The Friday Scramble: Round 9

Just when you thought it was safe to check your team!  Give me a break Geelong!  Stevie J… seriously!  I wasn’t able to be in front of my computer or watching most of the games last weekend and I think that was a good thing.  However, it didn’t mask how rubbish my team was.

When something like that happens after lockout, there is nothing you can do but hope that your emergency does the right thing.  No amount of scrambling could save you from those sort of late outs.

Sideways isn’t a good direction!

If you are like me your upgrade plans have been thrown into disarray lately and you are spending too much time plugging gaps rather than improving your team.  In the past with only 24 trades you would have ridden out things like Heppell out for a week and we would have all held Gibbs for what we thought was a 1-2 week injury that really turned into a 2012 Pendlebury type injury.  But with our extra 20 trades this year some people are dumping these guys and sideways trading to go for the scores whilst neglecting their overall team structure.

I am sure the situation I have described above isn’t one that is foreign to you.  What I am getting at is that this week with Shaw annoying the #&%$ yet again this year by some how managing to injure himself whilst he has been out suspended!  Now you could side swap him out for another back premo.  Problem is that by doing this you are not really improving your team in an overall basis.  What you are doing is using a trade on the one position.  If you have good bench cover, then I would suggest that you are better off putting a guy like Vlastuin or Terlich on the field.  This would mean that you can use your trades to upgrade another player on the field.  This way when Shaw comes back next week (hopefully) then you will have a better team!

Of course if you are going to cop a donut then by all means sideswap, but just consider all options before you jump.

Cash Cow Conundrums!

As our mate Jeppa wrote on Wednesday in his sensational Jeppa’s Juniors, we have a couple of guys that we should be holding at the moment and they are scoring well.  There are two issues when we have this happen, and don’t get me wrong, it is the sort of issues us DT coaches love to have!

Firstly, which of these guys should I play on the field.  If I had a dollar for every time I get asked this question I reckon I could fund “The Fan Show” myself.  This week we will be faced with which of Vlastuin, Terlich, Goodes and Staker to play on the field.  Now you won’t have all of these guys, but I would be surprised if you didn’t have at least two and maybe three of them.  Jeppa mentioned his thoughts on the first three and that would be to leave Terlich on the bench.  I tend to agree.

What I would say is no matter which way you go you won’t always get it right, so just look at the stats and check out their opposition and the sort of scores that they give up then make your call from there.

The second issue is, when does one of these guys go from being a Cash Cow to being someone you are going to keep for the season?  Every year we think there is a guy that we are going to keep for good and then he goes and fades out.  Four weeks ago I bet you all thought that Ollie Wines was going to be a keeper for the year and you are probably thinking the same about Jaeger O’Meara now.  Well I won’t tell you who the one is to keep, Jeppa can do that, but what I am saying is that these guys will wear out in their first year no matter how fit and good they are.  You should be planning now as to when you are going to get rid of these guys.  I think that you should be looking to unload Jaeger and Goodes around the bye times.  Because you have all started on your bye strategies, haven’t you?!  I am also sure that you all read Warnie’s article on Tuesday about Navigating the Bye’s didn’t you?

 Long Term Infections in your team!!!

We all know that doctors at footy clubs must have gotten their medical degrees in boxes from the cereal aisle in the local supermarket because none of them are able to predict with any vague accuracy how long players will be out.  One such player is Chappy.  He has now missed four weeks and I can’t see him coming back against the Giants next week either! As mentioned above, Gibbsy is another in this boat.  Simply put, there isn’t much we can do if they continue to bend the truth!  Look at Daisy last week: we were told two weeks, then season, then two weeks and now it is 12 weeks or so.  In those situations there isn’t much you can do!  But when they say one-week hammy, don’t believe them!  I am looking at you Heath Shaw!

My advice here?  Well I think you should consider the age of the player, their injury history and what their upcoming run is like (if it is a soft one then they are likely to give their star a couple of extra weeks to recover).

Ask Dunny!

Last week I invited you to send me a tweet and I would have a go at helping you out with your scrambling issues here.  Well this week it is back and I have a few questions that I have answered.  Apologies if I didn’t get to put yours in, but ask again in the comments below and either myself or one of our other readers may be able to assist you.

I was a Matthew Wright owner in Round 1. I was shattered at his performances.  I did trade him out fairly early in the piece though.  It seems as though Sando likes him in different colours so I think he could continue to be a sub risk.  I think if you can trade him out you should be doing so.  He does have a BE of 68 I don’t know that he is going to go up much if at all.

Good question and great to see people looking at their trades in context of the byes.  All of those guys would be great additions.  If I was going to put them in an order I think I would go Scooter Selwood first as I think he has the biggest ceiling.  When he goes big I think he will be best.  From there I would go Kieren Jack second as he is super consistent and has only had one low scoring game.  Swallow next and then Jelwood.   Only reason I have Jelwood last is his propensity to get injured and suspended.

The key here is what you think Mayes will do this week.  His BE is 93 so if you think he can get close to this then I would be trading out Sinclair.  You are going to need to get rid of Sinclair in the next two weeks as you will need to have a warm body for the bye rounds.  So either get rid of him this week or next.  If you think that Mayes gets close to his BE then Sinclair this week.  Personally I think that Mayes will get around the 60 mark, so in that instance I think I would be getting rid of him this week and Sinclair next.

Without regards to your other trades and team position I would be looking at trading out Hartlett and Mayes this week.  The reasons for this are quite simple.  Those two are likely to lose money this week so for that reason I would be cutting my losses.  You can do the other two guys next week for the same price.

Three very good midfielders there.  With eight mids to fill out this year we need to find the top eight averaging Mids.  Whilst Lids has had a good season so far, I think that Sam Mitchell would be my pick here.  He is very consistent and just racks up the points.  A very close second is Nat Fyfe.  Despite his shoulder issues in the past he is also very consistent. Mitchell just seems to have the higher ceiling.  Deledio has certainly gotten better over the last few weeks, but he has had a few down weeks which concern me.

Things to Remember!

• Chasing scores rarely works – Anyone that brought in Majak Daw following his big round were sadly disappointed this week.  Rookie big scores are notoriously unreliable!
• Just when you thought Heater was behaving…- Yes we thought Heater was going ok this year, just the one week off but now we have him out for another week.  Just about the Never Again list!
• All trades should be taking byes into consideration  – They are only two weeks away now.
• Guys hanging out at Airports are good for DT Info – Great work by @footyrhino who gave us the early news on Dean Cox that he was on the plane and that there weren’t any talls that went to replace him.

Every time I think that my team is looking good something goes wrong, so if you don’t have any of my guys you are looking good!  My team scored 1974 last week which was a shocker.  There was a donut included in there thanks to Stevie J pulling out.  Hopefully things are looking up for me this week though!

Good luck this week.  Keep your eye on the Twitter and ears open too to see if there are any late changes.  Twitter is the best place to get your info, follow all the DTTalk boys as well as myself @pkd73 and we will try and get you all the info.