The Friday Scramble: Round 13

Every year we have the same problems, we plan for the bye rounds diligently all year and then we finally get to the byes and then we get guys out! We always knew that some of the rookies would be questionable but then we lose Rocky as well, what is the world coming to!  I don’t know about you, but I need to scramble!!

Thursday Loophole is Back!!

Did you have a crack at the loophole last night?  You’d be mad if you didn’t! It is a free hit. We have a few in a row now up to Round 15 and then we go back to normal for round 16 to the rest of the season. So importantly, how did you go last night? Did you pick a great VC?  Here is how they went and what we should take.

Dusty Martin 140 We take this in a non bye week! Lock it in.
Bachar Houli 88  Nope, not enough from him this week.
Matt Crouch 101 If you have absolutely nothing much else you could take it but I am sure you can find better.
Brad Crouch 129 You could certainly take this score. In a lean week 129 is more than enough.
Rory Sloane 109 As with Matt. You can take this if you have no other good options.
Rory Laird 116 You can take this one if you are short of other great options.

Reilly O’Brien 146 Now you are just lying to us if you reckon you took ROB as your VC. Seriously though, bloody well done if you did!!  What a week for him to pull out a score like this one!

With this being a bye round our line is a little lower than normal depending on who you have as a back up option for your captain. So whether or not you take any of the VC scores is up to your judgement this week. Personally I would take ROB, Dusty, Brad Crouch and Prestia (if you actually had him as VC). At a stretch you could take Laird, Sloane or Matt Crouch, but I think you will have better options than those three guys.

So what do you do now if you are taking a VC? Well put your C on someone that isn’t playing of course. And what makes things even easier for us is that we have players on their byes to use. So you could make Grundy or Gawn your C as we know that there is no chance at all they will play!

Bye Round Strategy Part 2

Pretty simple strategy for us this week. Trade out the rookies this week that aren’t playing or have reached their peak and then bring in the premiums that had their byes last week.

In a season like this one where we are struggling to get rookies coming through and those that we have had recently haven’t been living up to what we need from them. Then they just don’t get picked!

Blokes that I would look to trade out if you haven’t already would included Jordan Clark, Josh Corbett and Lockhart. An interesting one is Marty Hore he has made us a heap of cash but with his recent good form his BE has dropped in most forms of the game. However, he is scoring well and is getting a regular game. Something we can’t say for many of our other ‘rookies’. So there is a huge temptation to actually keep him. If you are struggling to get your upgrades done you could plan to keep him as your D6 for a while yet. However, if you need to use his cash to upgrade your premiums then do it, you don’t want to hold up your upgrade plans for the sake of keeping a rookie.

Can you trade in a bloke that has his bye next week?

Well with our troubles at selection this week and the nature of the teams that are on round 13 byes you may want to consider bringing in a player this week that won’t be there next week. This is certainly a valid strategy in certain circumstances. If it is going to help your structure for next week without hurting you then you may just need to pull off something like this. Don’t be afraid to do it if you think it is going to help your side both this week and next. One of the key times to do this is if you have to trade out a rookie that has their bye next week due to not being selected this week then if you bring a bloke in that has the same bye then you haven’t lost anything at all. Don’t discount this as a strategy.

 

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Selection Table

Another week and more carnage!!

Dylan Shiel returns for the Bombers which is good news.
Chad Wingard is out with another soft tissue injury. Time to move him on, he just can’t be trusted.
Chris Burgess and Josh Corbett are both out for the Suns.  This seals their fate.  MUST trade these blokes now.
Nick Hind at the Saints is a debut player and for AF don’t be afraid to bring him in. In the other formats only do it if you have no other option.
Robbie Young has been a huge disappointment for us and is now dropped! He hasn’t made enough cash to be traded but you may have to cut your losses.
Jack Steele is out which will affect some teams. Once again you may need to trade him.
Lachie Young out for the Dogs is a huge issue for those that held. But this just gives us a great excuse to trade him out now.
Shaun Higgins will be out for a while. Trade him.
Jackson Hately is on the extended bench again. Wouldn’t mind knowing the record for being named on the extended bench and not getting a game, he will go close!

Things To Remember

• Trades are NOT reversible in RDT and SC now that the rolling lockout has commenced.
• Don’t be afraid to make a bold move over the byes. It can really boost your team up the rankings.
• R14 bye players aren’t off limits. Be careful but if it fits your structure then you can do it.
• Players on their byes aren’t locked until the start of the last game in RDT and SC.

This is one of the toughest rounds of the byes for us so there is an option that you may have to take a donut this week. If you are struggling don’t panic, just make sure that you set yourself up for next season. Best of luck for this week’s round and hopefully you can scrape together more than 18 and have a great score this week.  See you all next Friday.

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