The Friday Scramble: Round 6

Another week, more forced trades!  Can we get a clean week this year…. please?  If it isn’t guys belting each other it is guys getting injured or not performing. But isn’t that the fun part of the game? Well I think I have had just about enough fun and I would like my team to finally be doing exactly what they are supposed to and that is getting big scores! Sadly none of them have been doing that for me so far this year.

There are plenty of issues that we need to look at as well as the great news we had with some of our players, and more importantly rookies gaining extra positional eligibility.  This may just help you swing some good trades, but it becomes most valuable during the bye periods. We will get to that a little later.  Firstly, let’s look at the biggest issue of the week…. Hawks Down!

Lewis and Hodge Dilemmas

This has dominated all of the articles and podcasts during the week, what do we do with these two guys.  Well depending on what format of the game you are playing then you may have a different treatment for what you are going to do with them.

AFL Fantasy – I think the overwhelming consensus in this form of the game is that these guys must be traded. You have two trades a week and unless you have two long term injuries that have hit your team you should use a trade on Lewis or Hodge (or both if you have both). Even if you do have other issues, these guys would be the higher priced of your issues and hence you can get in someone better so they would be the best option.  The risk with trading them out is of course that you can’t afford to bring them back when they are able to play.  What I try to look for is a player that is about the same price but has a nice low or achievable break even.  This means that you can straight swap them back again.  The other thing you can do is go for value and save some money in your bank to upgrade a cash cow back to these guys.  My main concern with this is that you are holding dollars in the bank that could be translating to points on the field if you brought in a higher priced player. No matter which way you go it is a gamble, but one you should take I believe.

Real DT and Supercoach – In these limited trade formats of the game I think that there is more judgement required.  For Lewis I would be holding. With the quality of rookies you have in your team you can afford to hold him.  Trading him out only to get him back in will cost you at least two trades in three weeks when you should be looking to use those trades to improve your side in the longer term.  Hodge is the harder call.  Three weeks is a bit harder to justify someone like him on the bench.  In the past we would always say trade.  However, this then uses valuable trades as I just mentioned with Lewis.  I think if you are going to trade out Hodge, it would be to someone of equivalent quality that you plan to hold right through to the end and then if you want Hodge back you should look to do it with your upgrade plans throughout the bye period.

Who do you pick up?  Well for Lewis I would be looking at guys like Fyfe, Ebert (yes, Ebert), Pendles, Mundy or you could go unique with someone like Armitage who is averaging 117 this year.  For Hodge in AF you could go Mundy down back or any mid if you have him in the Mid.  To be honest I would try and use some DPP action and get him in the Mid as the options at his price down back aren’t that enticing.  In RDT you could look at Jaensch or Enright or maybe Hooker down back.

New Positions!

So we have had our first lot of new positions added to players.  In case you missed it check out this article from earlier in the week on NEW DPP’s.

There is plenty there for us too since a lot of the rookies have gained an extra position.  This will really help us as we head into the bye period.  If these guys are still in your team at that stage you can move them around to make sure you have a full side in place over those weeks.    Of particular interest to me was Boyd and Mundy getting Def status.  With the trouble we have had getting a good score back there these guys will make life so much easier for us.  If you can bring them in via an upgrade trade then you will be getting some decent scores back there at last!

On the Rookie front we have more positions for Heeney, McIntosh, Salem, Tarrant, Vandenberg and then our rookie priced guys Clark and Rich. This is especially valuable since most of us have at least three of these guys in our sides. As you are trading them out and upgrading players you can use these guys to get the ability to upgrade on a different line now.  Have a play around with them and just check out the level of flexibility that you will now have.

Injuries

So this week we have had added to our injury list Josh J Kennedy who looks like he will be out for a period of time with his elbow injury.  We have James Kelly out for about 6 weeks and Jared Polec is also out for about 6 weeks (although I doubt he is in many teams).  The key though to the Polec injury is that he has been put on to the Long Term Injury list.  Currently Port have Krakouer on the senior list as an upgraded rookie for Frampton who was due back in 3-4 weeks.  This means that Krak can now stay on the list for at least another 6 weeks which is great news for us.

Cam Ellis-Yolmen is out with a Hamstring injury and Adelaide news is reporting that he will be out for 2-3 weeks, that may mean that you might need to cull him sooner than you had hoped.  If you have other options though then keep him and use them.  He could be a handy loophole player for you in Supercoach’s rolling lockout.  Personally I will be doing everything to keep him.  And our new Defender in Fantasy Matty Boyd is out too, apparently he has been hanging out with General Soreness this week.

Things to Remember

• Read Calvin’s Captains! The Pirate has a bumper edition this week for you.
• If you are going to trade Lewis or Hodge, just make sure you know what you want to do in the future.
• In RDT and SC, give Josh Glenn another week before you pick him up unless you desperately need him in. His price won’t change (except in AF).
• Check your BE’s! Some of our players BE’s are starting to get towards their averages, so make sure you are right across this.

Check your team carefully, we are starting to see guys miss games and also injuries etc are hitting.  So make sure you have a full compliment.  Be careful with your trades as you now need to have an eye on the byes.  Most importantly keep an eye on twitter as we have seen a few guys pulled out of squads on the Friday and anything we know before lockout is always gold!

Catch you all on twitter @pkd73 and see you next week!