Girls of DT for Women’s Week

It is Women’s Week in the AFL this week, so we thought we’d like to hear from some of the Girls of DT who frequent this here website and love their AFL Dream Team. A big shoutout to Elle from our home town of Launceston who won the weekly prize of $500 from last weekend! Well played! 

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Nat

Team Name: The Killer Mittens

Current DT rank: 14,946

Position in leagues: 4^th, 1^st, 8^th , 8^th, 4^th

Best selections this year: Buns of Steele (aka: Steele Sidebottom) and Clancee Pearce

Worst selections this year: Michael Hurley and Matthew Kreuzer (persisted with him, only to trade him out prior to the round 15 clash against the Pies- his breakout game! FMDT)

Why do you love AFL Dream Team?

As I entered a fourth year of my Dream Team addiction, I had high hopes for 2012. After narrow preliminary final losses in the past two seasons, it was becoming apparent Nat’s Manly Men just weren’t ballsy enough to make a Grand Final.  So I decided to start fresh this year and renamed my side The Killer Mittens (a far more intimidating name, I’m sure you’ll all agree).  But despite being top four in three out of my five leagues, I have already deemed this year a total Dream Team failure.

My current overall DT ranking is my worst in four years and while I could very well blame the DT Gods, injuries, suspensions etc….I’m instead shifting most of the responsibility on to my girlfriends. Once a hobby, my DT fascination has now become an out of control obsession. While most of my friends spent the summer reading 50 Shades of Gray (gents get your lady a copy, and thank me later), I was firmly engrossed in my AFL Prospectus.

Sick of my incessant DT chatter and my constant need to refresh DT scores on my phone, the girls staged an intervention. We were at a wedding, where mobile phones had to be checked in at the door- highly inconvenient as it was also a big Saturday night of football. Seeing no other choice I handed in my old iPhone at the door, and smuggled in my 4S. Sneaking off to the bathroom every 20 minutes I thought I had them fooled, until I was cornered by my best friends and forced to hand over my phone so they could delete my DT app.

It’s moments like that when you realise just how much of a hold this crazy, fantasy game has on you. Since then I’ve tried to reel in my addiction. Meditation has helped me to control my rage when coaches decide to rest players, and I’ve certainly learned to be more inconspicuous when checking DT scores in front of my friends.

But at the end of the day nothing will hide the fact that I’m just another DT addict….and you know what, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Louise

Team Name: Early Destroyers

Current DT rank: Uhh lets not talk about ranks haha! After some horrendous bye round scores I’ve dropped down quite a bit to 20,000.

Position in leagues: See above haha. Am only in 1 league and am 7^th at the moment. Luckily positions from about 4^th – 8^th are all on the same amount of wins. Percentage is letting me down.

Best selections this year: Probably getting the likes of Sidebottom and Thompson to begin with. They’ve been consistently good for my team. Then of course there are the rookies that everyone has like Zorko, and more recently, Shaw.

Worst selections this year: Kreuzer! He’s been so disappointed, and my worst mistake has probably been holding on to him, but I’m so stubborn I’ve just committed to him, hence why he’s still on my team. Porpa has been a wee bit disappointingly inconsistent. Other than that, I’m fairly happy with how my team is looking now (except for rankings)

Why do you love AFL Dream Team?

I love it because it brings a completely different aspect to the game. I’ve always enjoyed watching AFL but never really completely understood the rules. Thanks to Dream Team, I probably have a better understanding now. I’ve been playing for a few years now, but it’s only the last couple of years where I’ve actually started caring about my team, rather than just filling with Geelong players. I don’t really remember how I got involved actually. I think I started with a Super Coach team before Dream Team. 2 years ago though, a few of my mates who run the ‘Dennis Cometti Cup’ invited me into their league, and I think I actually surprised them by how well I went (with thanks to DT Talk of course!). I didn’t make it into the finals the first year, but last year I ended up in the finals… Unlucky for me, I had a friend look after my team when I headed over to Europe last year, and he completely screwed up any chance I had of winning. Making Chris Judd captain… Pfft! I made to the semi-finals but yeah. This year should be a bit better come finals time, as I’ll actually be able to look after my team (probably a bit unlucky again – would love to be back in Europe! J). The analyzer predicts that I should win my last 3 games, so fingers crossed.  Being a somewhat competitive person, I love being able to brag after a good league win. I’m in a league with my sister and brother, so it’s always nice to be able to rub it in their faces when I win, which I’ve got to do already this year. What’s even better is getting to beat a couple of the cocky guys who think I’m an easy beat hah. I think the think which would make me love DT more (and I’m sure others would agree) would be more trades haha. I always get to the point of wanting a player right now, so instead of milking a cash cow to all he’s worth, I’ll trade down too early just to get someone who would probably go down in price if I waited a few weeks. I’m such an impatient person I just want all the good players as soon as I can. Not a good thing! I am getting better though, and unlike last year where I probably didn’t have any trades left at this point in the season, I actually have some trades left which is a bit of an improvement. Not many, but still! I really do love Dream Team though. It helps fulfill my competitive streak, and since I’ve started, I can now actually hold a conversation about it and know what I’m talking about, rather than just pretend. Hopefully this time next year I’ll manage to get a bit higher in the rankings!

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Lisa

Team Name: Daisy Delights

Current DT rank: 3,143

Position in leagues: DT Talk Housewives: 6th Wolfpack: 1st

Best selections this year: Dane Swan, Gary Ablett, Brett Delideo

Worst selections this year: Greg Broughton (needs no explanation) Matthew Leuenberger

Why do you love AFL Dream Team?

I must admit, for the past 5 years, I hated everything that was associated with AFL Dreamteam.!! After constant pestering from my husband Nathan, and some final convincing from RoyDT, i decided to give it a go. And to my surprise, I’m actually loving it.

My team name, Daisy Delights, is in honour of my favourite player Dale Thomas.  I love the constant sledging I get for having a team named after him, mostly coming from Nathan, but I had the last laugh. Let me explain. My 2nd league, Wolfpack, was set up by Nathan for his hockey club. They were 1 team short of a complete league and he said “Lis, i’ve added you to the Wolfpack league so we dont get a nuff nuff”. So, after checking the fixtures, I was delighted to see that in round 1 of head-to-heads, i was pegged against Nathan. And in emphatic style, managed to put together a decent score to grab the chocolates.!! As you could imagine, Nathan was absolutely filthy haha. From here i have not looked back, managing to save trades and make cash along the way to now have a fairly competitive team. I’m slowly making my way up the DT Talk Housewives league and hope to feature in the final dance and salute as premiers. But in the end, I have had a ball and hope to be part of the DT Talk Housewives league in future years.

Thanks again for all your help thus far.

Lisa (coach of the mighty Daisy Delights)

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Analeigh

Team Name: Beadsy Bombers

Team Rank: 4672

Position in Leagues: 1^st, 4^th& 6^th

Worst Selection: Was Couch until last week but since he’s now playing (hopefully for the rest of the season) Zaharakisis my worst choice. I upgraded to him the week before his injury, copped a donut due the dishonesty of footy clubs this year where he was injured at training but still named!! Decided to keep him after being told he would only be out for 3, and after that 3 they of course announced he would miss at least another 4! I should’ve known after making the wrong decisions all season, trading Ablett when 4 weeks was the initial assessment and of course he only missed 2, and kept Pendles when told 2 weeks but he was gone for 5.

Best selection: Zorko, I’m sure everyone who got him thinks this, and anyone who didn’t….well they’re probably not reading this.

Why do you love AFL Dream Team?

I’ve always loved footy and am an obsessed bombers fan but since starting dt I have an interest in every single game and know all the players (which is always pretty funny when starting a conversation with blokes coz they’re usually pretty shocked to find out I know as much as they do). It’s a complete escape from reality. I wake up Monday morning, open the laptop to do a bit of work but of course the mad Monday article goes way better with my coffee. This applies daily as there’s always an article ready to be used as a procrastination tool (cheers guys, although they seem to be a little late lately, maybe that’s why my team has turned to shit, any excuse!)

DT Talk Thursdays have become a ritual, a carton of beer and 3 idiots on a couch talking Dream Team watching 3 idiots on a couch talking dreamteam, I’m just glad us idiots aren’t viewed by others!!

Obviously Fridays and Saturdays rock coz it’s game on, and Sunday’s countdown to check rankings, ladder positions and doing two trades even if I don’t need to. Man, I love that reverse trades button, although it was always fun to laugh at all those Monday traders who find out their latest addition was injured at training!

Like everyone, this year has been filled with absolute carnage for the Beadsy Bombers, I’ve had Ablett, Pendles, Shaw, Fyfe, Zaha, Waters, and then the obvious suspensions of Buddy, Martin, Franklin, Goddard and then the just plain shits-Broughton I can’t believe I fell for you coz all you’ve broughton (see what I did there) is pathetic numbers and hair pulling!! It’s been bloody frustrating and I was ranked 517^th at one point but nekminnit delete my team! It’s not that bad though coz I’m on top of the ladder in the one league I have money riding on with my only loss coming to my husband (!!!!) but fingers crossed for no more bad luck and if any other players are out with a calf I’m calling the RSPCA!!!

Cheers!

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Colleen

Team Name: Wet Dream Team

Current DT Rank: 50,522

Position in league: 7th

Best Selection: Tory Dickson; In round 7, I had to give him a run even though he was only named as an emergency. All my players and opposition players had played and I was resigned to having lost, the next time I checked the match centre, I noticed my score had gone up 4 points, then saw that he had made the starting 21. The little champ went on to make 105 and brought the Wetties home, much  to the disgust of the bloke I was playing.

Worst Selection: Michael Hurley. I bought him at $346,000, he did a hammy, and missed three weeks, but I hung on to him despite his very disappointing start to the season. After 3 weeks I decided I couldn’t afford to have him on my bench, so traded him for another useless Twat.(Poppalitzia-is what I call him.) Hurley comes back in straight away, and to top it off, when I go to watch the Freo/Essendon game he scores 93! I am so pissed off that after the game when he was prancing around,  shaking hands with supporters on the fence line, I started to run down to tell him that he was a punce, but I fell over and by the time some blokes helped me up(I had, had a few wines!); Hurley was gone And the next week he got 133!    Basically , he’s ruined my life!

New Category-Worst non-selection: I Wanted Zorko:didn’t buy because of other donut issues at the time, and now he is out of my price range and I curse him every week when he gets over a 100. I am actually in discussions with Didak at the moment about organising for someone to “take him out”, and not with a calf!

Why do you love AFL Dream Team?

I started DT last year when my girlfriend Analeigh encouraged me and actually entered me because I was too incompetent to do it myself. At the time I didn’t know one end of a player from the other!  But now I am so into it that it’s scary!

Because I am still a novice, I do stupid things like after a partial lockout round, when I used the vice captain loophole, I ended up with Mohr as my captain the following week because I did a trade reversal. He actually ended up scoring 72  and saved my bacon!

Since then as a joke, I do a “Colleen’s Captains” article in the Activity Feed, and frankly, it shits on Calvin’s, because I do cool things like name Tommy Walshe, after his brilliant -3 score, I also do things like  name Ablett when he’s out and justify my selection by saying “I am pretty sure that he won’t be tagged this week”

If you can give mention to one of the blokes im our league, “Marmian Massive”, who I’ve changed his team name to “Marmian Massive Donut Factory” after he got 16 donuts in round 11.

When I teased him about it, he threw down the gauntlet, made some trades to beat me, and still lost by 120 points when we met…………TeeHee………

My advice to other female  DT coaches is- Buy dual position players, try them in all positions, and then if they still don’t perform; Pull them off!

Cheers from the Wetties.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

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Morelle

Team Name: Red Hot Bulls (like all team names this is a pun-tastic play on my name)

Current DT rank: 4900 (peaked in round 5 at 904)

Position in leagues: 1st, 1st, 2nd.  2nd in the DT Talk Housewives League (which you should know has 3-4 guys in it!)

Best selections this year: Some as everyone else – Deledio, Beams, Sidebottom and the Mullet.

Worst selections this year: Broughton (but still keeping the faith with him).  I also traded in Zaharakis on a Friday in the MBRs to learn on the Saturday afternoon that he would be out for 5-6 weeks.  Boooooo!

Why do you love AFL Dream Team?

I’ve grown to love (read: be obsessed with) DT over time.  I first started as a DT ‘consigliere’ in the 1990s when I advised guys at high school which players from Carlton were going to perform well for the then non-Internet based fantasy AFL comp.  I think the comp was run by the Herald Sun where you would pick a team at the start of the year and a perma-captain (Buckley!) and it would be all locked away and you would have to work out how many points you scored throughout the season.  A far cry from what we play now.

I think I then played a token season of DT in about 2004 when I was at uni, possibly to impress a boy that I was very knowledgeable about football. I remember the site was sponsored by Kellogg’s Nutri Grain?  Anyway, I selected what I thought was a great team which included Buckley and Simon Black but also Darren Glass and Presti (FAIL FAIL FAIL).  After about three rounds, I was doing so badly I never logged in again and became what our mate Griff calls a ghost ship team.  Lesson learned= knowledge about good footballers who should make the All-Australian team is different to knowing who gets cheap touches off half back.

Then when I moved jobs I entered a league with my work friends, I think in 2007.  Mostly my work mates were Geelong supporters who oozed a ridiculously large amount of arrogance because of the Cats’ on field success so I just had to beat them.  All tall poppies deserve a good smack down!  Luckily for me, I discovered the then DT Talk blog.  And for that, I thank you!  You three, Chook and of course Chopper made my life so much easier.  In that first year of my official DT career, I made the finals… but had no trades left so soon bombed out.  The next few years I lost the prelims in that league (but won other leagues) and this year, I’m hoping to take out the title.  Over time, my prep time has increased dramatically.  I’m now an avid reader of the prospectus and have several complicated excel spreadsheets that determine my initial team and trades throughout the entire season… nothing is left to chance and I never make decisions on a whim!

So I’ve definitely come a long way in DT and I think I’m sitting pretty for three league wins this year.  I have more trades than most (which is 4+ – I won’t tell you the exact number as a lady never reveals her secrets) so hopefully that works out in my favour.  Fingers crossed!

If I had to give a new player a couple of handy tips, they would be: (1) do not judge a player on the back of one or two performances, make sure you get a full picture before you pull the trade trigger; and (2) do not load up on players from your own AFL team – better to hedge your happiness.