The Thursday Scramble: Round 16 and Bye Free!

Thank God that’s over for another season. But wasn’t it nice to be able to drop off those rubbish scores each week!  There was a sense of satisfaction when you could look at a score and think, well don’t have to worry about that steaming pile of a thing.  So…. what’s next.. Still time to Scramble!

Complete or not Complete…. That is the Question

So the aim is always to come out of the byes with a complete team, but what does complete really mean. The dictionary says it is “having all the necessary or appropriate parts”.  Even if you have a team full of ‘premiums’ can you really say that about your side, do you have all the necessary or appropriate parts? I would wager that it doesn’t, but do we ever really have a complete team? No, we don’t. Unless you have the 22 top scoring players each and every week you don’t.

But, let’s not get all down on ourselves thanks to our inadequate teams. The aim is to have what you consider to be the 22+ best players you possibly can. Clearly our bible for this is Roy’s Rollin 22. And there are plenty of other people out there that are willing to have a crack at who you think you should have and they aren’t all going to match each other.  The two that I refer to are Roy (of course) and Selby.

Don’t panic if your team doesn’t match what those two gurus say. It is all subjective.

However, one thing that you must keep in mind.  From here on out you aren’t looking for the 22 highest averaging guys for the season. No, what you are looking for now is the 22 guys that are going to average the most from here til the end of the season. What they have done in the past is irrelevant, it is what they do over the next 9 weeks that is most important. I know some of you are thinking I have lost my marbles, and yes, some of the players in both of those groups are identical, but if you have that 22 premium filled squad at your disposal, now your job is to make it better.

The 23rd man

But if you do manage to cobble together a group of 22 that you think are going to bring you joy for the rest of the season are you finished? No you aren’t. The next step is to then look at bolstering your bench. Many people in the fantasy advice industry talk about having a 23rd premium. That is someone on the bench that we can use to loop on to the field or will cover a donut if we have a late out. And I for one strive for this also.

A couple of things to look for in a 23rd (or even 24th) premium is someone that you can swing from line to line so I take the DPP guy before the solo line guy if I can. The more DPP players you have (making sure they are spaced between lines nicely) the better off you will be for a late out. This is also of immense importance in both RDT and SC for when you are just about or fully out of trades. You need that flexibility to be able to plug holes that arise unexpectedly.

The other thing that I like to look for in a 23rd premium is someone that has games early on a weekend. Whilst this is a bit spread out for the rest of the season, if you can nail a team that has more early in the weekend than not it is going to make it easier to loop them.

Obviously you can’t get one person to cover every line, but if you can get someone that with their flexibility and other players in your team you should be able to give yourself a sporting chance each and every week no matter what happens at selection.

How many trades remaining?

Now I know this is predominantly an AFL Fantasy site and that game has two trades per week each and every week, I do like to add a bit for those playing the limited trade versions of the game.  Each of those games had more trades than ever before at the start of the season and some people are already starting to run out of them! So how many should you have left? Well there is no hard and fast rule but I would like to have at least 5 left after this week so that you had 5 trades for any longer term injuries or suspensions over the last 8 games (remaining after this round). I would then like to carry at least 2 into the last four games of finals. The more trades you have left than your opponents means the more likelihood you are going to be able to deal with issues in the finals.  However, if you get a long term injury and you are down to your last 1 or 2 trades, don’t hold the player and play someone inferior off your bench, go ahead and use that trade, holding the trade isn’t going to make up for that 50-60 points you could lose each week.

Things to Remember

• With just 9 games left that means there are only 5 games of league matches before finals (in most leagues)
• Check who your C and VC is on before the first game. If you used a blue dot in the last bye for it you could get caught out (like I did a few weeks ago)
• Remember to look at what you think they will score for the rest of the year, as the games dwindle the importance of the Scale of Hardness rises.

There we have it, back to regular game programming finally and a full deck of players that we can choose from. Enjoy the weekend and hopefully your fantasy team scores more this week than it did in any of the bye rounds (can be embarrassing if they don’t!).  Cheers and see you all next Thursday.

Dunny

A passionate Port Adelaide Fan who simply loves footy! That is how I would describe myself. Catch my weekly article "The Thursday Scramble" with all the last minute things to think about for the weekend Follow: @pkd73.