The Thursday Scramble Round 16: The Last Bye Round

We made it! Last one this week but it is the one that hurts the most with some of the most important players in our sides missing. Many thought it was round 12 that was tough with all those forwards on the bye, but this one just hurts us everywhere! So Let’s Scramble!

Is it a silver lining?

Now a forced trade at any time is not a great thing, but with Sinclair going down with his high grade calf issue and looking like missing ‘significant time’ according to the club, it may have come at the absolute best time for us.  Whilst it does mean a forced trade, it does give us some great options as we head into the round that he was going to be missing anyway with the bye.

What you do is going to be highly dependant on what your bye structure looks like this week and what plans you had for upcoming weeks.

One school of thought (and this is more of a play in SuperCoach) is to simply go from him to either a Holmes or a Wanganeen-Milera because you had no doubt set up your teams so that you were well placed for this bye round and it would simply be a one in and one out.  These two guys, if you don’t have them, are going to be players you want in the upcoming weeks (and if you traded out Baz you are going to want to get him in too) and with just the two trades per week after this one, if you are missing both of these guys and Baz then it is going to take either a WarneChest or a number of trades (assuming no more forced) to get those players into your side.

The other way, which is the more traditional way to play this, is to simply go from Sinclair to someone that has already had their bye, which in this case, is 14 other teams which gives us a wide range of players that we can pick from and you are also likely to have some DPP action you could use to get things going your way. If this is the case then guys like Laird, Blakey and either Ash or Whitfield whichever one you passed on last week. I’m not sure I’d be going with Noble with that role that he had on the wing on Friday night.

The other factor to consider in all this is that whilst you may be able to field a full team, are you fielding enough premium scorers. There are certainly enough non premiums in our sides that will be on fields this week like Ison or Derkson. The good thing is that no matter what you are likely to be in the same boat as most other coaches as this was the bye that was going to hurt most teams.

Xerri Down!

Many coaches probably have brought him in over the last few weeks but he hasn’t been his regular self and his role has changed. He hasn’t been over 110 for a number of weeks now and he is now going to miss for two weeks with a fractured jaw. So it is certainly time that you can cut your losses and move on to another ruck. If you traded out Grundy when he missed that week a while back then it is time to get him back in, otherwise it is time to go with Luke Jackson who is going to rise sharply in value thanks to the big score last week. Unfortunately we have Gawn on the bye this week otherwise that would have been the perfect move.  Many coaches are going to be looking at bringing in a new ruck for Cameron this week and now we will have the Xerri owners on the same train so things are likely to get far less unique in the ruck department over the next week or two.

Don’t get caught Nude as the Tide goes out!

I love this saying from Xavier Ellis on Selby’s podcasts. Next week we see who has been swimming naked through the byes as we get back into the best 22’s. Hopefully you’ve been able to navigate your way through the byes, upgrading and forced trades to get yourself 22 or 23 premiums ready to make the final assault on this season. Remember, we drop back to just the two trades per week after this round and that can make it just that little harder to finish off your side if you haven’t done it already. If you haven’t been able to finish your team off with this week’s trades, just make sure you have that plan ready to go for the next week or two.

Things to Remember

• Just 8 rounds left after this week which means in most leagues, just 4 more minor round games til we get to the finals!
• If you roll back your team or reverse your trades, make sure you have fully reset your side as I did hear of a coach last week that did the roll back and left Jackson on the bench with no emergency on him!
• Don’t panic over this week’s projected or final score, remember, most coaches are going to be in the same boat.

I’m not sure enjoy is the right word for this last bye round, but I will certainly enjoy it being the last week we have to scrape together a full team. So get that team ready to go for next week and I’ll see you all back here when we have 9 games to look forward to in round 17!

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.