Hogg Premier League 2013

[Groover]

I need griffen to get amongst it and bring me home, need him to ton up for victory

[Q.]

I need griffen to get amongst it and bring me home, need him to ton up for victory

Getting tagged hard by Raines, doesn't look as though he'll outscore Ablett by much

[Groover]

Well im crossing my fingers anyway. The fact brisbane are floggin wb might help as they may just let griffo loose in the second half... Heres to me hoping so anyway

[wycbloods]

Well im crossing my fingers anyway. The fact brisbane are floggin wb might help as they may just let griffo loose in the second half... Heres to me hoping so anyway

Being on the road back from Melbourne today has hurt me. Couldnt take Selwoods 131 as my VC cost me 40 points and probably both my premier league game and lobster league game.

[Q.]

Good weekend for me. Another crack at Hogg glory and through to two cash league GFs (cha-ching!).

Just need to go one better now.

[Rik E Boy]

Hogg Premier Preliminary Finals Review

1st Preliminary Final

Captain Who? 2396
Buddyroughhawks 2388

A bit of attention to detail and a delayed captaincy selection was enough to swing this close Preliminary Final Captain Who's way as a trip to Melbourne proved to be costly for wycbloods. While bloods was on the road, reigning Hogg champions Groover pored over his side trying to find a way to come up with a winning formula. With Blayne Wilson carding a pretty ordinary 34 and Cotchin subbed out on the Sunday it all came down to the Lions v Dogs match after Cyril covered brilliantly for late out Andrew Walker for the Buddys. Even though Ryan Griffen was subdued in the first half he did enough and the thirty point difference between the captains of both sides proved decisive as Ablett failed to excel in SuperCoach for the third straight week of the finals.

So the Captain has now made it to the Grand Final and will next week attempt to go back to back in the Premier League which would be the best achievement of any coach in this league that gets better every season. If he can achieve this feat it may never be repeated.

2nd Preliminary Final

Q Before You 2588
Underdogs 2213

Things went pretty pear shaped for Underdogs who never recovered from Jordan Lewis being a late out in the North v Hawks game. Gibbo's cover Jed Lamb got plenty of Time On Ground at Cat Park but didn't get his hands on the footy and his score was well down on what you would expect Jordan Lewis to provide. Kieran Jack was well held and Josh Kennedy continued to suffer poor delivery from a misfiring Eagles midfield. Meanwhile all of last week's question marks for Q turned into winners this week as Heath Shaw and Dustin Martin racked up huge scores with Minson's massive 154 the icing on the cake.

The Q Man has now made his second successive Grand Final and will play off against the same opponent as we have a rematch of last years decider. Looking at Footy history (at least at AFL level) when this happens the previous years loser normally gets up. It should be an absolute cracker to finish the year and the Captain could have his hands full next week.

regards,

REB

[Groover]

Defenately Q's gf to lose next week. His team looks to have peaked at the perfect time!

[Rik E Boy]

Defenately Q's gf to lose next week. His team looks to have peaked at the perfect time!

No worries Sheeds.

regards,

REB

[Q.]

Let's hope it's not marred by late outs and sub vest shenanigans like this week was.

[Groover]

Ill be happy to field a full side and be competitive, if it comes down to the wire then so be it

[Hondo]

Good luck guys the two best teams have won through. I picked Q as our winner a while back actually but maybe Groover can use the loopholes to claw back against what looks like a fortress of stars.

[Q.]

Commiserations Groover, but I'm happy to have a little bit of revenge after my defeat last year. I had this finals series on my radar long ago, keeping two trades for each week of the finals and plenty of cash in the bank, but you always need a bit of luck and it seemed to fall my way a number of times during the last month.

Pretty stoked to sit atop the Hogg Premier league, but I will have the opportunity to take out the trifecta next year - Premier, Champions and Elite. Can it be done?!

Thanks to everyone who participated, hopefully we climb the league ranks a little higher next year.

[Alaska]

Congratulations Q well played by all.

[Hondo]

Really wll done Q. When you posted your team a while back almost complete and 10 trades left I knew there was little chance for me with a similar side but about 5 less trades.

What I'm really interested in is how much you rose in the rankings (up to top 500 I think?) over the second half of the season. You were patient in targetting the upgrades you knew you needed rather than rushing into 50-50 choices just for the sake of upgrading faster. That's how I started out playing but in the last few years I have tried to upgrade faster and ended up with the wrong players.

You may not win $50K with that approach but I suspect you collected a decent amount of cash with the more patient strategy thanks to cash leagues.

8 trades + cash for league finals = no wonder you dominated so much.

Bad luck to Groover I think he copped a donut thanks to Michael Johnson but he had a great season as well. Brandon Ellis was his secret weapon among others.

[Hondo]

One key mistake I made was trading Priddis to Griffin in the first week of finals. I saw Q and Groover had Griffin and felt I needed to remove the POD. As it turned out Griffin had his worst 4 weeks of the season while Priddis had his 4 best.

[Q.]

You know after the first couple of weeks whether you're any chance of the $50K. If you rule it out early you won't be forced to burn trades to stay at the top, so you can bide you're time as you wait to trade in the best rookies on the bubble and only quality premiums. You're going to drop some games, but hopefully you can stay in touch with the top eight.

One trick I have used in the past early in the season is, if a premium gets injured, trade him out for a rookie on the bubble. Wear the hurt of one less premium for a little while and use that bonus cash on making midfield upgrades. When Luenberger got injured mid-season, it coincided with Nicholls coming on the scene. Made the trade, Nicholls scored well, and I used the cash to get the highest scoring players I didn't already have. Later in the year, Nicholls traded out for Grundy and I had another bunch of cash floating around when I needed it.

[Rik E Boy]

Still scratching my head over this comp. I wouldn't have won the flag but in the season where I have scored the most points and had my best overall ranking I have had my worst season in Hogg Premier although the league is getting tougher every season.

regards,

REB