Monday, December 10, 2007

What Do We Want? (Tipping)

Well I know what I want Hindsight to tell us after this weekend. It's hard not to notice that the fortunes of the tippers are somewhat swayed by the respective fortunes of the teams they support - it's a generalisation, but like any good generalisation, it's essentially true. Well this time, because I can hardly see that it could make much difference to my guesses' overall accuracy, I'm going to tip strictly according to what I really want. And in case it wasn't noticed, I'm a Roar fan.

So I want Adelaide to beat the Mariners. That would open the door to first place for the Roar. Of course it would also keep Adelaide tight on our heals at best, but I'm going for the best case scenario all round here. I better be realistic though. Actually I'll go for a brief eddy of pattern in history:

Adelaide vs Central Coast
Adelaide 2:1

More obviously, I want the Roar to win, making a clean sweep of their Wellington encounters. But I think it needs to be convincing. Let's face it the Phoenix haven't developed the most intimidating reputation. Doing Perth, however convincingly, was a demonstration of the pit that the Glory boys have really found themselves in at least as much as a show of quality from the Kiwis. Somehow that is the reason - that Wellington has shown it is playing on another level to the Westies - that the Roar must show Wellington, in front of their own fans, that we are playing on another level again. We have to demonstrate the space between the teams near the top of the table and those at the bottom. If the Roar muffs either of their next two away games (Perth next), against the apparent easy beats of the League, we'll lose more than just points.

Wellington vs Queensland:
Queensland 0:4

However unlikely it seems, I'd love for Perth to shock the Sydney fans by topping them at home, if only to keep Sydney further away from our dizzying height, but also because when it come to sport it is my duty as a Queenslander to despise Sydney (in the nicest possible way, you understand). Clearly this is not the case for wild abandon though. I can't dare go for more than a one point win. I'm going to back a disastrous goalless game where Perth get a freaker in from a break, probably in the last minute of extra time. Then I want the Sydney fans to suck on it. Sounds like another game I went to not long ago.

Sydney vs Perth
Perth 0:1

And I want Melbourne to whip Newcastle, partly again to just get Newcastle further away from the door, but also for sweet vengeance. Although a proper pants-down flogging would be the most gratifying, I should be realistic again, and also keep the humiliation for the Roar's loss against Newcastle to a bearable minimum. For the sake of the League I'll go for a total cracker of a game, with goals!

Melbourne vs Adelaide:
Melbourne 3:2

May there be no serious injuries.

PS. The West End Terrors, Jacob's Indoor team, won 17:0 on Saturday. Jacob scored 2. Actually all six of the players (5 a side) scored at least 2. There was a hat trick and two quadies (is that a term?) In the second half Max, who'd scored 3 in the first half, was in goals, and not getting much action, so he asked me if he could run it out. I said, 'sure' as we were already about 12 up or something. About a minute later he dribbled the ball all the way and scored his fourth. Yes, it was against 'Swiss Cheese'. What sort of a loser calls a soccer team, 'Swiss Cheese'? Anyway, I hope that game hasn't scarred any of them for life. Next week is the finals rounds, which, needless to say, Swiss Cheese are not in. The semis are against a tough team, but with an only slightly more fortunate name, 'The White Wonders'.

15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hamish, its always interesting to see the ladder according to my tips - Victory is top and I am not surprised and I will tip them to win once again this weekend and I hope they do.


Here's my round 17 tips:

Phoenix 2 Roar 1
Adelaide 1 CCM 1
Sydney 2 Glory 1
Victory 2 Jets 1

December 11, 2007 6:50 am  
Blogger Eric said...

I've been tipping what I really want all season! Unfortunately, my tips have suffered accordingly...


Wellington 2
Queensland 1

Adelaide 1
Central Coast 2

Sydney 2
Perth 0

Melbourne 3
Newcastle 1

December 11, 2007 10:11 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Everyone here biased- unbelievable! I thought this was a faith-based science, you know intelligent design where all our teams were meant to win the league by a higher power...

Phoenix 2 Roar 1
Adelaide 1 CCM 3
Sydney 2 Glory 1
Victory 2 Jets 2

December 11, 2007 5:07 pm  
Blogger Mike Salter said...

Here goes:

WP 1-3 QR
AU 1-1 CCM
SFC 3-2 PG
MV 0-0 NUJ

Incidentally, Hamish, just looking at the table, didn't I pick SFC 1-0 NUJ in the last round? I certainly remember feeling very smug when Corica headed home that last-minute winner, for some reason. ;-)

December 11, 2007 10:04 pm  
Blogger Hamish Alcorn said...

Nothing incidental about it Mike. My mistake, now fixed.

It hardly needs saying that like Melbourne at this time last year, you're not unbeatable mathematically but it would be foolish to bet against you to win a bottle of Irish.

December 11, 2007 10:10 pm  
Blogger Mike Salter said...

Your Melbourne analogy there will probably come back to bite me on the arse next season, Hamish. ;-)

December 12, 2007 6:51 pm  
Blogger The Round Ball Analyst said...

mike, who u selling fred to?

December 12, 2007 9:51 pm  
Blogger Jeccy56 said...

My tips:

Phoenix 1 Roar 3
Adelaide 0 Mariners 2
Sydney 3 Perth 0
Melbourne 2 Jets 2

Whistlers tips:

Phoenix 1 Roar 1
Adelaide 1 CCM 2
Sydney 1 Perth 0
Melbourne 2 Jets 1

December 13, 2007 4:33 pm  
Blogger john said...

Wellies 0
Queensland 1

Adelaide 1
Central Coast 1

Sydney 0
Perth 0

Melbourne 1
Newcastle 1

December 13, 2007 7:38 pm  
Blogger Neil said...

Here are my tips for the weekend. Hopefully I can put a bit of pressure on the leader.

Wellington 0 Queensland 1
Adelaide 1 Central Coast 1
Sydney 1 Perth 0
Melbourne 2 Newcastle 1

December 14, 2007 9:29 am  
Blogger Daniel said...

Wellington 1 Queensland 1

I predict the Nix will give Roar a lot to think about.

Adelaide 1 Central Coast 2

Coast have key players back and Adelaide are all over the place at the moment

Sydney 2 Perth 0

Depending how pumped up the team are for Rudan's last match it could be 3-5 to 0. Losing Harnwell, Colosimo and Topor-Stanley is a body-blow to Glory, though they've managed to hold SFC to draws while depleted in the past.

Melboune 2 Newcastle 1

Melbourne can win this if they stick with an attacking lineup, I don't rate the Jets very highly atm.

December 14, 2007 11:42 am  
Blogger Cecilia said...

Oi. Hamish. Re-read your text messages. I tipped AGAINST Melbourne. So give me my point. I'll still be anchored to the bottom of the tipping table, but every drop, err... point counts.

December 17, 2007 7:30 pm  
Blogger Hamish Alcorn said...

Fixed Cecilia - silly mistake. I even remember taking a note of bemused tragedy when I first read your tip against your home team. Here are Cecilia's tips by text:

"A 2:0 win to the Qld boys. Mariners to beat Adelaide 3:2,Sydney to beat Perth 4:0 and err.. Newcastle to beat MV 2-1."

And Tony's:

"Geez, forgot my tips, so don't worry bout nix roar. D rest - au 1 v ccm 1, sfc 1 pg 0, mv 1 v nj 1."

And Eamonn's by email:

"Sydney 2 Glory 1
Victory 3 Jets 1."

Jacob did his straight onto the chart:

Wellington vs Queensland:
Queensland 0:2

Adelaide vs CCM:
Draw 0:0

Sydney vs Perth:
Sydney 2:0

Melbourne vs Newcastle:
Newcastle 0:1

Hey Daniel, welcome! You're not Dane back with a new moniker are you? Introduce yourself man.

The scores are already in for the Mariners vs Sydney game, but if anyone wants to change before the game that's fine.

December 18, 2007 6:55 am  
Blogger Cecilia said...

...besmused tragedy...

lol

December 18, 2007 7:12 am  
Blogger john said...

Sydney will want to ensure that they don't turn out to be the besmused tragedy - or even bemused?

CCM 4 Syd 1

December 22, 2007 7:05 am  

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