tbetta’s Bullets: Round 3

• Slim Pickings

What a lean week in Dream Team! While we’ve all become accustomed to surpassing the 2k milestone, Round 3 had other ideas. 2100 was the new 2300, and the weekly top-scorer only got 2288, which is achievable most weeks. Captain Swan scoring 50-odd less than last week didn’t help, but it was a poor week right across the board. Many teams didn’t clock a ton in their entire backline this week, with Adcock and Shaw amongst the few who did.

The good news? If you had a bad week, so did everyone else.

• Naughty Corner

There are a few players I want to banish to Santa’s naughty list this week. Firstly and most obviously is Campbell Brown. While I’m a huge advocate of hard and tough footy, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. Smashing blokes behind play, no matter how bad their haircut, is a pretty good example of the wrong way. Just ask Scarlett. The 14,929 coaches who selected Brown will not be happy with the few weeks he’ll be spending playing solitaire instead of footy. And DT aside, it must be disappointing for Bluey and the GC recruiting staff who are relying on him at the struggling Suns.

The most deserving player in the naughty corner for Round 3 is Jack Riewoldt. Over the last two weeks he has registered scores of 0 and 48, which is disappointing, but not nearly as much as his attitude. When he was subbed off with a concussion last week he spat the dummy, pointing fingers and screaming at the coaching staff until he stormed off down the race. This week, he was easily antagonised by Hawthorn opponents, displayed body language that matched it with Fevola and Richardson at their worst, and publically shot down his teammates. Basically this guy is a becoming a massive wanker, and needs a head deflation before he destroys his public image permanently. In fantasy though, his low scores are good for those who don’t own him, as he will be cheap as chips in time for a forward line upgrade.

Brendon Goddard also gets a mention for mine. While his junk-time inflated score of 92 wasn’t terrible, especially given other defenders’ scores, it was the way he went about his footy that’s a concern. He constantly went for the man instead of the ball and payed for free-kicks. With Hayes out, he should be stepping it up and taking it to another level, not digressing back to his prehistoric man days.

• The Price is Right

The first price changes are in, and aren’t they juicy?! Curnow up 77k, Libba 66k and Tapscott 49k as the biggest movers of the week. Other rookies such as Heppell, Darling, Duigan, Savage, Lower and Bewick all shot up a price-fattening 40k or more. Of the old hats, Cox inflated $41,000, Adcock $30,600 and Gibbs $25,000 in what are great starts to the year for all three players, each averaging career-highs.

But where there are winners there must be losers. Goddard deflated $32,900, Didak $26,600, Connors $52,700 and Broughton $28,900 in disappointing starts to the year, while under-priced uniques such as Foley (-$8,900), Palmer (-13,300) and Everitt (-5,100) failed to increase on their starting quotas. It’s not all bad news though, as you should be able to pick up the underperforming premiums you don’t already have, such as Broughton, Montagna, J.Riewoldt, Franklin, Simpson, Didak, Deledio and Gilbert, once their prices bottom out.

• Red Pill or Blue Pill?

With the pending price-changes pre-Round 3, many coaches had some tough decisions to make. Which cash cow to acquire, whether to trade out a dud or not, who to upgrade to… Let’s see if some of the popular choices paid off.

Broughton > Enright

Many were sour about Broughton’s lean start to the year, and some were enraged enough to trade to Enright before his price rose after a huge start to the year.

Decision: Fail. While Enright outscored Broughton, you just wasted a trade for 6 points and a $1,200 price-rise.

Curnow v Liberatore

These two were always going to be the best early-season cash-cows, and some could only acquire one.

Decision: Curnow, by a long shot. With 100 in Round 3, his JS just went through the roof, his price increase was the greatest and he has no bye until Round 8.

Everitt Out/Benched

His first two rounds were underwhelming to say the least, and was facing a massive price cut.

Decision: Depends. If you traded him out, it’s line-ball. He topped the ton this week, but that was an anomaly – in the long run, it was a good call. If you benched him – Fail.

Dawes in

He dominated in Rounds 1 & 2, averaging 115.5. But that was against Port and the Roos in routs, so picking him up based on that was always going to be risky.

Decision: Pass. After a slow start he managed to squeeze out 99 against a quality outfit in Carlton. His $40,300 price-rise doesn’t hurt either.

Jolly > Cox

With Jolly flat for the first two, and Cox killing it, it was a pretty easy decision for most coaches.

Decision: Pass. Great success – Not only did Cox outscore Jolly 127 to 75, his price exploded while Jolly’s plummeted 22k.

Montagna > Mitchell

Who am I kidding? This was not a popular trade, and for good reason! The thought process behind this one was shaky, but basically the idea was to trade out Montagna while he was struggling and before his price drop with a view to trade him back in later, meanwhile acquiring Mitchell who was on a roll.

Decision: Massive Fail. Montagna scored 99 while Mitchell sat out this week for family reasons! Shit idea from the start.

• PhDouchebag

For those who missed it, Dr Dreamteam, PhD AFL, made a massive mistake this round, playing Petrie on the field while having C-Rich as an emergency! Absolute rookie error, I don’t know how that could possibly happen when you are paid to look at your DT all day and hand out sketchy advice. But what just caught my attention is how he still has the nerve the make excuses then claim that a satisfactory reality check is to realise that “even with a player missing, my score was still higher than half of our champions league. I’ll take that.”!

Speaking of the All-Stars League (not champions league, you rookie), it’s time I talked myself up while I still can! I played the undeafeated FantasyFreako this week, winning comfortably 2056 to 1886. This leaves me in 2^nd position on the ladder and 3^rd in overall. I even outscored destROY, who’s ranked in the top 1000, for the 2^nd week in a row. I’m coming for you Roy…

• Makers and Breakers

MAKERS

1. S. Thompson 154

2. J. Bolton 124

3. Watson 134

4. J. Selwood 129

5. Adcock 123

Some big scores this week – just a shame not many had them! Thompson sits at the top of the list with 154 DT points, 40 touches and 9 tackles, and was easily Adelaide’s best player. Bolton comes in at 2 on the back of notching up an AFL-record 19 tackles in the game-long scrum that was the Eagles-Swan match. This is after his back-to-back 3 goal bags in the first two rounds! Watson showed why he is a legitimate gun of the competition with 3 goals and 33 possessions against a very competent opponent in Goddard. Selwood scored 129 in his comeback game in the mauling of the Power, proving that he is one of the toughest players in the league. Adcock rounds out the top 5, mostly because he is rewarding those who picked him and haunting those who didn’t.

BREAKERS

1. Broughton 56

2. Carrazzo 37

3. Deledio 51

4. Enright 62

5. Swan 116

Broughton has copped a beating in this article and will continue to – are these scores what we should come to expect? Carrazzo, where do I start? 37 points. Tagging Shaw, who ended up best on. And 6 FA?! Trade. I’m starting to get a bit queasy riding the Deledio rollercoaster, but 51 is a low point so far. Enright was a popular upgrade this week and only reached 62. He wasn’t helped by Port being so uncompetitive, but it remains that he doesn’t score well in games of low importance. Completing the 5 is Swan, who we have come to expect more from – only 116?

That’s all from me this week. Remember, it’s a multi-bye round, so don’t be an amateur like Dr DT and leave any Lions, Doggies or Saints on your field this week. League matches are suspended until Round 7, so don’t panic and trade big over the next couple of weeks. Also, remember that the Crows, Suns and Roos third games are this week, so if you need to beat the price changes for them, this is the week to do it!

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