Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Looking back on our lives I am sure every single one of us would have done something different at one time or another; tried harder at school, bought a different type of car, travelled more, associated with different people, drank less on the weekend etc.
After opening up the AFL Fantasy website this week and seeing my season ranking languishing around the 20,000 mark I thought to myself ‘what could I have done differently with this team?’ so I decided, with the help of the superb ‘Nix Dream Trader’ and the ‘Footywire.com’ website, to see what sort of team I could put together – with the benefit of hindsight.
Now if I was to tell you that prior to round 1 you could put together a team that at the end of round 10 could:
– Be leading the competition by a staggering 2,579 points
– Have over $350,000 in the kitty
– Have 21 players ready to take the field in Round 11 (subject to round 11 teams)
– Have only undertaken 2 legitimate ‘upgrades’
– Not have Dane Swan, Dean Cox or Buddy Franklin at any point during the season
And most ambitious of all could have won the highest scoring team of the round 7 times in the first 10 rounds!!!
Would you think all of the above was possible – I didn’t – but here is the proof!
STARTING TEAM:
DEFENDERS
B Goddard $501,300
G Birchall $455,400
P Hanley $425,300
C Dixon $304,800
B Gibbs $473,300
B Goodes $121,300
D Terlich $102,700
L Stevenson $108,500
MIDFIELDERS
K Cornes $473,000
B Stanton $548,900
M Barlow $495,300
A Swallow $528,800
T Boak $431,300
R Douglas $372,600
O Wines $156,700
J O’Meara $108,500
M Jones $102,700
M Evans $108,500
RUCKS
M Kruezer $403,700
T Goldstein $407,300
M Blicavs $108,500
M Daw $108,500
FORWARDS
N Reiwoldt $441,400
J Westhoff $394,800
J Bartel $492,700
M Stokes $338,700
J Kennedy $272,300
J Neade $108,500
S Dwyer $89,300
B Macaffer $132,600
Total Spend $9,117,200
Salary Cap $9,139,000
Cap Left $21,800
Round 1:
Captain: Andrew Swallow
Emergencies: Terlich, Stevenson, Jones, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Dwyer, Macaffer
Cap left: $21,800
Weekly Score: 2317 (would win weekly prize)
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2242
Points in front: 75
Round 2:
Trades: None required – we are killing it!
Captain Justin Westhoff (will dominate GWS – wait and see!)
Emergencies: Terlich, Stevenson, Jones, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Dwyer, Macaffer
Cap left: $21,800
Weekly Score: 2426 (would win weekly prize)
Total Score: 4743
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2274
Highest ‘real’ season score: 4362
Points in front: 381
Round 3:
Trades: Dixon, Kruezer out, S Burgoyne, Leuenberger in
Captain: Justin Westhoff (again? – Yep!)
Emergencies: Goodes, Stevenson, O’Meara, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Dwyer, Macaffer
Cap left: $125,500
Weekly Score: 2441 (would win weekly prize)
Total Score: 7184
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2276
Highest ‘real’ season score: 6411
Points in front: 773
Round 4:
Trades: Hanley, Bartel out, Hibberd, S Johnson in
Captain: Kane Cornes
Emergencies: Terlich, Stevenson, O’Meara, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Neade, Macaffer
Cap left: $208,900
Weekly Score: 2423 (would win weekly prize)
Total Score: 9607
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2355
Highest ‘real’ season score: 8552
Points in front: 1055
Round 5:
Trades: Gibbs, Westhoff out, Enright, Rockliff in
Captain: Nick Reiwoldt
Emergencies: B Goodes, Stevenson, Jones, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Dwyer, Macaffer
Cap left: $327,400
Weekly Score: 2371 (would win weekly prize)
Total Score: 11978
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2349
Highest ‘real’ season score: 10694
Points in front: 1284
Round 6:
Trades B Goodes, Stanton out, Vlastuin, Ablett in
Captain: Steve Johnson
Emergencies: Terlich, Stevenson, Wines, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Dwyer, Macaffer
Cap left: $447,900
Weekly Score: 2133
Total Score: 14111
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2204
Highest ‘real’ season score: 12686
Points in front: 1425
Round 7:
Trades: Stevenson, Wines out, Laird, Watson in
Captain: Gary Ablett (who else!)
Emergencies: Terlich, Laird, Jones, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Neade, Macaffer
Cap left: $444,400
Weekly Score: 2325
Total Score: 16436
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2381
Highest ‘real’ season score: 14833
Points in front: 1603
Round 8:
Trades: Rockliff, Neade out, Bartel, J Lewis in
Captain: Gary Ablett
Emergencies: Birchall, Laird, Jones, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, S Johnson,Macaffer
Cap left: $304,800
Weekly Score: 2382
Total Score: 18818
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2441
Highest ‘real’ season score: 16943
Points in front: 1875
Round 9:
Trades: Birchall, Cornes out, Houli, Stanton in
Captain: Michael Barlow
Emergencies: Terlich, Laird, Jones, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Dwyer, Macaffer
Cap left: $322,700
Weekly Score: 2530 (would win weekly prize)
Total Score: 21348
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2451
Highest ‘real’ season score: 19176
Points in front: 2172
Round 10:
Trades: Boak, Leuenberger out, Griffen, Kruezer in
Captain: Ryan Griffen
Emergencies: Terlich, Burgoyne, Jones, Evans, Blicavs, Daw, Dwyer, JJ Kennedy
Cap left: $350,900
Weekly Score: 2506 (would win weekly prize)
Total Score: 23,854
Highest ‘real’ weekly score: 2357
Highest ‘real’ season score: 21275
Points in front: 2579
CURRENT TEAM:
DEFENDERS
B Goddard $513,400
B Houli $445,900
M Hibberd $451,300
S Burgoyne $400,000
C Enright $457,900
N Vlastuin $370,700
D Terlich $346,200
R Laird $266,100
MIDFIELDERS
G Ablett $612,300
B Stanton $512,900
M Barlow $535,300
A Swallow $461,500
R Griffen $488,100
R Douglas $495,900
J Watson $502,600
J O’Meara $403,900
M Jones $344,100
M Evans $293,000
RUCKS
M Kruezer $353,500
T Goldstein $425,300
M Blicavs $272,300
M Daw $239,700
FORWARDS
N Reiwoldt $496,500
J Lewis $466,200
J Bartel $499,000
M Stokes $456,600
J Kennedy $401,500
S Johnson $562,600
S Dwyer $318,400
B Macaffer $323,400
Total Worth $12,716,100
Cap Left $350,900
So there you go – the team you wanted from the start!!! This team would have the number 1 season ranking from round 1 so far and would have won the weekly prize 7 out of the 10 weeks so far – that’s a lot of footy tickets and sherrins!
The team still has 10 rookies in it which goes to show that a ‘sideways trading’ strategy might be more beneficial than a lot of coaches (myself included) think!
Not sure how this team will go for the rest of the season but with a 2,579 head start with 13 rounds to go they would be very difficult to chase down!
Now if we could all just come up with a great starting team like this in 2014!!!
Thanks again to the ‘Nix Dream Trader’ and ‘Footywire.com’ for the resources to help with this article.
For discussion on this article give me a follow on twitter – @Pearcey47
DOWNLOAD: DT best team.xlsx
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