The Injury Curse Strikes…More Than Once! (Geekin’ Out – Fantasy Footy)

Ever stopped watching a footy game after two minutes to start researching fantasy trade options? I have…

David Hille’s season-ending knee injury sent shock waves through me last Saturday afternoon. Mainly because I’m a Bombers fan and wondered how the heck we could get through the match (as well as the entire 2009 season) without an established ruckman…which they managed to do for a couple of hours!!! But thoughts did also turn to fantasy football and with Hille in all of my fantasy teams, the prospect of virtual victory seemed remote. And yep – that’s how it turned out!

Half Back Flanker only managed one victory in our three different Toyota AFL Dream Team leagues – and that was in the league we care about the least. My marquee battle against SEN’s Francis Leach ended badly (though that has more to do with the fact that one of us does not have Gary Ablett!) leaving me winless after two rounds in that league.

But things got even worse in Herald Sun Super Coach when Brent Harvey joined Hille on the injury list without registering a single fantasy point! My score was the lowest for the season and now I have two big trades to make with elite players who have dropped markedly in value due to slow starts this season. Great…

Is your arm supposed to bend at that angle? No, didn’t think so…

So this week, I haven’t been focused on all those footy stories that I’m supposed to care about. Grant Thomas said something controversial…whoop dee-doo! Jeff Kennett is waging war against the umpires…well, he has to fight with somebody. No – it’s all about how to fix my bloody fantasy teams. Perspective in life is overrated…but you follow footy too so you know that already!

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Dream Team 9,345 points overall, 26,619th place – our worst overall position so far this season

Last Week: 1,786 points – too many poor performances to cover the loss of Hille and post a competitive score.

League Results

Public League – defeated Sydney Cats (1,239). My only win for the weekend…and these Cats are clearly not trying!

SENFrank01 – lost to Frank’s Fruitcakes (1,985). Some high-scoring Saints and captain Gary Ablett give Frank a comfortable win. So much for bragging rights…

Twitter DT – lost to Didak’s Left Foot (1,866) Didak out late, Harvey injury…but they had lil’ Ablett as captain, I didn’t. Another loss!

Ladder Positions

Public League – 1st place (2-0, 158.23%)

SENFrank01 – 15th place (0-2, 92.32%)

Twitter DT – 7th place (1-1, 103.46%)

Good:  Matthew Pavlich (114) and Luke Hodge (100) finally joined the 100-club scores while mid-priced guns Ryan Houlihan (124) and Shaun Higgins (106) keep racking up big numbers.

Bad: Apart from losing your starting ruckman for the entire season? That and six other scores under 55 didn’t help, three of those in defence. Also chose the wrong substitute for the hamstrung Skipworth – went with Taylor Walker (31) instead of Mitchell Brown (64).

Ugly:  2nd minute of the Anzac day game…’nuff said!

Next opponents:

Public League – 9th placed figjamers (1,256 last week): Should be another win. Honestly, when your only success is in a Public League where nobody seems to be trying, you have problems!

SENFrank01 – 13th placed The Black Dog (1,732 last week): Decent looking team…could be 0-3 after this!

Twitter DT – 12th placed  T.O Saints (1,767 last week): Blake and Simmonds in the ruck is a problem for them but they have Ablett…so anything is possible!

Potential changes/trades: Hille out for…well, good question! I have two strategies in mind…one is to go for a mid-priced young gun who will hopefully improve as the season wears on, like Matthew Kruezer at $253,800 which will leave me 100 grand in the cap.  The other is grab bargain basement Cat Shane Mumford, who has played two games since Brad Ottens went down with a knee inury, and raise close to 250 grand in the cap to make a major move…Ablett in the midfield maybe? Mumford’s value will rise from next week and it looks like he will play as long as Ottens is out so he might add up to a tidy profit later in the year.

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Super Coach 10,267 points overall, 25,934th place – a drop of almost 14 thousand spots in just one week…what a freakin’ disaster!

Last Week 1,751 points – let’s just move on…

League Results

GMHBA – lost to Yogi’s Supastas (1,870): they played without three starters and still won…how embarrassing!

Ladder Positions

GMHBA – 5th place (1-1, 123.02%)

Good:  Six 100-plus scores including a massive 164 from Dean Cox, a 144 explosion from Matthew Pavlich and Jimmy Bartel’s 139 in Geelong’s rout of Brisbane.

Bad: Choice of captain..went with Chris Judd instead of Cox! And Freo rookie Stephen Hill (74) would have been my second highest scoring defender…had he actually been in my team instead of Petrenko (11). Those two decisions alone cost me victory in the end.

Ugly: Injury toll -  Hille…Harvey…Richo…Hasleby. Surely it can’t get any worse, can it?

Next opponents:

GMHBA – 6th placed Tigers09 (1,954 last week): Solid looking team who also have the David Hille issue to resolve.

Potential changes/trades: With no viable ruckman on the bench and already carrying Skipworth in the forwards, Hille and Harvey both need to go now. My Hille strategy is sorted (Kruezer or Mumford) but what to do with Harvey? I missed the Nathan Krakouer bandwagon earlier in the season but even now at 400 grandwith a 100 per game average, he’s a viable option. Otherwise, I could take the bargain basement option and trade Harvey for Robin Nahas and go with two rookie forwards every week until Skipworth comes back. Hille for Mumford and Harvey for Nahas would leave me with over 500 grand in the cap. That could turn somebody like Brent Reilly into Gary Ablett later in the season and plenty of spare change to help in other areas, maybe turn the inflated price of Mumford into a stronger second ruck when Ottens comes back.

Round Five – Lest We Forget…How To Play Footy!

One name that Bomber fans will never forget…David Zaharakis!

On this weekend of Anzac Day (Lest We Forget), a few teams seemed to totally forget what to do on the footy field. Port Adelaide…eeew! North Melbourne…sheesh! Brisbane…ouch! And Collingwood (for the final four minutes)…yikes! Or does that take credit away from the impressive performances of St Kilda, Geelong, Richmond? Yeah, I said Richmond! And that finish to the Anzac Day match between Essendon and Collingwood…holy smokes! I’m still squealing in delight…

Possibly the biggest thing to take from this weekend, something never to forget, is that you shouldn’t give up on your team if there is any flicker of hope. I did it once with Essendon back in 2001…only to be left standing all alone at the tram stop outside of Colonial Stadium (now Whatshishead Stadium) and listening to the radio as Steven Alessio kicked the winning goal with five seconds left to beat the Sydney Swans.

The Games:

After an emergency half-time meeting, Port’s leadership group decide against giving up and elect to take the field for the second half. Poor choice…

Unless you are a mad St Kilda fan, it was a pretty ugly Friday night of footy. Well, Port Adelaide are not the prettiest bunch of people to start with…plus their financial situation is looking quite unhealthy too. But the way in which they were dismantled the Saints must leave them having to re-evaluate just how good they are. And it won’t help Mark Williams get a job at Collingwood any time soon…

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If Mick is really worried about ‘letting down the Anzacs‘, his club should forget high-altitude preseason training in Arizona and sign the players up for a dose of National Service instead!

Essendon…I can’t even describe how they did it; they just did it!  After losing their only established ruckman for the season in the first minute, the prodigious Paddy Ryder and his young cohorts fought valiantly but the Bombers looked done down three kicks with five minutes left. The Pies then went from dogged to disgusting in the final four minutes and set the scene for David Zaharakis and his ball-tearing matchwinner! And here it is…

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Great game by Hawthorn’s goal-kicking machine – it’s Buddy! No, it’s Roughie! No, it’s…Gary Moss?

That’s right folks. Gary Moss kicks four goals as the Hawks overcome the West Coast Eagles in a tough match down in Tassie. John Worsfold might well lament the one that got away but is more concerned about the one that cannot get away…that is, Daniel Kerr cannot get away from some rough treatment by his opponents. Poor Kerr…

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Tiger players go absolutely crazy as Mark Coughlan is announced to replace Terry Wallace as the next coach of Richmond leads the team in the victory song!

Hang on – Richmond are meant to be shit, aren’t they? But I swore that I read somewhere that they won? Yep, it says it here too. And that guy on death row is praising their commitment and everything so it must be true! What a shocker for the Roos…and having the captain’s elbow bent all manner of sideways can’t be good either!

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Hang on – Fremantle are meant to be shit, aren’t they? But I swore that I read somewhere that they won? Fremantle, not wanting to be left winless longer than Richmond,  took care of the Sydney Swans at home. Maybe that was the challenge Mark Harvey issued the players this week…don’t be as shit as Richmond please!

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Yes, he kicked it from that angle…just another routine piece of genius from Gary Ablett!

Geelong annihilate Brisbane to the tune of 93 points at Skilled Stadium with Gary Ablett continuing to punish me for not picking him in any of my fantasy teams! Coach Vossy hopes that his Lions learn plenty from the spanking but it seems that the Cats might have learnt a few things about their team as well. Come on – what’s with all this learning stuff? It’s just footy…if I wanted to learn anything, I would have paid attention in school!

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If you saw Brian Lake’s stupid handball in the third quarter then you know why Rodney Eade is looking so pissed off!

While the coach of the Western Bulldogs can look at errors and poor decisions costing them any chance, they would have needed to be near flawless to have gotten over the top of Carlton. The Blues do it for Dick as they leap up into third spot on the ladder and Fevola, who kicked his 500th goal,  might be back in town as well…though there are a few people from out of town that are keen on him too!

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A late Sunday match on a cold and shitty afternoon in Melbourne involving the Demons and Adelaide. Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, does it? Well, you’re right…it wasn’t! ‘Scrappy’ is not strong enough a word to describe it…‘ugly’ – that’s more like it! The Crows kept Melbourne goalless for two and a half quarters and held off the fast-finishing Dees for another win at the MCG. And by fast-finishing, we mean three goals in final term. Yep, it was that type of game.

Three Out Of Four Ain’t Bad! (Geekin’ Out – Fantasy Footy)

Hayden is hamstrung…so how much is a Skipworth worth?

With Half Back Flanker entered in three different Toyota AFL Dream Team leagues, plus one public league in Herald Sun Super Coach, it will be a busy week at the world’s geekiest selection table. And the biggest decision to make this week involves a mature recruit who has impressed at his second club and looked set for a big year in my forward line.

Unfortunately for me, and many thousands of fantasy coaches, Essendon’s Hayden Skipworth pinged the hammy last Sunday and will be out of action for a few weeks. His price has increased quite nicely so the temptation to upgrade him for a gun forward or cash him in for a rookie is strong. We might hold onto him in SC as we can cover him with a promising rookie from North Mebourne, but we are on the fence in DT. Hmmm, what to do…

And we want to perform well in that competition this week as we take on Francis Leach, co-host of the drive program The Run Home 0n sports radio station SEN 1116, in the SENFrank01 league. We both lost last week so one of us will be without a win after two rounds….not a Tigerland-style crisis by any stretch but still – a win would be nice!

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Dream Team 7,599 points overall, 21,733th place – well, let’s say my hopes for winning the top prize are ’slim’!

Last Week: 1,866 points – too many sub-70 scores to come close to consecutive 2,000 point weeks but good enough to win in two of my three leagues.

League Results

Public League – defeated The French (1,069). Who doesn’t love beating The French! They didn’t put up much resistance either…surprised?

SENFrank01 – lost to Princess Superstar (1,971). My only loss of the opening week – Princess Superstar knows her footy and she can rap! What a combo…

Twitter DT – defeated Team 898 (1,664) Would have been a much closer result had Team 898 not played one forward short plus had no emergency mid to cover the late withdrawal of Shaun Burgoyne.

Ladder Positions

Public League – 1st place (1-0, 174.56%)

SENFrank01 – 11th place (0-1, 94.67%)

Twitter DT – 5th place (1-0, 112.14%)

Good:  Six 100-plus scores with Scott Pendlebury (135) and Chad Cornes (129) leading the way. Shaun Higgins (116) keeps powering on and the bargain buy of the preseason looks like a keeper for the entire year..

Bad: Two sub 50’s in defence (Courtenay Dempsey and Jared Petrenko) and our other bargain forwards hit the wall – Ryan Houlihan finishing with a 43 and Hayden Skipworth a 54 to go with his torn hammy!

Ugly:  Redheaded Melbourne rookie Kyle Cheney…though it’s not the hair I’m talking about. With Andrew Raines out of action and Cheney out of favour, Docker Nick Suban was our only emergency defender. Fortunately, his 64 was respectable considering the circumstances…but nothing about his club is ‘respectable’ at the moment. And Bomber ruckman David Hille averaging 67.50 over the first month of the season is a terrible result.

David Hille…must do better!

Next opponents:

Public League – 3rd placed Sydney Cats (1,539 last week): Obviously a Cats fan…the 12 Geelong players in his team is a dead giveaway! But has too many unavailable players to field a full side…should win this one.

SENFrank01 – 10th placed Frank’s Fruitcakes (1,846 last week): Francis Leach appears to have some personnel issues in defence and will need to trade. But he also appears to have Gary Ablett…and that could be bad for me!

Twitter DT – 2nd placed Didak’s Left Foot (2,078 last week): Sean Callanan topped 2000 last week despite the spluttering left foot of Alan Didak. Might be 0-2 by Monday…

Potential changes/trades: It’s a question most fantasy coaches are pondering this week…what to do with Skipworth? That could depend on what happens late Friday with the teams. Raines is still out and both Cheney and Petrenko are on extended interchanges as they play on Sunday. If both miss out, we will be one defender down. With 133 grand left in the cap, we could turn Cheney into regular senior players like Shannon Hurn or Gavin Urquhart…or Petrenko into Sam Gilbert. Would prefer to keep Petrenko but grab Gilbert….that could mean cashing in on Skipworth.

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Super Coach 8,516 points overall, 11,965th place – progressing a lot better in SC than DT so far this season

Last Week 2,140 points

League Results

GMHBA – defeated cicc14s (1,293): a virtual bye to open the SC league season, nice little confidence booster!

Ladder Positions

GMHBA – 1st place (1-0, 165.51%)

Good:  An elite midfielder struggling for form who gets to face Essendon…instant slump breaker! Welcome back Brent Harvey (169)! Another eight players over 100 points helped us crack the 2,000 mark.

A Super Coach score of 169? Yep, that is definitely worth being carried off the field!

Bad: Same as DT – cheap forwards struggled and low scores from defenders Petrenko (59) and Heath Grundy (58) didn’t help. And then there is the ugly…

Ugly: Big money buys Brett Deledio and Hille are underperforming and dropping in value every week. Both should be doing a lot better than this so need to stay patient for now. But for how long?

Next opponents:

GMHBA – 6th placed Yogi’s Supastas (2,090 last week): Good looking team but will definitely be one player down as they have Skipworth, Nathan Brown and Jamie Charman to replace but no emergencies or reserves in those positions that will play on the weekend. They will need to trade well in order to pose a real challenge this week.

Potential changes/trades: The Skipworth question? With Jack Ziebell in reserve, will definitely bench the hamstrung Bomber and go with the Roo rookie to have a decent game against Richmond. With no nasty surprises coming out of the team selections, might be a good week to hold onto my trades and go with what I have.

Where’s Wallace? (Media Street)

The smile, the sunnies, the media throng that follows him everywhere he goes…talk about living the rock star life! Tell me Terry isn’t loving every second of this!!!

We all know that when there is a “CRISIS” in AFL footy, there is nowhere to hide. Richmond are currently in “CRISIS” mode and the eyes of all media and Tiger supporters are fixated on the footpaths and back exits at Punt Road. So what is going on down there?

• Yes, they lost to Melbourne and have yet to win this year…that’s kinda bad…
• So has Terry Wallace been sacked yet? Well, no…actually he hasn’t. And he intends on hanging around all year!
• But wasn’t he on ‘death row’ before the Melbourne game? Kind of…though as much as the media like to think so, they don’t actually decide when coaches finish their tenure!
• However, they can talk about it all they like…and they will. It’s great for business…
• Luckily, the Richmond board are not in a drastic hurry to cut him loose…so we have a few more Tuesdays With Terry to look forward to…
• But that doesn’t seem to matter as the race to name his successor and/or caretaker hots up. Looks like the field has been narrowed down to about 45 candidates…
• Most of which are probably not interested….and some that Richmond have stated are not in their plans. But like that matters!
• If Denis Pagan was actually interested in the job, he’s totally stuffed that up now! Sure, he didn’t mean to do it but what irony for a man who frowned on his players treading down Media Street gets burnt now that he needs to travel down that same street, screaming “I need a job!”
• Anyway, for the moment, Terry Wallace is still with us. And the players are right behind him…of course. Will the level of scrutiny at Punt Road remain on the verge of farcical? You betcha!
• My favourite moment – the player who fronts the media to talk about the mental problems within the playing group…Matthew Richardson! I shit you not…

Richmond’s spokesman for mental problems reveals to the footy world that…yes, they have mental problems!

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The KKK? Look more like a cheap-ass Casper the Friendly Ghost…with a little Blues Brothers thrown in!

Um…sorry but are Fremantle players really dressing up as members of the Klu Klux Klan in order to pull pranks on their teammates?

Did I say KKK? I meant that the players dress up like the RSPCA! They go around feeding puppy dogs and petting kitty cats…our players are soooooooo cute!!!

Sounds more like a poor choice of words from the Freo assistant coach to me. Come on – this is the twenty-first century! As if anybody would seriously be that insensitive as to parade around in racist paraphernalia these days…

Um…never mind!

Round Four – Should Have Known Better…

Should have known better than…

• To tip against Collingwood…there is nothing that screws up your weekend more than a Pies victory on a Friday night that crushes your hopes for a perfect tipping round! Chuck in this touchy umpire controversy and Collingwood will be on the football media agenda all week…again!

Don’t worry Michael Rischitelli…I had the same reaction as you did when I saw the final score last Friday night!!!

• Also, probably should have known better that even with the media swooping on Tigerland last week, who says something stupid to get themselves on the front pages again? President and/or Media and/or Game Show Host Eddie McGuire! Sheesh, this media Magpie obsession…when will it end?

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• To dismiss Port Adelaide’s chances of upsetting Hawthorn purely on the strength of their poxy away jumpers! Honestly, they are shit, aren’t they? And now that they have beaten the reigning champs by five goals in those ugly things, that will just encourage them to wear it more and more. I think I’m going to have another Michael Rischitelli moment…

Those stupid away jumpers might have been designed with pillows in mind but the Power were far from soft against the Hawks!

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• To tell my Carlton supporting friends that the Blues would bounce back after my Bombers knocked them off last week. Fortunately, I didn’t believe it myself when it came to tipping as the Swans squeaked out a win at the SCG. Once again, the Blues were wayward with the ball while poor old Fev missed shots at goal and could barely stay on the field! Well, we all know how wayward he can get…

Brendan Fevola – just a lovable larrikin who is always pushing the boundaries…or tumbling over them!

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• To tip Fremantle…………………….just kidding! St Kilda barely raised a sweat as they embarrassed the Dockers at Whatshisname Stadium, leaving Mark Harvey to admit that his team may not be good enough…like it only dawned on him now. On the other hand, Matthew Pavlich cannot admit that his team is a laughing stock. I’m sure it will dawn on him soon enough…

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• To think the Adelaide Crows would complete a remarkable comeback to beat Geelong. The Cats looked like they were going to cut up the Crows ‘St Kilda-Freo’ style but Adelaide fought back hard in the second and third quarters. However, all their hard work was quickly blown away in the final term as lil’ Gazza did as he pleased on the way to a big win…holy crap, that guy is good!!!

Gary Ablett should not just be chaired around by teammates after footy games. It should happen all the time – to training, to the shops…he deserves it!

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• Thinking that tipping Essendon for the first time this year against North Melbourne was a great idea. In a scrappy game, the Roos were less scrappy when it counted as they scraped through by a couple of goals. The Bombers might have had the odd premiership hangover in years gone by – but can you get a hangover after beating a non-finals side in round three? Well, whatever they had, it didn’t help them kick straight!

Forget the on-field clangers…the Bombers couldn’t even exit the arena correctly against the Kangaroos.

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• To be surprised by anything that happens with the Richmond Football Club anymore. Yes, they lost to Melbourne. Yes, Terry Wallace is in some trouble. And yes, whoever writes headlines for the Herald Sun is probably a dickhead. But for the struggling Demons, even when they win, they still manage to lose somehow.

Terry Wallace makes a quick call to Centrelink, only to hear that they are open from 8:30am to 5pm weekdays and to call back during business hours.

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• The Bulldogs made their second trip to Western Australia in the first four rounds but it was not as successful as the first. West Coast may not get close to a win away from Subiaco but at least they like a little home cooking. Rodney Eade was not that impressed as they slid to their first loss of the season but at least they won’t have to go back to Perth again this year.

Footy Geekfest 2009 Is Officially Under Way! (Geekin’ Out – Fantasy Footy)

Thumbs up for fantasy football season!

The 2009 fantasy footy season has actually been running for three weeks now but this Friday night signals the opening round for each of the fantasy league competition. Unless you are in contention for the highest overall score for the season and a substantial cash prize (um, not here…) then the fun begins now!

Having spent the offseason basking in virtual premiership glory, Half Back Flanker will again have squads entered for leagues in both the Herald Sun Super Coach and Toyota AFL Dream Team competitions and this year we have a little added incentive. In AFL Dream Team, we have entered a couple of leagues – an AFL Twitter league created by fellow web-based footy geeks and a league created by sports radio station SEN 1116 in order to take on Francis Leach, co-host of the drive program The Run Home.

We will give a full wrap of our opening round clashes next week but this is a quick review of the state of play for Half Back Flanker in both major fantasy footy comps after three rounds as we prepare for the opening matches of league play!

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Dream Team

A breakout season from Essendon’s Courtenay Dempsey would do wonders for Half Back Flanker!

Scores: 5,693 points overall, 18,280th place – jumped up a few thousand places this week after topping 2000 points in round three.

Defenders: Chad Cornes, Brendon Goddard, Jed Adcock, Luke Hodge, Courtenay Dempsey, Kyle Cheney, Jared Petrenko, Nick Suban, Andrew Raines.

Elected to hold onto Raines while he recovers from his knee injury but that leaves us starting two rookies for the moment.  Hodge has started slowly but Goddard has kicked ass so far and good performances from Adcock and Dempsey last weekend were very promising

Midfielders: Bryce Gibbs, Chris Judd, Joel Selwood, Scott Pendlebury, Daniel Rich, Paul Hasleby, Patrick Dangerfield, Liam Anthony.

Traded Daniel Kerr for Gibbs last week to join fellow Blues ‘fab four?’ member Judd. Rich and Hasleby have shot up in value and Dangerfield’s form could create a selection headache in the coming weeks. Hoping that keeping Liam Anthony stashed away on the bench will pay off later in the season.

Rucks: Drew Petrie, David Hille, Sam Jacobs, Jake Spencer.

Both starting ruckman have performed a touch below expectations so far. Jacobs has played all three, Spencer just the two – neither looks like a fantasy sleeper but might be needed if injury or suspension strikes.

Forwards: Brett Deledio, Hayden Skipworth, Ryan Houlihan, Shaun Higgins, Lance Franklin, Matthew Pavlich, Scott Lucas, Taylor Walker, Mitchell Brown.

Brought in Houlihan last week for high-priced struggler Brent Harvey and, added to Skipworth and Higgins, created over 115 grand profit from just three players! In fact, only big names in Pavlich, Franklin and Deledio lost value after three rounds.

Great Decision: Mostly the obvious cheaper options like Skipworth, Higgins, Rich and Houlihan plus all rookies apart from Spencer have played the opening three games and jumped in value. Trading Harvey for Houlihan just before the price change may have cost one trade but Harvey lost 40 grand, Houlihan gained 31 grand and we have still 133 grand left in the cap.

Bad Call: Of the established ruckmen who lack quality support, went with Bomber allegiance (Hille) rather than the two cheaper options of Darren Jolly or Josh Fraser…who are now the two highest-ranked ruckmen after three rounds.

Ugly, Ugly, Ugly: Another injury in defence…though all three rookies are playing every week, they don’t appear to be long term fantasy starters. We have cash but some shrewd trading is still required to boost the back half.

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Super Coach

Boomer or bust? Already axed from our Dream Team, we have kept faith in Harvey for Super Coach…for now!

Scores: 6,376 points overall,12,588th place – improved by over 24 thousand spots after pulling out a 2,433 in round three.

Defenders: Brendon Goddard, Sam Gilbert, Chad Cornes, Jed Adcock, Courtenay Dempsey, Heath Grundy, Kyle Cheney, Jared Petrenko, Stephen Hill.

Apart from a slight decrease for Cornes, every defender increased in value – with massive leaps up for Gilbert, Petrenko and Dempsey. If both Dempsey and Grundy continue to improve, and a good deal can be done with either Cheney or Petrenko, the backline could work out very nicely.

Midfielders: Chris Judd, Dane Swan, Daniel Rich, Jimmy Bartel, Paul Hasleby, Brent Reilly, Patrick Dangerfield, Liam Anthony.

Probably one gun midfielder short so thinking about cashing in Reilly or Hasleby for a rookie to raise cash for a big name. Went against picking Gary Ablett initially, would need to raise a lot of money to bring him in now.

Rucks: Dean Cox, David Hille, Sam Jacobs, Jake Spencer.

Cox is currently ranked third and always reliable, Hille not in the top ten is a worry but at least he has no competition for game time at Windy Hill.

Forwards: Matthew Richardson, Shaun Higgins, Ryan Houlihan, Hayden Skipworth, Matthew Pavlich, Brett Deledio, Brent Harvey, Taylor Walker, Jack Ziebell.

Harvey survives as we decided to trade Lucas for Houlihan last week, hopeful that the Roos captain can improve dramatically.

Great Decision: Trading the injured Raines for Cheney after round one gave us enough funds to add Sam Gilbert (for rookie Matthew Suckling) and Houlihan for Lucas. The resulting boost to our score last week and overall team value was dramatic.

Bad Call: Reilly as a mid-priced midfielder was not a terrible decision, and his price did increase slightly after three rounds, but is the lowest ranked of my starters and even teenage Crow teammate Dangerfield is performing better and might even replace Reilly as a starter. A fully fit player worth 300 grand on the bench? That’s not good management…

Ugly, Ugly, Ugly: A loss of 148 thousand bucks from under-performing stars Pavlich, Deledio and Harvey after three rounds. You would expect each of them to get better as the season wears on but if something drastic happened to one of them…ouch!

Round Three – Should Have Laid Off The Choccy Eggs!

Heath Shaw – seems like a touch…a touch too much!

Talk about having a crappy Easter break! Collingwood’s Heath Shaw would have been feeling sick to his stomach all weekend without the aid of a single chocolate egg (or many of them in succession, like the rest of us!) after his report for touching an umpire last Thursday night. Unfortunate because it was actually Alan Didak who touched the umpire, Shaw was just covering up for him…again!

Now this is the best way to touch an umpire…gently, respectfully and with a smile!

The matter has been sent straight to the tribunal so it will be a pretty big night there…particularly if there are a few players who elect to contest charges stemming from round three. But while some people in footy might have had a crappy Easter weekend; Heath Shaw, John Worsfold and Terry Wallace immediately spring to mind; it pales into insignificance compared to the anguish that the family and friends of ex-Hawk and footy documentary whiz Rob Dickson must be feeling. How sad…knocks the stuffing out of you, doesn’t it!

The Games:

Busted nose for Steve Johnson…guess he won’t be able to rely on his looks anymore!

Geelong continue on their merry way as they steamroll Collingwood…causing the normally-obtuse Mick Malthouse to deal in the bleeding obvious. The Pies were made to pay for numerous acts of inaccuracy…which makes you wonder whether Heath Shaw meant to grab the ump’s arm or was actually trying to grab him elsewhere and just plain missed! Bloody skill errors…

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Be it celebrating with teammates or wrestling with opponents, Kossie just can’t stop whacking blokes in the head!

St Kilda could hardly have been more impressive during the opening three rounds, and Nick Riewoldt has yet to really get going. So maybe this is (finally) the year of the Saint? The Eagles looked very average and you can just imagine John Worsfold being so pissed that he would have confiscated every Easter egg from his players on the long flight home to Perth!

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Two weeks ago, Essendon were a crap team and everybody at Windy Hill hated Hayden Skipworth…seems neither of those things are correct.

Carlton’s rise to premiership glory stalls after the Bombers win a classic in front of seventy thousand at the ‘G. If only Fev wasn’t injured, and if only Matthew Lloyd was really finished as a footballer (like he was last year), the result could have been so different. But…it wasn’t! And a big thanks to the bogan footy family who interrupted a quiet Saturday night dinner at the local Chinese restaurant in Warrnambool with random screams of “Go Bombers”. Made my night!

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The Sydney Swans were meant to be Brisbane’s bogey side…sure didn’t look like it! The Lions knock off Sydney at home and it seems like the message of Voss is getting through…though if they are really setting themselves for a return to the big time, beating Collingwood at home is a must. And a Friday night as well…rare territory for Brisbane.

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Doesn’t look like Dean Bailey is loving life as Melbourne coach but…

HE LOVES TO COUNT…AHH AHH AHH AHH AHH!

First we had Lloydy, now Warren Tredrea rises from the Useless AFL Player grave to kick six goals as Port bounce back after a poor showing in Perth last week. But come on – they were playing the Demons at home…as if they weren’t going to romp it in! The only problem they were going to have was with discipline…and yes, they struggled in that area again. The coach will be delighted. No, seriously – he will think it’s unreal! He loves tough guys…

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The premiership hangover theory can be discarded too as Hawthorn put injury woes and tragedy aside to win easily over North Melbourne. It ended a miserable week for the Roos, Dean Laidley referring to the scrutiny around the chicken sex video as akin to World War III.  Well, without the global significance, the devastation and the mass killings of soldiers and innocent people, of course! Apart from that, yeah – just like a war…

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The Crows did manage to handle their week of scrutiny a little better than the Roos, fighting their way to a good road win against the Dockers. Three rounds in and how many wins do Fremantle have? None! Luckily, coach Mark Harvey has a supporter in the coach that just knocked off his team. Grant Thomas is definitely not a supporter…but that probably works in Harvey’s favour!

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Will the Tigers find inspiration from Richo snorting his glove through his nose and out his mouth? Well, anything is worth a shot for Richmond…

The Western Bulldogs, a top-four team in good form, had a good win yesterday over Richmond, not a top-four team and not in good form. So the outrage and hysteria about the Tigers seems a little over the top and, dare we say it, contrived by media types who need content for the week. But if Terry Wallace is feeling heat now, imagine what he will cop if they fall to the winless Demons this Sunday!