FMDT… a tale of a washed up DT coach

I started playing Dream Team about 8 years ago. In that time, I have grown to understand the game. Gone are the days of me picking Steven Milne in my side and trading in players like Graham Johncock the week after he breaks his leg. I’ve had a couple of top 100 finishes and have been dishing out advice to anyone who will listen.

But now I am sucking. Badly.

My season hasn’t got off to an ideal start. Some of the 50/50 calls I made haven’t been the right ones. This round has rubbed salt into the wound. Picking Bartel over Pendlebury, starting with Montagna over Boyd. Yes, Bartel hasn’t played yet, but it’s going to be hard for him match 166. No matter what I do with Broughton, I’m screwed. Firstly, I shouldn’t have picked him. Secondly, I shouldn’t have stuck with him. My logic said hold him because he is a premium, etc… but for more salt, he ends up being a late withdrawal.

Not only does Broughton miss… I don’t have any cover for him! Mainly due to trying to be a bit too pretty. I wasted an emergency on Thursday night with Bewick hoping to use him with the emergency loophole. Fail. Then wanting to take Montagna‘s 126 (which is a good thing) I needed to put Cox on my ground, make him captain and then put the emergency on Zac Smith. This left me with one emergency. We didn’t know the final teams for the Monday and Tuesday games (apart from the Bombers). So I put Krakouer on the bench. I had the decision to go with my final emergency in the forwards or in defence. The end decision was to go with the forwards and put it on Krakouer – who I had a thought was going to be out anyway.

Then the shit started to hit the fan.

I’ll forget about my Josh Toy on the ground over Danny Stanley. That’s just unlucky after Toy’s scoring potential he has shown. But I won’t forget about my mate Broughton being a late withdrawal and me being able to take Stanley’s score or even Nick Lower‘s. Instead, it’s a big fat zero! Argh!

This season was always going to be challenging. These multi-bye rounds (which I thought I planned for quite well), the substitutes (friggen naming blokes on the ground like Richardson then giving them the green vest) and the sporadic scoring of a lot of our rookies. Far out! Bloody Cam Richardson was hard to handle. Starting as sub and coming on for only 14! Wow – that’s not very cool! He is likely to be dropped this week… a scapegoat for the terrible game the Kangaroos had on Sunday evening.

I’m scraping towards a score of 1900 and wearing the green vest this week.

So, what can I do? Like any coach… look ahead to next week. But it doesn’t look pretty with the Cats, Hawks and Dockers having a bye. My forward line will be without Franklin, Johnson… and maybe Krakouer and Richardson. Add to that Bartel, Broughton and possibly Heppell who is likely to be rested. It will be another round where we will be stretched and I’m sure a lot of unluckiness will come my way.

I have only used one trade (to get Curnow in for Foley) and have $175K in the bank. I’ll be looking at going Vickery to McCauley to cash up a little more and be ready to go bang. Chapman will be in after next week, Didak the week after with Pendlebury… maybe Enright in the backline, or even Brian Lake if he can start showing something after his big price drop. Argh, so many players to get… not enough cash!

I don’t even know why I am planning anything… so much can happen from week to week. FMDT!