FAQ and Common Misconceptions

After going through some of the comments throughout the posts, we thought it was about time we threw this up for a couple of reasons. The first is to answer some FAQ’s and correct some popular misconceptions we’ve seen so far, and to keep it all in one easy-to-find place.

The second reason is so that you guys can throw us (and other readers) any DT-related questions that you might have at this early point in the season. Any common or important queries will be added to the main post.

Don’t forget that you can start picking your Dream Team now if you subscribed to the Assistant Coach by logging into your Dream Team (dreamteam.afl.com.au) and clicking on “Team Picker“. Alternatively, m0nty over at FanFooty.com.au has his “Fanplanner” to start picking your team on. Otherwise, the real competition will be open on February 1st.

“I’ve been living under a rock. What changes are there to Dream Team in 2012?”

Information on all the changes were posted here – if you missed it, follow the link and get up to date.

“Do we have League matches over the Multi Bye Rounds?”

Yes we do. The first two rounds are matchup-free, with the first head-to-head coming in Round 3.

“But I don’t understand. 15 Leagues matches + 4 Finals matches + 3 MBR’s off easily fits into 23 Rounds?”

That’s because of another change to DT in 2012 – Leagues have extended to 18 teams, to fall in line with the current AFL system. That makes 17 + 4 + 3 = 24 Rounds, which doesn’t fit. So instead, the 2 weeks off come in Rounds 1 and 2.

“I’m a bit confused, how does the new DPP trading rules work?”

This has been mentioned a couple of times before, but here’s a recap. We can now trade a player out from one position and using Dual Position Players (DPP), can trade a player into a totally different position with only one trade.

Let’s look at an example using a 2011 scenario. I trade out a DEFENDER (eg. Jack Grimes) and am left with an empty slot. I substitute a DEF/MID who is currently in my midfield (eg. Dyson Heppell) into Grimes’ empty slot and how trade in a new MIDFIELDER (eg. Dane Swan) into Heppell’s empty slot. So basically I have been able to trade Grimes (DEF) out for Swan (MID) using only the one trade.

“It says we get 3 trades for each of the Multi Bye Rounds… Is that included in the 24 we have for the year, or are they extra? And do we have to use all three?”

It is included in the 24 you have for the year, and no, you don’t have to use all 3 if you don’t want to. How you deal with the MBR’s are up to you, but Virtual Sports have given us that extra flexibility to us those trades if we need them.

“I don’t want to pick Player X because I already have his teammate, Player Y”

That doesn’t make any sense – you must have a 2011 hangover. While we couldn’t pick too many players from the same team due to weekly byes, this year we have a bit more freedom, as all the byes occur over the three weeks from Round 11 to 13. Remember the days of a Geelong ABC midfield? It’s now possible again!

What you mean to say, and what you should be thinking is, “I don’t want to pick Player X because I already have too many players that share Player X’s bye”. Whether or not they are from the same team is irrelevant. For instance, having a midfield containing Swan, Pendlebury and Thomas is identical to a midfield containing Selwood, Barlow and Watson in terms of the bye.

“It is mathematically impossible to avoid donuts in the Multi Bye Rounds this year!”

Not true. Dream Team pioneer m0nty demonstrated very early in the pre-season how it is possible to avoid a donut. Never did he say it was easy, or even very likely.

Basically, for those too lazy to follow the link, it involves trading between byes and selecting players with R/F eligibility.

“Has anyone figured out a way to avoid donuts over the Multi Bye Rounds without using DPP?”

No they haven’t, because it’s not possible.

Here’s the math. You have 30 players in your side. Say you start with 8/11/11 in the format of R11 bye/R12 Bye/R13 Bye. That means that you have 8 players with the bye in Round 11, just enough to fill the 8 bench positions. Obviously, after Round 11 you want to trade 3 of your players who have a R12B to players who already experienced their bye, in this case those from R11B.

So for R12, you have a structure of 11/8/11. Again, 8 players and 8 bench positions, awesome. After R12, then you do the same thing – trade three of your R13B players to R11B or R12B players, leaving you with a structure of (for instance) 11/11/8. Hooray, right? And I only used 6 trades? Not quite.

If you don’t utilise DPP you can’t fill the two Ruck bench positions over the 3 weeks. Without at least two Ruck DPP’s you’re looking at at least 2 donuts across the ground. Not to mention that it is a best case scenario, given injuries, form and uncertainty with your rookies.

This leads to another misconception:

“It is only possible to avoid a donut over the MBR’s by picking Lycett”

Again, not technically true. The idea here is that Lycett is the only R/F with a R11B, so in order to avoid a donut, you’ll need him (using to the method m0nty penned). But there is another way to do it.

You pick Hamling (R/F, R12B), Roughead (R/F, R13B), Sellar (B/R, R12B) and Lever (B/R, R13B), along with 2 R11B ruckmen, say Cox and Giles.

Not recommended.

“I’m not going to pick Swan because he’ll just be cheaper halfway through the year even if he does maintain his average, so it’s better value to upgrade to him then”

Yes, he will be cheaper halfway through the year even if he does maintain his average, that’s true. But if he does maintain his average, he won’t be better value. In fact, he will be equivalent in value.

This is because of the Magic Number and its behaviour over the course of a year. Generally speaking, it will decrease as the year goes on. This is because rookies and underpriced players experience price increases, and to protect against inflation, the Magic Number is lowered accordingly. This affects everyone’s price, so even if Swan averages 121 over the course of the first 10 rounds, his price will decrease.

So yes, you can pick him up cheaper. But his value is relative, so consider this; You pick up Swan at the beginning of the year for $598,300 priced at 120.95, and after 10 rounds, Swan maintains his average of 120.95 which now equates to (for example) $520,000. Has he dropped in value? No. He is exactly the same value. His price is just a number, relative to the rest of the competition.

And just to clarify, this is not to say that it’s a poor strategy to start without Swan and wait until the middle of the year to pick him up, just that it’s only worthwhile if his average drops, not his price.

“How come there are no Rookies in the Deck of DT?

The Deck focuses more on players who have played before because it gives us something concrete to talk about, in terms of past stats, team role, job security, etc. It’s all a big unknown with the recent draftees.

There will be plenty of coverage on the up-and-coming rookies throughout the nab cup campaign, I assure you. For most, this is the first chance that we, as DT coaches, get to see the newbies in action, so there will be plenty to talk about!

“It lists Player X with this price/position on the Team Picker, but it says differently on the Fanplanner. Which is right?”

By definition, the Team Picker. It is produced and released by Virtual Sports in conjunction with Champion Data, the people who actually decide these things.

The Fanplanner is a great resource for those who didn’t purchase the Assistant Coach, and it is something that m0nty has put a lot of time into to get as accurate as possible. Unfortunately, there will always be small things that sneak through, so ask those with the Team Picker for clarification.

“Why wasn’t Player X given more of a discount? Player Y played the same amount of games and got this discount – why aren’t they following their own rules?”

First things first – they (Virtual Sports) never made any ‘rules’ for discounting players. But to their credit, they’ve tried to keep it as uniform as possible, which probably creates the appearance that they are working with some kind of formula that determines a discount. Not so.

Virtual Sports’ first priority is the integrity of the game. If some logic applied to some player in the past means that a player in the present will be impossible to ignore, then they have to alter that logic.

For instance, Porplyzia finished 2011 with one game at an average of 16. Using normal pricing techniques, he’d end up priced well below that of a rookie, meaning he’d be locked into most teams! Instead, VS took the step of pricing him at a discount on his 2010 average, which has to be said, is much more reflective of his ability and potential than the former option.

Same thing goes with mature-age recruits this year. Due to the pattern of success of older players such as Mzungu, Barlow and Podsiadly, mature-age draftees have had a range of premiums placed on them to keep selection competitive and to promote variety between teams. Remember, no one wants to see identical teams come Round 1.

“Which mature-age draftees/concessions had a premium added to their price in 2012?”

There are a handful who ended up getting a small bump up in price by VS, ranging from just a couple of thousand extra to around $36k for one unlucky player (Sam Frost).

In order of most to least expensive: Clifton, Frost, Cooyou, Horsely, Giles, Pfeiffer, Folau, Milera, Mohr, Saad and Spurr.

 That’s it so far – hopefully we’re all a bit clearer on some of the finer points of DT 2012. Remember, if you have any other queries, send us a comment and someone will clear it up for you!