Calvin’s Captains – Summer Edition

So the rolling lock out is happening. You know what this means… the Loop Hole every single week! You will get a double chance of a captain! Check out my thoughts as Iprepares for what will be my biggest season so far.

My Early Thoughts

As you are aware, the rolling lockout is happening. Like it or not, it’s on! Personally, I don’t like it. For those that do… their mood may change a little when their opponent catches a break but changing a player who has been green vested or a late chance, and they miss it cause they are on the cans having a good time with their mates. Then they lose by 20pts. These stories will be very common. Call me old school but it just makes the game ‘high maintenance’. Either way, you won’t hear me bitching or whinging. It’s here, let’s just roll with it.

What Does it Mean for the Pirate?

In a nut shell it means more work as I’m going to have to look at Vice Captain options and Captain option every single week. It also means that I’m going to have to continually explain how this puppy actually works… read on.

How it Works

You’re only using the Loop Hole looking for 2 things.

1. Safety
2. Chasing

Safety is when you put the VC on a guy like Swanny. Take Rd. 9 for example when Swanny plays Sydney on Friday night. Now, if Swanny break a leg (oh my god heaven forbid) and scores 19pts then you can make Ablett your Captain (who plays on Sunday) and his score will be the one that is doubled. On the other hand, Swanny pumps out a huge 180 then you’d keep that as your captain score by putting a “C” on a player who is not playing. This might be an un-named rookie or an injured dude. This will mean that Swanny’s score is double to 360 and then the emergency on your bench will automatically replace the guy with the ‘C’ who scored you a 0.

Chasing is when you’d put a ‘C’ on a guy like Stanton. Take Rd. 3 for example. Essendon play the Dockers on Friday night. He might explode if the Crowley tag goes to Watson! He might have 160+, therefore by ‘chasing’ him for this game with a VC is a good choice. If he sucks and stinks it up, then you have Ablett (Sat Night) and Swanny (Sunday arvo) to replace him with a ‘C’ if you don’t like his score. If you do like his score, then as I’ve said before, play a guy who will score a 0, make him captain and you VC will automatically take over, as will the emergency sitting on your bench.

My Permanent Doughnut

The only way you can use the Loop Hole is if you have a player who IS NOT playing and will therefore score you a zero so your VC takes over. No one goes into the start of the season with donuts – we usually pick our rookies/bench players based on selection. But for me, at this early stage of the DT season I will be throwing my 4^th ruck position and making him a cheap dud who will not play this year. Preferably a Fwd/Ruck which gives me the flexibility with Cox and NicNat (as Fwds) who are carrying the same Dual Position Tag. (It’s important to note that the non-playing ruck or player should play AFTER your vice captain as they won’t be locked in). Big call I know… but I can see more points coming from the Loop Hole than a dud ruckman who will only play me a handful of games and grow very little in price (like Redden/Stephensen last year). Your thoughts? Or have I gone mad?

New Structured Articles

With the games over such different times, at this stage my articles will be broken into 4 sections to make it easier for you guys to use this Loop Hole for week to week. The sections will branch over – Friday Night, Saturday games, Saturday Night and Sunday games. This should make it easier to see with easy time frames by glancing over each of the sections. This of course will change from time to time. Like in Round 1, when we have a Friday game, then a Saturday game. Then 5 days later there’s a Thursday game, followed by 3 games on the Saturday, 2 on Sunday and then 1 on Monday. You can see  that this might get nuts… but I’m here to guide you through and set it out from week to week in plain pirate English!

My New ‘Looplock’ Number

So when do you take the VC score? And when do you play your captain as normal? This is the million dollar question. Last year I would bank the VC score if they had 120+. In 2013, this will change. My options are torn with these…

1. Bank the VC score if the Captain who is replacing them has a lower average than what the VC has scored
2. Bank the VC score if the Captain who is replacing them is projected (by me) to score lower than what the VC has scored
3. Set the ‘looplock’ number at 125+ or 130+. Points in the pocket are like gold. There are so many ‘what ifs’ each week, and if you have points in the bank, it’s sometimes better to lock them away.

It’s a tough call, I’ve been lucky and have taking a VC score 3 times over the last 2 years, getting it right each time.

So, what do you think? Let us know your thoughts, especially around the ‘magic’ number. See you in Round 1. This might just be fun! Arggg!

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: @CalvinDT for all of your piratey goodness. Arrrgggg!