The Thursday Scramble: Round 17

We have finally come to the end. It was a long time but we got through the end of the bye rounds.  It certainly was a different experience with not so many players on the bye as we have had in the past. So with a full squad again this week and a full set of games it is…. time to Scramble!

Should you blow up your bench?

We are always struggling at this time of year to generate enough cash to do some upgrades so there is always the temptation to blow up your bench and just bring in bargain basement guys that are not going to play. This is a play but of course the deeper in the season we go the more chance there is that we could get a late out or more than two players dropped or injured during a week meaning that you are likely to have to rely on a bench player to get you through.

This is where you need to get a little creative and use your DPP wisely as well as having lots of swings built into your team. If you do it right you could cover your benches with two or three cheaper players. Ideally these guys are DPP. Clearly one of them will be Tom McCarthy who does have that Mid/Def eligibility. If you can get another with Mid/Fwd and even one with Def/Fwd that would be great.

However, the other option is to go down to these cheap guys and build up a bit of a bank and then spend up big on a DPP premium.  This means that if someone is a one week with injury or a late out you can just slot someone else in their place. The risk here of course is that you dwindle that bank down to not much and then you get a season ending injury that week to a mid pricer which means you can’t get up to anyone good and you are stuck with mediocrity.

So to answer the question, Do you blow up the bench?  I say no. I play a fairly risk free game. I like to have options. Plus the more playing guys you have then the more options you have to loop a cheaper guy onto the field which might just see you get the win.

It’s the final countdown!

There are 8 rounds left but most leagues will have four rounds of finals so if you are going all the way through you only have four more weeks to get yourself into a good finals position. With the scale of hardness now all important you can (assuming no other issues and a healthy bench) side swap those premiums to get yourself someone with a great match up. It is a risky play but if it is what you need to get yourself into a position to win your league and some cash it might just be worth it.

RESET Your Team!

So the byes may be over, but this doesn’t mean you leave the brain in low gear. Now that the byes are done there are a few things you must check before Thursday night.

1. Move all your premium (or good players) onto the field.
2. Check your C and VC even if you aren’t using them on Thursday night. You may have them on random players due to the byes and don’t get caught out!!
3. Check your Emergency players and who you have that on. You have probably done weird stuff over the byes and don’t let it ruin this round by neglecting it.

Things To Remember

• There are TWO GAMES on Friday night.  Don’t forget that Carlton v Collingwood isn’t the only huge game on the night. We have West Coast v GWS starting an hour later.
• Check and Triple Check your team. Make sure everything is set and fixed after the byes (see above)
• If your team is full of good players, start looking at tactics to get more premiums on your bench but beware asI mentioned above, don’t destroy all of your bench for one player.
• All 22 count this week (or 22 of your 23 in RDT and SC). No more hiding rubbish scores.

Enjoy the 9 games being back this week and a full team of what are hopefully decent scoring players.  Sorry for it being a bit short this week, but I am sure I will be back to a full article next week.
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.