The Friday Scramble Round 2

This is more like it, a real scramble with 8 games still remaining this week we have plenty of scrambling to do to get our sides set before final lockout tonight.  Yes that’s right, unless you are a Supercoacher there are no more rolling lockouts and all decisions need to be made today!  So… let’s have a look at a few of the things that we need to think about this week.

Free Hit Hangover

What’s this?  Was there a free hit in AFL Fantasy last week?  Ahh bugger, I must have missed it because my team was terrible!  Well never fear, we can recast our entire team this week to be ready to go.  So, don’t forget to change your team.  Look at it carefully as you don’t want to wake up on Saturday morning (or afternoon depending on how big tonight is) and see that you have left a guy in your squad who isn’t playing, and probably never will play but you used last week to bring an E onto your field.

So how much do we take from what happened last week when we are considering our squads for the remainder of the season?  Well this is something I discussed with TBetta in his award winning (well if it isn’t it should be) podcast this week.  Go back and have a listen!  However, the long and the short of it are the following:

• Don’t be fooled by a one hit wonder.  Learn from the mistakes of yesteryear when a heap of people jumped on Ty Vickery after he scored a ton in round 1.  I think he scored 100 again, but that was his tally for the entire rest of the season combined!  If you weren’t looking at them preseason because you thought they were no good, don’t let this one game change your entire opinion!
• Some guys I wasn’t looking at did great… but why?  What I am referring to here is to just have a look at the teams they are in and who didn’t play.  For example St Kilda were without Lenny Hayes and Leigh Montagna so this meant that Clinton Jones and Luke Dunstan got a heap of it and had big scores.  Will those scores continue when those guys come back?  We don’t know the answer to that, but it is certianly something to consider.
• Jack Macrae has been talked about a lot.  I will be very interested to see how he goes on Sunday with Ryan Griffen back this week.
• Is he no longer a premium?  I am sure that many people will be jumping off of Sam Mitchell this week given his low score of 68 against the Lions.  Was this a one off or is it likely to be a continuing trend?  In the case of Sam I think it is a one off but these are things you need to think about.  He was tagged by Rocky but he has been tagged before and still had 100+.  I would put this one down to a one off and will be keeping him.  This is easy to do in AFL Fantasy because we have those two trades per week.  However in RDT and SC, it is even more important to keep him as you have a limited number of trades and you don’t want to have to use one to sideways a premium in week 2!

Team Structure

This is an interesting one, many have asked how many rookies are too many, or how many midpricers are too many.  There is no right or wrong answer to this question.  My team make up has changed so many times over the preseason I am not sure where I am at!  However, I do know that I didn’t focus so much on their price but on their ability to score and their job security.  Ok, obviously value for money and salary cap came into it, but they weren’t the very first thing I looked at.  Many people may have a set plan of no midpricers or a maximum number of premo’s.  All of these are valid strategies.  The right strategy for you is the one you feel comfortable with.  When Tbetta and I were chatting both on and off air the other night for his podcast we realised that we had both gone in with completely different strategies in both RDT and AFL Fantasy.  Interestingly our RDT sides didn’t score all that differently.  How this will have us placed at the end of the season we don’t know yet.
Obvioulsy you are basically committed to your plan in RDT but in AFL Fantasy you have the scope to change your entire strategy right up until lockout tonight.  My advice… go with your first instincts and a strategy you are comfortable with.

#AskDunny

 

Now Damon you aren’t the only one with this dilemma.  I am not a fan of this tagging role he had on the weekend and I, like many others thought he had shaken this role.  We can only hope he doesn’t do it too often.  Now obviously he is suspended this week, but it is only one week.  So that shouldn’t be the reason to dump him.  I personally would give him another game to see what is happening with his role.  I think one week (and it was against the reigning premiers) isn’t enough to use a trade on.

 

Wow, thanks for the heaps easy question there Ben (NOT).  What I think it will do is force him to spend more time up forward than his quick bursts on the field.  Overall this could affect him, it may mean he doesn’t run as much, but it could equally mean he kicks more goals.  I think we just don’t know enough about the interchange cap yet, but as you may have heard in TBetta’s podcast this week I am really concerned about Swanny and whether he is going to have trouble getting a huge average score this year with the way Buck’s likes to put him up forward.

Captain Choices

Unless you picked a VC in last nights game then no Captains Loopholes for you this week (and I don’t think any of the scores last night would be worth keeping).  It is just straight up picks!  Not sure I like the usual suspects like Ablett and Swan mostly due to Ablett up against Crowley and Swan up against Sydney who he didn’t do too well against last year.  My picks for this week would be Scooter v the Dee’s or Barlow v Gold Coast.  However, why would you listen to a Landlubber like me, go and get the advice straight from the Captain… Calvin!  Check out Calvin’s Captains on the AFL Fantasy site.

Things To Remember

• Back your research – As mentioned above we have all been tempted by a one hit wonder, if you pick one of these guys, make sure you have done the research to back that selection up.
• Full Lockouts Tonight – In both RealDT and AFL Fantasy we have full lockouts tonight, don’t forget!
• Don’t forget to check final Sunday squads tonight – Remember that now we are back into regular programming Sunday squads will be finalised around 5pm tonight.  Check on them to make sure none of your rookies miss the cut.
• Higgins got a knee to the head and isn’t missing games! – Celebrate.
• Don’t leave setting your team til the last minute – Just in case we have website issues!

Finally an almost full weeeknd of footy (Only one game Sat avo).  Can’t wait to see the scores really ticking over rather than the crawl they represented over the past fortnight!  Good luck with setting your final squads.  Keep tuned to Twitter throughout today up until lockout to see if there is any late late news.  Give me a follow if you don’t already @pkd73 and I will relay anything I hear!  Catch you all next Friday as we prepare for our leagues to begin!!