The Thursday Scramble: Rd 13 Bye week 2

Wow, talk about throw a spanner in the works!  What do they say about the best laid plans…..  well, we all know that these days we need to be agile and this is it. I will have a brief look at this and what it means for your teams as we head into Round 13… Let’s Scramble.

Game Changes

Well we knew that there was going to be some challenges again this season but we didn’t expect this. All of that planning we did has gone out the window with the news that we now have only 4 teams on byes this week as the Eagles and Tigers will bring forward their game by a week. It means that we will now have 8 teams on a bye in Round 14 (unless we have more changes). This is going to put a huge strain on our teams as many of us have quite a number of Tigers in our teams.

Does this present us with some opportunities though?  I think it does.  Do we have to have 18 on field in R14? Well it is ideal but not mandatory.

Opportunities

I mentioned above that we would have all of our Tigers on a bye this week instead of round 14. Many of us have a few Tiger rookies at the moment including RCD who didn’t have a big game in Round 12 which will see his cash generation stifled as his BE rose more than we would have liked. We also have CCJ but at the moment I would suggest keeping him as he still has more money to make. So by RCD playing in round 13 you have a couple of options.

If you have plenty of players this week you can trade him out a week earlier than you would have originally planned to. Originally we would have held him as we needed him in round 14 to play to make up the numbers, but now we may not need him this week. So you can cash him in if you think you don’t need the players on field this week then you could trade him out for someone that is going to play in Round 14. This is where we can use this to our advantage. Similarly if you had another rookie that is looking like they will lose value but you were keeping them because you needed the numbers you can now move them on if you have the numbers on field.

Don’t discount the opportunities that this presents you this week.

Do we need 18 on field in R14?

Well yes, that is our plan but is there a scenario where fielding under 18 may be beneficial? Yes there is. You may have heard a few things this week where others have talked about this and I agree. You can shuffle and compromise to make sure you get 18 on field, or you can use the opportunity to upgrade to better players and have them on field and maybe have only 17 players and set your team up better for later in the season. It could also give you a better score in round 14. Rather than two sketchy rookies you could have one premium player that you are then happy to keep for the remainder of the season. This will also mean that you don’t have to plan to trade more players out later in the season and you can use those trades elsewhere to get your completed team sooner.

 

Whatever you do with your trades this week just have a serious eye on not only R14 but also on R15 and beyond. This is where you set yourself up for the remainder of the season.

 

Things to Remember

• Having less than 18 in Round 14 is not the end of the world, everyone else will have the same issues you do.
• Move on those players that aren’t going to help you score points first (so those that are not getting a game)
• If you trade out a premium like Grundy or Zorko just remember you may have trouble getting them back in again.

Sorry for the short one this week folks, just too busy in the real world for me at the moment but I know you are all well served by the Traders and everyone else here.  Best of luck this week and I will see you all again next Thursday before the horror that is round 14!!