Dream Team Update 2008!

Last June I wrote about my Bloglines Dream Team, based on the number of entries posted by 18 fellow bloggers. You may recall that while I was having trouble ever logging into, let alone reading from, the Bloglines web reader, when I did finally gain access it gave me a snapshot of activity on these blogs over a defined period of time.

Well, one year later, I’ve had another look at the stats, and the individual Best and Fairest results for my dream team reveal some startling, if expected efforts from local players and (perhaps more controversially), my string of overseas imports. But now, to a more detailed examination of the season’s stats!

# Ashes/ Urn (38)
Having sat out his first stint on the DDN RSS Feed Team, Nick Whittock was at his effervescent best this season, with a sensational series of posts from the West Indies that more than compensated for his lack of height as a fullback.

# Atomic Lady Bomb (23)
A treasured import from rival team alicia sometimes NO RSS, EZB exceeded expectations with a full season of scorching hot and electrifying ballwork at left back pocket!

# Davey Dreamnation (157)
As expected, Dreamnation defied superlatives in his interstellar efforts at right back pocket. Keen followers of the mercurial chanteuse may however wonder aloud whether Davey’s commitments to the Team Cordite RSS might be taking their toll, fitness-wise.

# the deletions (102)
At the beginning of the season we had this to say about Pam Brown’s form:

Pam Brown’s contribution has been understated but effective since the switch to halfback flank, and with seven posessions this time round, is sure to make the starting eighteen in the upcoming finals season. A force not to be deleted with lightly.

Unsurprisingly, Brown has repaid the team’s investment in her skills. With interest.

# Eyewear (200)
Star import and rock-solid centre half Back Todd Swift was last year rumoured to be polling strongly in his private fan club’s Brownlow tipping contest. While the results are still unknown we can cheerfully say that having exceeded 200 possessions for the season, Swift is a phenomenon.

# FreakyTrigger (200)
Cue 10CC’s “Dreadlock Holiday” and have another sandwich while Freaky Trigger count down the greatest songs since 1066, in real time. FT adds a touch of the Harlem Globetrotters to the team with tricks and set plays, boosting audience numbers and encouraging RSS at the root level.

# I Ate a Bee (15)
A slightly mawkish season from the ever-mercurial Hot Soup Girl who nevertheless remains an “[a]ll round legend at left half back flank”. Troubled by repeated bee-infections at the Team DDN RSS practice facilities in the preliminary season, HSG was last seen boarding a flight for Majorca.

# Juan and Ziggy O’Shea (158)
Controversially, Juan and Ziggy (who exploit the ‘father-son’ rule to its full potential as dual roving interchangers, were awarded no points in last year’s best and fairest competition, due to a llama-induced jitch. This season, they soared to new heights against all comers.

# Ladycrackerland (14)
Interchange maven LC notched up a strong run of performances in the pre-season warm-ups but failed to ignite in the home and away season, giving up RSS completely in late 2007. We salute you, scrumptious she-god of the feng haag shuiling …

# MAN ABOUT TOWN (200)
Last year we had this to say about Richard Watts’ form:

At six feet eight in height, ruckman Richard Watts towers over most opponents and is a formidable force in the centre bounce. Thriving on big match situations and crucial moments, Watts proves once again several old adages about grandmothers being taught to suck eggs.

Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?

# Monkey Punch Dinosaur! (36)
Always likely to cause trouble on and off the field, Adam Ford spent a good part of the season sidelined by a tic. Our prediction that he may have needed ‘a spell on the ball’ thus proved correct. Luckily for DDN RSS, Sean M Whelan filled that breach (see below).

# nthposition (200)
A more controversial import than Eyewear, due to the fact that it’s more a magazine than a blog, nthposition gave Team DDN RSS an enviable advantage over other teams in terms of diverse and entertaining play, always on the roving margins of possibility.

# Ruby Street (146)
Multiply the following by 10 and you’re getting close:

Another fresh return from injury, Jill Jones has proven to be a demon at right half forward flank. Deadly accurate in the short passing department, Jones ably assists the forwards with drill-precision hand balling.

# Silliman’s Blog (200)
Once again more than adequately justifying his ten-figure contract, Ron Silliman settles like Buddha into the centre half forward role, scoring countless text-book goals with hardcore attention to detail not unlike that of poet Ivan L=A=N=G=D=L.

# Stoning the Devil (190)
Moving from full-forward to a more sensible forward flank position, Adam Fieled creams the opposition with charismatic grit. Having only come to the game a couple of years ago, his instinct for the twists and turns is uncanny.

# Tattooing The Surface Of The Moon (48)
Sean M Whelan’s rumoured signing to a Singapore-based Champions League in 2007 left him temporarily without friends on the DDN RSS Board of Management. His position in the team was cemented however when he accepted the inevitable move to right forward pocket.

# Tom Cho (26)
“Tom Cho at full forward” was not a headline you expected to hear in 2007 but come one year later while the gamble may not have paid off statistically, Cho has been an energetic spirit and will be missed at training. We support fully his decision to switch clubs.

# TypingSpace (147)
And what better way to conclude than by saying, once again:

With a commanding lead in the Club’s Best and Fairest tally, and seemingly cruising on air during the final moments of the third quarter, Derek Motion set the boundary lines alight with his display of equal parts cameo and virtuoso, stealing seven goals from the hapless opposition in the incendiary final quarter. Another star forward pocket.


Bravo Dream Tean DDN RSS 2008!

Davey Dreamnation
Davey Dreamnation

Davey Dreamnation (1972–?) is an Australalian musician, vocalist, pirate and record-label owner who now lives 'in the third person'.

View his full biography.

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12 Comments

  1. swift & silliman are talented, sure. but do they live & breathe the game like i do? were they raised on it: given an rss feed instead of a dummy? when they were 6 were they out in the mud every sunday morning, blogging their hearts out? i don’t think so. that’s what i’m talking about.

  2. Ah, you know, it’s a team game and all you can hope is that everyone mans up and helps to push the ball toward the big sticks. I’m just happy to be putting on the guernsey when all is said and done.

  3. ‘Hand balling’? You take the intercept and swoop under the posts for a try. Winning the scrum is one thing but I prefer those intercepts, or throwing the dummy and beating them on the outside.

  4. Ah yes, sorry Jill, I forgot you hail from one of the league-playing minority states … but now that you’ve moved to Adelaide, I hope you’ll consider hanging up the dummy-half moves in favour of some good, honest (and legal) shepherding …

    And Adam @8, one more word out of you and you can drop and give me fifty.

  5. I would be the first to admit that I have let my blogging frequency slip this season and so my stats don’t look very good. Unfortunately for my season this year, the winner has not been football or blogging but PhDing.

    So thanks for including me in the 2008 Dream Team anyway. I’d like to think that maybe I wasn’t the best but I was at least the fairest.

    I will leave you with these immortal words which, I warn you, may make you homesick (or just sick):

    “Now there’s a lot more things to football
    Than really meets the eye
    There are days when you could give it up
    There are days when you could fly
    You either love or hate it
    Depending on the score
    But when your team run out or they kick a goal
    How’s the mighty roar”

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