Dream Team Extra: Round 14

 

I could almost hear the collective sigh of relief as the last of the multi-bye rounds drew to a close last Sunday evening, with coaches aplenty logging in to Dream Team right on the end of lockout to have a healthy fiddle with their teams to get a full lineup on the park! I don’t blame you – there was nothing more annoying about the bye rounds that seeing gazillions worth of uber premos sitting idle on your bench. But now we get to return to Old School DT and scores well in excess of 2200 as we build to the finals or a march as far up the ladder as we can get. It’s been a surprisingly quiet news week, so this is going to be pretty short and sweet in the lead-in to team sheets tonight and more on the topical side of things to drum up some chatter.

 

Get Your Carrots!

Carding a 118 on return from injury, Carrazzo’s price hasn’t crashed as much as we would have liked. He’ll cost $384,400 this week with a BE of 131 and a projected fall of around $19k.  He’s almost ripe for the picking, but with queries hanging over popular defenders like Ryan Hargrave and Marty Clarke, this could be the week to upgrade them to Carrot. I’m joining the chorus of twatter-sayers in backing him to maintain an average to make the top 3 defenders for the second half of the season.

 

Pendles Re-Buried

This was not the news we wanted to hear and there are whispers in twitland that he may not be right for a start in R15 either! To this point, we’ve been Pendle-less for four weeks. Had we known that his leg break (unfortunately not of the S Warne variety!) would require extended recovery, I reckon quite a few coaches would have swapped him out for another elite MID. Now that we’re coming to the pointy end of the season, trades are becoming that much more precious and if you’re looking to consolidate your spot on the overall rankings, it’s going to be a hard call as to whether to burn a trade to replace him with another gun or sit tight for possibly two more rounds and rely on your bench cover. Unlike kissing a cousin, there is no right or wrong here, so chuck your thoughts in the comments for some healthy discussion!

 

Broughton Beaned

Gregory copped a pretty decent whack to the head from team-mate Chris Mayne last weekend. He is under concussion-watch this week, so brace yourself for him to possibly miss this weekend. Of more concern though is this article from the Freo website. Broughton’s been pretty solid after a shakey start to the season, but unfortunately the roller coaster ride could be back if Lyon decides to play him as a defensive forward. Ross does play his sides in a very defensive, lockdown style and if Broughts impressed him last weekend, it may be a bumpy ride for the Gregory’s scores over the next few weeks.

 

‘Tis The Season

In the run home there’s nothing better than salivating over your final upgrades to complete your team. Although downgrade options are on the lean-ish side of minimal this mid-season, there are a few bargain fallen guns to be had. Of course, these will be covered in @Aki_DT‘s thorough Dream Team Stock Market review. However, I’m pretty keen to hear what your plan of attack is for the wind up to DT Finals. Do you grab the wallet-friendly guns? Or do you accept nothing but the best (price no object) and go for the best across all lines?

 

Injury Update

For an truly in-depth analysis of the injuries out of last round, head over to Jakub’s excellent Dream Team Medical Room coverage!

 

Pick Me! Pick Me!

Our rooks are back and barring injury, should provide us with ample cover. I’m not sure how much of this will apply now that you should have pulled most of your upgrades; hopefully you’re only relying on these guys for the occasional run if one of your guns misses. Down back, Darley should be solid once again, with Ellis and Morris also decent and hopefully Shaw getting in amongst it. In the midfield, Shiel has been nicely consistent; Greene, Old Mac, Magner, the Horse and Gibson should also go alright. Giles is looking a bit tired, but if you aren’t looking to flick him then he’s your only real ruck choice. The Zork heads all comers both in the middle and up forward. Next in line in the forwards from him are Elliot, Adams, Treloar and the real surprise packet, Dickson.

 

Anyways, that’s the rub for this week. Trading? Heard any juicy news bits, gossip or rumours? Got a rant or a rave? Stick it in the comments and let’s get some healthy chatter going. 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? Hit me up on the Tweetvine: @TeeTeeDT