The Thursday Scramble: Round 3

Two rounds of data for most teams and three for some. We are starting to see some trends and which ones were a flash in the pan. Add to that some injuries it is time to Scramble!!

What do I do with these picks that aren’t quite working for me?

It happens every year, someone has a bolter of a first game or a huge final pre-season game and we throw our research out the window and jump aboard. Look at someone like Will Day, that huge round 0 score doesn’t look like something that he will be able to replicate. His BE has been steadily climbing (it is almost unreachable in Supercoach now). Similarly there will be some rookies that look like must haves after one or two games and they will fail and become a dead red dot that we can’t move on.

So what do we do? For guys like Will Day you need to ask yourselves the following questions.

Why did I pick this guy?  No, not meaning that, but did you pick him as a keeper or a cash generator or a stepping stone?  I would suggest that he is a bit of column B and a bit of column C.  So you got him in thanks to that big round 0 score as a stepping stone to someone like a Nick Daicos once his bye is over this week. And that is ok. It is certainly what I did.

What is his price likely to do after this week’s game? If you didn’t get him to be a keeper but one of the other options, you want to make sure you can make a good trade to move him out. If you are targeting someone like Callaghan then go for it but you could be faced with his cash possibly going down if he gets that Bedford tag this week before you can make your desired move to Daicos.

Do I have other bigger issues?  Do you have some injured guys that simply won’t play that you need to move on first before worrying about a guy like Day.

Is Day losing a few $$ more of a problem than being stuck without the big money making rookies?  In RDT and SuperCoach this is a real issue with guys like Lindsay having their first price movement this week.

Now I have written mostly about Will Day here but you could substitute in any number of players like maybe an Ollie Hollands or a Perryman (if you still have him) or a Peatling.  I guess what I am trying to say is at this early stage of the game there are a lot of things you need to think about rather than just “I’ve got to trade this guy”. Work through all your issues/options and come up with your best trades.  For me, I would make sure I move on the blokes that have been absolute failures that will lose you money and make sure I have the best rookies before I look at moving a Day who is (in AFL Fantasy) still a live chance to make his BE or at least get quite close to it.

Can I trade into a guy on the bye this week?

Well there isn’t anything in the rules that say you can’t, however, it generally isn’t a great thing to do if it is a premium you are looking at. You want to have as much of your money employed on the field as you can. If you have everything sorted and want to bring in Bice who is on his bye this week, it isn’t the end of the world. However, if you want to get in someone like Nick Daicos you are investing a fair bit of money for someone that is going to be missing for two of the next 22 weeks.  Better to try and wait until after this round to jump aboard, and the Daicos train is going to be like one of those videos from India with people hanging off the side!

Should I side swap my failed premium picks?

We are always about improving our team but if one of your selections that you selected as a keeper isn’t doing what you want then this is a valid question to ask yourself, but before you hit that T button, just think about a few things.

What led you to bringing them in? Take for example Jason Horne-Francis. He had a stellar pre-season, he has fwd status and was slated to play a ton of midfield.  He hasn’t scored as we would like but why is that? Was it just a bad pick?  I would say no it isn’t and you should stick it out, and here is why.  Last season he had some games like this and he still had a great average. Zac Butters missing has meant extra attention for him (for some reason they are leaving Rozee alone). With Lukosius going down in the opening minutes against Richmond he was forced to play more time up forward which did hurt his score.

So for each of your players that you think should be having massive averages, just step back and take a look and see what the reasons could be.  Are the reasons going to persist or is it just a once off or something for a short time.

Things to Remember

• Upgrade season isn’t far away, so now is the time to be looking at your trading plans and doing your calculations.
• When looking at your Rookies, don’t be too judgemental. Jumping from rookie to rookie every week chasing last week’s score or price movement is full of danger. Again, go back to yesterday and read Fry’s article.
• Your Swans and Collingwood players won’t be locked out until the start of the final game of the round on Sunday night. Use them for any loopholing you want to do.

Have a great weekend everyone, sorry for the short one today, super busy this week.  Also, for those that are new, I don’t often get to reading the comments on the day due to work, but if I can get to them before Thursday night lockout and reply I will.  Thanks to all the legends who do jump in and answer the questions when I can’t.  Cheers

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.