Trent’s Take: Setting up your round 15 team

Before the bye rounds begin, it is time to dream about the perfect world; a dream where there are no injuries or late withdrawals and Bevo leaves Macrae at peace and Dangerfield returns just in time to enter our sides in Round 15 (after losing cash in R14). It is a time to imagine what could your Round 15 side look like after coming through the potential apocalypse of bye planning.

The aim is simple, look at each line and with your current squad plan how can I get to an almost premium squad on field and at least one playing rookie as an emergency. And you have 4 weeks to plan it and execute it. Like Gill said last year about being nimble, fantasy is the same. Last week I mentioned I planned on bringing Ridley into my side this week, but after watching the game and seeing Redman play his role and he, having to play third man tall, makes me second guess that logic.

For example, I have Sholl at D6, Dawkins M8, Gawn M2, and Kozzie F8 so it seems pretty clear which line needs fixing, and so I will hatch my perfect world dream which involves trading Warner, Kozzie, Farrar, Rowe, and Scott over the next 4 weeks and ending up with 2 premium players.

I recommend making a list of players for each line that you have a realistic chance of buying before Round 15 and then highlighting how you can get the best of those players into your side after their bye round. Second, I have a mid-price player (a player below 600 K) who I can imagine brining in as a short term stop gap because I can’t afford to bring in a premium. Below is a short list of the players I am targeting over the next 4 weeks. It is not extensive and many of the premiums are not there, and also I am not targeting midfielders. But, you might, depending on your squad and so I’ll include a few of them. The reason I am not targeting midfielders is I think I can alternate Dawkins and Byrnes at M8 for a few weeks.

DEFENDERS:

I think there is a clear path: operation get Lachie Whitfield for R13.  The four other players on my list are Stewart, Mills, Crisp, and Rich with a watch on Maynard as Quaynor seems to be defending more and trying to release Maynard (just not that successfully at the moment). And still, I have Ridley at 586K as an option, but he seems equal to Redman now, which is fantasy concerning.

MIDFIELDERS:

The big dogs are super hard to get during this period (that is players above 800K), but here is a list I will still look at if value presents: Duncan (R15 as concussion R11 and bye R12 and then high break even R13), Miller (BE 130 this week and then bye makes him an option for R13), Steele, Gaff, Boak, Greenwood, T.Kelly (run of OS games) Adams (BE 130 this week).

RUCKS:

Don’t bother, just get Max and Grundy although Darcy and Ladhams for the byes was an option last week and still is, if you have them as a forward.

FORWARDS:

My team is okay all over the ground, except the forward line where injuries and form have stunted real growth, and this is the line I am highlighting for my team. These are the players on my radar over the bye period: Zorko, Kelly, Billings, Fyfe and Hunter with Martin a low-cost option.

Just a secondary consideration to use on a tie-breaker is avoiding players who have dropped in value, but have high ownership. This might be a good reason to avoid Dusty as he hasn’t hurt you and you might be able to get an advantage avoiding him for a POD who is scoring higher. For this reason, I won’t chase these current high ownership players (and Ridley may fall into this unless Redman or Heppell get injured): Short, Lloyd, Walsh Cripps, Bolton, and Ziebell.

Last Week was a good score that could have been massive. I took Lyons’ 115. But scored 2253 and ranked 988. Good planning!