We have been waiting for this week for some time now. We have all our studs back. I am sure that you, like me, couldn’t wait for lockout to be over on Sunday night so that you could jump in and put all of your stars back on the ground and see your projected score make its way comfortably back over the 2000 mark.
At least we now have the ability to have a bit of bench cover for a late withdrawal. It is that safety blanket that we have all been missing over the last few weeks. But as teams are starting to become finalised we find that if a player is missing out of your side, odds are that most of your opponents have been destroyed by injury or late withdrawal too.
So heading into the last third of the Head to Head part of our League competitions, we have to start making some tough decisions to make sure that we secure that top 8 or if you are lucky enough top 4 position heading into finals.
Tried and True or High Performing Rookie?
Earlier in the week I asked what are the main issues you are facing were. I got this question for a bloke from out Tbetta’s way, @Tim_Carrier asked me which premium he should bench for Zorko. This will be a question that many of us would be asking this week. The Mask of Zorko has been pulling some very serious scores of late and doesn’t look like slowing down. So you will find that he is a chance to outscore some of your lower end premiums each week.
This is going to be a very much a case by case proposition for you. The easiest case will be if you haven’t completed your Mids with all 6 being guns then you would have to play him in front of your M6 if they are one of the higher end GWS boys or Magnet if you still have him. Similarly in the forward line if you are playing someone that you wouldn’t call a premium even if they have been scoring in the 70-90 range.
In my case, Zorko will be playing on the field instead of Porps as he is a lock to beat Porps’ score. However, it gets a bit tougher if you have to think about playing him in front of Robbo or Dusty. Personally this week, with both those boys coming off a bye I reckon I would play Zorko as I think he has the runs on the board and won’t suffer any bye week hangover that can occur on occasion. You also have to look at the matchups. Both Robbo and Dusty have very tough games against the Hawks and Crows (at AAMI) respectively. However, I wouldn’t play him in front of someone like a Chappy who is up against the Power at Simmonds Stadium.
In the midfield I am not sure which of your premiums you would want to play him instead of. Once again if you are using Dusty or Robbo in the middle then you may play him for them. Otherwise the only others I would look at playing him in front of would be Gibbs or dare I say it Judd. These two guys have been underperforming this season and you might find that Zorks will outscore both of them.
The last guy that I think might be one you consider benching for him would be Goodes. He looked fairly slow last week to the point where he was Red Vested. This is purely due to him coming back from injury, but I think he may have one more slow one left in him before he fires up again.
Who Do You Do?
Our old mate Zorko just can’t stay out of the questions today. @Dreamnicksteam asked me whether or not he should upgrade his Semi-Premium (read Midpricer) or a gun Rook like Zorko who may decline (like our mate The Horse did to us a few weeks ago). Tough call this one and all we have to go on really is form.
For me, I think that if you are faced with this decision you would go with your Mid Price Underperformer like Hargrave, Marty Clarke or Porps. The main reason for this being of course that they are more likely to score less than what your premium will and will (on current form) score less than Zorko. With that in mind they are also likely to go down in value whereas Zorko with his BE of -19 he has a lot of growth. He is currently priced at a $370k and with a BE like that will be up in the mid $400’s+ in no time. If at that point he starts to decline in form you are going to be able to sideways swap (or at least not need much cash) to another guy that is scoring 100’s. Where as if you stick with Porps you are going to get 70’s and his price won’t get over the $400k mark any time soon.
The Waiting Game
When you were a kid and you spotted the hottest, latest must have toy it would always be on the shelf at a high price that your parents said…. “Maybe when it gets a bit cheaper”. From then on you would go past the toy shop every day just waiting and waiting for the red sale sticker or the new price tag. It was agonising!
Well that is what most of us frugal DT Coaches are doing now. We are waiting and waiting for some of our upgrade targets to bottom out so that we can pick them up at the cheapest possible price so that we can maximise the value of those dollars that we have in the bank still.
But the biggest question is “When will they bottom out?” Well there is only one bloke that knows that and that is the Mystical Aki and his DT Stock Market which will be up here on the site in a few short hours!
I think you really need to look at the BE’s vs the players average against that team, all information that the Assistant Coach package has of course.
The other main thing is… can your team afford to wait. If you can get the win this week, or post a good score without doing the upgrade yet, then you can afford to hold off on a player that has a high BE. On the other hand, if you are struggling and need that boost in points then… go for it!
Things To Remember…
- There are still 9 rounds to go – so don’t blow all your trades just yet! You need to keep a few for carnage (cause it will come!)
- Check your C and VC after our Bye MerryGoRound’s – It is easy to stuff this up. Last week I did change my C but forgot to change my VC and had it on Chappy. Luckily he scored well and Swanny scored well too, but if Chappy had gone missing against Sydney and Swan didn’t play I would have been in trouble!
- Downgrades at this stage should have good JS – otherwise when you need them to play a role later in the year due to resting or suspension you might find yourself needing to trade them out.
- Be Careful about where you get your DT Advice from – some of what I have read in the papers has been total rubbish this week. Stick with us here guys, best advice around! One of them said the best way to pick a team was “You pick your favourite player from each club and then you add 12 more to complete your squad”. Words of wisdom there.
Anyway, enough ranting from me. Settle back, get a good groove in the couch and get comfortable for our full quota of 9 games this week! I for one can’t wait. It has been a little boring not having two games worth of scores to follow for the majority of the weekend. And with the byes some matchups were over before they even started which took a heap of the fun out of it too.
Let me know your trades and how many you have left from here on in.
Catch you all on the weekend and if you want to hear the rantings of a madman, then follow me on Twitter @pkd73
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