The Friday Scramble: Round 3

To quote some famous movie … not sure which one though… “This shit just got real!”  And that is exactly how it is for Dreamteam coaches this week.  No more of this playing around, our NAB cup is over, we are playing for premiership points from this week on.  So those who haven’t really paid much attention to their first couple of rounds need to really take note and make sure their team is set for this week’s action.  To be honest it hasn’t been anywhere near as exciting watching our live score just amble along with nothing to compare it to.  Bring it on!

Trigger Happy

As has been discussed on DT Talk all week, this is Fix It week.  If you think you have totally stuffed your team (i.e. haven’t selected Magner) then this is the week to fix it without suffering any price changes.  This is something we started looking at when @tbetta served up his sensational Bullets on Monday.  He showed us the results of something that I spoke about here last week and many of us mentioned last week and that was be careful trading after just one round.  We saw that guys like Lake turned things around and then someone like Callinan stunk it up after a great first outing.  So always be careful with your trading this early in the season.

@jaDTck asked me about Corey Enright.  I think that if you paid for him, you keep him at the moment.  I just don’t like trading away premiums based on 2 games.

Something else that Tbetta looked at was some of the Fix It trades that are being considered by people this week and I think that the names that I am seeing mostly in the trade circles on twitter and in the forums are Broughton and Shaw.  Personally I only have Brougthon and I was keen to and even did a rage trade on Monday to get rid of him, but I only did it with the safety of the reverse trade button.  Lets be honest, these two guys are having rubbish starts to the season and everyone wanted to trade them out at the start of the week (me included).  However, as the week has progressed my rage has subsided and reason has taken over.  Lets have a look at a couple of guys where we need to be realistic about what has happened….

Broughton:  Yes his scores have been terrible and not what we expected.  But he has played Geelong and then Sydney (at the SCG).  I wouldn’t expect massive scores in these two games anyway.  In the coming 4 weeks he plays Brisbane at home, St Kilda away, Carlton at home then Gold Coast away.  To be honest I expect big scores from him in 3 of those games.  Based on this I am going to keep him.

Shaw:  Heater sure doesn’t like a forward tag and whilst Collingwood won last week it was a far from impressive performance.  His next few weeks include Carlton, Port, Essendon and the Western Bulldogs.  I would expect him to run rampant in 2 of those 4.  Personally if I had him I would be a bit worried, but I think he will still end up towards the top end in the defender averages.

Mumford:  I was surprised to hear people saying they were going to trade him out this week!  The guy has only had one game (a 90+ score) and was a late withdrawal last week (lets face it, no one wants to play against the big 211).  I can’t see why you would dump him based on a late withdrawal!!!  His next few weeks he comes up against Redden (Port), MacGold (Roos), Zmith (GCS) and Big Cox (WCE).  I see 3 of those being big scoring games for him.  If you started wtih him, stick with him!!

Golby:  This guy has been the bone of my contention in the first two weeks.  In R1 he was on 16 at half time and then came back to have a decent score and then in R2 he went missing again and only rattled up a 42.  He was another I was looking to trade.  But then I looked at the Lions and with Browndawg to come back this week and Black out it means that Merrett can return to fullback and there is an extra slot in the midfield rotation.  On this note I think that he will bounce back and show some of that ball winning form that he showed in the NAB and was the reason he was selected in so many teams.

These are just a few of the guys that I have heard discussed.  But for those that missed it jump on @Aki_DT ‘s great DT Stock Market article from Thursday where he looks at a lot more of these guys and in a lot more depth.

Get Off The Bench

There has been a bit of a call for me to reprise my articles from last year regarding those you should play on the ground and those you should leave on the pine.  What I will do is incorporate some comments in this section where I think we need to talk about it.

However, the first thing to note here is that we only have two weeks worth of data to go on so for me the keys this week are looking at who the rookie is playing, their role and their Vest likelihood (make sure you check out this week’s Sub-Marine article for the best info on vests).

@RamboTamboDT asked me during the week on twitter about who to start out of Ellis, Smedts and Townsend.    To that I say “Rambo” we need to look at this objectively.  Ellis had a shocker of a first week with 38, but was ok last week with a 61 and the Tigers have had two very tough opponents.  This week they come up against the Dees who are a rabble.  I think he will score at least as well as he did last week.  Townsend has had a 54 and a 42.  They are playing the Eagles and will get absolutely crapped on from a great height!  I can’t see him doing any better than his 42 vs the Roos.  Smedts is playing in a very good side and has a 50 and 36 to his name.  They are playing the Roos on Sunday night and I think he will do better than the 36 but I just don’t know about him as there are a lot of other Cats back there who are rock solid and experienced who will demand the ball.  So if I had this decision I would probably go Ellis.  I think Townsend will see a lot of the ball down back (if he lines up there) but he and Smedts I see both having 50pts or less.

I have also had people ask me about Pfieffer and whether or not they should keep him (my son being one of them!).  He is playing in the SANFL and has only played 1 out of a possible 2 games for Norwood.  That was last week and he had 18 touches, kicked a goal, laid 4 tackles, got 4 frees but gave 4 away and took a mark.  So a solid game, but I don’t see him breaking into the Power lineup in a hurry, particularly with Robbie Gray coming back in this week and a couple of other guys in front of him still.

In yesterday’s DT Extra  @teeteeDT was asked who he thought would be the best options to play off the bench.  I agree with what he had to say.  If you missed it… go back and read it… but I have copied his excerpt here for you …

Down back, I’d play Marty Clarke, Brandon Ellis and Steven Morris with some confidence after last weekend, then Tommy Bugg marginally ahead of Townsend and Mohr. In the guts, Magner is a must, followed by Toby Greene, Dylan Shiel, Clay Smith and Stephen Coniglio. ‘Farmer’ Giles is the clear pick of the rookie rucks, with Jarrad Redden a fair clip behind and the Big O still in the starting blocks. Up front, Adz Kennedy has been good, as well as Terry Milera, Dev Smith and Jeremy Cameron.

Very sound advice there from TeeTee.  Only thing I would do up forward is probably drop Terry Milera down the order a touch and perhaps put Devon Smith in front of him.

I’m Not Special, I am Unique!

During preseason you may have had your eye on someone that you thought was going to be a unique, a guy you thought would break out.  One of the guys I work with thought he had one in Steele Sidebottom until he saw my team and realised that Steele was in quite a few teams.  If you have picked a guy you think is unique then unless they have a broken leg or they are really stinking it up you may want to stick with them.  If they are really bad (like last year when I started with a unique of Dan Connors) you need to use this week to fix that mistake.

A lot of your uniques will be mid pricers, and if you went that strategy you went it for a reason.  My unique this year is John McCarthy who I think will get the opportunities at Port that he never got at Collignwood and that is paying off so far this year.  There is nothing wrong with looking at other people’s teams and realising that none of them have your unique.  This is a good thing as long as their name isn’t Relton.

Mid pricers that have turned out good so far include McCarthy, Brad Ebert, Hargrave and Porplyzia (even though his first game wasn’t great).

One guy that would be a bloody mega unique is The Chad.  Chad Cornes has been a gun this year averaging over 100 playing down back for the Giants.  There are two problems for DT’ers though.  He is only listed as a Forward and he is old and will get injured at some stage.  He would be a risk, but he could pay off because lets face it, he is the only guy down there that knows what he is doing at the moment.

My advice at this stage is that if they are averaging around what you paid for and haven’t fallen over massively in their scoring that you should look to stick with them as you picked them for a reason.  24 Trades sounds like a lot but it isn’t that many really.  You will burn through them quickly later on so be sure of it if you are going to use them.

Things to Remember for Round 3

1. Rookie Redemption:  Make sure you get in those Rookies that are must haves that you missed out on like Magner and Giles.  Check out Chook’s Rooks to get your help there.
2. Premature Tradeaction: Don’t just hate trade and don’t go off in the holster!  If you have, reverse it and analyse your trade.  If you have Broughton or Shaw, make sure you are really sure you don’t want to get them back again later in the season.  If you do, don’t trade them out, that is a waste of 2 trades.
3. Select your Emergencies!  Some people got caught out last week by not checking sources on Sat morning when it was revealed that Mumford would be missing.  I know we don’t have the partial lockout priveledge this week but before lockout make sure you have 3 emergencies selected.  I often see teams with only 1 or 2.  It doesn’t cost you anything to have 3 so you might as well choose someone!
4. Check in with the Irish Pirate  Check in to Calvin’s Captains and make sure you have the big C on the right guy.
5. Respect the Button! No, not the Delete Team button, but the Reverse Changes button.  It not only reverses your trades but it returns your team to where it was at the last lockout!  So if you have changed captains, emergencies or moved guys around on and off the bench, this will all be lost if you reverse a trade so you will have to check and make sure it is all how you want it! 

Have a great scoring DT week, make sure you follow your matchups in the Match Centre, get yourself the Assistant Coach pack as the extra stats and the bloody great articles are really worth it.  I am really looking forward to getting my first W on the board in my leagues.  Don’t worry if the guy you were going to trade in gets a massive score this week, remember that there are still a heap of weeks to go and trades to use.

Catch me on Twitter @pkd73 and I will try and give some insightful or comedic info across the weekend.  I will tweet live from AAMI stadium with any relevant news from Power v Swans game on Sat avo provided I can get a signal.  Cheers.