The Thursday Scramble: Round 16 Bye Week 5!

Here we are!  The very last of the bye rounds for season 2025.  And with it will come both excitement and trepidation.  Have you navigated the byes well? What will your team look like for round 17? All of these questions and more will cause us to Scramble!!

The Toughest Week yet!

Many thought that the first of the byes was going to be the worst but with Brisbane, GWS, Essendon and Geelong all missing this week it is going to be one of the hardest weeks to field a full side. However, if you have been reading lately I have been warning everyone to be prepared and start trading out players missing this week over the last couple of weeks. Did I listen to myself?  Not really, my team is still going to struggle and my SuperCoach team has already taken a blow with Carroll being omitted by the Blues for tonights game against the Power (side note:  Is it possible that both Voss and Hinkley could get sacked if the game is as atrocious as the rubbish I watched last week between Port and Sydney?)

The guys have been talking about options all week and I agree with most of it.  Clearly the rookies we have are the ones we want to trade out and hopefully you have enough cash to get them to someone decent.  Don’t be afraid to use a stepping stone if you have to.  You can consider trading out some of the big dogs this week and I know the guys mentioned Zorko in that but I would probably be tempted to hold him. I think if you have Whitfield (like I do) he would be one that I would move on.  I am very concerned about his return and I don’t think he will miss just this bye week. I won’t be surprised at all if he misses the next game as well as they play it safe with him, why fly him to Perth against the Eagles?  Personally I won’t be getting rid of any Cats with their fantastic run home. They generally put up great scores there (apart from last week against Brisbane) and Smith and Holmes should be safe for a 100+ score each time they play there.

We have 14 teams worth of players that we can bring in so there is no shortage of guys to choose from. This is where the Scale of Hardness must come into play for you. I say it every year, the further into the season we go, the more important the scale is. I mean, Geelong get to play Richmond twice from here to the end of the season plus they play St Kilda, North and Port all at GMHBA and North at Marvel. Seriously, load up on the Cats!! The longer into the season we go the more disparate the difficulty of the run home will be for most teams. Play it smart and do what you can to get the guys in that have the softer draw.

Trade Alert!

So you’ve decided to trade out Zorko this week and plan to get him back in a couple of weeks. Well don’t forget, this is the last week this year that you will have 3 trades available. After this round we go back to just two per week which will make things a little bit tougher each week to get someone back in. All it takes is a cash drop or an injury on the wrong line of your team and you can’t get your premium back in again.

So think long and hard about what you are going to do with those trades this week.

Have you been caught by the low tide with your pants down?

Over the last few weeks you have been able to hide those rookies on field thanks to the best 18 rule. However, after this week, we will find out who has been swimming nude when the tide goes out and we have to rely on all 22 players on our field. So have you just been surviving week to week in the bye rounds or have you been structuring your side for the run home with 22 ‘premium’ players on your field.  We will never have a “complete” side unless you have Roy’s Rolling 22 as your team or you have the 22 top scorers every week in your side but by having 22 premium players in your team then you can at least give a decent score a good crack.

Things to Remember

• Not long to Fantasy finals now. So every league win is critical!
• If you are using stepping stones, make sure you have an exit strategy or you will be stuck with them.
• Use the Scale!!

That’ll have to do it for this week folks. Have a great weekend and see you all after the byes for a full 9 games next week!

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.