The Friday Scramble: Round 8

We warned you… don’t say we didn’t!  The Multi Bye Rounds are here, and not just that, we have now also lost some of the guys that we were hoping would help guide us through those weeks to avoid donuts!  I mean, can you believe that we have lost Sam Mitchell who was a lock and keeper in a lot of teams.  As well as Sam we have no Hickey for a while either.  And don’t get me started on our underperformers and guys getting vests that we are relying on!  Sometimes I wonder just why we put ourselves through it.  But… never fear, it is a new week and everyone else is in the same boat you are so let’s get on with our scrambling!!

Bye Strategy

Let’s be honest, we have been banging on about this for a few weeks now both on the site and in podcasts, so I hope you are set up.  If you haven’t then listen up!  There are a couple of strategies and hopefully you find yourself in one of these.

• Tank a Round – Don’t worry you won’t cop a fine or draft penalties for tanking in these games.  If you are super heavy on one round of bye players then just tank that round and go all out in the other two.  My mate Footy Rhino likes a bit of Meatloaf’s “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad” and that can certainly work for you here.
• Back End Heavy – This means you have got a lot of R10 bye’s a few less R9 byes and then even less R8 byes.  Trade out those late bye players for early bye players as we move through the rounds (after round 8 of course).
• No Plans At All – If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants and just see what happens, then good luck.  I am sure that you will probably beat me and others that have gone into the byes with a specific plan!

Personally I am in the Back End Heavy group and plan to start trading R10 rookies and mid pricers to R8 premiums before R9 starts.  I am not sure how this will go but given my team has been very ordinary so far, I am sure I will fail miserably!

GAME DIFFERENCES – Just note that there is a slight difference between AFL Fantasy and the other two (RDT and SC).  In RDT and SC you get the chance to use 3 of your limited number of trades over the next three weeks whereas in AFL Fantasy there are only two trades available each week still right throughout this period.

My advice on trading is that I would keep that trading gun in the holster this week in RDT and SC unless you have an LTI in your side like Mitchell.  It is after this round that we can start burning through those trades!

If you want to read more about byes then head to our Byes for Dummies post from earlier in the week.

Positional Changes!

Well this is certainly something new for our games.  For the first time in this format of the game (AFL Fantasy) we have had players gain eligibility for new positions that they hadn’t started the season with.  Yes I know you are all going to mention Mark Blicavs from last year where he gained a spot, but that was before round 1.  If you play draft leagues on Ultimate Footy this won’t be new, but that is draft leagues, not salary cap games.

It is a perfect time for us too with the byes upon us, the flexibility will allow us to swing a few guys around that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.  So who has changed you ask?  Well here is a list of the changes and their new eligibility.

 

The ones that should help us most particularly through the bye rounds would be the ability to swing Langford into the midfield and the ability to put Shaun Higgins down back.  Both of these may help you through the bye rounds.  For those that held Xavier Ellis you can now stash him down back if he misses again.  Dahlhaus also helps open up a Mid Forward swap if you need that too.  James Kelly is an interesting one.  Averaging around the 90 mark and now eligible in the backs.  Could be worth a look in your teams.

If you have any of those guys then have fun swinging them around your field.  If you don’t then it may mean that someone you previously wouldn’t have considered may become a bit more attractive… you know, after the first beer you wouldn’t go near them, but after you have had about half a dozen or more and the night gets a little older they are the best thing you have ever seen!

Check out what Warnie had to say about the changes in his article earlier this week.

Captains?  Anyone seen a Captain?

Well with Geelong, Collingwood and Gold Coast all out this week we have lost pretty much all of our Perma Captains and even some of our secondary options.  But we still have to put the C on somoene so here are a few that you could consider.  Josh P Kennedy is one that I like the look of.  The Sydney midfielder is playing his old side at ANZ stadium.  He averages 97 against them and has had a 153 at ANZ before.  I think he is a good choice and in Supercoach he should be your VC loophole option this week.  Another option for you could be either of Brent Stanton or Brendon Goddard v Brisbane.  Andrew Raines will probably go to Jobe Watson which will leave these two guys to run loose.  And, if I didn’t mention Roy’s man crush Rocky I am sure he would ban me from the site.  It was a monster effort in a losing side last week from Rocky and he should certainly be in consideration.

But hey, why are you listening to me about a captain when we have the access to the greatest captain selector of all time, Calvin!  So be sure to read Calvin’s Captains and see what he thinks!

Things to Remember

• Put your Bye Players on the bench.  They are the guys with the Blue Dots next to their names!  Don’t forget!!
• Make sure you have your C and VC on guys that are playing.  I know we tend to just leave the C on our favourites, but if your bench is already full of bye players and your fav is still on the field don’t forget to move the C.
• Don’t hold a player just because of the byes.  If you have a guy that is terrible or a cash cow that is going to leak a heap of cash, then don’t be afraid to trade them out (if you have luxury trades to make in AFL Fantasy).  No point losing all those gains or getting single figure points just to stick to your plan.  Make sure though that the guy you bring in still fits into your bye planning.

So good luck.  Hopefully you are playing guys or gals that haven’t planned as well as you have for this round and you get the win.  For me, I am hoping that this strategy that I have put in place will catapult me up the rankings!  Keep up with all the latest on twitter from all of the DTTalk team including myself @pkd73.

See you all again next Friday when we hopefully can start trading all those R8 premiums into our side!!