AFL 2011 - HOW GOODES IS THIS SWANS BLOG: 'Like Kissing Your Sister' - Round 1 Review

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WEEKLY BLOG BY WARRICK NICOLSON

HOW GOODES IS THIS?

Swans Blog #2: Round 1… MARCH 28th 2011

AFL ROUND 1 - 2011 SWANS 11.18.84 DEMONS 11.18.84 Like kissing your sister... You've heard the saying; a draw is like kissing your sister. But for the Sydney Swans their draw with the Melbourne Demons must've felt more like kissing your mother in law... something you really don't enjoy but realise that civility is better than the alternative. The Swans will be feeling like that today in the wake of their 84-all draw, because as frustrated as they may be with only 2 points - the alternative of 0 points would have been much worse. Sydney led for over 100 minutes of the contest but in the 4th Quarter Melbourne missed a couple of golden opportunities to streak ahead with set shots and then only Ryan O'Keefe's snap late into the final term saved the Swans from complete embarrassment. Sydney coach John Longmire said after the game "we were smashed in the contested footy (158 to 122)" which was a factor in the result but the game could have been put away in the 3rd term when Sydney kicked just 3.9 after leading 47-38 at halftime - which Longmire noted "that was pivotal. We didn't get the reward for our effort in the third quarter." The usual firm were best for Sydney but the disappearing act of Adam Goodes in the final term had to be a concern for Sydney & Fantasy players alike, while Samuel Reid had a good first half up forward which was an encouraging sign. So 2 points on the board (an improvement on recent seasons as the Swans still haven't won in Round 1 since 2005) but with Essendon coming to town after crushing the Western Bulldogs at Etihad - things certainly don't get easier for the Swans. And one gets the feeling that Longmire enjoyed the result yesterday as much as kissing his mother in law when he summed up the result with this... "Yeah, it was terrific." |-| |-| |-| 'HOW GOODES IS THIS' FANTASY REPORT:  ROUND 1 DREAM TEAM: 2,128 Points / 4,882 of 251,147. ROUND 1 SUPER COACH: 2,306 Points / 6,617 of 343,382. Round 1 Summary:  Went in with almost identical teams in both competitions for the simple reasons that A. I didn't want to have those situations where you berate yourself for picking a player in one and not the other and said player is extremely good in the comp you are doing worse in, and B. Given I prefer the simplicity of the Dream Team scoring system it just made sense to stick with what I think I know when it came to picking players. Unfortunately the by-product of this is I can't seriously compete in the Super Coach competition unless I take different trade routes from here on out. The result is a great start in both competitions despite losing Joel Selwood early and having a premium player produce next to nothing for what I'm paying for. If he's ruled out early this week the temptation is to send him packing for Gary Ablett which might not be the worst idea ever... with the alternative being to send his cash into a midfield cash cow and upgrade a mid-pricer on the back or front end... decisions decisions. Like a vast majority of highly ranked teams in Week 1 - I had a plethora of good scoring rookies and now the big question becomes 'which one do I start?' - I left Shaun McKernan on the bench for both games and got little from Lukas Markovic and not quite enough from Nicolas Duigan so if McKernan is going to be featured in the Adelaide attack then maybe it's worth promoting him. Only one selection decision came back to bite me, with the late omission of David Zaharakis (who had been on my team since February) replaced by Adam Goodes for the sake of the Team Nickname... didn't look too bad a move when Goodes had 76 points at 3/4 time... only to end with 76 points at full time. Zaharakis bagged 103 in Dream Team. Finally despite not quite getting maximum value from my skipper Dane Swan (although I'll take his 137 score every week x2 thank you very much) it was a case of welcome back Coxer to the ruck. Here is the AFL Dream Team I submitted for Round 1...  HOW DID YOU FARE?