The Friday Scramble: Round 3

Wait… what…. What the hell happened with team selection this week?? How many things can change for us in just the one week!  There is an absolute plethora of issues this week and I am not sure that I have all the trades I need to deal with it!! On top of that we have our first price changes in Supercoach and RealDreamTeam after this weekend.  There are simply so many things to worry about and then there is Ablett and Pendles concerns… what the hell… LETS SCRAMBLE!

GAZZA GONE!

Well we all suspected that this might happen.  Gary’s shoulder isn’t up to scratch and as a result he is out this week, but if it was just the one week we would probably try and stick it out.  The problem we have is that we simply don’t know how long he will be out for.  There is one simple answer for Fantasy Coaches.  Trade him out.  The one saving grace for us who play Supercoach and RealDreamteam is that he hasn’t lost any value yet as the prices haven’t started to change. So by trading him out now you have still got his opening value remaining.  In AFL Fantasy we have lost $72,000 on him, but there is nothing we can do about that, we just have to wear it and move on.

Who do you trade him to?  Well the most popular choices, and most obvious ones seem to be Fyfe, Barlow, Heppell, The Bont or Pendles (but I will get to him in another section).  The interesting one there is the Bont.  If you trade down to him you will make yourself a tidy sum of cash that you can keep for a warchest or you can use it to upgrade a dud midfielder like Daniel Wells if you were unlucky enough to start with him (I may or may not have made that tactical error).

Pendles Probable?

If this were the NFL then Pendles would be listed as Probable to face the Saints tonight. Given everything I have heard this week about his condition I am not that confident he will play, I suspect he will be a late out.  However, given the importance of the game to a Collingwood that were flogged last week against a Saints team who seem to be on the rise, they may just risk him. I know this looks like I am sitting on the fence here, but what I am really trying to say is that you really need to keep a keen eye on Twitter this avo and in particular the final teams 90 mins before the game.

Hey, I ordered a Berger with these Fries!!

Well I guess the jury is finally in.  Stefan Martin really is the number one at the Lions these days with Berger now dropped from the team!  On top of that he isn’t even listed as an emergency! This would have thrown the trade plans for many a fantasy coach well and truly out the window!  So what do you do? Well hopefully you have made some cash on that Ablett trade above (heaps if you went to Bont), so you can use that to upgrade Leuenberger to someone that is playing but also perhaps a bit better, like a Goldstein if you have heaps of cash, Naitanui if you have a little less and Grundy if you are really scratching for some cash!

Corrective Trades

So this is the week that traditionally in Supercoach and RDT that we make our corrective rookie trades. Our Premos are all performing nicely, in fact they are dominating and we just tweak those rookies that we missed out on.  However, this year isn’t like that, so suck it up and just fix what you need to fix!  As Jeppa told us on Wednesday we should get our rookies right before we go chasing points with sideways trades.

Before you go and yell at me that Gaz has to be traded because he isn’t playing just consider this little scenario first…..

You have Gary and he isn’t playing and he has to go. But you also have Touk Miller sitting there not doing a great deal on your bench and you are missing some guy called Kamdyn McIntosh in your backlines. What do you do? Your head tells you to pick one change and then do the Gary fix. But consider this. Gary Ablett will NOT change in price this week. However McIntosh and whoever you bring in for Miller (maybe Saad or CEY) will be going up in price and they will not be worth as much to you.  Now yes I know that this could cost you a heap of points with Gazza’s dollars sitting on the bench. But you will be maximising the amount of money you will make out of this terrible situation. Let’s say Gaz’s replacement scores a 120 this weekend and you bring in Saad who scores an 80 like last week.  Yes you have lost 40 points.  But if you trade Gary and Saad makes his projected increase you would have missed out on about $40k in AF and $72,800 in RDT.

Now I am not saying that this is the best way to spend your trades but it is more than enough to think about if you are comfortable in dropping a couple of points in round three for the long term goal of a better team at round 23.  As Jeppa said on Wednesday, this game is a Marathon, not a Sprint.

Get Off The Bench

This was a hugely popular column on a Friday back when we had a bye in place in the AFL. But this year it seems more and more relevant with the inconsistency of our rookies that we are placing on the field each week.  I have had a few questions for today about who to play.  To be honest you are probably just as likely to pick the winning lotto numbers in Ecuador as you are in getting exactly the right rookies on the field each week at the start of a season. My two cents would be to start the guys that seem to look like they know what they are doing and to start the mature agers as they are less likely to be belted around.  So I would say start McIntosh, Saad and Clark as a given.  Then I would probably go with Hogan and Heeney.  I will probably end up starting Oxley this week.  His round one effort included a bout of cramp and he scored well in a team that was soundly beaten.  For those considering Brett Goodes I don’t think he will be the sub this week and with the injury to Easton Wood, he may just have improved his job security (watch him be cut from the 22 just to prove me wrong).  This week you will also note that Port have added Brendan Ah Chee and Nathan Krakouer to their side.  I expect that Ah Chee will wear the green and Krakouer will start as the natural replacement for Impey who is out for a few weeks.  Having seen Ah Chee in the trial games I was impressed with him and I think he will be a player, but don’t pick him just yet.

Things To Remember

• Guys not playing don’t change in price – So if you have a guy out and other pressing issues, don’t stress as he won’t lose you any dollars.
• Old Campaigners need a break – So those with Kane Cornes in draft leagues may want to move him to their bench this week.
• One poor score doesn’t mean disaster – Hands up who traded out Dusty Martin last week?  Told you he would come back!  So did Newnes too which was a relief.
• 22 Playing Players make a happy team – Just check that you have 22 players playing (sounds like a christmas song) now that we are three weeks into the season and teams are changing.

Wow, what a week, hard to believe it is only round 3 with all these issues to deal with.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to continue to check twitter and any other form of social media you like for the rest of today given all of the things that can happen prior to lockout tonight.  Best of luck to your teams this week and I will be back next Friday to a hopefully more stable Fantasy environment!  Catch you all on twitter @pkd73