The Thursday Scramble: Round 18

With just 7 rounds to go things are heating up and things are getting a lot more focussed. Throw in players missing weeks and there are some tough decisions to be made, which can only mean one thing.  We have to Scramble!

To Trade or Not To Trade, That is the Question

Lachie Whitfield is a very popular player as you would expect and with him just missing the one (two at most) and the big question that everyone is asking is “Should I trade him out”. Let me say firstly for the SuperCoaches out there, unless you have more than 5 trades, you are holding everyday of the week. Given the issues we have had with injuries this year you can’t risk burning the trade.

Now, for AFL Fantasy, there are a couple of schools of thought on this one. And for me it comes down to, who is your worst player on field and what does your bench cover look like. If you have “Roy’s Rollin 22” as your team then absolutely you are trading Whitfield out for someone else that is Under the Blanket. But if you are rolling with someone like a Lombard, Cumming, Retschko or the like on field and you have someone like a HHK sitting on your Defensive bench then I would be far more inclined to be working on the rest of my team before I am trading out Whitfield.

In all likelihood he is going to be back for that game against the Bombers which is the Sunday 4:10 game and he will feast in that game so you don’t want to miss those points.

My main piece of advice would be, if you are going to trade him out, plan to not have him for the remainder of the season, reason being, we have been hit with that many injuries and issues this year, there simply may not be the opportunity to get him back. That goes for any trade outs we make from hereon out this season.

Who do we bring in?

I say this every season, and that is because it is a tried and true fact. The fewer remaining games we have, the far more relevant the Scale of Hardness is for teams. With just 7 teams left to play each, some teams will have friendly draws and some won’t. We obviously want to be targeting those that have the easier run home and are going to score us the most points.

That leads to the other key thing which goes hand in hand with that previous comment. As they say in those Superannuation ads, Past Performance isn’t always indicative of Future Performance. And this couldn’t be truer for Fantasy. Just because someone has a great average it doesn’t mean they will average that on the run home. And this comes down to the teams they have let to play. So really look at that and see who they have left when you are selecting your player. As each week passes, this will be come more and more critical as you then start trading for specific matchups.

At what point do we burn the bench?

I don’t think we are at that point yet, all it will take is multiple injuries one week and you will be stuck and it may cause you a donut. So for this reason, I think we are still looking to bring in bench players (if you are downgrading to make some money) that are going to provide you with some job security and also some level of scoring. You never know when that 50 might count. This season this is even more important with our TOG rule that saw many of us (me included) get HHK’s score instead of Whitfields.

Things to Remember

• Just 3 matchups left for the H&A season in most leagues.  If you aren’t playing for rank then use those trades strategically.
• We have a “Traditional” round of footy this week with only one game on the Friday night and three games on the Sunday, be ready for that.
• There have been some massive captain scores, but don’t get too greedy, all it takes is an early injury to your captain and that 125 that you passed up from your VC looks a lot more attractive.

There we have it folks, my thoughts heading into Round 18.  Have a great weekend of footy and see you all back here again 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.