Toontalk Fantasy League Report - 21/10/2023

I'm a bit late with this one as I've been fiddling with the spreadsheet, trying to get it all automated... so this report is a bit about the GW just gone and a bit about the matches coming up this weekend. I'm currently restructuring the individual league pages but you can see the overview here:

Toontalk Fantasy Premier League home page

If you'd like to look at all the league tables in detail, I've now published the spreadsheet to be read-only. You should be able to view it on any device, though I'd recognise either a desktop PC, or a mobile device that has the Google Sheets app.

Toontalk Fantasy League Spreadsheet

I will start with the previous round's action, though... GW8 was taken up by the 7th game in the league. Stephen Towers made it 6 wins out of 7 with a narrow 49-47 win over valiant Graham Hall in 11th place. In a generally low-scoring week, Kay Waters was the Premier League's top scorer with 59 points. Elsewhere, John Waters and David Osguthorpe produced John's and the division's second draw of the season, with 31 points each. The former stays in 4th place for his 6th consecutive week. 5 defeats in a row for Andrew Young and he's down to 10th.

Liam Frost is top of the Championship for the second consecutive GW, with a 67-45 victory over bottom-of-the-pile Dean Hadfield. Ross Macdonald beat me 45-40 in the battle of the admins. Managed of the Week goes to Ian Thirkeld with 76, but it's Liam Frost, James Crunkhorn and Craig Purvis who've taken home Manager of the Month bonuses for September.

Yin Mo picked up September's Manager of the Month for League One, and now he's made it 4 wins on the bounce in League 1, but is just kept off the top by Simon Morton's 23-superior goal difference and his Manager of the Week bonus for the 61 he just picked up. Bob Douglass beats Yiu Keung Tsang 42-41 to stay narrowly above him in the table. Finn Nilsson's time at the top of the league was short-lived, as he narrowly loses to Richard Harrison.

NL1 has had more draws than any other division with 3, but none since GW4. Ciaran O'Toole's losing streak continues as league leader David Munroe edges past him 44-37. Neil Wilson was Manager of the week with 62. In NL2, league leader Ben Harper was royally smashed by 11th-placed Callum Wink, but he's still not shifted from the top spot in the league since opening weekend.

Joshua Lian has made top-spot his own in NL3, 6 points clear with his 6th win from 7 against 2nd-placed Colin Wesbroom, a very narrow 57-56. Manager of the week is Barry Winter with 74. In NL4, Matthew Pike is 6 from 7 as well with a comfortable 58-35 win over 3rd-placed Ilkka Pentilla. Jonathan Ireland takes Manager of the Week with his personal best of 71 points too much for second-placed Gokula Maanickam.

League Fixtures

The interesting league fixtures coming up this weekend are as follows:

PREMIER LEAGUE - If Andrew Young can overcome top-spot Stephen Towers, and Graham Hall can better 8th-placed Paul Riley, it could leave Daniel Bishop very far adrift at the bottom if he can't beat 5th-placed Susan Kinghorn. It's difficult for me to comment on personal rivalries as I don't know who knows each other out of my own circle, but one thing for sure is that John Waters v Kay Waters should be a good one. Kay can go within a point of John if she wins, or potentially overtake him if she manages a decent points-difference swing and another Manager of the Week bonus.

CHAMPIONSHIP - I'm hoping Ross Macdonald can beat James Crunkhorn to keep me from getting sucked into this relegation battle but, to be honest, now that I've used my wildcard and changed my team around a bit, I'm pretty sure I can get out of it if my 75%-chancers play.

Isak's now only a 50%-er but I can live with Haaland as captain and Dan Burn in defence, if he doesn't make the cut. Ian Thirkeld and Ibrahim Halawi take on each other to see who, if anyone, can keep up with league leader Liam Frost.

LEAGUE ONE - Only 1 point separates the top 5; the battle of the punk musicians as Yin Mo takes on Bob Douglass is probably the biggest ticket fixture, though GW5 league leader Yiu Keung Tsang could keep himself amongst it with a win over 4th-placed Stephen Wallace. Tony Slater is in good form as well, and could create a big gap if he beats Graham Clark... in fact, technically, he could go top of the league!

LEAGUE TWO - 1st v 3rd as Ashley Birchall takes on Richard Harrison... a draw there would be great for Finn Nilsson who has a somewhat less daunting task of taking on 11th-placed Jack Robson, if the form table is to be believed. Steve Beggs remains the only person in the league system not to have won a match yet - and it won't be easy this time as he takes on 4th-placed John Davidson.

NATIONAL LEAGUE ONE - David Munroe and John Thomas, both on 20 points at the top of the table (Munroe ahead by only 12 PD) meet in NL1; a draw could see Ross Percy leapfrog above them as he takes on 10th-placed Neil Wilson. Along with David Morton in League One, and Frankie Durham in NL4, Ciaran O'Toole has the most points of any table-bottomer thanks to a Manager of the Week and 2nd place for the month of August. Can he get off the bottom of the table against Dan Potter, despite not having won since GW2?!

NATIONAL LEAGUE TWO - Ben Harper vs Raju Daju is another 1st v second bout, though potentially Sam Benton could leapfrog them if they draw and he beats Mike Waters. He'll likely need a MotW bonus though due to current inferior PD. Alex Banks can get to 21 points if he get a MotW against 8th-placed Dubai Micky, but can't go top as either Ben or Raju will be on 22 or higher by the end of the GW. Will Ben finally be unseated, though?

NATIONAL LEAGUE THREE - It's top vs bottom as Joshua Lian takes on Peter Christie; Colin Wesbroom will be hoping for a miracle there so that he can close the gap with a win over Stuart Latimer. David Martin and Ryan Jensen take on Barry Winter and Robert Pentland, respectively, which look like winnable games on paper at the moment.

NATIONAL LEAGUE FOUR - The bottom division is Matthew Pike's domain at the moment and 9th-placed Jonathan McGrath's form doesn't suggest that's going to change any time soon as they play each other. 2nd-placed Gokula Maanickam takes on 4th-placed Ian Garrett to keep promotion in their sights.

Tournament Fixtures

The tournament's 3rd game, and group decider, also takes place this weekend. Group 4 is the most up-in-the-air, with PD separating all four members.

The top 2 of each group will go through to round 2, along with the best 16 third-placed finishers. Pot 1 will be group winners, Pot 2 will be 2nd-placers, and Pot 3 will be 3rd-placers. At present, the pots are like so:

This could all change though. The draw will take place after the round's update has been completed; first, all the pot 3 teams will be drawn against pot 1 teams. Then, the remaining pot 1 teams will be drawn against pot 2 teams. Finally, when all the pot 1 teams are out, the pot 2 teams will be drawn against each other. It's not possible for anyone to be drawn against someone they played against in the group stage, however, it is now possible that players from the same league division might play each other.

This is the final draw of the tournament competition; the tournament tree from Round 2 onwards has a structure designed to avoid group winners playing each other until at least Round 4.

To check out the full tournament system, click this button to go to its spreadsheet page so you can see the whole thing (at least until I've finished with the embed on the website):

Toontalk Fantasy League Tournament

Good luck everyone!