The Thursday Scramble: Round 5 – Gather Round

Finally we are past the dreaded early bye period. This week will be our 6th round of footy and just the second time we have had all teams playing.  That should make it simple this week right, Ha!  Let’s Scramble!!

When do we start upgrading?

Let’s be honest, we are all itching to start upgrading our teams and getting them up to be the equivalent of Roy’s Rolling 22. But we keep getting hit with all these forced trades each week. You can rest assured that we aren’t really at that point yet but it is only a week or two away.

So far the only ‘cash cows’ that we are getting rid of are the failed ones like Blakiston and the mid priced Parish.  We can also start to plan to move on guys like Watkins, Lombard and Carroll in the next week or two also.  These guys have at least made us some form of cash unlike those Bombers boys who haven’t done as much for us as we would like.

Whilst we know the issues we have when we are trying to plan our trades ahead, but this is when we need to start identifying the players that we want to bring in (see the aforementioned Roy’s Rolling 22). Have a look at their run on the Scale of Hardness as well as have a look at their Break Evens.

With the Magic Number changing so sharply we are seeing the Break Evens remain high. This means things are going to be a bit more expensive than we wanted when we are looking to get our preferred players into the side. Remember that value is the key to this game as best you can.  But sometimes, if you have the cash to get a big dog, then just do it because you don’t know when you will have the cash to get them again.

Is the answer as simple as Max?

Well, for me, yes.  Most of us have been carrying quite a lot of cash over recent weeks and this is the time to unleash it if you need to trade away from English. Really it is down to either Max or Brodie.

The difference is $210k between them. At the moment the average is about 30 points different for this season and we know that there was one game that affected Grundy in the first game.  The question you need to ask yourself is whether paying that additional $210k is going to get you a 20 point plus bigger average than what Grundy is going to get you (I am kind of discounting that game where he landed on his head).

Realistically whichever player you go to, you know exactly what you are getting. But are there other options? Well if you have someone else and don’t have McAndrew then get the young Crow in.  We don’t have Xerri for another couple of weeks and that only leaves us with Jackson.

If you have McAndrew at R3, then you are really in a great position. You can then drop English and get yourself a rookie ruck and then go shopping elsewhere.

Things to Remember

• There are no byes! So get that best 22 on your field.
• Remember there are a lot of neutral venues this week. So take that into account.
• You won’t have any red dots or byes on field, so if you are planning to loop for a VC, make sure you have your team structure set up ready to go.
• Cash generation is still the key. Keep this in your mind with your trades.

Hope all of you that have made the pilgrimage to Adelaide for this weekend have a great time and really enjoy our city.  Despite all the rubbish we cop, it is a great city with heaps to offer.  Have fun and hopefully I will see you all at the live show on Friday night.

Sorry for the shorter post this week, been a very busy week at work. Also, sometimes I don’t get to see your comments until much later in the day so I am sorry if I don’t respond to your comments, but I do appreciate all of you reading my little musings each week.

Good luck this week and 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.