titan_uranus

OK, well we have 16 now so it's all systems go. I've changed the time of the draft again (I promise this is it): 11.00 tomorrow morning. 5 minutes between picks. Make sure you've set some pre-draft rankings, or at least are comfortable with the fact that if you don't, or your list is exhausted before the draft finishes, the system will pick for you.

Yep. It had stopped until this thread.

We've got less than 2 hours to find a 16th member or we're in serious trouble, as the draft won't run if we have an odd number of teams 2 hour before the draft starts. I'm going to send out some PMs to people who seemed to be interested last year, but really, if anyone's reading this, and you wouldn't mind being a part, PLEASE JOIN!!!!!!!!!!

Bloody West Indies. 4 wickets in hand, about 20 runs to get, Sarwan and Russell set at the crease, and they lose. Which basically means England are through. You could mount a totally believable and credible case to say England should be 0-6.

Wow. Well this is it. Confirmation we're in for a dud year.

Hope. Of course it's far too early to say whether he'll even be an OK player.

This is only reason to doubt the statement.

Meh. Won't get a game. If he does the world really will be ending. Possible merit to KS's theory that he is there to put pressure on Martin. Then again, it wouldn't exactly be a credible threat.

Defenders: Garland, Rivers, Grimes, Bartram, Bail, MacDonald Midfielders: Jamar, Moloney, Scully, Trengove, Davey, Sylvia Forwards: Watts, Green, Jurrah, Dunn, Petterd, Maric Bench: Jetta, Martin, Jones Sub: Jetta Without Morton to run with Goodes, I'm not sure who'll do that role. Might be Grimes, but he would be giving away oodles of height/strength. Frawley could have done it, but of course we don't have him either. Martin I'd say is too slow. Same with MacDonald. So that match up is a bit of a problem IMO. Bate is not best 22. Dunn and Petterd play his role, but do it better. Warnock misses out to Martin. Martin offers flexibility in that he can ruck, or help fill Frawley's absence if things aren't working well in defence. Has to start, we need a second ruck when Jamar will be going toe-to-toe with Mumford.

Watts, Scully, Trengove, Blease. All of them, honestly, but those four could really be superstars.

I guess we're going to have to. Uh oh. Clicked the wrong one I guess. And there aren't any other dates available before the season kicks off, except for next Thursday, but the chances of people being available on a Thursday for 2.5-3 hours straight is low (I for one am unlikely to have that time). I guess I can change it to a 'slow' online draft, but reduce the pick time to try to simulate a live online draft. I'll set it for Sunday at 10.00, as we were going to do it, but it's not going to technically be 'live'. I've got the minimum pick time, which is 5 minutes. Unfortunate, but that's how it has to be. My management of this whole thing has been shocking, so this is just the cherry on the cake. Hopefully the 15 of us will be pretty much ready to go on Sunday so we can at least shorten the time taken. But make sure you've put in a pre-set list of rankings.

No he's not. Certainly not 'comfortably'. I never would have thought I'd say this, but I think Maric is ahead of him. Sure, that's based on pre-season form, but it seems to be the best Maric has played for us. Then there's Jetta and Bennell, who might play forward too. So to say he's comfortably best 22, when realistically he's only really in the best 25-30, is a fair bit rich.

Wow, it's amazing how little enthusiasm I have for this nowadays. Couple of weeks ago I was pumped for it. Anyway, so the draft for Demonland Mk 2 is on this Sunday. It'll be a live draft, to get it out of the way, with about 5 minutes per pick. Hopefully we're all available then, but we don't have much choice now, given the season starts in 9 days.

Not many footballers who are as bad as PJ get a third chance. Unbelievable really.

9/29...that must be close to the worst loss of 9 wickets in ODI history! That's one heck of an implosion!

Something in me says it would be unfair to take over Casey, or let them die, after what we've been through of late (and with the merger situation). However, if the cost is really what they are saying it is, fielding our own standalone team would probably be worth it. I'm pretty sure Collingwood was rapt with how it worked for them last year (players like Jarryd Blair and Brent Macaffer were played in the VFL just as they were intended to play in the AFL, now they're premiership players). It would give us more control over our depth and young players.

He hasn't played like Riewoldt or Brown yet. Pretty simple really. Seriously, though, it does seem as though his form against Essendon was pretty poor. Fair call, but honestly, would you pick Bate over Dunn? Or even say that, right now, Bate is a better player than Dunn? I wouldn't. Dunn is better. Right now, that is.

Poo.

Ridiculous innings from NZ. 114 off the last 6 overs. Wow. Good old Kamran Akmal again. Dropping sitters. But he did the cricket world a favour. If he'd held the catches Taylor offered him early, we wouldn't have seen him unleash at the end.

Bloody South Africa. Totally ruined my night last night. England should have 0 wins and 4 losses, instead they have 2 wins and a tie. Disappointing. Choosing Hussey is the right move, even though we have Ferguson over there already. Hussey should have been there from the start and is, IMO, an automatic selection for the next game. One of White and D. Hussey will go. I predict D. Hussey, but it's not like White's in any form. But White's the VC and he has a lot more room to improve than David Hussey. I'd rather have White in there going into the latter stages.

It's always disappointing to lose to a team like Brisbane who really isn't much of a threat, but clearly with the players we had out we were nowhere near full strength, and thus this form is not indicative of what we expect to see in Round 1. Having said that, the last two weeks have shown us exactly where we need to improve, and that our depth maybe isn't as strong as what we have been trumpeting over the summer. Pressure on the ball carrier is, these days, completely non-negotiable, and we don't seem to be at the level that is required. Again, this is only the pre-season, but I'd rather see us putting in the effort than not. I'm glad we have Hawthorn next week (or, if somehow Collingwood can't beat West Coast, Fremantle). We haven't played a finalist from 2010 yet and hopefully we'll field the best side we have available. Then we'll get a fairer analysis of where we're at. Glad to hear Tapscott got through his debut. It also seems like Maric is on track for a Round 1 berth, although Jetta might be fighting him for the same position.

I don't see any need to employ a division system. What the next FTP needs to have is fairness, and that means all the countries playing all the other countries the same number of times, home and away. It's a better leveller, it gives teams better ideas of where they rank, and it helps promote the game by allowing the weaker countries (NZ, WI, Bangladesh) to experience the stronger teams (South Africa, India, Sri Lanka). In ODI cricket Bangladesh and Zimbabwe need to start playing the other 8 countries far more regularly, whether we like it or not, to promote their development. Ireland and the Netherlands should be thereabouts too, maybe not as regular as the other sides, but they need to play the big boys more than just once every four years. Cricket will be better for it when it expands into more countries. Ireland has shown it has the capacity to play, and beat, the better countries, but their development as a ODI (and, later, Test) nation is only going to stall if they don't get the chance to play Australia, South Africa and co. more than once every four years.

Oooh yeh, Tapscott ftw. Can't wait to see him tear it up.

Premiers for '11: Collingwood Most Goals for Demons: Liam Jurrah - 70 Leading Goalkicker in AFL: Lance Franklin - 96 Final Ladder position: 8th Wins: 13 Most tackles: Jordie McKenzie Most marks: Brad Green Most handballs: Jack Grimes Most kicks: Aaron Davey Most 1%'s: Colin Garland Best first year player: Jeremy Howe Bluey: Colin Sylvia Biggest crowd: 82,000 - QBW Worst Journo: Mark Robinson Best Journo: Caroline Wilson Biggest news story for '11: Scully signs with Melbourne despite $1.2 million/year offer from GWS. Quote of the season: "He is gone. Gone I tell you. No doubt." Hutchy the day before Scully announces he's staying.

Without consulting the other members of the league, we're definitely going with a category-based system. Much more interesting and strategic (in terms of drafting, trading and match-day selections). I think we might stick to 18, but we'll see what the others think. Live is preferable for sure, but finding a time (2 hours) where everyone is online might prove a pain. For comparision: League Manager titan_uranus League Name Demonland Mk 2 League ID 351891 Password demons Description Game Type Head-to-Head Scoring Type Category-Based Maximum Teams 16 First Round of Matches Round 1 Bye Rounds Play every round Captains Disable use of Captains Can't Cut List Use Can't Cut List LINEUP SETTINGS (Edit) Max Team Size: 27 Total Starters: 18 Total Emergencies: 4 Number of Bench Spots: 5 POSITION STARTERS EMERGENCIES Backs (B) 6 1 Centres © 5 1 Rucks ® 1 1 Forwards (F) 6 1 Utilities (UTL) 0 0 Emergencies (EM) 0 Bench (BN) 5 SCORING (Edit) Player stats used Kicks (KI) 1 Free Kicks For (FF) 1 Handballs (HB) 1 Free Kicks Against (FA) -1 Marks (MA) 1 Points Kicked (SCORE) 1 Hitouts (HO) 1 Goal Kicking Accuracy (%) 1 Tackles (TK) 1 LEAGUE RULES (Edit) Lineup Change Lockout All Players Lock at First Game Of Week Season Player Acquisition Limit Unlimited Weekly Player Acquisition Limit Unlimited Time Players are on Waivers 2 Days Determine Waiver Priority By Continually Rolling List "Weekend" Signing Lockout No Restrictions Maximum Number of Trades No Limit Trade Deadline Sunday, July 24, 11:59PM AEST (Round 18) Trade Review Period 2 Days Trade Review Method Coach Votes DRAFT (Edit) Draft Type Online Draft Draft Start Date/Time Sun 20 March 9:00 AM (AEDT) Time Per Pick 0 Hours 10 Minutes Operate Draft Between 7 AM and 11 PM (AEDT) In bold: should I change these to what you have JA? Any particular reasoning there?