About yesterday's opposition

Before kick-off I was standing at South End watching Vukovic warm up. A few weeks ago I was concerned about his goal kicks and distribution when it came to long balls. During his time away with the Olyroos, things didn’t seem to have improved, so I was getting quite concerned. But he was looking good during his warm up, with both kicks from the group and from his hands consistently getting to Redmayne. During the match there was one shocker, about midway through the second half, but a nice improvement on how he had been going lately.

While at South End, I think I convinced another (female) Melbourne fan of Vukovic’s swoon-worthiness… I’m trying to get opposition votes for him early should I decide to do the Best Looking Bloke Award again for the A-League! I do think that the Mariners have the best team, but that’s just my completely biased opinion, heavily weighted by one player.

Back to the football, McKinna’s done a great job for a team of players that may not have the individual technical brilliance that some individuals in other teams may have, but they’ve got a lot of heart. I don’t think there’s one player out there for the Mariners that McKinna would have to sub off because he wasn’t trying or didn’t feel like playing. The main reason why I think the Mariners have gotten off to such a great start, is that the team is largely unchanged from season 2, or even season 1! They’re quite a stable club, unlike current bottom team Sydney…

P.S. Looks like Central Coast have taken up the position that Queensland Roar had for me last year...

The "best looking bloke in the A-League" has been found/calculated/whatever!

Well, I’ve finally figured out who’s the “Best Looking Bloke in the A-League” in the A-League… well, kinda...

These are some of the problems that I found along the way:

1. Not so serious nominations. This lead to the installment of Steve Eagleton as the Newcastle representative.
2. Lack of participation. This meant that some teams unfairly voted against their player in the end if their participation in the poll was high but the polls of other forums (where their players were) was not so high.
3. Multiple voting. i.e. Not being able to vote for your player at your forum but voting for your player at another forum.
4. Stuffing up the Perth poll. I didn’t put Che Bunce as an option, but did put Colosimo. Guess who got the most votes there.
   

Dealing with these problems wasn’t easy. I decided that problem #3 was completely out of my control, and I figured that if one forum/team did it, then the others would too. In the end, it’s kinda fair…

Problem #2 was fairly evident. As you can see in the spreadsheet below, Melbourne and Sydney forums had the most active participation. And so were giving lots of votes to other teams without really receiving any for theirs (fair enough too, considering the Sydney and Melbourne reps!) The Newcastle forum involved posts urging the boycott of the poll as Eagleton was not an option to them, as I tried to remove any ‘home’ team bias. This works well in a raw data form, because they didn’t end up giving many votes to Eag’s competition.So while I had said on each forum:

I'll cumulate all votes once the polls finish. One vote on one forum = one vote on another forum.

I’ve changed my mind. Muahahahaha! No, it’s only fair. I had an idea that I mentioned in each forum initially, and have modified it. The original idea:

I did consider a percentage modified count, where I'd consider crowd numbers at matches, but as this isn't reflected in the forum participiation I've decided against it.

So I’ve designed a percentage modified count where I’ve considered poll participation numbers!

If you look at the first Excel sheet, above, column J shows the raw number of votes and K, the percentage of votes for each player. Rows 12 and 13 show the number of votes from each forum in a total number and percentage formats. Column M is the product of the percentage vote of each player multiplied by the participation percentage for his ‘home’ forum.

i.e. Greg Owens from Adelaide’s adjustment score is the product of 15.5 (the percentage of votes he got from all forums) and 15.5 (the percentage of votes Adelaide forumites put in compared to all forums.)

This means that Che Bunce automatically came last as I didn’t put a poll up in the New Zealand forum as they weren't all that receptive in the first place. As a result, this also helped out problem #4, because it didn’t matter how many votes Perth may have given him. Making this 'adjusted score' also somewhat rectifies a bit of problem #2 - a vote on another forum increases that forum's participation percentage and consequently the adjusted score for that forum's 'home' player.

However, Colosimo still had votes at Perth. Lucky for me, the Perth participation was so low that he came 2nd-last regardless of if I did or didn’t count his votes from the Perth forum (compare Excel sheets 1, above, and 2, below.) In fact, the adjusted rankings didn’t change at all for any players!


So there are actually two winners for the "best looking bloke award!" One based on raw data, as promised on each of the forums. The other based on the method outlined above. The charts below show the results. A and B include the votes given to Colosimo by the Perth forum, C and D do not. The A and C are the raw data, the B and D shows data from the adjusted score method.


So our winners are...

Danny Vukovic and Greg Owens!

Our "raw data" winner: Danny Vukovic (what's not to like about a goalkeeper?)
A good player, always switched on, seems to have quite a bit of character.

Oh, and is kinda cute too.

I'll make it known that I voted for him on the MV forum as a bit of a oh I can't decide but the Central Coast have got good taste as they only voted for Wedau and Owens why not give my vote to Danny as he's quite cute kind of vote.

And on when CC nominations were up I selected Alex Wilkinson over Danny. Sorry, couldn't resist putting this picture up - I only just found it! Good defender too - and definitely the cutest A-League captain.







Our "adjusted score" winner: Greg Owens (has a bit of a rash temper when he's playing, but if we're just looking I suppose it doesn't matter that he scored against us. Not that it matters any more.)

You can see that he's not a bad looking sample of an A-League player here on the left...









But Greg, covering up your face isn't going to help us!

And it's really quite difficult to look away when he's got that grin...

Note: all pictures linked to their appropriate homes on the A-League club sites.

P.S. Allsopp looked REALLY good at Fed Square today, but no, the Tards had to pick Vinnie Lia... and where'd he come in the raw data? LAST! Buahahahahahaha! Can't say too much really, he ended up beating Spase in the adjusted score, but I think that has more to do with the high participation rate of MV. Maybe I should have adjusted the participation rate with crowd numbers, so that smaller clubs 'get a chance.'...

Where to vote for the "best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever"

I've got all the polls going now (including Perth!!!), except for New Zealand. My karma's currently -2 there, and I've posted informing them of the finalists, so hopefully my karma will drop down further. Smite me you Kiwis!

Alright, so polls are open until the 16th of February - that's the Friday before the grand final, and only two weeks away. If you want to vote, go to your appropriate forum. To make it easier for you, click on your team's name and I've linked the appropriate thread:

Adelaide, Central Coast, Melbourne, New Zealand, Newcastle, Perth, Queensland and Sydney.

Photos are available via this link. I might put a couple of nicer photos of each player up (if such photos exist) during the week.

A quick note about the finalists for Perth and New Zealand. Colosimo had popped up a couple of times on other team forums, and so he was selected for Perth. For the record, I will not be voting for him.

With New Zealand I had a longer list (Bazeley, Bunce, Emblen, Gao, Hickey, Paston, Richter and Salley). I removed Hickey and Paston as I was the only one who considered them. Bazeley, Emblen, Gao and Richter were removed based on Kiwi commentary. This left Bunce and Salley. As Melbourne's rep isn't the best player in the team, I decided to take this approach to the Kiwis. However, Bunce and Salley are no Vinnie Lia and can actually play. As I thought New Zealand were more competitive with Salley in the team, I denoted him the 'better' player, and so Bunce is the finalist in terms of looks. I will not be voting for him either.

Nor will I be voting for Vince Lia. He's too bad a player for me to seperate his playing ability (or lack of) and looks. Regardless, he doesn't do it for me anyway, and I think his nose is a little too wide for him. But that's just my opinion.

Let the voting begin!

The finalists for the "best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever"

Here are the finalists!Row 1: Adelaide's Greg Owens, Central Coast's Danny Vukovic, Melbourne's Vince Lia, New Zealand's Che Bunce*
Row 2: Newcastle's Steve Eagleton, Perth's Simon Colosimo*, Queensland's Marcus Wedau, Sydney's Ruben Zadkovich.
[Images from each team's A-League website].

I'll post more later, I have some shopping to do right now.
Oh, and Spase Dilevski will be in there too - by default. For the record, Massimo Murdocca got 3 points more than Spase, who actually got none. Which, if you listened to the QR podcasts, is quite amusing.

I'll explain the voting for finalists soon, and I've decided to do a cumulative poll. i.e. One vote on one forum = one vote on another forum. I did consider a percentage modified count, where I'd consider crowd numbers at matches, but as this isn't reflected in the forum participiation I've decided against it.

*Bunce and Colosimo were nominated on other forums, as I couldn't/didn't put polls up on their forums. More on the selection process for these two later.

Voting for the "best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever" has begun

Although I should point out that it's become a player-specific award... and that I couldn't put a poll up at Perth, and I'm probably not going to put one up over at Kiwiland.

I'm giving each forum about a week to respond. Then I'll arrange for a 'national'-type of vote, where the home player is not in the list of choices as that would create a bias. If you haven't voted yet, vote now! Once the final 8 (plus Spase, I've decided to keep him in there as a true default) have been decided, I'll post photos up with a bit of a rant and maybe some quotes from fans about how good-looking they are.

Adelaide: Poll is located here. Choose from Burns, Cornthwaite, Dodd, Geraldi, Rech and Walsh. Currently Burns in equal 1st, which is amusing given he wasn't nominated on the Adelaide forum in the first place.

Sydney: These guys have come around a bit since the nominations were requested. I've now put up a poll, and then they wonder why Petrovski (surely they weren't serious), Fyfe or Dave (Carney or Zdrillic, I still don't know, but I suppose they mean the former) aren't there! Arrrggh! I can't be bothered fixing it up and it's partially their fault anyway. Oh, and their nominees were Bolton, Brockie, Corica, Milligan, Theissen (and his full head of hair), Topor-Stanley and Zadkovich.

Perth: Currently having a party because I said they were more amusing than Sydney while both forums were at the stage of making a mockery of the thread. I wasn't actually able to put a poll up at Perth, but they definitely have the most amusing thread. I have informed them that Colosimo will likely be their rep, which hasn't been taken too well. Muahahahaha.

Melbourne: This was such a list, that I couldn't fit them all into the 10 places that the forum site limited me to. The choices are Allsopp, Brebner, Broxham, Caceres, Leijer, Lia, Muscat, Theoklitos, Vargas, and the combined choice of Alessandro/Ferrante/Fred/Sarkies.

Queensland: What a wonderful forum to use! Unlike the others where I needed to create a new thread to post the poll, I could add it to the original one at Queensland. Also, I pretty much had unlimited places in the poll so I could give each of the nominees their own spot in the poll. Queensland are also the best-looking team, with their whopping 13 nominees. And they are Buess, Gibson, Griffin, Grossman, McCloughan, McKay, Murdocca, Ognenovski, Reddy, Vidosic, Wedau, Willis and default nominee Dilevski. Early days yet, but Spase is yet to post a vote. Even I'm very strongly tempted to vote against him and go for Mr Bad Luck...

Central Coast: I had been warned by Wayne not to put Gumprecht up as he had a 'head that only a mother could love.' Nevertheless I put him up as someone I know does like him. He very quickly got a vote... The other nominees are Brown, Hutchinson, McMaster, Mrdja, Petrie, Vukovic and Wilkinson.

Newcastle: I almost didn't put a poll in because of the strength that Eagleton had in the nomination thread. But I did put a poll in. Nevertheless, four votes in and it's four votes for different players. Aside from Eagleton, we have Carle, Griffiths, Kennedy, Necevski, North, Okon, Old and Rodriguez.

New Zealand: the only forum not to get a poll. I'm already on -1 karma at their forum, which doesn't bother me in the slightest. I've let them know who their nominees are, and they may come around. I doubt it though.

Who's the "best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever"?

From the most recent Queensland Roar podcast:

Stu: I’ve got a sneaky one here, you’ve done your last, I’ll do my last if you don’t mind. Spas Dilevski. Now, if he’s chocolate he’d eat himself, this boy, I’ll tell ya. So what he wanted for Christmas was some kind of nomination or award for the best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever, he didn’t mind. As long as it was some kind of nomination for being good looking. I’ll tell ya, he couldn’t even win the best looking bloke his house, and he only lives with Massimo. Not saying Mass is an ugly–

Josh: Not having a crack at Mass in anyway.

Stu: No shape or form. It’s a two horse race…

Josh: And got pipped on the line!

Stu: He did!

Josh: Actually, not even pipped I think it was four lengths going away. I don’t think he’d want to hear that at all. He does rate himself.

----------------------------
And thus begins the search for the best looking A-League participant. I need to whittle nominations down to a manageable number, I've decided for 8 - one player from each team and have made a thread in each forum.

Perhaps I shouldn't have pointed out that I was from Melbourne, Adelaide think I'm spamming them. Ah well. If they don't want to participate their rep will be Greg Owens. They have been warned. They now seem to be ok with it, in fact things are now going pretty well. Unlike...

Sydney, who don't look to be taking it up at all. Okay, maybe a little... a Sydney fan posted Bolton on the Melbourne forum... turns out he's banned from the Sydney forum!

I can't tell what Perth are doing... they seem to be taking the piss out of it, but at least they're funnier than Sydney.

This is looking like a shambles...

Melbourne are going for it a bit, and just like the other forums, they're listing players from all teams.

Queensland's been pretty good too (sob, sob), along with the Mariners - where someone's put my link up anyway. Cheers to those two forums for taking it with a sense of humour. Jeccy, no-one's nominated Matty McKay yet!

Newcastle were the last forum added, as there were some probs getting onto the site in the first place last night. Like Queensland and the Mariners, this forum has also taken to this silly quest of mine like a duck to water.

And finally, New Zealand. There have been three replies so far, which is proportional to the other forums when you consider their crowds at home games. :P Sorry, couldn't resist.

I'm trying to get guys to respond to this, as surely you can assess whether a guy is good-looking or not, like girls can pick out and accept that other girls can be pretty. So, during the week when I get a rough idea of who's popular in each club I'll try to set up an anonymous poll for each forum. When I get my final 8, I'll then make each forum choose by removing the 'home' player. Hopefully this will take out any bias.

Oh, and Spase Dilevski might get nominated in the final lot by default. So it might be a final 9. I haven't decided yet. I wouldn't how I'd go to go about removing 2 options from the Queensland forum... Who will be "best looking bloke in the A-League, in Australia, in the world, whatever"? Dunno, but I'm abbreviating it to the BLBA award (Best Looking Bloke in the A-League - trying to stay true to McLaren's 'terminology.')