Latest App Reviews

Well I sat on Top Eleven for a long time and loved it to bits, by the end however I started having grief with the way games were being decided.

Like most, we were left shaking our heads as a team in which we were massively overstocked against and far more superior on paper left us gobsmacked as they managed to either defeat us, or, score the equaliser.

So many theories showed on the Top Eleven Forum's on why this occurs, some suggest its the formation, others believe its how many friends are linked and watching - some also believe its a down right conspiracy.

Me - I'm just not sure, the last straw for me which broke the camels back was a team which i was approx 20 points better on average against. I had one 7 Star player, three 6 Star players and a handful of 5 Star players. Looking at the opposition they had one 5 Star player and the rest were 3's & 4's.

No friends of his were watching and he/she wasn't watching either, Personally, I was and had two friends watching also.

I then proceeded to watch as my team lost 4-1. To say I was filthy was an understatement, this was a game which I had been sucked into buying gold so I could buy high ranking players, I had a hugely stacked side compared to the opposition yet this lowly placed side beat me 4-1?!?!

I could find absolutely no logic in this occurring so decided enough's enough, my team should have finished top yet lost approx 5 or 6 games I should have won in the last 8 of the season and dropped to 3rd on the ladder.

Thats it - see you later!

So I decided to move onto some other games, love playing a few when I have some spare time. I moved onto the likes of Hay Day and Footy Coach. Hay Day was awesome for a while, but became really repetitive and Footy Coach became boring as you spent way too long waiting for health to rejuvenate so you could play against someone...

Whilst playing Hay Day one day I came across a video for Clash of Clans, thought i'd watch the video as i get free something for Hay Day if I do... It actually looked ok so thought i'll download and give it a go.

Clash of Clans is a fun game and very multiplayer friendly, but thats almost where it stops for me, yes once you've levelled up enough and save up your Gold & Elixir and build your Clan Castle you can Join or Create a Clan. Clans are handy as members will donate troops to store in your Clan Castle - if you are attacked or short on numbers you can use these troops.

But really this is where the multiplayer part of the game ends - My hope for Clash of Clans would be you work together to battle or rage war on other Clans, but nothing really happens for this side which is dissapointing.

Although, it still has that aspect of fun in it where you just can't give it up completely, its handy as you can instruct your builders for upgrades, collect some resources, attack some other players and then leave it for a few hours and return later. I think i'm really holding out for the upgrades and ability to buy the Tesla towers and Dark Elixir items such as the Barbarian King or Archer Queen.

Whilst playing this 2 other apps came across my screen when flicking through the App Store, one which i've held off playing due to the hype around it, Candy Crush, and the second was Airport City.

Candy Crush is one of those games which is so damn addictive yet it makes you wish you could poke out your eyes due to the increasing frustration that it provides due to a) running out of lives & b) sitting on one level for weeks on end...

There is the cheer and satisfaction though when you do finally pass a level, even better when you quickly follow up with multiple level movements...

Candy Crush is designed to test the mind, there is always those moves that you make that you wish had a undo button handy as you see another way which would have worked better - the other element also is linking via Facebook. Whilst linked you get the priviledge of knowing one or more of your friends are well passed you and some over level 350! All this while hanging on levels below 65...

After 3 and a half weeks of sitting on level 65 I finally passed it last night with 18 moves to go, the house shook and wife woke as I roared with relief as finally, I passed 65! All to then find out I have to wait a day to move to next level...

Airport City is a airport simulation game which allows you to build a city with an airport closeby then tempt you into sending flights and upgrading everything in the attempt to retrieve items from each collection of passengers, or, on planes returning from hour long flights to Bali!

This game has its moments too, it allows you to build up and own up to 3 or 4 planes early on but is limited on what you can do in terms of expanding your city unless you spend actual $$'s on cash to spend to do it..

Right now i'm stuck with no cash to expand my city and can't save $$'s up to buy the upgrade as i'm limited in the amount of buildings. The other issue I dislike also is the fact that part of your map is taken up by forrest's which can't be bulldosed or built on... Buildings also must have a road attached and cannot be built out the back of your car yard...

Overall each app/game has its own unique way of drawing you into playing more, I love playing all three but as is the case with most apps, something will come along soon to take its place if its more appealing or offers more..

If I was to rate each App i'd give them the following:

Hay Day - 5 out of 10 (Too much repitition, game lacks extra things to do despite the recent addition of the fishing side)

Footy Coach - 4 out of 10 (Way too long waiting to play a game of football, very hard to start with as no real direction on how to play and in the end became boring waiting for games to play)
Clash of Clans - 7 out of 10 (Great game just lacking that whole Multiplayer Co-op mode)
Candy Crush - 7 out of 10 (Highly addictive and frustrating yet hard to turn your back on...)
Airport City - 5 & 1/2 out of 10 (Ok game but just lacks that ease to build your city to great lengths without spending real money on!)

So thats my review, hope its been useful but if I was to recommend anything it would be to try the above apps and decide for yourself, not everything I like will be the same as the next person...

Regards

Bo_Gas

Round 2 - Richmond v St Kilda (AFL)

Well Round 2 there was increased hype surrounding the Tigers, they finally ended their hoodoo with Round 1 defeats at the hand of Carlton and their cubs showed why they have the most formidable midfield in the competition.

I overheard someone saying Richmond were again staring down the barrel of another record they need to overcome, They hadn't won their first 2 games to start the season in 16 years.

That's a massive amount of time to chalk up 2 wins from 2 games... I was sure that was wrong as there has been seasons where we started really strong then fell over in final 10 or 12 games.. Nope the record books has it correct.

So again the hype surrounding our great club was truly peaking and so were the hopes and ambitions of some 50,000+ members.

St Kilda, after their loss to Gold Coast the week before, was expected to show alot more fight however their fitness was a concern as the conditions up in Queensland were quite humid and hot with a number of players going down with cramp in the final quarter.

Luke McGuane showed real glimpses of being one of our power forwards with two ripper pack marks and snaring a couple of goals whilst Dustin Martin was busy early having the ball sticking to him and racking up 11 possessions.

Richmond again dominated the possession and inside 50, but, like the Carlton game was wasteful and again amassed a 10 points for the half and only finishing with 8.10 (58). Richmond really need to review this, yes some are rushed but easy set shots not taken can really hurt the team as this builds momentum and kills the mindset of the opposition if you pile on the goals... If we had and finished more like 12.6 going into the half i believe we would have finished them off in the 3rd.

The second half showed much of the same although the Riewoldt battle heated up with both going head to head.

Trent Cotchin in his usual self shook off the tag placed by Clint Jones, only having 9 possession's to half time Trent amassed 22 in the second half to finish a top with 31 possession's for the game.

Richmond showed more poise this week in the latter part of the final quarter, against Carlton last week they looked worried and were nervous when attempting to move the ball out of their backline, this week they looked a little more settled and were able to counteract the Saints push and keep them at least 10 points clear.

The Tigers ended up getting over the line by 17 Points, for me, this was closer than I believe it should have been. The Tigers took over the lead in the 1st Quarter and never gave it back, at times were very wasteful in their shots on goal but also hitting the target.

The biggest worry for me Friday night was the ease in which St Kilda dominated us in marks in our attacking 50. We constantly bombed the ball in long or went towards a pack only for our forwards to be out of position and the tall saint defenders taking the grab.

I don't think this will be an issue against the Bulldogs this week but one to watch out for when we face Collingwood the week after...

Disappointment's: For me there wasn't alot to be disappointed with other than the marking inside our attacking 50 (yes I say this despite the big grabs by Jack, Jake and Luke...)

Jake Bachelor was ok but often looked for the player in contests rather than keeping his eye on the ball, which led to a lot of marks against him and easy shots on goal.

Ty Vickory was not impressive at all, which is a shame as last week against Carlton he found alot of space and took some great marks, maybe he's feeling crowded with both Jack & Luke there?

Positives for me: Well there were alot, Troy Chaplin played well in only his 2nd game since moving from Port. Jake King really impressed and was unlucky to pull down mark of the year. Luke McGuane is making a serious push to be the 2nd key forward to Jack Riewoldt, Grimes was great in his first game back since injury.

They big winners for me though were Ricky Petterd, Reece Conca and Trent Cotchin.

Trent showed why he is one of the favourites to win the Brownlow this year, yes tagged early but a great player knows how to shake off a tag and that he did, massing 31 possession's and being a big influence.

Reece Conca, I'll go down as saying that's the best game he has ever played for the Tigers. Alot of people have always had huge raps on him, me not so much as I think I was always overcome by the likes of Cotchin, Deledio and Martin as being the next youngsters to shine.. But I'll happily say that Reece was in the Top 3 of being best on ground.

Ricky Petterd, alot (critics/supporters) didn't like his invitation to pre-season, I always liked him though and thought Melbourne were stupid for getting rid of him last season. Ricky's presence and foot skills really helped us out and I would also put him in our top 3 best players considering it was only his first game for us too!

So, Tigers are sitting 2 wins and 0 losses which hasn't occurred for 16 years, We shift our sights to the Bulldogs this Sunday and hope to push for 3 straight wins.

If you're not yet on board as a member, get on now. Even if its just an interstate membership which I'm on, costs around $75 each year but your financially apart of the club and more importantly another tally to the clubs push of 60k+ supporters!

Final scores:

Richmond 14.15 (99)

defeat

St Kilda 12.10 (82)

**Photos courtesy of the Richmond website... www.richmondfc.com.au**

Semi Final - ETPBC Div 5

Hi All,

Firstly apologies for the week delay getting this out, been a rough week and a half since the Semi Final - most know why but for those that don't all will be revealed shortly.

It was to be a massive day for me, not only was I heading to Soundwave straight after to watch Blink 182 but this was also my first ever real final.. Never played finals in my footy life at Happy Valley nor have I seen finals whilst playing baseball for East Torrens...

To say I was super nervous was an understatement...

Well, the first Semi shaped up to be an absolute cracker and it didn't dissapoint. Adelaide had our number this year winning both games in the regular season, first game they held us to only 1 run, 2nd game they narrowly beat us when we gifted the game to them.

Hot day started us out with Ralphy kicking the day off with a knock, Ralphy is looking more comfortable in the lead off role and Jonesy our regular is having some rest period a few slots back giving him time to mentally rest.

Memory isn't as good as it was before the end of the first inning, I still can't remember all the piecings of this next play but here goes...

I think from memory we had a runner on 1st when the Adelaide batter hit deep out to Jarrad at right field, I ran back to third base ready for the throw. The ball came in but wasn't on the full and was to bounce short about a metre in front.

Now I have let alot of balls through this year, this wasn't going to be one of them. If I missed it, certain run and error. I came off my base and ready to take it as it hit the deck but the bounce kicked it up quite sharply narrowly missing my glove.

But it didn't miss me hitting me squarly in the head, just above my right eye.. Lucky it didn't hit me in the eye...

Umpire called time and the boys checked to see if I had concussion and attended to a small cut above the eye. All good and I insisted I continue - looked like a unicorn though sporting a horn!

Didn't affect me too much though as I was able to secure my only hit in the next inning, hit nicely through short to advance scoop to second.

Jarrad advanced us around and I managed to get to second when I turned and noticed Scoop recorded a geriatrics's moment when he kept walking off third towards home plate, wasn't running though, just walking... pitcher quickly threw ball to 3rd and was tagged out... Chalk this one down to amnesia or something...

Robbo pitched all day and he really did a pearler of a job, hitting the zone nicely and keeping the batters thinking.

Red Sox managed to get up to a nice lead as we moved on to 4-1 however Adelaide pulled back a few and we were leading towards the 5th inning 6-4.

Memory has me, I'm not sure if this happened now in the bottom of the 4th of 5th but here goes..

My second body blow for the game came with the last out of the inning, the adelaide hitter burned a drive to me sitting at 3rd, hit very hard but it dipped at the last second. I moved my glove behind it and got down to the ball.

It hit my glove on the high right hand side and agony began, the ball spilt out but I was able to recover and throw him out at first. I noticed straight away something was wrong, the ball, when it hit the glove, it hit the top of my thumb and the swelling told me something wasn't right...

Being as stubborn as I am I didn't want to come out and wanted to see how it would go for next inning and batting.

Well if batting was something to go by it was fine. With two runners on and two outs I went to the plate, watched my usual first ball just to see how its coming in, then proceeded to launch a ball into the stratosphere... Sadly it was hit with too much height and the wind held it a metre short from being a Home Run.

Next inning I went back out to 3rd but by that time the thumb was very swollen and it hurt to catch the ball, Robbo too noticed this as he threw a ball to me and I hesitated greatly to catch it...

That was me done, we went 3 up 3 down that inning and Robbo and Matty took me out to bring Curtis in - a wise move, I couldn't een touch the thumb then...

Ralphy lead the pack with a stellar batting display, he wasn't the only one though, young Mr Laws connected well twice getting to the gaps in the outfield and overall our batting lifted dramatically with most getting off the bus as Robbo likes to call it...

By the top of the 6th we held a good lead to which we extended out to 14-4 at the end of our bat, 3 more outs would enforce the mercy rule and we would leave early knowing one of the best games would secure us a Prelim!

3 up 3 down, Robbo capped of a fantastic game and the Red Sox ran out winners 14-4, This was a massive team effort and I was beside myself! Man I was sore but the feeling of winning my first ever final drowned it out completely... We just beat the side who was top for most of the year and we hadn't beaten all year - throw in the fact we were playing at their home ground. Yep this will be remembered for a long time!

Ok so the fallout was a cracker, we changed and sped to Soundwave, by that stage I had a massive horn on my head from the first knock and I couldn't move my thumb which now was extremely swollen and turning purple...

Blink 182 was awesome but the event sucked for me as when we reached the blink stage it was near impossible to move, there was nowhere to get through the crowd and a sea of people pushed each other as we moved towards the back - Phone reception was non existent too resembling the TV show Revolution...

Finally after 25 minutes of stressing and sense of being lost I found my wife and we watched the remaining 30 minutes of Blink... Blink were awesome and should have been the final act.

Linkin Park was ok, I got to hear my favourite song What I've Done but other than that it wasn't Blink.

Metallica was so so... Most will disagree with me but I wasn't really impressed, they played 4 songs I knew and to be honest I kept looking at the clock for it to be over....

If Soundwave promoters are reading, make sure if Blink 182 are there next year, give them a 2 hour finale spot - they would kill it far better than Metallica did...

Anyway, by monday morning I was in a heap of pain and wolfing down panadene forte tablets to help stem the pain..

I went to the doctor who, before I could tell him about my thumb, went straight for the lump on my head... He then informed me that I had cracked the bone in my nose, I knew it was red and sore but it didn't bother me as much as the lump on my head...

Bummer...

He then said the thumb did look nasty and immediately arranged X-rays to be taken.

X-rays done and I was starving so we started heading off to the pub when the phone rang, it was the x-ray place... X-rays were ready to be picked up and taken to doctors, I replied but I'm not going back to the doctors today.. Response wasn't encouraging, Umm yes you are...

Hmm that didn't sound good, I headed down to the doctors who started examining the film.. His face was priceless and I knew it wasn't good.

The verdict... Broken Thumb in three places, possibly need surgery to correct and have screws put in to mend...

Thats me season done... expecting 6 weeks out whilst it recovers...

So - Our Divvy 5 team now shapes up against West Torrens away next week with me to warm the bench for them...

Go Red Sox!!!!!!!

Round 18 - ETPBC Div 5

A very hot day was forecasted and it managed to bring what it threatened, a very hot 37 degrees with hardly any cloud cover.

With that came in the reduced game rules, this enforces a maximum of 5 innnings or 90 minutes...

For someone like me who was starting on the bench, that brings in nothing but angst on whether you will be played or not.

Robbo started on the mound and got off to a flyer, zone was good and not many opposition hits through the five innings and really worked hard to keep them at bay - recorded some good strikeouts too!

Gussy again proved to be the one pitchers hate the most being walked twice, Cummo was the hitting specialist for the day twice with big bombs into the gaps and also superb speed to reach third twice for back to back triples.

Cummo's first proved to be a spark the team needed, most were telling him to hold off at 2nd but Cummo knew his pace would beat the throw to 3rd.

Hard to determine which highlight was the best on the day, so I think line honors need to go to both Cummo and Jonesy.

Jonesy is now known as the aerial defender, late in the 4th inning with runners in scoring position, a big bomb was hit to deep left field. For all money Jonesy looked beat on this one as it was well hit, from nowhere Jonesy lept back and took a superb catch which recorded the final out of the inning and any chance of Southern coming back to challenge the lead.

Red Sox ended up holding them off in the last to record a 7-1 win over Southern and securing our place in the finals.

I'm super excited, never in history of sport have I reached finals, not unless you count mixed netball which I don't think I will... During my football life at Happy Valley, my junior years were spent being thrashed by teams like Reynella and Morphett Vale, sometimes by 30 goals... During my senior years at the club we won games but never enough to reach finals, often missing out by one or two.

In my baseball career we haven't made it over the 4 years i've played, the year I missed our team won the flag.

This is something to savor and I look very forward to the challenge.

See you all down at Adelaide this weekend to cheer on the Red Sox!

Top Eleven - Soccer Manager (Game Review)

Here is a great game i've stumbled upon whilst on my return to app games via Facebook.

When I first joined Facebook years ago I was captivated by the ones everyone at the time were playing, Mafia Wars, Farmville, Cafe World etc.. These were ok games and very addictive...

Mafia Wars, like the rest of them, was fun at first but lacked that real ideal of playing it longer than a few months. Mafia Wars was getting annoying, you would build your Mafia and compete against others, was super hard when coming up against Mafia's with 100's of members against your 15...

Farmville, that was fun at first, just like the zombie version, but mundane and became very boring... you grew alot of stuff and collected money - thats about it...

Cafe World, same, you built up your cafe, put some neat stuff in there but after a while you think, What for....

Top Eleven is different, this allows you to control the team, friends and users don't affect your team other than playing against them. Level 1 you are given a team to control, depending on when you start your team could be anywhere, my first season my team was sitting around 12th I think. Ended up finishing 6th after buying a few players with little cash available.

Its taken me until now to realise some of my earlier mistakes, when I first started I played 3 or so friendlies a day, then had my team play their normal league games. Soon realised players fitness levels were way way down and lost alot to injury..

Friendlies are an annoying feature but I don't mind playing them every now and then, when it suits me... I usually will play them for example if I had a late game the night before scheduled and nothing til the next day. This allows ample time for my players to recoup fitness in time for the next game, but I don't play a heap of friendlies, just one or two. I then use the training feature to help raise the players skills and attributes.

So lets take a look at the app version for iphone, its a great version and the developers are putting time and effort into making it better and more like the PC version. It contains alot less options than the PC version has but, is still a great game.

So your given a squad of 22 players, this is made up of 11 starters, 7 subs and 4 reserves. You don't get alot to work with but you will get the odd 4 star and some 3 star players, rest will be mostly 2 star players.

To help also, Top Eleven have provided opportunities for you to earn extra cash through sponsorships, at level 1 you can earn $600k in Sponsorship through "Frontmen"... When you crunch it down, you can pick up some very handy 3 or 4 star players for that amount, possibly 3 or 4 players if done correctly...

One item that is worth the gold colour it represents is "Tokens". Tokens allow you to buy extra items and also to bid on players in the trade market, careful though - this is where alot of people waste their tokens while in bidding wars with other users. I once lost 20 tokens just on one 5 star player and still lost the auction...

As a nice bonus, along with Sponsorship $$ terms you can also obtain a Token Sponsor through the Finances section, here you can sign a TV Rights sponsor who will give you tokens on a daily basis, you can either receive one through Nordeus 1 daily regardless or the one I'm with now Speed who gives me bonus tokens if I login consistently each day...

Luck and Patience often gets the player, I've found that if I bid on players early in the morning I will come up against big users who have alot of tokens to use, either by earned through sponsorship or bought with actual $$'s... But i've had more luck getting players, good 5 star players, later in the arvo, the other day for example, I had 4 tokens... I put two dummy bids on two 5 star players finishing in 15 minutes, another one had someone bidding on.

In the second stage of bidding the other user failed to put a bid on and I put one on with 3 seconds to go, nailed a new 5 star midfielder.

Then to my amazement while on the bus heading home from work, the two dummy bids went through without opposition, so I scored a new 5 star GK and a 5 star DEF. In the end 3 5 star players and it only cost me 4 tokens...

If you play around with it you'll find the best time to bid and sell, for me its afternoons, by then most of Europe and US are in bed tucked away from robbing me of tokens and players...

If your lucky enough to finish within the top 7 teams in the league you qualify for the Cup, this is where you play against much harder opponents on the off chance you may beat them. Beauty of Cup is the prize money per game played is big, especially for a level 1 player,

The top 4 teams for each league move into the Champions League, prize money is much lower than Cup but still a great addition if you can reach it... So far this season I haven't done too well in either but the proze money made up for it as i've managed to sign 4 5 star players...

One of the other "nice" functions is the addition of upgrading your stadium and supports, I include this as a nice addition as some of it impacts your team like health and the ground however its just nice to upgrade stuff every 3 days - ie: we're not playing this game to upgrade stadiums so its just a nice compliment to the game.

Most of the upgrades take 3 days to complete however if you want to upgrade the size of your ground your looking around 15 days... You can use tokens to speed this up a bit however my advice would be to save those up and buy players...

As I mentioned previously theres two options, you can try your luck on the transfer market and try and snare a decent player, it definately can happen - you just need to find times best suited to your bidding so you don't get stuck in a bidding war... or, you can save your tokens and buy a 6 star player through the Scout.

The Scout offers you high quality 6 star players at a premium cost, minimum $1m signing fee and each player will set you back 50 tokens. Yep, 50, thats alot for a regular user that doesn't buy tokens with real money... Best advice is to save up your tokens, participate in as many free ways to receive tokens such as watching video's or going in surveys and then target your best player.

The Scout updates 6 times a season, if theres a particular player your keen on but not currently listed best to wait... I recently was looking for a midfielder but only ones on Scout were 28 years old and over, Ideally I wanted a youngy so I held off two days and the scout refreshed, luckily a 22 year old MC appeared with awesome stats, averaged 38 Defence, 39 Attack & 39 Health. Cost me $2.75m but was well worth it!

To compete at Champions League & Cup level you will need to consider stacking your squad, hence using the Scout function, lets be honest, there are players out there that frequently buy huge amounts of tokens with real money - prob nothing else better to spend it on... so if you have high ambitions of winning and taking big titles then you have to compete via tokens...

Training is another great function included, here you can chose to train or rest your players, the more game time and training they get the more they earn skill points to increase your players attributes.

I usually tend to have my starting 11 plus 2 or 3 reserves I keep resting unless no games are on, then the remaining reserves and substitutes I use as train hard. Now I'm definately no expert and I'm probably doing it wrong but this is the way I do it... Seems to work ok and my players not featured in games are still upping their attributes whilst the starting squad upgrade too by working hard in the game.

Careful though, injuries can strike at any time. For example, I signed a new 5 star striker, his states were in the 40's in attack and is not far off being a 6 star striker. Scored him at a bargain 2 tokens... First game he went out and played really well, didn't score like I hoped but assisted a few and rated highly, then late in the game he suffered a broken leg, prognosis, out for 16 days.... 16 days without a 5 star player is like an eternity... Injuries can also hit during training, so if your actively training players always try to have some that are left as reserves for the starting 11, just incase you lose players in the game and then also backups off your bench through training...

The Club shop is another "Nice" function added in by the games creators, here players can go nuts buying guernseys or patches of their favourite teams, sadly though it only has a handful of teams for you to choose from, so if your a Manchester United fan reading this, sadly you can't get a Man U strip just yet...

The shop is a place where you can send gifts to friends you have added either through the game or via facebook, you can send one gift daily of either a skill point, health pack, morale booster or a rest. These are very handy and you can receive one daily of the all four, so receive one each of the above but you can only send one to friends...

Well now a quick look at how i've gone since joining, i'm into my 4th season, my first I joined really late and won a few games but finished 6th overall.

My 2nd season was much better, I dominated the comp for the whole season, only losing once I think and took the League Title, With that I entered my first Champions League and Cup... I only won one game in Champions League and sadly missed out on progressing, Cup... well I was only really in it for the money haha - I lost both games and came away only with money...

My 3rd season was tougher, I started the season trying to juggle a team around my obligations to League, Champions League and Cup which would sometimes be played same day and I had issues that I would play a League game at 6am and then at 8am I would play a Champions League game... Players would be tired by second game and wouldn't play as well...

So I struggled in League early but fought back midway through, led the league until 4 rounds to go when I dropped the bundle and finished 2nd... Still shaking my head over that as not sure how I drew and lost games against players well under my team....

Anyway still finished second and entered my 2nd campaign for Champions League and Cup.

Cup I managed to win my first 2 games which blew me out of the water, haven't won a cup game before so was a pleasant change... Beauty of it was, $1.58m per game was mine. I lost in straight sets in the Qualifying stage but was happy with how the team performed only narrowly losing - more importantly i received $2.36m per game...

Champions League is still going as we speak, Lost my first two games 3-0 & 1-0, since then i drew my next game 1-1 and just then demolished a team 5-0. So now I'm sitting 2nd on the ladder with 2 rounds to go and a good chance to progress further. Prize money isn't huge for this but I'm just excited to get further considering i've only won 2 champions league games in the career haha.



League, well again I started very slow, had some issues with the formation I was using and found I constantly changed the formation which was impacting the players and how they performed. A friend guided me into using a much better formation and since then have only drawn a game but scored 21-0 in last 4 league games... I'm now sitting 3rd on the ladder and should be good to finish 2nd overall - doubt I can overtake the first placed team.



For me its a great game, very addictive, alot needs to be added to it though and more of the nice functions needed. Personally I'd like to see things like;

*Ability to update squads for each game, so nominate a squad for League, Champions League and Cup
*Extra tournaments where you can buy into and compete against players on your level
*Cheaper players placed on a "Buy" now function, similar to Scout.
*Staff Hiring - ie: Recruiter, Scout, Finance Manager etc.

These are a few of the idea's i've sent to the creators to see if they can add, each has its factor, the main one for me would be the first. What players tend to get stuck on is being asleep while your squads play... sometimes if you have League & Champions League playing close together players can get fatigued.

My idea is in the squad screen have extra menu's available called Champions League & Cup, this way you can nominate which players will play. Now, the onus is completely then on the player, if they don't nominate then you have the default team selected at league level but this could be good.

For example I use 2 DR & 2 DC players which I rotate every game, they're all too good to get rid of and all rate around 7-8 per game so I decided I'd play them every 2nd game. This morning I played League and Champions League within 1.5 hours of each other, would have loved to be able to set my squads the night before for both games rather than one default squad playing each game.

So, if your reading this game and considering playing this going forward I give this a 4 star rating (out of 5).

If the makers can add more nice features like some I mentioned above it would move my rating up to a 4.5 atleast and push hard towards a 5, its fun, addictive and keeps the player second guessing every game, especially when they draw or lose...

The other positive, you get to play against people from all over the world, and friend them too if they're nice.

Try it out and enjoy!


**Update 24/01/13:

One feature I forgot to mention was the fact you can watch and manage the game as it happens, one good thing about that is should an injury occur you can be there straight away to take the player off. You do have the extra option too if its playing while your away of having automatic players to be subbed on should this happen...



I like to jump in after each game and check out the stats.

Here you can see your substitutions, carded players and scorers.








You can also check the performance of your players and if lucky who from your player scored man of the match.

As well as check below how many supporters attended the game:

Happy New Year - 2013

Happy New Year to all my readers!!!

At this time of the year everyone decides its a good idea to make changes or alterations to themselves to better the year to come.

And this year will be no different to the last so I will try and add some things I would like to achieve below...

Weight... Always on the cards and I'm sure this occurs in 90% of the New Years resolutions people make every year.

About 6 months ago I set out to get under 100kg's, would be the first time in 15 years then if I could.. Weight loss was going well and I was exercising alot too during that time, Sadly I got sick with a bad throat infection, from then on I slowly stopped exercising and maintained my current weight.

So the good news from the last push was I acheived 2 out of the 3 goals I set myself which I am happy about, my last goal was to get to 109kg's which I did well, good thing also (sort of..) is that I've been sitting on 108-109kg's ever since. So no stacking getting on...

Couple of key factors get me into gear; Motivation, Will and Support. If I have heaps of people (especially family) encouraging me or getting me involved I become unstoppable and love exercising, if I get negative feedback I tend to go back to old ways and can't be bothered... Time sadly is also a factor in our household as we have very few hours left in each day once you take work and sport committements into account.

The good news is I'm active in sport 4 days out of 7 due to baseball both with my team and my sons team, so its not like I sit at home playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 every day (although I wish I could hahaha). The important part for me though is utilising the other days we don't have baseball and get the most out of each day...

Sickness is another factor, I need to make sure I don't get sick, each time I get into a fitness regime something happens and I go back to old ways, each time I get sick I also crave shitty foods like a combo yiros with double onion and double garlic sauce...

So - I'll give it another go and see if I can get myself to my main goal weight - 99 kg's. I also want to increase a bit of muscle in my arms so will hit the weights machine at home..

I guess another resolution I'll need to consider is study, I'm currently completing my Diploma in Financial Planning and halfway through, due to time restraints I've found it hard to take on the final subjects but again, like exercise, I need to find the time..

Investment is another one I'd like to nail too with Renovations, one of my long term goals is to have 5 Investment properties by retirement, this way we have a regular income coming in and hopefully won't need to rely on the government! So this year I would like to get my hands on an investment property, be it a small little unit somewhere, a holiday house down the coast or a house. Whatever the size I need to get moving on an investment.

So that'll be the first step, I'm not fussed if I haven't bought one, just as long as I am in a position to be ready to buy one, not jump out too eagerly...

A wise person once said to own 5 Investment properties before retirement is a very sound investment plan, you should have one new one every 10 years...

Well I think thats all for now, Hope you all had a very good Xmas and an excellent New Year, hope you didn't make an a*& of yourself like I did...

Round 10 - ETPBC Div 5

Round 10 saw our East Torrens boys currently sitting equal 2nd on the ladder take on West Torrens for the outright 2nd position battle.

I managed to resist the lure of going out on my works Xmas show which was held at the Sebel on North Terrace, shame, from what i've heard alot was spent on the show.

In hindsight, I wish now I went, good night to catch up with work mates but also I think now alcohol would have helped my fielding on the day.

Sadly I'm a confidence player, if I field the first ball with no issues I'm happy and go well, if I field it poorly I'm down on myself and nervous for the next ball...

First Inning saw my first chance to field the ball, of course luck was not on my side as a ball which was hit sharply down to 3rd base, clipped the edge of the border and skipped. I tried to get down onto knees to block it but for some reason I was not a lady and had my legs spread and the ball went straight through into the outfield...

Ok now I look at it, it was a hard ball due to it hitting the edge but thats not what I was thinking at the time.. To me that was an error and my fault, sadly it set my head in a wrong space and to me I let the team down.

Luckily for me even though West Torrens then loaded the bases, Robbo worked hard and got out of the inning unscathed.

Our boys battled and took the lead early off some nice hitting however West Torrens brought the scores level and took the lead after a couple of innings with the opposition getting hits when it counted but also some errors cost us also.

Our outfielders again fielded really well and definately saved a few hits which were close to falling in, Robbo fought hard but in the end came out of the game and DR finished the game on the mound.

Luck was certainly with WT last weekend hits for them were falling in, our infield wasn't as strong as normal and our hits weren't getting to the gaps like WT's were. Matt and Scoop were both unlucky with a couple of big hits, Matt's just going out of play and Scoops being tracked down by WT's right fielder...

Half happy with my hitting picking up 2 hits from 4 at bats, although they were hits I still have alot to improve on, I'm not connecting like I was in previous years and getting myself too worried about footwork and stuff to concentrate on just hitting the damn ball..

Well, last game this week before the Xmas break, could do with the break both from sport and work which will be awesome, mentally drained this week so need to recharge over the Xmas break and stamp out any players thinking about coming in for the last half of the year/finals and show why 3rd base is mine...

So - lets get out on Saturday, take out Woodville @ Woodville and go out on a high!

Mariners Woes

Ok this will be my first blog on my favourite baseball team the Seattle Mariners.

Not a pretty blog unfortunately, today I sit here as angry - if not angrier than I was this time last year.

For those that don't know, Seattle is a franchise team started in 77, has had limited success in the MLB since it joined, most notable was 2001 when after winning the AL Championship with a staggering 116 games won it fell short of a fairy tale ending by losing the World Series to the Yankees.

The next few years saw the peak of the Mariners winning and the end of 2003, when falling short of a wildcard berth, saw the Mariners fall into years of misery, many losses and bad signings.

Milton Bradley, Chone Figgins, Richie Sexson are names that come to mind, all had great careers and success at previous clubs but failed to do much at Seattle and in the end were hated by the fans... Especially Figgins...

So, Seattle has signed Jason Bay as a free agent after he parted ways with the Mets who agreed to still pay him the $20+m owing on his last year of contract. Bay had success previously with the Pirates & Red Sox but failed when he went to New York on big $$'s... 8 years ago he was a gun, now he's just a player hoping to find some of the old form, Seattle swooped in and offered a small contract worth approx $1m and gave him the lifeline.

Many will argue this is a waste of time, heck after Figgins I remain cautious also, but the size of the contract and the fact its dependant on him earning his spot at spring training makes me think it is worth a punt.

But Mariners should definately not stop there, Seattle has struggled offensively for some time, ever since the old days of Rodrigues, Cameron, Boone, Ibanez, Martinez, Griffey Jnr, to name a few..

Being an overseas Mariner its hard for me to gage first hand what the fans are thinking, twitter gives me a chance to get that look whilst being 10,000+ km's away. Attendance at games appears to be down, from what I understand our team's attendance is dropping the hardest over the last 10 years. 10 years is when we last had that real taste of success and decent batters...

Hamilton.... Oh man, Hamilton for me isn't like Prince Fielder last year. Prince was exactly that, a massive bat, first baseman who could have delivered a major change for Seattle, both offensively and as a marketing dream.

Instead Prince signed with the team he followed as a child, the Detroit Tigers.

Hamilton... gave indications, or as the rumors provided... that one of his preferences was Seattle. But he also was said that any offer given he would give Texas a chance to counteroffer. Both proved to be just that, rumors, as out of nowhere Angels popped up and signed the big hitting free agent. They now boast a superior lineup that should get them into the playoffs, although look back to last year with the Pujols signing...

Was Seattle naive into thinking Hamilton knew they were keen but thought we would sit back and wait for him to come to us? Were we never in on Hamilton to begin with? Was Seattles price offered (If they did offer..) too low?

Who knows, all I can take from this is once again the Management at Seattle have not worked hard enough or aggressive enough to deliver the best available batter to Seattle. Its great to boast some of the best pitchers in the competition, but if they don't have the support behind them how do you expect to win games?

Seattle does have a really good core of youngsters in the pipeline, everyone knows it, but they need an experienced bat to help them develop. You can't expect a player as talented as Ackley to be our new hitter straight away, he needs someone to learn from - someone to lift the clubs thoughts and confidence.

Without it, we're going to be a team of youngsters all hoping King Felix will deliver one in every five games as starter... I wish Felix in his negotiations, would say to the club, deliver a key at bat I approve of or am happy with and I'll sign a longer contract, if not prepare to trade me or lose me at free agency.

I know its not the best situation for a player to make such demands, but this is a club that needs new management to deliver the goods - the current management feel upgrading the stadium and making it more friendly and appealing to the fans might actually bring them back to the stadium...

How wrong they are, anything I've learned from my local favourite team, the Richmond Tigers, fans don't go to games whilst in losing status.. If people expect them to lose and their list points to that, fans don't give away their hard earned money to go to the games. Instead they'll watch from the comfort of their home where a hot dog and drink won't cost them the earth...

Personally, I will always go to my local teams game, even when they are losing - but thats me, everyone is different. I don't judge anyone either if thats how they act, why should they waste money on a team whose management don't work hard enough for them.

So, we've lost Hamilton, that sux and has hurt the fans who were liking the idea of him moving to Seattle.

Lets move on and focus on the agents still left, for me my number one (and has been since the start) is Nick Swisher. I've hated Nick for many years now, only because he was a Yankee... If he moved to Seattle he would become my new number one favourite player, He's a great player and has been one of the best at the Yankees. He's consistently hit over 20 Home Runs every year for past 6 years and last year had 93 RBI's.

Heres his stats for last season:

Average - 0.272%
HR's - 24
RBI's - 93
OBP - 0.364%

Ok the average and on base aren't as high as most would like, 24 HR's & 93 RBI's do it for me, far better than all of the players on our list, closest to him was Saunders with 20 HR's and Seager with 86...

Swisher currently aged 32, Will be a great fit for Seattle, either in the outfield, or whack him at 1st Base. Justin Smoak is touted as our first baseman but injury and poor form makes me want Swisher there instead. Smoak has talent don't get me wrong, but how long do we wait for a player to start hitting such as Smoak and Carp.. Do we wait like we did with Figgins... then have a player noone wants and delist him? Keep Smoak in the system but if we're ever going to contend we need to push for players that can perform.

So Swisher, big tick from me, and we should put an offer of atleast 4 years and even up to $80m on the table.

There is still Upton's name and Bourn being put out there too and even Delmon Young, Upton & Bourn I would love for Seattle to go for, not over the top as I want Swisher more.

Upton would be good for the right deal, last year 28 Home Runs, 78 RBI's, slightly lower on base percentage than Swisher but has the right numbers to move in to Seattle's new improved arena.

When I say "Seattle's new improved arena" I don't mean their new fancy restuarant and big TV... I'm talking the walls being brought in which will only help our offence..

But imagine the change for Seattle if they first signed Swisher, then turned to Upton and said, we mean business and we want success, sign with us. Upton & Swisher in the outfield (or Swisher at 1st) would be an awesome addition to compliment the youth we have such as Saunders, Seager, Ackley etc.

The signing of Swisher and another good player would show to the loyal fans that this Management does mean business and want the club to succeed, this will inturn bring bums back on seats and more $$'s earned at each game through merchandise and food/drinks consumed.

The signing also signifies much more than that, it delivers hope that this great club will return to success, everyone wants them to succeed but sometimes we need to take a chance to gain that. If we don't make any signings other than Bay I believe fans will make the stance not to turn up this year as frequent as they have in the past. Why spend money to sit frustrated for hours only to see your beloved team lose again.

Time will tell I guess, i'm hoping the management do the right thing and deliver what is required, but jesus start getting aggressive in negotiations, put it dead in the free agents mind and their agent that Seattle is the only place worth considering. We want success and We Want You!

Yes I'm 10,000km's away but Seattle is in our blood regardless if you are in the city or not, we breath it and want success - Go Mariners (& Seahawks!!)

PS - Bring back the Sonics!!!!!

Round 7 - ETPBC Div 5

I'm hoping my article isn't going to sound weird today, I'm writing this after a solid night on the PS3 checking out the latest Call of Duty installment, Black Ops II. Safe to say after a 5 or 6 hour stint playing it both my eyes and brain aren't functioning well with hardly any sleep...

Anyhow.. Last saturday we hosted Glenelg at home, we expected tough opposition from them and thats what we got.

It was a slightly different team to what we played last year and a new pitcher I hadn't seen before. The Glenelg pitcher must be given some credit for the score and the hit count, watching the first few batters I thought he was extremely hittable as there was no heat and it was coming very slowly into the box.

But, we should have learned from the last slow pitcher we faced... When a slow pitcher comes in it really throws you off guard and makes you chase the ball more and lose patience.

So after a few weeks off of the starting role, Robbo returned to weave his magic. For a pleasant change we held the opposition for a scoreless first inning, lately we've allowed runs in the first inning then have to battle for the lead back...

Our boys started off well with a few runners on bases in the first however couldn't capitalise and the first two innings went scoreless.

Glenelg managed to snare the lead in the 3rd and held onto the lead for the next few innings until Redsox finally got a runner over the line to square things up.

Redsox worked extremely hard in the field and snared the winning run in the bottom of the 6th, Robbo stepped up to the mound in the 7th and lights out, Redsox win 2-1.

Offensively, probably wasn't the best day for either side but thats what happens when two finals contending sides match off against each other in the regular season. Defensively, Redsox were awesome.

The previous week our team made a minimum of 8 errors (I stopped counting halfway through the game), Golden Grove scored 6 runs from errors in the field.

This week - Redsox had zero errors, that was the difference, our infield was solid with Angus having a game at 1st base, Hung moving over to 2nd, DR at Shortstop and yours truly at 3rd.

Outfield also boasted some strong defence with Jonesy at Left, Cummo at Centre and Ralphy dropping out to Right.

Defensively it was the best we've been all year, especially error wise, this is what we need to nail against the top sides - each game and practice we spend time improving facets of our defense, practice paid off for this game.

"Time and Game" was called and for the first time this year we played a full 7 innings before time was up.

For me personally, with the bat I had a not too good game, was 0 from 2 and didn't look like getting the hit I was looking for - part of me kept thinking of my hamstring which was feeling tight - need to forget that for this week and just hit hit hit.

Defensively I was very happy with my game, zero errors which is something i've been trying to do since my first couple of games where even though I made some really good plays I also fumbled the ball a bit. Made a nice throw in the 6th to remove the runner at 1st after a line drive which backed me away from the base - with cannon like precision I flamed it to 1st and runner sits down.

Ok - Glenelg we have met and worked hard to win the battle, this week we're away to Goodwood who in the past have always been strong, expect a tough game this weekend - especially for the pitchers who chuck the cleats away for the game and whack on runners.... the diamond we will be playing on doesn't have the usual dirt mound but has a plastic moulded mound which can get quite slippery...

Round 5 - ETPBC Div 5

Great day for baseball yesterday, only peaked around 26 degrees which was ideal, hardly any wind and most of us had been boosted by the Adelaide Xmas Pageant earlier that morning...

Suprisingly we were one of only a few at the ground with the game before cancelled due to a forfeit by Kensington Div 7...

So the ground was all ours and ripe for the taking.

We were bouyed by recent results for our opposition where a few runs had been scored against them, a definite change from prior years where although they weren't like a Southern Districts or Goodwood they were still fairly competitive.

Positions were set, Cummo got the nod as starting pitcher after showing some real good form the week before, Ralphy, still sore from previous weeks pitching... lined up at centre field and Robbo shuffled in at 1st. I was happy keeping my 3rd base whilst Jarrad slotted into right field after returning from paradise!

Sadly no Kym Ashworth this week but here's hoping we can snare him out again soon...

Gawler got off to a good start with their lead off driving a deep ball out to left field but some great pitching and work in the field ensured no runs came across.

The first three innings were tight with both teams getting the odd hit but no-one scoring the first run.

4th inning our team unleashed, many hits and we ended up scoring 7 in the inning and enforcing the mercy rule (7 runs only allowed each inning), myself still smiling smartly after I hit a bases loaded double scoring all three runners.

Up until that point in the game I didn't have much to do as weirdly the ball didn't come to 3rd during the first half of the game, I usually see the ball atleast 5 or 6 times...

Half way through the game Robbo asked me to sit out for Beggy to come in, shortly after whilst our team was batting lightning struck twice...

Whilst standing at 1st doing 1st base coaching duties Scoop came in to bat. After a few pitches Scoop hit a line drive to short stop which was fumbled, yelling at Scoop to keep running he's just made it to 1st and pulled up suddenly, his famous hamstring had gone again. Not as bad as previous ones i've seen however he knew straight away he was done.

Umpire allowed myself to be re-subbed back in so I took Scoops place at 1st base after he managed to beat the throw. The Gawler pitcher overthrew his second pitch so I decided to sprint (my version of sprinting...) to steal 2nd, made it fairly easily however just as I reached the base I felt a slight pull also in my right hamstring....

Wasn't as bad as Scoops and I could still jog, but jog was all I could do... Luckily for me two batters later a long bomb was hit and I managed to get home on a slow jog scoring the run.

Without anyone on the bench I stayed in the game and went to 2nd base.

The next inning was the sealer for us, another 7 runs came across including me after getting hit by the pitch and hobbling home after a play ruled as a double.

Robbo came in to relieve Cummo in the last inning and proceeded to shut the door completely by only throwing a total of 4 pitches with myself laughing as I took the final catch of the game.

By then I think we were in the bottom of the 6th and no way Gawler could draw or win so the umpires called it Time & Game!

With two straight wins we now look to a rare away game out at Golden Grove which should be a good game. Hoping to be available for it even if off the bench...