The Thursday Scramble: Round 18

So we’ve had our first week of full 9 games back and what did we learn…. Fantasy is fun when we can hide behind best 18, Past performance isn’t always a prediction of future performance and Geelong will continue to do Geelong things!  That all adds up to just one thing…. Time to Scramble!

Did you take my advice?

Last week I talked about the importance of having a viable bench cover and not to blow up your bench, and with our ‘friends’ at Geelong doing their thing and hiding the news that Bazlenka would be out, we were left to rely on that bench cover. Now hopefully you were in a position that you could react to the news and pull a switch whether it be by trade or by DPP to get him to a position where you had some cover. But if you didn’t you were relying on what ever spuds you have on your forward bench. This is where that value comes into play.

Now do we need to trade him? I suspect not. All reports (if we can actually believe anything that Geelong tell us) are that he will be fine to go this week. They are going to need him up against the Giants in Sydney (thankfully not at that paddock they call the SCG). The game is Saturday at 3:45pm so based on that you should still have plenty of options to trade to if indeed he is a late out once again. It is one of those situations where whilst many hate the rolling lockout it can save you. However, I wouldn’t be adverse to it disappearing.

Now just because you have bench cover it doesn’t mean you will be able to sit back and relax, remember these guys are bench cover and not on your field because they will be inconsistent with their scoring and/or their scores won’t be very high. So don’t crack it when you have to use one and they don’t go well, just be thankful you had a warm body there and they got you something more than a zero (hopefully, but then again Tom Lynch is still out so you should be ok for a positive score).

The Old Switcheroo

There has been a lot of talk and indeed a lot of action in recent weeks relating to people looking to jump off and then back on players when they have tough matchups. For example old mate Xerri (assuming he gets up for this week) has Max and Brodie which is not going to be fun for him. So some are saying to jump off and then get him back in after.  Another that people are talking about like that was Max a couple of weeks back when this tough run for him happened (which finishes after Xerri this week) and in the Pintcast last night the boys talked of a member who said they were going to jump on Nank for a couple of good matchups.

For mine, I don’t mind the move, it is what the two trades per week allows us to do now. But, and you have heard me say this a thousand times, just make sure you bring in someone that you would be willing to hold for the rest of the year, if not a couple more weeks as injuries will hit. Just look at what happened this week with Caldwell and who knows what will come up.

But realistically if you are just ambling along in your league or in the overall rankings and have similar players to everyone else, why not take a punt (on Calbet I hope) and just give it a go and take that risk, you either crash and burn but you weren’t going to win anyway, or it pays off and you find yourself winning matchups and climbing the rankings.

Things to Remember

• TDK is going to have to play as a forward while Harry is out.  Trade him.
• Key forwards and dedicated small forwards need goals to score or they are a hard watch!
• Make sure you check out Fry’s article. Rookies are still as important as ever at this stage of the season as we need warm bodies that are playing!

Have a great weekend of footy and fantasy and hopefully we don’t get any dreaded late outs (at least we will hear if Bailey Smith is on the plane to Sydney). Catch 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.