Everyone loves a bit of hindsight. “If only I picked Cumming over Markov… I should’ve got Hall last week it was so obvious…” We’ve all said something like that before, but what if you actually had these powers? So what if you could actually go back and change things? Well, here we go.
If you picked the following team at the start of the year and made appropriate trades, you would have won AFL Fantasy by 6574 points. 6 and a half thousand. Along the way, you would pick up the round prize 20/23 weeks for the highest scoring team (including a massive 2902 in R20 and 2847 in R23), the others being rank 2,3 and 241 and have a team value over $3mil more than the actual highest, at $22.6mil. And to top it off, your bank is empty after all trades.
Starting line up
Before I get on with the team, here are some takeaways:
1. Rookies are vital. Apart from early rounds, almost every week the team had everyone on the bench playing. This allowed for maximum cash generation, and cover for when things go wrong. Of course, with hindsight you can field rookies over premiums, but even without the benefits are huge with a full bench.
2. Chase value. The premise of this team is basically inflating the team salary to a point where you can do whatever trades you please. Chasing cheaper options who will make buckets of cash like I.Cumming, T.Walker, C.Jiath are all key factors to this team succeeding. Most of the time they were only 50-100k more than a fattened rookie and when trading, were only 50k off an uber premo themselves.
3. Sideways trading actually works. Only 13 genuine upgrades happened over the year, opposed to 19 sideways trades. You often get criticise for doing too much sideways trading, but the strategy works. Obviously hindsight makes it easier to say this, but it has merit.
4. Set and forget ruckman strategy is best. Sacrificing the salary cap for 2 reliable rucks worked well, as it allowed trades to be used for other more important issues.
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| RD | SCORE | ACTUAL TOP | ROUND RANK | CAPTAIN | TOTAL SCORE | LEAD | TEAM VALUE (REM SALARY) | TRADES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2300 | 2163 | 1 | Sheed 138 | 2300 | 137 | $12,727,000 ($273,000) | |
| 2 | 2219 | 2114 | 1 | Miller 130 | 4519 | 352 | $13,324,000 ($230,000) | D.Sheed > T.Miller |
| 3 | 2414 | 2290 | 1 | Grundy 152 | 6933 | 825 | $14,279,000 ($212,000) | T.Brockman > H.Chapman |
| 4 | 2218 | 2148 | 1 | Miller 140 | 9151 | 1091 | $15,076,000 ($212,000) | None needed. |
| 5 | 2195 | 2159 | 1 | Dunkley 151 | 11346 | 1156 | $15,742,000 ($292,000) | B.Campbell > S.Flanders J.Bowes > R.Laird |
| 6 | 2592 | 2416 | 1 | Ziebell 170 | 13938 | 1555 | $15,929,000 ($644,000) | T.Walker > D.Parish E.Gulden > R.Byrnes |
| 7 | 2285 | 2218 | 1 | Hall 143 | 16223 | 1762 | $16,641,000 ($625,000) | J.Dunkley > J.Kelly H.Chapman > A.Hall |
| 8 | 2297 | 2338 | 3 | Hall 133 | 18520 | 1849 | $16,673,000 ($909,000) | J.Rowe > M.Owies J.Koschitzke > R.Collier-Dawkins |
| 9 | 2253 | 2249 | 1 | Parish 131 | 20773 | 1945 | $17,174,000 ($831,000) | L.Young > C.Poulter O.Fantasia > D.Zorko |
| 10 | 2567 | 2418 | 1 | Macrae 153 | 23340 | 2212 | $18,017,000 ($412,000) | T.Powell > L.Whitfield J.Stephenson > M.Bontempelli |
| 11 | 2550 | 2409 | 1 | Miller 160 | 25890 | 2452 | $18,614,000 ($233,000) | C.Warner > C.Weightman M.Bergman > J.Steele |
| 12 | 2021 | 2032 | 2 | Parish 160 | 27911 | 2720 | $18,705,000 ($537,000 | C.Jiath > J.Amartey R.Collier-Dawkins > T.Bianco O.Markov > J.Crisp |
| 13 | 2139 | 2088 | 1 | Kelly 152 | 30050 | 2942 | $19,101,000 ($551,000) | N.Hind > B.Maynard D.Zorko > N.Haynes N.Cox > T.Mitchell |
| 14 | 1891 | 2142 | 214 | Taranto 145 | 31941 | 3102 | $19,083,000 ($893,000) | B.Maynard > D.Rich R.Byrnes > L.Bramble M.Flynn > T.Goldstein C.Poulter > J.Sharp |
| 15 | 2566 | 2467 | 1 | Zorko 142 | 34507 | 3382 | $19,591,000 ($688,000) | J.Jordon > M.Kennedy N.Haynes > D.Zorko |
| 16 | 2642 | 2549 | 1 | Steele 157 | 37149 | 3631 | $20,098,000 ($583,000) | M.Owies > P.Dangerfield I.Cumming > J.De Goey |
| 17 | 2557 | 2509 | 1 | Miller 155 | 39706 | 4003 | $20,865,000 ($233,000) | D.Robertson > J.Dawson S.Flanders > J.Short |
| 18 | 2575 | 2511 | 1 | Steele 149 | 42281 | 4422 | $21,062,000 ($259,000) | C.Weightman > R.Marshall J.Amartey > T.Ruscoe |
| 19 | 2644 | 2495 | 1 | Laird 142 | 44925 | 4873 | $21,128,000 ($425,000) | D.Parish > J.Lyons J.Ziebell > A.Cerra |
| 20 | 2902 | 2651 | 1 | Steele 162 | 47827 | 5377 | $21,456,000 ($348,000) | T.Bianco > C.Wingard M.Bontempelli > C.Guthrie |
| 21 | 2676 | 2580 | 1 | Mitchell 157 | 50503 | 5763 | $21,338,000 ($758,000) | C.Mills > B.Hardwick A.Cerra > C.Serong |
| 22 | 2654 | 2525 | 1 | Kelly 141 | 53157 | 6147 | $21,937,000 ($359,000) | T.Ruscoe > O.Wines L.Whitfield > C.Salem |
| 23 | 2847 | 2604 | 1 | Dawson 158 | 56004 | 6574 | $22,371,000 ($0) | J.Sharp > J.Lloyd L.Bramble > T.Thomas |
So, there you have it. A team 6574 points ahead. As mentioned earlier, sideways trading carried this team through.
Trade breakdown:
Sideways: 19
Upgrades: 13
Downgrades: 12
Having only 13 genuine upgrades you would think would make it hard to have almost everyone $650k+ on the bench, but those sideways trades from rookies to value picks made the difference.
Only 4 players were not traded out of the team, Macrae, Keays and the 2 rucks, Gawn and Grundy. Miller came in round 2 so you could count him. And for some fun, Zorko was traded in, out and back in again due to form/suspension. Overall, 74 different players were used.
Final team
Ah, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
– Baked Beams ✌️
@baked_beams on twitter
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