Dream Team Extra: Round 11

 

It was the best of rounds, it was the worst of rounds… Last weekend was surely the official AFL Boilover Round as the Eagles, Bombers and Blues all went down. DT-wise, there were some decent scores, but as @tbetta9 highlighted in his Bullets, there were waaay more breakers than makers! Unfortunately I had most of the breakers in my squad, so my MBRs started a week early! The rest of this month will certainly be chat-worthy and I predict much misery and many a tale of woe as scores plummet and both the overall leader board and your league ladders are given an almighty shakeup! Anyhoo, let’s chew over some newsworthy nuggets…

 

Multi-Bye Ravage

A long pre-season and 10 rounds of football have brought us to the doorstep of one Major Carnage, who brought along his gimp, Corporal Punishment. For most, that’s the way the multi-bye rounds are going to treat us, so brace yourselves for . For all the best laid plans with carefully balanced squads, meticulous rookie choices and astute trading, nothing could have prepared us for the substantial list of injured DT stars on top of our bye-rested players. There’s been lots of info here at DT Talk covering the byes, so no re-hash from me. Just strap in and enjoy the ride!

 

Pendleburied

There are many coaches who bemoaned Pendles’ subbing-off at half time, but I’m surprised that he managed to get through most of a half of solid footy with what’s technically a broken leg! Yes siree, a fractured tibia is no laughing matter and even more so now that we’ve lost the normally dePendlebury for at least the next fortnight. He’s been pretty chipper about it, staying off the leg and calcium loading to get back as soon as possible. Fingers crossed that he’ll be back in R13. Oh yeh, if your trade finger is getting twitchy, I’d recommend holding.

 

Rucking Folly

Leuenberger, Mummy, Sandi, McEvoy, H-Mac and now Kruze have been toppled by injury of some sort so far this season and we’re not even half way through! Add to that the inconsistent performances of Jacobs and Goldy and in the end, we have only two rucks standing at this point who are worthy of upgrading to: Maric and Cox. Great job if you risked big Ivan early on – not only has he had a mammoth breakout year, but he seems a genuinely good bloke under that follicular extravaganza atop his noggin! Coxy is as dependable as ever while 211 has been putting in good numbers but may miss another game or two through injury or rest. My smokey is Mummy, who is severely lacking match fitness but with his quiet 43 last weekend will likely be a bargain-priced sub-$400k over the next fortnight.

 

Old Man Scotland

‘Old man’ injury. Yup, apparently that’s what it’s unofficially called and, like Pendles, the normally durable Heath Scotland will be out for at least 3 weeks with a torn calf. The question is whether to trade him or not, especially since he’s been our ‘comfort food’ in defence – it’s not gourmet-fancy, but having some makes us feel a whole lot better about ourselves! Right now I’m thinking of eating another donut through the MBRs and hanging on to him, but that could change come team lists tonight…

 

Injury Update

Maybe it would be easier if we just list the DT-relevant players who are up for selection this weekend?!? Nah, let’s add to the pain of Pendlebury and Scotland to see who else is out this week… Sad to see that Hodge is struggling to get over his knee complaint. HMac has had his knee operated on, so 4-6 weeks out for him. Sam Fisher misses a couple more weeks with a dodgy hamstring. Parker is out for 5-6 weeks with a broken collarbone. It’s more bad news for Christensen, listed as ‘indefinite’ with concussion and an AC joint injury.  Kreuzer is down for a test, but doubtful with a sore hammy. On the bright side, others listed as ‘test’ are Heater, Heppell and Enright. Plus Swannie is listed as ‘available’.

 

Pick Me! Pick Me!

Umm… It’s a real shot-for-luck this week with no baby Giants available and 30% of teams un-Zorked. It’s Ellis and Morris in defence and hopefully Spurr gets a recall to bring some relief. In the mids, Magner and Horse look to be the only decent choices, though the jury’s out on the latter after the last two rounds. In the middle it’s up to Redden and Big O to hold the fort. Up forward it’s Hall, Dickson and Saad to fill in. And… That’s all folks!

 

 

Anyways, that’s the rub for this week. Don’t be too disheartened with a low score this round – if it makes you feel better, there are two more to come after that! Feel free to add any news bits, gossip, rumours, rants, raves, etc below. See ya next Thursday for another bout of media trawling and good luck this weekend!

 

Any questions, suggestions, general chit-chat or requests for next week’s Extra?
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