The Thursday Scramble: Round 20

We are nearly there! Our last week before Fantasy Finals but still 5 games left to boost that ranking right up there. But there is plenty to go on between now and then, there will be suspensions, there will be injuries and there will be Scrambling!

Time to just go for it!

So I asked what you would like to hear about this week and our old mate @SinceUBeenGawn also known as John who is a great friend of DTTalk asked the question “One week match up plays. Too early to do this?”. This made me think about where we are at and what we need to do fort he rest of the season.

With just 5 weeks to go, as I have said before, the Scale of Hardness becomes every increasingly important. With fewer games the quality of opponent will be vastly different for each player. And it is because of this that we can consider the strategy that John is thinking about. The longer there is remaining in the season the more variables there are to consider. But as we tick each week off we have less to worry about (hopefully) and we can take a few more chances.  Here are the conditions that I think you need to have to be able to do make your trades based on one week match ups and the pitfalls that could be in your way.

Your Bench It think if you are going to take a stab at these one week wonder players for their matchup I would like to have a solid bench. That way, if you do get into trouble later in the round due to a late out you have the coverage. The reason I say this is that often you might want to trade someone that is say 60/40 on the injury/play count and if they happen to be a late out but you have made an alternate trade to get a matchup then you could find yourself stuck.

Confidence beyond 1 week Whilst your plan is to just get the player in for the one week and then trade them for the following week’s matchup player, just remember you may get stuck with them depending on injury and suspensions in the round. So you don’t have to love the player’s probably scoring for the rest of the season but you do need to be comfortable that they are going to get a game and can score to a reasonable level each week. And as the weeks go on, this becomes less and less of a factor in your decision.

Don’t destroy your team Trading for a matchup is ok when we are this deep but don’t destroy your team just to do it. What I mean is don’t trade out players who you would otherwise keep just to do this. Ideally you want to be doing matchup trading with your M8, F6 and D6. You don’t want to be doing it with your players ranked 1-5 in any line if you can avoid it and I wouldn’t be doing it in the ruck division. Remember, these guys can be very hit or miss. Just look at Zac Butters from last week, he was so popular because of the Richmond matchup with no tagger but didn’t deliver, similarly Dunkley and Neale have been a lock for a great score of late but neither got it going (although that was a tough matchup but they were both still very much below par).

Your League or Overall Ranking If you are on the outside looking in of the top 8 or your desired ranking then this play makes perfect sense and I would be very much on board with taking a risk to get you where you need to be. If you are playing it safe with the same players as everyone else in the same area of the ladder as you then you aren’t going to progress. But if you can get yourself a unique with a great matchup then you can propel yourself upwards quickly.

To me the biggest risk is that you are stuck with the player beyond just this one week so you just need to be prepared for that if you get other issues elsewhere in your team. If you are comfortable with that risk then I would say certainly go for it. This is probably the very earliest in the season that I would be making this play, but if you have the luxury trades available and no rookies on field then 100% start matchup trading your guys and maximise your score.

Unique works both ways

Just following on from the above, bringing in a unique player can be just as advantageous as leaving one out. As we saw last week not having Dunkley or Neale was certainly an advantage to those teams that didn’t have them. So if you are looking to shoot up the rankings and you have a choice between two players and all that you really see that is different between them is the ownership stats, then go for the lesser owned as if they go well and the other player doesn’t you will rocket upwards.

Things to Remember

• Last round before finals in most leagues so make it count! Don’t finish the season wondering, go for that win by taking a risk or two.
• Use the Scale. It is so important now.
• Set your loops up early and have your moves mapped. I will talk about this more next week but don’t get to a position where you can’t take your VC.

There we have it folks, next time I come to you we are in the finals, amazing how quick the year goes.  Hopefully you all get to the top of your leagues this week and of course those chasing a hat, hope you push into that top 100. As always, if there is a particular topic you want me to cover next week and give my thoughts on either tweet me @pkd73 or put it in the comments below.

See you all ahead of round 21

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.