The Thursday Scramble: Round 15 – Bye Week 4

How the hell are there so many bye rounds? Will they ever end? Does anyone understand the rules any more? Who was behind the JFK assassination? These are some of the great mysteries of the universe that may never be solved. But we can give it a crack so Let’s Scramble!!

Forced Trades! 

How many forced trades can we handle this season. Roberts is just another in the long list of players this season that we thought would be keepers for the season but now are a forced trade out. Although in this case Roberts role had been diminished with the new coach preferring a different set up. Now that we know that he is likely going to miss some significant time we have to find a replacement and this couldn’t have come at a worse time really with three of our best options still yet to have their bye in Nas, Sinclair and Holmes. If the byes were over then we would have been fine!  But no, this game has to make it just that little bit harder.

So what do we do?

I am going to assume that you already have Whitfield and Ash. If you don’t have both of them then you will want to get one of them. But if not, do we take someone we don’t really want and then trade again? In AF that is probably the way to go and by doing this you can probably maximise your points. You would have a player for this week when Roberts would have been on his bye and then after next week when one of those guys are on the bye you can get them in after and trade this player out. This is where it is key that you get someone that has a nice and low BE so that you can make some cash while we wait for the byes to be over and it will help fund that player. The key one in this category is Laird who does have a low BE and a couple of good matchups coming.

In SuperCoach you probably don’t have the trades left to use two trades with a stepping stone. So in this case, again the two Giants are your best bet but if you have them then you your other bet would be to either to trade to one of those other guys this week and just take the donut for the bye next week. After all you were going to get a zero this week from Roberts anyway. The other option you have is that you could trade him down and play one of the $99k rookies on field like a Hall-Kahan for two weeks and get one of the other guys in after their bye.

Bazlenka! What are you doing to us!

Can you believe it, one week out from his bye and the bloke decides to go and get himself sick! He could have waited til Friday to get sick!!  Anyway, stuff happens so we just have to deal with it.  And, just like above.  What do we do?

If you are a Supercoacher, then the choice is simple, you hold. You simply don’t have enough trades left (probably) and you are going to want Baz for the run home.

In AFL Fantasy you do have some choices. Again, you could just hold him. It is best 18 anyway. You can of course trade him, it is going to be two weeks that you won’t have him. So if you can swing it and get some extra points this week and help your side next week when you are probably already in trouble with players missing it isn’t the worst idea. Obviously the issue is that you are going to want to get him back in and that is going to require funds and also a week where you don’t have other forced trades to do, and the way this season is going, that is a risky proposition.

Personally I think I will be holding. I am focussing on getting my teams to full premium and getting the last of my rookies off the field and getting guys in that are going to be there for the long haul.  It is probably going to hurt my rank this week but longer term I think it will help as I can be tinkering around the edges and doing upgrades while other teams are still getting their rookies off field.  What are you planning? Let us know in the comments below.

Things to Remember

• Check your C and VC, there were a lot of stories from last week where people were stuck with players they didn’t want to use because they hadn’t looked at their team before the Thursday or Friday games.
• Make sure you have an eye to next week and make sure that you will be able to field a decent side in that last, and most difficult, week of the byes.

That’s about it from me this week, things have been pretty busy for me so sorry if this one is a little short. Also, as most of you know, I really struggle to get to look at your comments during the day on a Thursday due to my job being quite busy. I do go back and look but obviously by then, it would be too late for answers to some of your questions, and to be honest, most of your questions and the answers are in Dawg’s late mail emails on a Friday afternoon for the Patreons.  Have a great weekend of footy 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.