The Thursday Scramble: Round 22. Semi Final Week

One finals week down.  How did you fare? Hopefully you are still alive in your finals race and went straight through to the Prelim if not another chance this week to get there!  And if you are out, you still need to keep playing for that ranking and the glory! So there are still plenty of reasons to Scramble!

Here come the injuries!

We all knew it was going to happen at some point, we have already had a few and now we have lost Lachie Neale for the rest of the regular season and he won’t be the last one.  Will we have Connor Rozee back this week?  Who knows.  But it is how we react that will make the difference for us on the run home.

So we want to maximise what we can do with our money. It wouldn’t be the worst move to trade out Rozee. We know that he still has that injured hand and he is a risk to miss at any point. His value is good at $989k so he is one that you could downgrade to another premium and then put the cash on someone else to get a second good player in.  If you have Neale he has $982k on his head so you can do the same with him.

With Neale out then someone like McCluggage could get himself a little bump and he is cheaper than Neale which is nice.  You could also consider someone like McKercher who has had a great little run over the last two weeks.  On the other hand if you have a bit of cash to upgrade then Rowell is your man as he has had an awesome run of scoring lately.

Just be careful with players from teams that are from teams that are out of the finals race.  They are the more likely ones to put their stars in for surgery.

Did you play the strategy game?

So last week we talked a little about making your decisions based on what your opponent has or doesn’t have depending on how strong your team is.  With someone like Neale now out and Rozee questionable it is your chance to make a move that could be a winner.  If you are the underdog don’t be afraid to go for it with a unique selection. I mean when everyone traded out Caleb Daniel last week if you held it was a great call with his biggest score of the year. Obviously there was a heap of luck in that decision, but hey, luck is a huge part of this game.

If you have the week off because you are in a prelim, don’t just rest on your laurels and do nothing. Start thinking ahead to next week. Use the Scale of hardness and look towards what you need to do that week. You have four trades before your next game and unless you are worried about your rank you can start to use those trades to position your team to be at its absolute strongest for the Prelim Final and Ultimately the Grand Final. Use these trades wisely and you can then hopefully come out on top in your league.

Late Outs

So last week we had a fairly major one on the Sunday where Rozee was a late out.  The longer we go the more chances there are of a minor niggle seeing a star in a non-contending team drop out. So make sure you have cover.

Things to Remember

• From this week on there are no tomorrows in league play. Lose and you are out!
• If Rank is your aim then there are plenty of spots to make up as the more casual players drop out when they are out of their leagues.
• Late outs are going to happen!  Be ready.

You’ve made it through 21 weeks. Just three more to go.  Hang in there!  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.