Standard Podcast [1:26:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (123)

It’s the final week of the regular AFL season, and of course that means finals… and guess who won the prelim between Molly and m0nty in the Website Owners league! Hint: he has a big red beard…

We have a guest this week for the first time in a long while: snagadelic, whose team Tanks A Lot is in the Eliminator final with The Convicts, coached by BradFisherman. We chat with snagga about his starting team, his trading trends, his overall fantasy philosophy and his prospects for knocking off the all-conquering DT-leading Convicts outfit which is also #1 in the race for the car at the top of the Dream Team rankings for 2008.

One of the big surprises with The Convicts is how the starting strategy of the team was in direct opposition to the supposed elite strategy of guns-and-rookies; BradFisherman started no rookies in his initial 22, avoided the big-ticket busts, and had quite a few dud mid-price choices to begin with. This was in stark contrast to last year’s Dream Team winner Peckin Away, coached by Steve Morfesse, who started five rookies in his 22 this year. This causes a long conversation about structures.

As an aside, m0nty reveals a new page on FanFooty called Champion Data Brownlow Voting, which collates Super Coach scores and allocates 3-2-1 votes for each game according to the ranking points to mimic the real Brownlow. This has traditionally been a significant pointer to the actual Brownlow votes, and no surprises as to who is leading the 2008 tally!

To round out the discussion on last year’s winners, we go through this year’s offering from 2007 Super Coach winner Casha, who interestingly also started zero rookies in his 22 to begin with.

After m0nty mentions briefly his membership of the leading league in the $20,000 Premium Dream Team competition, he listens dutifully as Molly explains his trade dilemma: he has two trades left (!!) and wants to replace Matthew Pavlich and Heath Shaw. After much debate, he decides on a Crow and a Cat to slot in.

Finally, in the captains segment, there are some very tasty games to chew over, including Geelong toying with the Eagles at Skilled, Carlton’s mids up against the Hawk cluster, and the Richmond vs Melbourne clash in which both sides should play kick to kick.

 

 Standard Podcast [1:04:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (115)

It’s a shorter show this week - only an hour or so instead of the two hours we had been letting it run to - mainly because nobody has any trades left so nobody needs any advice! Except Molly, who’s still hanging onto his two trades despite playing m0nty in a league prelim this week. Oh, it’s ON!

The Finals Dream Team competition is back for 2008, complete with the eagerly-awaited player positional changes which are often a precursor to changes in the “real” Dream Team comp the following year. The full list is at the bottom.

Instead of a regular round review this week we tried something different: a look at a younger player from each team with a view to 2009 prospects. Travis Boak kicks us off, followed by Scott Pendlebury, Patrick Ryder, Nick Gill, Ricky Petterd, Scott Selwood, Bradd Dalziell, Andrejs Everitt, Patrick Veszpremi, Harry Taylor, Shane Tuck, Travis Tuck, Matthew Kreuzer, Lindsay Thomas, Matt Campbell, Robert Warnock and Clinton Jones.

We spend a bit more time this week on the captain choices, seeing as it’s probably the only choice you’ve got left to make this week with trades gone and bench options scarcer than Aussie gold medals. Those under the microscope include Daniel Cross, Adam Cooney, Brent Stanton, Matthew Richardson, Matthew Pavlich, Kane Cornes, Cameron Bruce, Brad Green, Nick Stevens, Jonathan Brown, Joel Corey, Jimmy Bartel, Gary Ablett jnr, Brent Harvey, Nick Riewoldt, Matt Priddis, Jordan Lewis and Lance Franklin.

PLAYER POSITION CHANGES FROM 2008 DT to 2008 FINALS DT
Richard Douglas: CTR/FWD to FWD
James Sellar: FWD to RUC/FWD
Scott Stevens: BAC to BAC/FWD
Brad Symes: BAC to BAC/CTR
Kurt Tippett: FWD to RUC/FWD
Bernie Vince: FWD to CTR
Jared Brennan: BAC/FWD to CTR
Mitch Clark: FWD to FWD/RUC
Robert Copeland: CTR/FWD to FWD
Daniel Bradshaw: BAC/FWD to FWD
Joel Macdonald: BAC/CTR to BAC
Wayde Mills: BAC/FWD to BAC
Joel Patfull: BAC/FWD to BAC
Albert Proud: BAC to CTR
Cheynee Stiller: CTR to BAC/CTR
John Anthony: BAC to FWD
Nathan J. Brown: BAC/FWD to BAC
Leon Davis: FWD to CTR/FWD
Alan Didak: FWD to CTR/FWD
Tarkyn Lockyer: CTR to CTR/FWD
Corey Enright: CTR to BAC
Tom Lonergan: BAC to FWD
Mathew Stokes: FWD to CTR/FWD
Harry Taylor: BAC/CTR to BAC
David Wojcinski: CTR to BAC/CTR
Stuart Dew: FWD to CTR/FWD
Xavier Ellis: BAC to BAC/CTR
Luke Hodge: CTR to BAC/CTR
Rick Ladson: BAC/CTR to BAC
Jarryd Morton: FWD to CTR
Michael Osborne: BAC/CTR to CTR
Jarryd Roughead: BAC/FWD to FWD
David Hale: FWD to RUC/FWD
Leigh Harding: FWD to BAC
Scott McMahon: BAC/FWD to FWD
Drew Petrie: FWD to RUC/FWD
Jess Sinclair: CTR to BAC
Brett Deledio: CTR/FWD to CTR
Shane Edwards: CTR to CTR/FWD
Jake King: BAC/CTR to BAC
Matthew Ferguson: BAC to BAC/FWD
Leigh Fisher: BAC/CTR to BAC
Ed Barlow: BAC/CTR to CTR/FWD
Andrew McDougall: BAC/FWD to BAC
Stephen Tiller: FWD to BAC/FWD
Callan Ward: BAC/CTR to CTR

 

 Standard Podcast [2:00:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (103)

This week we’ve got the Olympic fever, and we aren’t even breathing Beijing air. Stephanie Rice is our Bubble Girl of the Week, or maybe that should be Watercube Girl…

Once the round review is underway, we start with Addam Maric and Austin Wonaeamirri. However, we’re no sooner started the review than m0nty gets sidetracked into a long discussion of who everyone chose as replacements for Heath Shaw and Alan Didak, who were the two most popular outs last week. Winners of that battle were Brent Guerra, Lance Franklin and Andrew Mackie.

Back to the round review, and Molly opines on the performance of the entire Geelong team against Sydney this week, seeing as they’re everyone’s fantasy bogey team, with particular reference to the captain options in the midfield engine room.

Andrew Walker is mulled over, then the Power ruck committee is looked at with Brendon Lade on his last legs and Dean Brogan vying with Fabian Deluca for time on ground in the future TOG-share.

It’s a short Hawk Talk this week with only Clinton Young covered, but the Hawks game gets a fair working over with the advent of the "double cluster" - Brisbane taking a leaf out of Hawthorn’s book by deploying a rolling zone of their own in Launceston on the weekend, with fascinating results. The fantasy implications of what could be a very important tactical shift in the AFL are looked at from every angle.

Small forwards Leon Davis and Adam Schneider are canvassed, while the struggles of Ryan O’Keefe and Brett Kirk are assessed.

The Fremantle backline is worth looking at again, with fantasy yo-yos David Mundy, Roger Hayden, Michael Johnson and Luke McPharlin all combed over for 2009 value.

The aging Brent Harvey is given the once-over for ‘09, while the Bulldogs have been down of late with Daniel Cross, Adam Cooney and Robert Murphy all slowing down after hot fantasy starts to the season. Ryan Griffen is also inspected for a mooted move to the backline.

Fantasy coaches everywhere are hoping that Simon Goodwin becomes forward-eligible in fantasy comps next year, which makes him worthy of consideration as a starter next year.

Jordan McMahon and Brett Deledio are gauged as late-season captain prospects - especially against the aforementioned cluster.

m0nty gets to bash up his favourite spud Ashley Hansen again by talking up Ben McKinley and Josh J. Kennedy, with an excursion into Quinten Lynch land. Finally, Angus Monfries‘ good last fortnight is examined with a view to next year.

The Premium Dream Team competition is coming down to tin tacks, especially for those in the running for the major cash prizes on offer. m0nty has a tale about the leader in the league competition, victigers, which mysteriously lost 400 of its 600-point lead with a late amendment to the Web site after the game had opened on Sunday night. Subterfuge and skulduggery aplenty!

Finally in a hurried captain segment, Kane Cornes is endorsed, as is Molly’s boy Scott Thompson along with several other usual suspects.

 

 Standard Podcast [1:57:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (109)

No, we haven’t been drinking with any footballers this week, and no, we haven’t got incriminating photos taken on our iPhones. At least, not that we’re telling.

Of course, we have to talk about the humongous disaster of Alan Didak and Heath Shaw. Molly and m0nty spend the first 30 minutes of the show going through all the implications both in fantasy and in real AFL terms, including a highly detailed discussion of trade options plus m0nty predicting an Eagles-level meltdown of the Collingwood Football Club in 2009.

Back to the rest of the round review: Beau Dowler, Matthew Lloyd, Matthew Bate, Nathan Van Berlo and Nick Stevens are surveyed.

A look at Brad Ottens leads to a lengthy perusal of the ruck options for 2009, with particular reference to finding the “default” #2 and #3 ruck options - likely options include Matthew Kreuzer, Matthew Leuenberger and next year’s top draft prospect Nicholas Naitanui.

Then it’s Chris Newman, Daniel Wells, “Triple-D” Bradd Dalziell, Albert Proud, Robert Murphy, Barry Hall, Jason Gram and Danyle Pearce.

From the derby, the boys discuss the kids in the Freo midfield including Byron Schammer, Brett Peake, Rhys Palmer and Garrick Ibbotson, while for the Eagles Mark LeCras and Matt Priddis are canvassed.

m0nty brings up a BigFooty thread about reclassifications and the boys try to ascertain what positional changes will happen for next year’s VirtualSports competitions.

In the captain choices, it’s hard to go past the Geelong, Carlton and Port Adelaide midfields, while options in the forwards are looking less tasty this week and the backs are giving us nothing.

Good luck for your fantasy finals campaign!

 

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Bonjour again, it’s the Coaches Box, where we’re open to any and all seven-figure offers by garlic-flavoured billionaires to fund retirement to the French Riviera!

There is now a FanFooty Facebook group, by the way. Notifications of upcoming Coaches Box shows will be pushed through there, as well as many other things in future.

Before anything else, m0nty has some very harsh words to say about a terrible set of figures. The numbers relate to a certain video podcast put out by a previously reputable media organisation, shedding some very poor light on so-called stars of the industry…

So we move on to the round review. Hawk Talk is right off the bat with Sam Mitchell and Xavier Ellis, with one of this week’s themes being the value of high draft picks in fantasy. The other theme is big injuries to fantasy guns, starting with perennial injury room inhabitant Paul Chapman!

Steve Johnson, Joel Selwood and Jobe Watson are all examined as 2009 prospects to step up to the next level.

For what seems like the umpteenth time the boys mull over the Collingwood ruck committee, with Cameron Wood dropped this week in favour of Josh Fraser with Chris Bryan providing support. Still on the Pies, Molly gives his views on what next year will bring for top 5 picks Dale Thomas and Scott Pendlebury.

Quinten Lynch was rattling his big stick this week, and Mark Nicoski, Brendon Goddard and Richard Tambling are also covered.

The once-strong Brisbane midfield is the next in the sights of the lads, with Simon Black, Luke Power, Travis Johnstone, Jed Adcock, Michael Rischitelli, Justin Sherman, Jared Brennan, Bradd Dalziell and Albert Proud all coming in for their fair whack, not to mention coach Leigh Matthews.

Adam Goodes, Patrick Veszpremi, Nathan Bock and Kurt Tippett are canvassed, while the news doesn’t look good for club-suspended players Graham Johncock and Peter Burgoyne despite their very different days playing for the Port Magpies in the SANFL.

Over at Melbourne Chris A. Johnson and Nathan Jones are following very different form lines at the moment, while the ruck division of Paul Johnson, Mark Jamar, Jeff White and Jon Meesen is again under scrutiny, leading to a discussion about the way the cards will fall in next year’s AFL draft with the likes of Jack Watts, Nick Naitanui and Daniel Rich all likely to fill top 3 draft slots.

Finally, Brad Johnson, Jarrad Waite, Heath Scotland and Andrew Carrazzo are all assessed for their 2009 possibilities.

Between segments, m0nty gets the opportunity to crow about beating 2007 winner casha in his Super Coach league game this week. Next time, mate!

Then it’s the captain segment, with the Pies and Hawks game likely to be not quite as productive in fantasy terms as the Dons v Dees game. The usual suspects dominate talk of the Geelong game, while the Sydney effect is expected to dampen the Dogs’ spirits. Nick Riewoldt is in a hot run of form and Kane Cornes has been running free so the Dome game on Sunday arvo is tasty, but the derby is expected to be a more dour affair.

Trades of the week both involve Bradd Dalziell, and with a breakeven somewhere south of -135 it’s easy to see why!

Good luck in your attempts to make the finals this week!