The Thursday Scramble: Round 22 – Semi Final Week

Three rounds to go and hopefully you are still alive in your finals! It is all cut-throat from here, no second chances anymore. Win at all costs.  And what a week we just had! No Forced Trades!  Let’s Scramble!!

No Forced Trades, so what do I do now?

Feels strange right, being able to do whatever we want?  Well don’t get too comfortable, we still have teams to come out tonight.  We already know one bullet for those still holding McAndrew at R2 as he is going to be rested this week is the word out of the Adelaide camp. And those of us that held Milera waiting to see what his injury prognosis was will need to trade as he will miss at least one and possibly 2 more.  I held him in both AF and SC but only because I could loop and trade after. In AF I had Tom Stewart on the bench so took that and in SC I took Derkson’s 84 just in case we got word that Wayne would be back.

So if you do have nothing forced to do this week, then in SC you do nothing (unless you are holding 5 or more trades then you may as well use one or two) but in AF you should be looking to improve and as everyone has been saying this week trade out Christian Petracca. And with DPP there is probably no end of players you could take. For me, it is players from Geelong and Sydney that I would target given that fantastic run both teams have and despite a game away to Freo I do still like the Crows players and in particular Rankine. Gulden is the other guy I love as a trade in this week.

Really, my main advice is to just make sure you are setting your team up for success over the last two rounds.  As I always say this time of year, the Scale of Hardness is one of the most important resources you will use this time of year with just 3 games to go.

I did a Warnie!

Yes I followed in the footsteps of the Lucky Dawg last weekend, I was playing around with my VC and C and I decided to change my VC to be Nas on the Saturday afternoon, but because I changed from my VC which was on Thursday, I didn’t check because I had the C on Sheezel and by the time I worked out they played at the same time it was too late, but thankfully the right choice was Sheez.  But as we spend more time debating what we are going to do in the finals, this is a reminder to make sure before each game that you have everything set up how you want it.  Have your Loops pre-arranged and plans in place for all outcomes.

Finals Strategy

Are you just playing for your league and not rank, this means you can do some wildly different things with your trades. We’ve spoken about it before and that is whether you cover off your opponent or throw something a bit unique to try and get the win. With no forced trades this week it is the perfect time.

However, the other thing I like to do is hold off on using both trades until the last opportunity. This gives you the opportunity to pivot based on how your matchup is going.

Things to Remember

• Set your team but don’t forget to check it at key points.  For me that is the start of the days games and then before the night games on the Saturday.
• Check the Scale of Hardness.  This is the most critical time of year.
• Don’t rely on season average to look at your team, This time of year I look back to see what they scored on these three opponents earlier in the year and also their last three average.

There we have it, not much really to it this week. A fairly vanilla week which is something we haven’t been able to say much this year.  Good luck in your Semi Finals and see you all next week for the Prelim Preview!

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.