DT Dreaming with The Cuz

Posted by Warnie on 28/7/10 • Categorised as General

Before I begin this latest rant/installment, I just wanted to thank the kind folk of the DT Talk forums for providing me with positive feedback, wishing me the best in my recovery and generally being nice! I could have got slapped around, but thankfully, everyone was kind, so I have decided to let rip again this week…Here we go! (Oh, and Calvin, great Captains again last week! I took your advice for once and it paid off!)

DT was alright with me……..

Well, this week is the final chance to make a run at the finals, or consolidate yourself in the top 4. Lets face it, it really does not matter where you finish on the ladder when it comes to top 4, because there is no such thing as home ground advantage in DT world! Best of luck to all, I say this because im over it!

I have had an “Annus Horribilus” year to quote that Pommy Crown wearing old bat the Queen of England.

My First League is ranked 145 off 44133 and I’m coming 15^th
My Second League is Ranked 81 and I’m coming 10^th with a very very slim chance of making finals.
My Third League im ranked 1 (Koutas SEN League) but I take nothing from that as it is ranked 4444.

So basically what I am getting at is the fact that I have given up on DT this year! My ranking overall has turned to gooey mush, and the leagues that I am interested in I cant win from where I am!

This lead me to thinking about next year. With the introduction of The Gold Coast Suns, there is a big problem for us common DT folk, as well as some major issues for the team at Virtualsports. Lets have a look at what lies ahead that we will all need to get our heads around:

The Bloody Bye!

What a massive pain in the arse this is going to become for all of us! It’s hard enough to ensure there is enough bench cover for injuries with playing players, let alone having to worry about an entire side not playing! To make matters even worse, there are going to be some rounds where 3 teams all have a bye on the same week to ensure all teams have the same number of Byes throughout the year! My head is spinning like crazy now!!!!

This is going to cause enormous amounts of grief for all of us when this happens. “So what is the solution Cuz?” I hear you all ask…… I’ve whacked on the old thinking cap, loaded up the peace pipe and turned into philosopher to come up with a few different scenarios that may assist the boys at Virtualsports.

Option 1 – Increase the Bench

The idea of increasing the bench is an interesting one. Having a list of 34 (1 extra bench player per position) is a viable solution. Question is though, do you increase the salary Cap with it? I personally can’t see this solution working (for myself at least!) because I seem to be forever left with no bench cover anyway! Adding 1 more player might help, but who knows….NEXT!

Option 2 – Increase the Trades

Rather than have a maximum 2 Trades per round, make it 3. Then increase the total number of trades for the season to 30. This should assist with ensuring a full squad is running out each week!

Option 3 – It aint broke, don’t fix it!

That’s right. Our game is perfect the way it is. So there is going to be 1 year where there is going to be lots of pain for all of us. The thing here is, everyone is in exactly the same leaky boat! Let’s not confuse the situation by making changes!

At the end of the day, were all going to be playing by the same rules. The thing we all need to keep in mind is our strategy. It’s going to have to be different to this year if you want to get the chocolates! The good news is, Im already thinking way ahead of most of you so you may as well install Cousins Coke n Ice as the early preseason Bolter for season 2011! Boo Yeah!

So lets help the good folk of Virtual Sports out. If you had to pick from one of the above options which would it be?

On a personal note, Option 2 would be my choice!

Cheers

Cousins Coke n Ice

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

1,326 Comments

Sandgropers
July 28, 2010 • 6:52 pm

stuff em just the leave suns out of the whole competition lol obviously thats not realistic & flawed in soooo many ways but it is a quick/easy fix.
kelso
July 28, 2010 • 7:31 pm

I don’t see why they didn’t introduce Gold Coast and GWS in the same year saving us from the bye altogether
MC
July 28, 2010 • 8:06 pm

I have been thinking about this for a year and my solution is simple but removes an element of dream team that i love. Plus this would only be until west sydney come in.

All teams will play a certain amount of games. Therefore i think rather then liken it to the comp having win loss draws. Have a ranking based competition.

Remove the Head to Head comp and and just have a ranking based comp, so the player who score the most points over 22 rounds (or however many they have) is the winner. Same trades, same benches, same capt and vice process, same emergencies.

You could still have eliminator working the same way, it would just be luck of the draw and an even balanced team would be rewarded.

Thats just my two cents
Mezzoculo
July 28, 2010 • 8:43 pm

This might sound biased, but I like my idea better…
- Sandgropers
  July 28, 2010 • 9:30 pm
  
  what’s your idea?
  - Mezzoculo
    July 28, 2010 • 10:33 pm
    
    I outlined it in the Round 17 Scores & Discussion post (on the first page of comments). Its a bit long so I won’t clog up the comments here. Perhaps you could check it out there.
    
    In a nutshell, I’d allow players to be placed in any position on the ground but penalise them a portion of their round score if they are not placed in a position they are suited to (which is the position/s each player can now be placed in now – FWD/RUC/MID/DEF). This should cover bye-related donuts (unless you have too many players from the rested team).
    - eeepo
      July 28, 2010 • 10:39 pm
      
      Way way way toooooo complicated!!!!
      It’s only 1 year, V.S would want to keep it as close as possible to how it is now & will be from 2012 onwards.
      - Mezzoculo
        July 28, 2010 • 11:00 pm
        
        Geez eep, its not that bad! Players can be placed anywhere on the ground but lose points if played out of position. Surely you’d agree that only an absolute DT newbie wouldn’t be aware of a player’s current position restrictions. Why would this awareness disappear once another team or two are added?
        
        Again, unless you’ve got half a dozen players from a single team (and why would you anyway), the existing bench cover should be sufficient to deal with bye-related donuts. No need for super/temporary trades either – BTW how would they be costed?
      - eeepo
        July 29, 2010 • 12:12 am
        
        Hey Mez, I’m not saying your idea is bad!
        I just think V.S will try to make it as simple as possible.
        I appreciate your thinking, makes great sense.
        Just my opinion, & I like your laterel thinking!
      - eeepo
        July 29, 2010 • 12:24 am
        
        Sorry, re Costing, it would remain the same as now.
        E.g if you were to Supertrade a player, it would be for a player the same value or less.(but $in bank do not change.)
        The following week, those that have been “super-traded,” IN, revert back to the players “Supertrated,” OUT!
        Whatever they decide to do, like Cuz said, “we are all in the same leaky boat!”
PieMan
July 28, 2010 • 8:56 pm

nice work, get better soon mate :)
trrumper
July 28, 2010 • 9:35 pm

Another option would be to use a players average score on his “bye” week

Good luck for the rest of the year in the cash league Cuz

cheers
- Avan
  July 29, 2010 • 1:43 am
  
  exactly…. and it’s the only really good option that won’t alter DT too much.
  
  simplest solution is usually the best and it doesn’t get much easier than just using a bye player’s average. in the first round, you cop their last years average. and a bye player can’t be selected captain, so that people can’t get a guaranteed great captain score by captaining swan or someone in their bye round.
  
  simple, easy, not much alteration needed to be done to the inner workings by virtualsports.
  
  if they do anything else i’ll set their balls on fire. all this talk about supertrades and 60 trades for a season is giving me a headache.
  - eeepo
    July 29, 2010 • 2:00 am
    
    But what if a player in your team is injured or suspended the week of the bye round?
    Getting his average would just be unfair!
    I’m sure Avan, that V.S will end up doing someting whereby all us DT coaches will ALL want to set their balls on fire!
    - Spector
      July 29, 2010 • 11:12 am
      
      If the player was suspended on a bye that the suspension wouldn’t be for the bye week for his team.
      
      As for injury, that is just tough luck I guess
    - Avan
      July 29, 2010 • 1:37 pm
      
      the suspended player wouldn’t be suspended for the bye round, they would have to serve their suspension the week after so you would still cop that. i dunno about injuries.
      i’m not saying there aren’t things they would have to iron out, i’m just saying it’s a hell of a lot better than supertrades or a gigantic bench or having a shit load more trades because all those things will completely change dt into something else.
      
      my only other idea that doesn’t ruin DT is this…
      say i have gary ablett and he has the bye. there could be a special icon on him that you click, and you can swap him out for any player in the same position of equal or lesser value. then when ablett’s bye is over the trade reverses itself automatically. this would open up a heap of strategy stuff kinda like picking a captain… shit ablett has the bye, do i bring in montagna or swan to cover him? etc etc.
      
      i’ve thought about it a fair bit and they are the only ideas i think don’t suck too hard or make it over complicated, but i still prefer just using averages.
      - Spector
        July 29, 2010 • 2:54 pm
        
        that is a nice idea you have there but i think it will be too hardcore for some people that just play dream team casually.
      - Avan
        July 29, 2010 • 4:32 pm
        
        i guess… but it only has to be for one season and it’s a lot less complicated than some of the other ideas floating around
eeepo
July 28, 2010 • 9:44 pm

Thought provoking stuff indeed! Well done.
I’m thinking if they left it as it is….BUT they introduce extra trades, say SUPER-TRADES, that we can only use when 3 teams are having a bye in the same week, i.e 20 trades + 6 Super-trades
AND yes, on the “3 team Bye weeks,” we could use both our regular trades + 2 or maximum 3 Supertrades, meaning a maximum of 5 trades on those weeks!?
Whatever they decide to do, team selection and management will be crucial, as will be the study of the fixture!
I’m looking forward to next year, might call my team DT-DIFFERENT!
Speedy recovery, Cuz!
- JaydenC.
  July 28, 2010 • 11:44 pm
  
  To quote yourself above: Way way way toooooo complicated!!!!
  Just add a few extra trades and if n00bs spend them before the multi-bye rounds well then they just suck and that’s too bad lol.
  - eeepo
    July 29, 2010 • 12:02 am
    
    Fair enough!
  - DTBrendan
    July 29, 2010 • 3:20 pm
    
    haha
jt368
July 28, 2010 • 11:49 pm

Option 4: Assassinate Bill Gates.
- DTBrendan
  July 29, 2010 • 3:20 pm
  
  Option 5: stop random comments.
eeepo
July 29, 2010 • 2:06 am

@ Cuz, how’s your sleeping going?
For me, shoulder pain = 10mins here & there!
The more I read my idea, the less I like it, lol.
- Leigh (aka Cousins Coke n Ice)
  July 29, 2010 • 4:59 pm
  
  Hey Eeep.
  
  The shoulder is coming along real nice at the moment! No Pain, so heaps of sleep, back at work this week which is helping keep my sanity! Thanks for asking! Be swinging the clubs by November!
  - eeepo
    July 29, 2010 • 6:52 pm
    
    Good for you mate!
daniel
July 29, 2010 • 7:23 am

good writen up mate, and am liking all the suggestions everyone has put forward but i think it should be left exactly the same. everyone will have the same problem (eg occasionally having players not play) but i reckon it will make for a more strategic and skill based game and i could definatly see alot of us dt talk boys getting right up there in the rankings as alot of others wont do the research and will make major stuff up (eg not looking at draw and cramming in geelong players). imagine the fun we could have researching all the different strategies (eg mid prices on bench and less guns, 3 from each team etc) and trying tto pick the cheap dime in the dozen that has a break oput year. And wat i like best is the fact that everyone will have completly different teams, unlike this year where everyone has similiar teams. having said this, i wouldt argue with a few more trades hahaha everyonne can use a few more trades to make as much milk from our cash cows as possible.
Spector
July 29, 2010 • 11:10 am

Players get their averages when they aren’t playing but cannot be set as captain?
jono_dt
July 29, 2010 • 12:28 pm

spector i thought of that idea and i think its quite good. Say a players avg is 99.5……..round it up to 100? because we cant be scoring 2154.5…….or can we????
- Spector
  July 29, 2010 • 2:57 pm
  
  if you were to do this you would not round the individual players average, you would add up all the points as is and then round the final figure (less error).
  - Birdy
    July 29, 2010 • 4:34 pm
    
    Why do we have to score a whole number??
Max Power
July 29, 2010 • 2:18 pm

How about this for an idea….I’ve just thought of it now, so not a heap of thought has gone into it….here goes:

You pick a sqaud at the start of the year from the current 16 teams…..exactly as we have done in the past…you cannot select any Gold Coast Suns.

Then, whenever a player in your team is not playing due to the bye, you can substitute them for a GC player of the same position for that week.

This would also remove the problems associated with pricing all the Gold Coast players, as there would be no need for them to have prices at all.

Example, you have Bartel, Enright, J Selwood, and Podsiadly from Geelong. But Geelong have the bye this week. You would be able to choose any 2 MIDS, 1 DEF and 1 FWD from the Suns.
Sandgropers
July 29, 2010 • 3:37 pm

Best option i have heard by far is using the players average score for a bye round. It’s simple & it changes bugger all which is the best result considering it’s only for 1 year coz the worst thing would be making drastic changes just for the one year & getting used to that then going back to the old version a year later. I reckon it’s the best compromise between all the ideas. i doubt too many people would hate this idea so much they wouldn’t play DT for that year.
- thomasgreen1994
  July 29, 2010 • 4:02 pm
  
  yea i agree. Using the average for a player is simple and wont change DT much for the year
  - Matty_B
    July 29, 2010 • 4:16 pm
    
    So for the teams that have a bye in the second round, the first round becomes a double or nothing round. Could see a lot of coaches trading in any player that get’s 140+ in the first round but has a bye in the second.
    - Sandgropers
      July 29, 2010 • 8:15 pm
      
      it’s the same for everyone so nobody is getting an advantage over anyone & if they wanna do that it’s costing them trades. plus it is only for one year.
Matty_B
July 29, 2010 • 4:21 pm

One thing that will be interesting next year which hasn’t been talked about much is the price changes. Because of the bye you could have a 2 week window to trade some players without their price changing. The impact of this will depend largely on the way that VS decides to alter the rest of the trading system.
- trrumper
  July 29, 2010 • 5:24 pm
  
  Another interesting point is the players starting prices for next year.
  
  With the Gold Coast substantially increasing the overall competitions salary cap, but with many of their players being rookie priced, there will be surplus cash going into the equation for determining the magic number.
  
  So I would imagine that either the rookies go up a fair bit next year or the magic number increases thereby making all the players from this year more expensive.
  
  Does anyone else have an opinion on this?
harrync
July 29, 2010 • 7:46 pm

Surely Increasing the bench by 1 for each position will work.
Which should mean an increase in salary for the next year.
It just makes it a challenge for DTers to get players from each team, and make sure they don’t get stuck with a team with 6 or 7 Cats.
Most weeks, teams might have 1 or 2 players out due to the bye. I mean, most teams wont have many Rich, Crows, Mel, WCE, Port, Bombers. The only problem is when the top 3 teams have their bye…. MAYBE Virutalsports should ask the AFL to give the top 3 teams byes in the first 3 weeks. SO IT DOESN’T EFFECT any league situation… ???
Personally in my team i have 10 players from the CAts and Saints. so next year with the bye, it should eliminate teams from loading up on TOP CATS and Saints pllayers.
Hopefully Ablett goes to the GC which means we can all have more Geelong stars ;)

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