking up a so-so 71... but hey, it's better than the 0's of late.

Other standouts from the game have been the usually good Richo (101), Kane Johnson (106) and the always impressive Gary Ablett (138)

Help Wanted

Calling all Dreamteamers. Here at TooSerious, we want to bring you not only the raw data, but also an educated analysis of it.

Currently, we have BrayDog holding down the SuperCoach fort, and myself holding down the Dreamteam one. However, the more time I spend here, the less time I have to impliment additional changes to TooSerious.

Because of that, I'm putting out the call to all you experts - We need you - at TooSerious.

So if you're interested in joining in the fun that is the future of TooSerious, drop me an email, or send me a PM on the forum. We don't pay well, but all writers do get put on the Donor list. :D

Cheers,
Walesy