2019 hindsight team

What if I told you it was possible to be leading the competition by 3948 points, not have used all your trades and have a team value over $20mil. Would you believe me? Probably not. Well, it is.

Not only would this team win you the Toyota Corolla Hatch, it would come with 9 Sherrins, $900 worth of ShopAFL credit and a Telstra Live Pass for you and 8 mates!

I myself didn’t think any of this was possible, yet here I am, marvelling in the beauty of hindsight.

Before I get on with the team, there are some takeaways:

1. Hold your rookies as long as possible. This team still has 5 rookies it start with, allowing for maximum cash generation from them. All rookies were held until they reached peak price, then traded, but of course this is only possible with hindsight.
2. Sideways trading is the way to go. Almost as soon as a player went into a form slump, they were traded out of this team, most often to a player currently in a great patch of form. So far, the trades have consisted of only 9 upgrades and 15 sideways trades.
3. Don’t worry about the byes so much. I didn’t even consider the bye structure for this team until a week before, it turned out to be pretty balanced in the end anyway. With 3 trades a week, it was easy to field 18+ each week.
4. Don’t be afraid to field rookies over premiums. It happened rarely, but quite often I’d find a rookie scoring a lot more than a premium, in which case it was proper to bench the premium. If you can predict a bad matchup for a premium and a good one for a rookie, don’t be afraid to bench said premium.

STARTING LINEUP:

This is a team that wouldn’t look too out of line alongside many round 1 line-ups, but it’s the trading during the season that separates it. Here’s a breakdown:

NOTE: As the website rankings is a bit broken, I’m not exactly sure how many points in front of the actual rank one until round 16.

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ROUND 1:

Score: 2339 (rank 60)
Highest actual weekly: 2436
Captain: Rockliff 166
Total score: 2339 (rank 60)
Points in front: -97
Team value: $12.46mil ($139k rem salary)

ROUND 2:

Score: 2428 (rank 15)
Highest actual weekly: 2478
Captain: Neale 146
Total score: 4767 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 80
Team value: $12.8mil ($249k rem salary)
Trades: S Coniglio > L Neale, 2nd trade not used.

ROUND 3:

Score: 2433 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2377
Captain: Whitfield 162
Total score: 7200 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 250
Team value: $13.62mil ($203k rem salary)
Trades: M Gibbons > Bailey Smith, 2nd trade not used.

ROUND 4:

Score: 2338 (rank 2)
Highest actual weekly: 2363
Captain: Grundy 153
Total score: 9538 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 500
Team value: $14.43mil ($292k rem salary)
Trades: B Scott > J Ross, 2nd trade not used.

ROUND 5:

Score: 2269 (rank 245)
Highest actual weekly: 2397
Captain: Lloyd 135
Total score: 11807 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 750
Team value: $15.32mil ($201k rem salary)
Trades: L Neale > B Fiorini, T Liberatore > J Kelly.

ROUND 6:

Score: 2422 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2361
Captain: Dangerfield 138
Total score: 14229 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 900
Team value: $15.54mil ($554k rem salary)
Trades: J Petruccelle > L Baker, L Whitfield > B Houli.

ROUND 7:

Score: 2182 (rank 39)
Highest actual weekly: 2277
Captain: Dunkley 145
Total score: 16411 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 1100
Team value: $15.86mil ($836k rem salary)
Trades: J Billings > J Dunkley, J Scrimshaw > J Lockhart.

ROUND 8:

Score: 2409 (rank 3)
Highest actual weekly: 2415
Captain: Grundy 149
Total score: 18820 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 1350
Team value: $16.8mil ($298k rem salary)
Trades: J Ross > L Parker, W Drew > T Kelly.

ROUND 9:

Score: 2609 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2490
Captain: Whitfield 190
Total score: 21429 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 1600
Team value: $17.46mil ($45k rem salary)
Trades: C Constable > L Whitfield, J Worpel > J Ziebell.

ROUND 10:

Score: 2487 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2464
Captain: Grundy 149
Total score: 23916 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 1900
Team value: $17.54mil ($365k rem salary)
Trades: J Lockhart > O Baker, T Rockliff > D Martin.

ROUND 11:

Score: 2662 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2525
Captain: Coniglio 192
Total score: 26578 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 2000
Team value: $17.57mil ($726k rem salary)
Trades: G Miers > D Clarke, L Whitfield > S Coniglio

ROUND 12 (BYE):

Score: 2243 (rank 42)
Playing: 21
Highest actual weekly: 2314
Captain: Dangerfield 162
Total score: 28821 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 2300
Team value: $18.33mil ($415k rem salary)
Trades: Bailey Smith > J Macrae, D Fort > S Lycett, B Houli > T Stewart.

ROUND 13 (BYE):

Score: 2330 (rank 1)
Playing: 21
Highest actual weekly: 2322
Captain: Billings 170
Total score: 31151 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 2500
Team value: $18.37mil ($688k rem salary)
Trades: M Hore > G Logue, T Kelly > J Billings, L Baker > R Marshall.

ROUND 14 (BYE):

Score: 2250 (rank 2)
Highest actual weekly: 2267
Captain: Macrae 180
Total score: 33401 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 2900
Team value: $18.33mil ($1,088k rem salary)
Trades: J Kelly > A Treloar, Brodie Smith > J Crisp, B Fiorini > B Preuss.

ROUND 15:

Score: 2642 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2472
Captain: Zorko 143
Total score: 36043 (rank 1)
Points in front: approx. 3300
Team value: $18.82mil ($1,029k rem salary)
Trades: C Rozee > M Chol, O Baker > D Zorko.

ROUND 16:

Score: 2581 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2503
Captain: Rockliff 150
Total score: 38624 (rank 1)
Points in front: 3693
Team value: $19.87mil ($479k rem salary)
Trades: D Clarke > T Rockliff, G Logue > N Newman.

ROUND 17:

Score: 2693 (rank 1)
Highest actual weekly: 2659
Captain: Dunkley 189
Total score: 41317 (rank 1)
Points in front: 3948
Team value: $20.35mil ($459k rem salary)
Trades: S Coniglio > L Hunter, Z Williams > L Whitfield.

CURRENT TEAM:

Ah, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

– Baked Beams ✌️