Warnie’s Pre-NAB Cup Team 2013

Alrighty… the moment (all two of you) have been waiting for, my Pre-NAB Cup squad posted for the DT Talk community to see. Now to be honest, I haven’t put in the hard yards with my actual team as I would have in the previous years at this stage. This is partly because I started really having my DT pre-season less than a month ago, thanks to a much need BIG holiday travelling around the world. But mainly because I can’t nail what structure I really wanto to go into 2013 with as there are a lot of big changes that are mixing up the way we play the game we love.

Firstly, with 8 mids I was keen to go six deep and look at a pure guns and rookies structure in the guts. So much depends on what rookies will be playing across the positions (who really knows at this stage if those guys I’ve got there now will be there come Round 1). I do like the mid-priced value in the midfield (hello Luke Ball, Andrew Embley and heck, even Brent Moloney) but at the moment, they’re just not going to fit. I want to have our boy Jesse Lonergan in there; heart and head – he’s one of our boys and he should be a lock for Round 1.

Secondly, with two trades per week, every week we now have a new way in which we trade. We can take more risks and we can plan around ‘purple patches’ (ala starting with Nick Riewoldt could be a real winner). This is something I haven’t completely got my head around.

Anyway – I’m not going to go into too much depth from here… this is what my side looks like as it currently stands going into this first weekend of the NAB Cup.

The ‘current’ dead-set locks for me look like Brendon Goddard, Bryce Gibbs, Dane Swan, Gary Ablett, Scott Pendlebury, Dean Cox, Matthew Leuenberger and Tom Rockliff. I am keen on Grant Birchall as a solid as a rock defender, Brent Stanton for his scoring potential and starting with Steve Johnson just because I think he’ll be top 3 scoring forwards. The forward line structure is interesting. There is a whole heap of value there with Travis Varcoe and Shannon Byrnes (Josh Kennedy and Chris Knights are knocking on the door too), who are looking likely for me. Dustin Martin is there… for now. There is plenty of upside in him (let’s not talk rumours here).

As for the rookies – it’s a bit of a ‘guess’ and looking at the popular names. I’m not sold massively on Jake Neade for DT or job security, nor with Sam Mayes, despite Rocky saying he is looking very likely. Will Brett Goodes and Kane Mitchell be promoted off the rookie list? Jack Viney isn’t going to be a big scorer, but he will be a heartbeat. My ruck bench is just, meh.. whatever. It’s popular. Jarrod Witts is ahead of Grundy at the moment but accoridng to my mate Maxy, he’s behind Ben Husdon. To be honest, I am probably thinking of going Daniel Currie to handcuff with Majak Daw, and if Todd Goldstein can have a good pre-season, then he might even make my side and I’ll rock three Roos.

Sorry – I haven’t mentioned Greg Broughton. He is a dead set, throw away the key lock… maybe!

Oh well – this is going to change 101 times over the next 35 days. Here it is. Discuss it, tear it apart, copy it… whatever! This is what is fun about the AFL Dream Team pre-season; we all have good ideas but they change after we watch a heap of NAB Cup footy.

*PLEASE NOTE: I haven’t bothered looking at the byes yet and I have burried my head in the sand regarding the Bombers (if you don’t think about it, you can pretend it isn’t happening).

Happy NAB Cup Day people… big thanks to @hairybeard for the ripper “deep in thought” pic of me at the top of the page. Legend!

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: @WarnieDT for plenty of #AFLFantasy action.