The Friday Scramble: Round 8

Well we didn’t have absolute carnage but not everyone fired either.  So it was a bit of a normal round really!  I am sure that these types of rounds won’t last!  Round 8 should be looked upon as a round of comebacks.  We get a few guys back and we should start to see our scores recover a bit (hopefully).

 

 

Comeback Kids and Missing Muppets

So this week we should welcome back into our sides (barring any late outs) one of our premiums that we have had to leave on the bench for a week.  That man is the Tiger captain Trent Cotchin.  After one week out with a bit of a knee niggle he is back and should be slotted straight back into your team.

Returning fully fit and ready to go are the guys coming back from suspension and this week we have Brett Goodes in that boat.  He still has a negative break even and hence should still be in your teams with a bit of luck.  We also see Jarrad Waite return, however, I doubt that many of you would have him.

Another guy that is coming back, but in the SANFL this week is Brad Crouch.  Hopefully it is just the one SANFL game before he comes back.  Weather permitting I will be heading along to see how he goes and will certainly tweet out any thoughts tonight @pkd73.

On the other side of the ledger we have our Missing Muppets!  Early in the week we found that Jasper Pittard was going to be out for yet another week!  He had a one week injury that has now dragged on for about 3 weeks now!  This is not good, particularly when this guy has a single digit break even.  Personally I still have him but he is starting to really try my patience!  Speaking of trying my patience!  The next guy does that every single year as he promises so much and always delivers pain and suffering.  Heater Shaw has now earned himself another week rest by hitting Ballantyne down low.  It is always something stupid like that that puts him out.  I feel for those that have traded him in last week.

Another guy missing this week is Daisy Thomas after we all waited so long to get him in as he had an early season injury and then a green vest.  Now he has gone and hurt his ankle!  This just makes things more annoying.

How long is a hamstring injury?  I can tell you it ain’t one week!  Bryce Gibbs is still out!!!  This will now be his third week on the sidelines.  Not bad for just a strain!!

Bubble Boys or Primed Premiums!

This week is going to be a difficult one.  There are a couple of guys that you can use as downgrades and also a couple that would make excellent upgrades of Premiums that have bottomed out in price.

Probably the biggest name who has dropped is none other than Lance Franklin.  He has dropped a massive $114,600 from his starting price and you can now pick him up for $406,700.  His BE is still high at 144 so even if he has a great week he won’t go up very much.  So this means that you don’t have to definitely get him this week.

Our other big name that is cheap this week is Matt Priddis.  Last week was the last one with his 2 in his price cycle.  Now he starts to go back up.  He is currently going for $392,800 and has a BE of 41.  If you take the 2 out of his scores then he is actually averaging 97.  He will certainly be going up quickly so this is the time to get him!  Patrick Dangerfield is another that is at the bottom of a price rotation.  A BE of 32 is about as low as he will go.  Many dumped him in the first few weeks after starting with a 51 and 97.  But after round 1 his average is actually sitting at 107.

On the bubble this week we have DTTalk’s own Jesse Lonergan  he is a little more than the average rookie at $129,700 but in a GC side he is likely to keep his place for a while.  He has a BE of -22 and should make you some tidy cash.  He has had a 50 and a 53 so far and if he can get you this each week and if he has to play on your ground you won’t be too disadvantaged.  The other big guy on the bubble is Ben Kennedy who is at $102,700 and has a BE of -15.  He has a vested 27 and a full game 52 and news of Daisy Thomas now being out it only increases his chance of keeping his spot in the team.

Tweet Me!

This week I asked you to send me in some tweets with some questions that you are facing this week.  Most of the questions were about what to do with a few players, so here are some that represent the main volume of queries.

The main thing that worries me about Daisy is that in the space of 12 hours we have had Eddie tell us it was 4-6 weeks and then it was gone for the season and now it is 2 weeks.  It really depends on how much you trust what you are hearing!  Personally I would look at addressing your main issues.  If you have bigger issues like Hartlett, Westhoff or Jake Neade who will leak cash then maybe you may want to deal with that first.  Also if  you are going to cop a donut somewhere else then deal with that first.

Good question.  Personally if you are looking for one of these guys to last you the year out then I think I would be going with Brad Crouch.  His injury that he is returning from this week does worry me a touch, but he is highly rated at Adelaide and after one week in the SANFL this week I see him going straight back in.  I am not so solid on Lonergan’s job security.  I think it is good, but will it last through the season?  I am not as confident.

This is an interesting one.  If these are the guys that you are looking to trade then Wines would be the first one.  I think that based on current information of Daisy out for 2 then I would get rid of Sylvia.  I wouldn’t trade Heath Shaw as he is only out for the one week and he will be in the top 6 defenders at the end of the year.  This is all dependant on the information on Daisy being correct.  If it was 5 – 6 weeks then I would have said to get rid of him.  But just on Wines, whilst he will lose money I don’t think it will be heaps of cash so you can perhaps afford to keep him for one more week.

I reckon that this is a question for our mate Roy DT who I think got a personal phone call seconds before lockout finished so that he could be the first person to trade him out!  And I agree, I think Hartlett will be better than a 35 point player, but he is going to leak a lot of cash and if you aren’t determined to hold him to the bitter end then I say get rid of him.

 

Things to Remember

• No point planning trades early in the week! – Every week I plan them and every week teams give me some carnage that ruin my plans!
• Only 3 weeks to the bye rounds – You should be planning them now.  Keep them in mind when trading at the moment.
• It’s time to clear the paddock – Your Cash Cows or Portlets are now at maturity and it is time to cull them.
• Don’t just trade on BE’s – Don’t just pick a guy because of his BE.  Look at his Bye Round, his average, scoring potential, job security and ability to stay on the park!
• Beware sideways trading – Just because we have 44 trades this year, doesn’t mean that each week you can be sideways trading because it means you will never get around to upgrading players to improve your side.

So another week and more surprises at the selection table with Heath and Gibbs not in.  This will happen week in and week out.  All we can do is keep our heads above water and see how we go.

Last week I managed to have a 5 league wins and scored 2,054 and am ranked at 5,284 and am still climbing after a very poor start to the season.  I got through the Eliminator which I was very happy about!

Good luck this week and keep an eye out for me on twitter @pkd73.  I will call for questions again next Thursday for the Scramble.