The Friday Scramble: Round 20

It’s FINALS TIME!! I’d love to say, the grass is freshly cut, it’s getting warmer and people are starting to feel a bit better about the world. But I can’t, Fantasy Finals are when it is freezing cold, the wind is blowing a gale and it has been belting rain! Anyway, that is what we have. For those of us that are in the top four and sitting pretty, we don’t care about the rain or wind. Anyway, I digress. It is finals time in Fantasy Footy and half of us are up and about, and the other half are wondering where it went wrong and are looking to win the Tit-Ed Cup for winning the GF in the bottom half. But just because it is the finals, doesn’t mean everything is bright and rosy, we have been dealt blows this week through Injury, Selection and apparently a few people have one of the guys that got suspended this week. If all of that and the fact it is the first finals week doesn’t scream Scramble, I don’t know what does!!

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Danger! What the Hell??

Well, he did the crime and now he is doing the time. But that doesn’t help us at all! So, the big question is what do we do now? Well that is going to depend on a number of factors like what format you are playing, how many trades you have left and where you are sitting in your league finals.

Put simply, in AF you can afford to trade him out, but the key is to have a plan to get him back in as you will be forever worried about him when he returns. If you are ok with not having him for the rest of the season, and for the record this is a valid POD strategy, then go your hardest.

In SC and RDT I have a few scenarios for you. The big risk if you are going to trade him out and then planning to bring him back in, you may not be able to, for one of two reasons, lack of trades or other problems.

In all formats of the game, the biggest concern is that if you trade him out this week and think ‘that’s ok, I will just trade him back in again next week’ you may not be able to. Let’s say for example that you lose two big star players next week to injury, one in the forward line and one in the backline and don’t have the DPP ability to move players around to get him in. Then you have to plug those holes and it is another week until you get Danger back in again. And in the limited forms of the game that burns another couple of trades and you may not have enough to get him in anyway.

In the limited trade versions, I wouldn’t even consider trading him out if I had any less than 5 trades. Particularly if you are planning to get him back in again afterwards. If you are sitting pretty in the top four in your league, then (assuming Rank isn’t your goal) there is no way I trade him out, you have the double chance and chances are that you could be coming up  against someone next week that doesn’t have him which could give you a huge advantage.

As I eluded to above, trading Danger out could be a very valid strategy for those of you that want to play a bit harder. Trading Danger out does two things, it allows you to have a POD against those that keep him and it boosts your cash significantly as he is one of the most expensive players in the game. You could use that cash to upgrade a non performing premium or to upgrade a rookie like Greenwood or SPP. This improves you in two ways, one by not having to play a rookie on field for Danger and the other by improving another player in your side.

Finals Strategy

Strategy for the finals is fairly straight forward really. As soon as you find yourself in a knockout final, just trade your hardest! Once you lose it you are gone. So there are two ways you can attack it. In a knockout game, once you have looked at your opponents side you can either bring in a player that he has who you don’t or you can try and trade in a POD. It all comes down to the match up and the different players that you have. If yours are stronger than his except for one premo, then you may want to negate that premo by bringing them in. If you think you are struggling, then take a risk and grab a POD premo and see if you can take them down.

If you find yourself in the top four this week, then I would be saving trades if you can, you want to have them left for the knockout games. Even better if you win this week and get the week off, with trades in the bank this can be a huge boost on the way to winning your league.

Selection Table

Now, we all knew about Danger and a few others like JPK as well as Witts who is out with a shoulder. But there were a few other bombs thrown by the coaches just at the time we didn’t need them.

On JPK I would be looking at trading him out in AF, he hasn’t been over 100 since Round 15, but his 7 before that were all over it. In the other forms you should once again consider the number of trades you have left.

One of the bigger bombs that people were  hoping to avoid and that is that Sean Darcy is out this week. A lot of people brought him in with the hope of riding him to the end of the year, well he has been managed this week (the new term for General Soreness). This is a big concern if you have no coverage. Hopefully you have some cash to use because at his price you can’t just straight swap him and I suspect that if you are using him on field you don’t have much in terms of backup. This is where the strategy of having Nank or Ryder up forward with a swing man will certainly pay off. Another big out this week is Jeremy Cameron who came back from a Hammy only to injure it again, it looks as though he could now be out for at least a couple of weeks. The other big one that is out, and for the rest of the year is Connor Blakely, this is disappointing since he has been in good form recently.

On the ins side of the ledger, we have a bit of good news with Jake Lloyd back in for the Swans after just missing out last week, apparently the short turn around being a Friday game last week is what meant he was a late out. Along with Lloyd, Tippett comes back in, not that anyone would have him. Speaking of ruckmen, Mumford returns for the Giants and Goldy returns for the Kangaroos this week. This should help a few people out, particularly in Draft leagues. It will also be good to have Zorko back this week.

Gary Ablett has been named, but given his recent track record and the fact they are playing in Perth, I would be very nervous. Lot’s of ins over in the Saints v Eagles game, Priddis and N Riewoldt both come back in, once again helping those out that held, but they will be very relevant in draft leagues.

Things To Remember

• It’s Finals Time, get up and about! We are nearly at the end of a long season, hopefully you can enjoy the last four weeks and come home with a league win.
• Have some Bench Cover. This  time of year as the players are starting to struggle a bit, they are more susceptible to being late outs, particularly if they have short turnarounds from the previous game.
• No Perma Danger Captain this week, so just make sure you are all over Calvin’s Captains this week to get your best option.

Good luck in your first round of finals this week. Hopefully we get some better scores and the late outs are kept to an absolute minimum. It is not a time to go conservative, This is the time of the season to take a chance and make sure you get that win. So go for it and hopefully we will see you all back again next week for your Semi Finals!

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