SHORT GAME. GOOD GAME.

Fast turn-around this week, so all cream, no crap.

Here's the ladder and it's packed. No room to slip up, with two games to go last weekend Leah was leading, with one game to go I snuck to the front and at the wash-up Fordy's elbowed his way back to the lead. Note to self, never ever change your pick to the Dees again.

 

Here it is 7 leaders separated by a mere foofteenth.

Get your tips in for tomorrows games.

Dreamteam? Yep that's on again from tomorrow too, partial lockout I reckon.

ROUND 3. A bit like Round 2 only a week later.

A very late and shabby effort this week, but given that last week I decided I hated footy and never want anything to do with it again any effort's OK by me. And anyway, it was all getting a bit orderly and professional there for a while, so we've just reverted really.

We're looking a tad less dour also as our new header introduces our first PunchDrunk Playmate of the Month, celebrating a bit of what helped make footy from the seventies and early eighties so much fun. Counter-culture.

Mr April is that large lump of a man, the galloping gasometer, Mick Nolan. The man who made every man feel better about his physical self. Commiserations if any of you are young enough to have missed any of this hand-selected bunch of anti-heroes, hopefully we can scrounge up enough to not be stranded on Mr July.

 

The best news this week is that the league has a new whipping boy, or should I say the media has. Those geniuses who constantly gift us such a wonderful stream of articles with all the depth of twitter gossip sitting beneath pun-driven headlines.
Seems they've thankfully exhausted all those of the 'Dee-sastrous', 'Self Dee-struct' and 'Road to Hell' ilk. The fickle finger of fate moves on, and even better, they're now looking to cook the Pies. I wonder if Eddie will be fanning these flames as much as usual. Internal division, name-calling, hair-pulling and slander, topped off with player injuries.
Who or what next week? Some decent footy analysis? Some quality content? Yeah right.

 

Oh and the ladder: New leader this week, one of the sheilas, sorry, one of the sisteren, Leah, looking every bit the Champion she claims to be. Neck and neck with her is young Matt, who no doubt pulled up a bit stiff after his Blues did their business friday last.

LEAGUE OF DRUNKS: Now it's serious. Now it's Mano a Mano

The DreamTeam comp kicked off proper last week and here's what happened:

HIGH SCORE: Coxy's Catfish 1962
LOW SCORE: Ian's Adelaide 896

AFL FIGHTS TRUTH DECAY

This week saw Big George Pell take on Doubting Dick Dawkins for the hearts and minds of the uncertain. Surely they could have run with Vlad Demetriou and Caro Wilson to expunge any remaining doubt. These two apparently can pull the truth from any cloudy situation, using any logic that suits their argument.
I refer of course to the Davey v Loose-lips Mifsud situation. While they can't say which of the two is a liar, they know it can't be the skulking Mifsud because he has the backing of the AFL. That holy bastion of integrity. Case closed.

This week sees the Guinness Book of Records World's Oldest Man take the field for the Bombers. Remarkable if only because my memory tells me he was a liability for the first 10 years of his 40 year career, which gives me some hope for several players at the MFC after all. But my memory is dodgy at best and I'm sure bombers fans will correct me (and smugly remind me the Dees haven't won a flag since '64 as they do at every Dees v Bombers game I've ever been to).

Enough bitching lets get to the numbers. Lets look at some charts.

Four perfect scores this week, meaning the Jackpot stays safe in its hiding spot (maximum of two 9s per week for that to go off). But a hat-tip to Fordy, Leah, Stavros and Cath (in her first real outing, having had difficulty negotiating the PunchDrunk door-bitch last week).
And so Fordy bustles past Grant to nose to the front of the 4 ladder-leaders.

LEAGUE of DRUNKS: Week 2

Still just shooting blanks until now, but here's where we're at. You'd have to say the Demonskis looking the good at the moment, but let's reserve judgement til the season begins at least.


THIS WEEK'S CLASHES
Rob's MONGRELS v Ando's EVERYODDYEAR
Mark's all conquering DEMONSKIS v FORDY
Kurtz' SEWESTNRTHS v Sam's JOELCOREYENRIGHTS
Trobby's AAAARGH v Dirk's CURRYWURST
Coxy's CATFISH v my CHAMPANZEES
Logger's LEGENDS v Richo's CHEESEDALE in the game of the round
Alex's SH1THOUSE v Matty's LYGON LIMBOs
The BRENNAS v Pete's HAWKEYE
Ian's ADELAIDE v Grant's PAPPAGs

UP & ABOUT v DOWN & OUT

Round 1 tipping is always an interesting affair. I just discovered my gut IQ is smarter than my head IQ. My gut got 8, my head only 6. Unfortunately I listened to my head cos it's closer to my ears.

Some sensational footy played last weekend, a bit of old-fashioned biffo and sadly some total crap. Nice to see the Magpies' press is dead and exciting attacking footy is back. In fact it's nice to see the Pies are passé, gooorn. Gotta love a one-year dynasty. A shame the Dees have chosen to go down the Pies game-plan path. Too late.

Oh my Dees... Once you've gone from bad to worse, where do you go from there? Worsest? It's going to be a long hard year. Anus Horribulus? Our anus is looking worse by the day.
Now, once again, we're up against the league and its boss, He Who Shall Not Be Questioned, The Man Who Makes The Truth. This guy sets new standards in double standards. Oh and then there's our freaky psycho-nazi dog-killing ex-sponsor (our ONLY sponsor), our players and now the sneakthief GWS (again)... Thank god Benny Cousins popped up to steal a couple of column inches.

Grant, Matt and Kurtz are leading the way at the head of a healthy field of 37 Drunks. Here's the Ladder. Click on that sucker and it should get almost big enough to actually see:

LEAGUE of DRUNKS

The head-to-head games don't start til Round 3, and sometime before then we'll get a dedicated League of Drunks page. Until then however, here's this, showing Mark riding high as he was this time last season, and Brenna also Mr Consistent:

PUNCHDRUNK PRIZEMONEY: A coupla changes...

Not much has changed with PunchDrunk prize-money for probably 10 years, other than a significant increase in the total prize pool. This year there’s a tweak to PunchDrunk Prize-money, which should lead to a greater spread of the spoils.

There are slight changes to the MAIN PRIZES, first second and third - the minor-premiership prizes.
JACKPOTS: A perfect score each round this year is 9 games. A harder get, but the jackpot amount doubles to $20/round.
And there are more significant changes to FINALS prize-money structure. Read more here.

Brownlow schmownlow....

No one lays on the Red Carpet magic quite like PunchDrunk. Last September saw a splendid turnout for the PunchDrunk Prize-giving and Pie night at Fitzroy's magnificently well-appointed Union Club Hotel.

PunchDrunk's roving lensman, Bernie, has once again documented the event for preposterity. Click on the shot below and be wizzed painlessly off to view the full set. There may even be one or two shots of you there.