Beasts From The East Update

In 1991 I received a phone call from my Under 16’s Cricket coach.  “Stuey, its Crackers here mate.  Adam and Luke (our two gun players) have been suspended at school and can’t play tomorrow.  I need you to open the batting and bowling tomorrow.”  Holy sh*t, this was my first experience with pressure.

Winning the toss was my peak performance for the day.  Padding up I started getting what I thought were butterflies.  A solid if not fluent Number 7 bat, my day usually consisted of 6 steamed dim-sims, a pie with sauce and two orange Lucozades cooling my heels on the boundary while Adam and Luke smashed the ball all over the park.  By the time I was ready to face the first ball I almost shat my pants.  This was my first ever taste of performance anxiety.  The second time was one year later at the Yr 11 formal after party with Skye Goldsworthy.

Since then I breezed through A-grade pennant for Olinda GC dominating opponents.  Marriage proposal and subsequent marriage was a cinch.  Child birth, well not that us males do much, was stress free.

This year I am presently dealing with my third ‘performance anxiety episode’.  Holding up the ladder for #BeastsFromTheEast.

Having been given the task of writing a short weekly update on @Aki_DT #BeastsFromTheEast progress against @tbetta9 #WestIsBest league battle I have, as @robbo_heraldsun would say “dogged it”.

As a Performance Coach I tell my clients “There is no failure, only feedback” so I have decided that I need to take responsibility and update the 3 people that have asked for the status update.

The West is currently having their way with us like Kim Duthie had with Ricky Nixon.  I am hearing on the tweetvine that #WestIsBest is sitting quite comfortably as the 24^th best Dreamteam League in the World whereas #BeastFromTheEast are 241^st.

On Twitter recently I seem to have uncovered a few others that might be suffering from my ‘performance anxiety affliction’.  Needing not name and shame those twits I just want to acknowledge @RainmanDT, @FlossyDT, @McRathDT and @ImpromptuSC for attending the ‘It’s Ok To Be Average’ seminar with me on Sunday night.

Averaging 2051 points a round The Beasts from The East have scored 243,975 total points.  There have been some great performances lead by our director of Coaching Aki, who is sitting 851^st in The World and on top of our points ladder closely followed by @TeeTeeDT  “Faecal Mistifiers” in second and Sam’s “Bucks Premiership” third.

Leading Round 7 performers were @Aki_DT‘s “anNEALEiation” with 2344 points, @JanineMcGlynn “B(r)ogan Power” with 2312 and @Doutheez  “Cousin Coke and Ice” 2302.

Needing a lift are @McRathDT, who scored 2015 (sorry Matty but I am lighting a fire under your belly) and last years Supercoach Legend (this year’s legend in his Dreamteam’s lunchbox) @ImpromptuSC with 2071 in a week where 2200 was par.

At a time when upgrades are happening all over the Dreamteam world, we will stay positive that the #BeastsFromTheEast can trade our way to glory and reel in the #WestIsBest mob who are getting far to cocky for their own good. (my best upgrade this year was a medium to a large McChicken Meal at McDonalds!)

If you have read this far and your thoughts are ‘bloody hell I am not going to get these three minutes of my life back’ please let me know in the comments section and I will return under the rock that I crawled out from to give this update.

P.S.  For those wondering, I made a Golden Duck and my first over I bowled took 16 balls to complete due to 4 no balls and 6 wides.  A great day of my life that I have just relived while writing this update!

Tweet me up @stueyden to feel better about your Dreamteam performance

P.S.S Maybe I need to add DT to my Twitter handle???  Nah it’s not helping Rainman haha

My sole goal is to destroy my mates in my league, win a few beers, a bit of coin and most importantly have gloating rights all summer.  There are many tricks to a league win, and I am just going to run through a few I have picked up to start.  Feel free to have a crack at me, but I speak generally and there are exceptions to all the generalisations and issues I raise below.   But I want to highlight the issues and then you apply them, adapt in your own way to your league – the one you must win!

TRADES

Firstly ladder position at round 19 is not that important, so clear out that competitive nature of yours, you do NOT have to be no 1 on the ladder to achieve the right result. Your sole goal in the home and away season  is too finish top 8, lets hope top 4, starting finals with 4-6 trades.  You need the trades in finals, monitor and guard them with your life.  Plan them out now roughly if you really do care.   Analyse the teams in your comp, know your weak links, easy wins, likely losses.  Do what you need to do to make finals, and minimise your trading where possible.   The trick is not to leave your run too late, whilst cashing up so you do not make top 8.  You may cop a bit of flack from your mates during the home and away but suck it up… until finals, then let rip.

I can almost guarantee that the top 2 in your league will have 0-1 trades left heading to finals.  They are going to fall over themselves with a any LTI’s etc.  Let them have their minutes glory during the home and away, hold your fire – smack’em in the finals.    Finishing 8^th with 6 trades is more important that finishing first with 0-1 trades.

The other little trick, is pretend to you mates, that you have used more trades than you have, I use a plus 3 rule, so you don’t forget.  ie. I have used 19 trades however when my mate rang on Friday I told him 16 – he promptly traded as only used 17.    Feel free to encourage mates to trade unnecessarily, in any way you like.

ROUND 20

For a League win this is just as important as trades.  Much more important if chasing a public league win.  You need to set your team for round 20, start thinking strategy now, especially if you are certain of a top 8 finish.  The biggest problem with round 20 is Collingwood v Swans at ANZ.  The Swans are a shut down side and merciless on DT gods.  Beware, you have been warned.

Hawks v Melbourne, GC V GWS.  These will likely be ripper DT friendly games.  Gablett if on the park, might smash out a lazy 150.  But the first GWS v GC game yesterday needs to be reviewed.   I have not done that.   Overall you need to get across round 20 now, and work out who you think will rip out a lazy tonne, and who will stink it up.  We all know that Swan is better than Mitchell, but in round 20 who will you back?  A big call, made way to early but I am backing Mitchell for round 20.

The Problem with the Hawks is round 22 – tragically they run into the Swans at the SCG.   Load up with Hawks for round 20 & 21.  Trade a couple for Round 22.   GWS actually has a great run, in some respects through the finals.  GC round 20 and then Melbourne in round 21.  Melbourne by that time, may have a new coach… but if they have not sacked him yet and run the current game plan of ‘absolute feeble efforts’, at about that time the Melbourne players themselves look for a new coach ala Geelong game.   I think GWS will get plenty of the ball and rack up at leisure the DT points in two consecutive games.   Hence say a Greene might be good for 2 tonnes in consecutive weeks….   So do you upgrade him… to Swan type or hold, save the trade ahh the imponderables of DT.

Anyway could analyse every game and team but wont at this stage, give everyone something to think about on a league win against the boys. I have plenty of other tricks up my sleeve..  so all good.  I note my name could not be published as my mates will read this…

People play Dream Team for various reasons. They may have played it for years and live for it.  They may have heard others in the office talking about it and decided to give it ago.  They may play it so every game of the weekend has a bit of interest (yes, even the GWS games).  No matter what your motivation, one thing has probably become clear by now.  You are either in the top 1-2% of coaches and a decent chance of winning overall or you’re not.  If you are like most of us and can’t beat everybody, all is not lost.  It is ok to simply concentrate on a league and try to take it out. If you concentrate on winning a league, a whole new strategy comes into play with your trades and what you should do week to week.  Below is some advice on how to win a league.

First of all, you might be in multiple leagues.  This can become confusing if you want to win.  I suggest concentrating on one league only.  Pick a league that is either filled with most of your mates or a league you think you have a decent shot at winning.  Keep an eye on the other leagues you are in, but don’t worry if you lose – you have a goal and that it to win a specific league.  Who knows – you might fluke a second premiership too!

OK – now you have a league that you want to win.  Your next goal is to make the finals.  The higher you finish, the more likely you are to qualify for the double chance.  However, DT is different to regular football and teams that qualify for the double chance do have a tendency to lose both of their finals.  The reason?  They have burnt trades to get into a high position and will have to play 0′s in the finals.  This will get you beaten.

So we want to qualify for finals but have trades up our sleeve.

To make the finals, you need to win more games than you loose.  Have a look at the average scores of your league and see who you realistically think you can beat already.  If your squad is stronger than theirs, you won’t need to trade when you take them on.  Even if you have injuries, if your remaining squad is stronger than theirs, you can save that trade for later in the season.

The Dream Team website show you who you are about to take on.  If you click on their name you can see their entire squad.  Make an informed judgement – can I beat this team or not.  If I make a trade, have I more of a chance of winning, or will they beat me anyway?  If they will beat you anyway, don’t waste a trade – you don’t have to win every game, just enough to qualify for the finals.

To win a league, I advise only using trades when you have long term or season ending injuries or when it will make a potential loss into a guaranteed win.

Remember – the longer the season goes, the shorter the amount of time to recover.  If a player get a 5 week injury in week 20, it means that they won’t play for you again that season.  If it happens in round 10, different story.

Entering finals, it is ideal to have as close to 8 trades left – this leaves you 2 trades a week during the final series.  There is an element of risk here too.  If your team qualifies 8th and fails to win, you are out of the league with 6 trades in the bank.  I say this is a risk worth taking.

Remember, other players you are playing won’t have the same motivation, and have probably used all their trades in order to stay a highly ranked team.  If they have used all their trades when it is time to play them in the finals, odds are you can field a stronger team.

So remember these rules: trade only when you have to.  If it’s an “8 point” game and will make a big difference to your team consider it.  Pick the teams you can beat, pick the teams that you can’t and don’t waste futile trades.  Qualify for the finals and then wow the opposition with some monster trades at finals time!

Keep up to date with Dream Team websites for trade targets so you make the right trades when it matters.

Good luck with your league!

http://dreamteamguru.blogspot.com.au/

FOLLOW THE GURU ON TWITTER: @DreamTeam_Guru

The 2012 West Is Best squad:

The two conferences went it with very different recruiting strategies. You might recognise many of the names on board in the East, with Molly and Impromptu the big names getting involved, and more than a few DT Talk contributors in the line-up. Out here in the West though, I chalked up Dunny (a West asset if there ever was one), my brother (guess which team name is his), and then opened it up to my followers on Twitter. We’re not full of big names or well-known DT champions – we’re in the process of making them. I also took the step of putting up a prize; an AFL guernsey to the highest scoring Westerner – just for that extra little bit of incentive to smash the East.

It’s working so far.

Round 1:

The West ran out to an early lead, with all but two members topping 2000. Kevin of the Dawks was our big contributor, posting 2257. Newkas Guns, Dunny’s Destroyers and Look At My Guns provided great cover fire, while carrying the likes of yours truly, as Tbetta Than You only managed 2014 in Round 1.

League Ranking: 86th

League Average: 2089

Team of the week: The Dawks (2257) are a well-balanced team with a 4-Gun midfield, 1-3 ruck structure and the popular DPP forward line. Still carried Broughton to that big score.

Needs to lift: The Mean Mess Machine (1971) boasts a capable side, but was let down by a few unlucky rookies benching decisions. They also had to drag Shaw and Broughton along.

Round 2:

The West showed that once again, big names count for nothing in a new season where anything can happen. We had a big spread this week, with 3 coaches topping 2200 and 3 dipping into the 1900s. Not to worry though, as we are still the 89^th ranked league overall – it’s fair to say that the Twitter-powered recruiting drive unearthed some gun DT coaches. After we all, we have two teams (Newkas Guns and Dawks) ranked inside the top 700, and plenty more ranked inside 4 digits. I should mention that Mean Mess Machine responded after last week, posting a 2118 after some bench decisions went their way and despite Bryce Gibbs’ weak effort.

League Ranking: 89th.

League Average: 2105

Team of the Week: Newkas Guns (2260) is ranked 190^th overall for a reason. 6 of his backmen average over 85, and the mid-price gambles in Malceski, Ebert and Kreuzer have paid off so far. Obviously, no Shaw or Broughton to be seen.

Needs to Lift: The Angry Pirates (1968) has averaged 2016 points this year, so is unlucky to be getting a mention here. It should come as no surprise that Shaw, Broughton, Golby and Mumford all stunk up his side in Round 2. I fully expect a fix-it trade or two and a much better effort next week.

Guernsey Leader: Ian of the Newkas Guns, averaging 2225.5 per round.

Retort of the Week:

Jacko, hitting us where it hurts – our mining stocks, and whatever an entrepreneur actually is… Anyway, check out the AFL ladder (you’ll see WEST Coast on top), the Perth Wildcats won the NBL last year and the fact that Perth is generally credited with having the hottest women in Australia…

Oh, and we’re winning the East vs West DT Talk League Challenge. For the second time.

After 2 rounds I have learnt that pre-season trash-talking and gung-ho recruiting isn’t a sure recipe for success, is it Aki? Get on board with the banter with the #WestIsBest and #BeastsOfTheEast hashtags!

Twitter us at @tbetta9 and @Aki_DT.

The first ever: East v West DT Talk League Challenge has commenced in 2012. I’ve put together a side from the East while the marvel that is Tbetta has put together a side from the West. Hopefully both sides can manage to pull off a few miracles this year! Feel free to follow the contest on Twitter: #BeastsOfTheEast vs #WestIsBest. How does your league compare?

The 2012 Beasts Of The East:

Round 1:

This is the perfect reason you shouldn’t beat yourself up to much! Whilst we had some brilliant scores, we also had a few sad efforts, myself included! Last years SuperCoach winner Jay pulled up very short with an 1889 while I nearly staggered over 2k but finally short on 1990 (a great omen for me being a Pies supporter). Great work to Stu for busting out a 2199 in Rd 1.

League Ranking: 245th

League Average: 2075

Team of the week: Stu (@StueyDen) 2199, Rob (@RainmanDT) 2195, Nathan (@hairybeard) 2193 and Sam (@sam_magpies) 2193

Needs to lift: Jay (@ImpromptuSC) 1889, myself (@Aki_DT) 1990.

Round 2:

Another lacklustre week by the #BeastsOfTheEast, but just goes to show how long a week in football can actually be! 4 teams were not quite able to crack the 2k mark whilst 5 teams managed to go over the 2100 line. I personally pulled my finger out (2196) from last weeks terrible 50/50 calls as well as Jay who was back in fine form with a 2138. Great work to Shaun who top scored with 2211. I won’t mention any names to the lowest scorer this week, Stu, but he did deliver the goods the week prior! Bring on Round 3 and the Head-to-Head matches.

League Ranking: 497th of 23769.

League Average: 2069

Teams of the Week: Shaun (@stkildathund) 2211, myself (@Aki_DT) 2196 and Sam (@sam_magpies) 2153.

Needs to Lift: Stu (@StueyDen) 1938, Rob (@RainmanDT) 1947 and Amanda (@amandamayall) 1957

Highest Ranked Team: Sam (@sam_magpies) and his team “BUCKS PREMIERSHIP!” is currently 2,231.

Highest Score Season 2012: Shaun’s (@stkildathunda) “Big Test Icicles” Round 2: 2211

Lowest Score Season 2012: Jay’s (@impromptuSC) “Impromptu SCE” Round 1: 1889.

Hopefully with the head-to-head’s this week, that will lift a few teams up as their competitive instincts come to the fore. Also, a bit of luck too! A special mention to Dunny and Mike for rubbing it in that the West are currently on top. Should back it up with an article! haha. Best of luck to everyone for Round 3.

Over to you @Tbetta9!

@Aki_DT

Very very last chance to grab yourself a DT TALK League is here and these will go in minutes. If you have a league spot left, fill it right now with some of the popular rookies we all have in your teams this year.

DT TALK Magner – 656582
DT TALK Neale – 523066
DT TALK Ellis – 653120
DT TALK Morris – 910475
DT TALK Bugg – 978082
DT TALK Kennedy – 262554
DT TALK Giles – 648679
DT TALK Coniglio – 155121
DT TALK Shiel – 609324
DT TALK Stephenson – 833474
DT TALK Redden – 595695
DT TALK Smith – 772458
DT TALK Dickson – 624068
DT TALK Gibson – 454230
DT TALK Zorko – 843861
DT TALK Couch – 227546
DT TALK Wingard – 944395
DT TALK Pfeiffer – 547138

Once again, thanks for your support and good luck fot the 2012 season.

Firstly… if you are in one of our DT TALK Leagues that has been made and isn’t full… either add Dr Dream Team, Nick Maxwell or Leigh Montagna to them… OR post the name of the league and the code on the comments!

If you’ve missed out on being involved in a DT TALK league this year… here is your last chance to get amongst it! Below are some league codes… these will be the last lot of codes that go out from us! If you don’t make it in… just make your own league with ‘DT TALK’ in it and post it in the comments here.

If you have your own league and want to fill it, this is the place to do it.. post your league code in the comments (just once will be fine though!).

NEW DT TALK CODES

DT TALK Late Start – 641060
DT TALK Later Start – 612609
DT TALK Rooks – 648762
DT TALK Premos – 904645
DT TALK Mid Pricers – 519593
DT TALK Strategy – 539561
DT TALK No Strategy – 246173
DT TALK Byes Suck – 938408
DT TALK I Hate Byes – 421670
DT TALK Finals Baby – 261715

destROY Rules – 326903
Calvinator Rules – 713519
Warne Dawgs Rule – 584714

dreamteamtalk.comA – 309447
dreamteamtalk.comB – 286556
dreamteamtalk.comC – 549786
dreamteamtalk.comD – 171526
dreamteamtalk.comE – 699338
dreamteamtalk.com F – 632854
dreamteamtalk.com G – 113976

Alright… that’s it! My fingers are sore! If a league is full… let people know in the comments. If you can’t get in, just make sure you are in the FIRST10 DT TALK GROUP which you can win an Apple iPad in if you’re on top at the end of the season.

(If I’m feeling generous – read, have any time – I will get some up at 5pm today…)

This year we are lucky enough to have FIRST10 on board as the sponsors of the Official DT TALK Group for the 2012 season and have kindly donated the latest Apple iPad to be awarded to the leader of the group after Round 23.

If you want a quick easy way to check out Australia’s leading employers, jump over to first10.com.au.

Not knowing what you want to do after finishing school, uni or TAFE is common, First10 is here to help, and to make the transition easier. Even if your finishing school and need help deciding whether you’re a uni or TAFE person, First10 can help you decide.

Find the right career for you!

For more details on FIRST10, check out the website at www.first10.com.au, like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/myfirst10 and follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/first10groupYou’ll also be able to find the First10 magazine throughout your school, university, TAFE, or private educator.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FIRST 10 / DT TALK GROUP

Welcome to some more Official DT TALK Leagues. Please remember the following…

1) Talk to us… if your league is full, let us know in the comments so we can pass it onto others.
2) Just sign up to one league for now… and then after a few other people have a go, remembering that more leagues are on the way.
3) Stay committed to your league. If there are spare spots though… they will be automatically filled by ‘random’ people.
4) Represent DT TALK and smash everyone else by having a top 20 ranked league.
5) More leagues are hopefully on the way, stay tuned to the site, Twitter (@DTTALK) and Facebook.

NOTE: The DT TALK boys are not in these leagues as we have a lot of commitments. Stay tuned for a chance to win a place in our Official DT TALK All-Stars league that will be announced very soon to play against the boys and some members of the DT Community as well as AFL Players!.

ORDINARY LEAGUES

dreamteamtalk.com1 – 532269
dreamteamtalk.com2 – 302539
dreamteamtalk.com3 – 707254
dreamteamtalk.com4 – 524977
dreamteamtalk.com5 – 233221

DT TALK VIDEO SHOW ‘STARS’

Warnie DT TALK – 742993
Roy DT TALK – 308521
Calvin DT TALK – 526098
Chopper DT TALK – 545234
Albert Lord PhD DT – 140515

FOR THE LONG TIME FANS

DT TALK Champions – 657965
DT TALK Legends – 205292
DT TALK Veterans – 402621
DT TALK Old School – 934819
DT TALK Guns – 195520

FOR THE NEWBIES

DT TALK Rookies – 691852
DT TALK Newbies – 506761
DT TALK Noobs – 699080
DT TALK Greenhorns – 911443

FOR THE GIRLS

DT TALK Housewives – 987369
DT TALK WAGS – 463290
Girls of DT TALK – 385175

GETTING SOCIAL

youtube.com/DTTALK – 613134
twitter.com/DTTALK – 344446
facebook.com/DTTALK – 949571

Good luck!

G’day Guys,

After about 5 years of banter between mates in our private DT leagues and an overdose of watching US sitcom, “The League”, last year we decided to kick it up a notch and enter a DT Pro League. DT Pro (free when subscribed to Assistant Coach) opened up our minds to selecting unique teams based on a Live Draft format (i.e. a player is drafted to 1 team only and remaining players are available via the trade pool).

Once a DT Pro League is filled (10 teams), a draft order is randomly determined and then be prepared for a couple of hours of Draft anxiety! The 60 seconds allocated for picking your unique player in either the Back, Mid, Ruck or Fwd positions feels like 15 seconds and before you know it, it’s your turn again!

We initially had our reservations of the draft format. That is, once our teams were drafted, we did not expect any team trades to be offered. However, we were pleasantly surprised! With player injuries and the advent of last year’s bye format, we were forced to offer trades to better our team or fight tooth and nail to be first to snap up an up-and-comer from the trade pool (aka ‘the Scrap’). This brought on a new meaning to the banter experienced. Tongue in cheek terms like ‘tip rat’ (~someone who bottom feeds on the Scrap to pick up the next DT stud) and ‘trade rape’ (~a team trade offer that is disproportional on paper) became the norm.

In our League, my team was by far the true underdog going into the Grand Final. The following video was presented as the Inaugural Champion acceptance speech during our “DT Pro Presentation Night” (an excuse to tell the wives, but a Lad’s p!ss-up really). The boys got a kick out of it, so thought we’d share the video.

Oh and the 10 Commandments to Winning your DT Pro League…

1. Thou shalt always know the injured players prior to the live draft! (It was a classic moment watching picks 110 and 111 go to Mzunga and Malceski, both LTIs!)
2. Thou shalt remove injured players from the ‘auto pre-draft selection’ (Round 2, pick 14 – Michael Barlow! Brought the house down!)
3. Thou shalt ensure a full functioning wireless connection and back-up iPad during live draft (Kepler Bradley, enough said!)
4. Thou shalt set a daily alarm for11.58am for release of players into the trade pool (otherwise the ‘Tip Rat’ will beat you to the likes of Suckling and Redden from the ‘scrap’)
5. Thou shalt not book a 2 week Canadian holiday during the DT season (to awake to 300+ whatsapp messages about trade offers)
6. Thou shalt not waste early draft picks on 2 Ruck positions (Round 2, pick 19 – Patty Ryder)
7. Thou shalt give greater consideration to DPPs during draft strategy (Drew Petrie was greater value being able to cover 2 positions)
8. Thou shalt consider premium players that are playing against GCS (and now GWS) during the finals weeks.
9. Thou shalt not accept a trade based on a couple of hyped up games and inflated average (D Giansiracusa for J Hill, following his early good form, aka ‘trade rape’)
10. Thou shalt not spill beer on opponent’s laptop keyboard during the live draft!

Happy DTing

Cheers

Vinegarstrokes

If you would like to advertise your DT Pro League, do so in the comments. We’re pretty confident that there will be heaps of DT TALK readers who would love to be invovled in a league with other like minded coaches!