The Thursday Scramble: Round 2

Round one is in the books and we have seen some scores that we aren’t used to seeing until much later in the season. For a change we had a lot of Premo’s and also quite a few rookies scoring really well. Don’t get used to it! We know that this game will come back and bite you in the rear just as soon as you think that you have it sorted.

Today we will talk captains, rookies and trades. I have seen plenty of discussion about these things online and based on that I thought I would deal with a lot of these things.

Plenty of issues this week to deal with and plenty of advice for you too. So as they say… Keep Calm and Scramble!!

Captain’s Loophole

So last week we had a few scores on the Thursday night that were worth taking, but really Dusty was the main one that people would have put the VC on. This week we have a few more options. Some of the guys that we should consider using are Dusty, Gibbs, M Crouch, Sloane or Laird.

If you aren’t sure how to use the Loophole have a look at Calvin’s post or check back to last week’s scramble where we talk about how to do it. I think the key is the line. If you do take one of those guys you probably want them to be scoring over 130 if you have Tom Mitchell to use as Captain or 120 if you have to use someone else.

Anyway, as always, if you don’t know how to use it or you don’t have any non-playing players on the bench, don’t do it.

Rookies

One of the hardest things to do, particularly during round 1, is picking which rookies to play on the field. If you didn’t get it right last week, don’t stress, you weren’t the only one. Also, just because they had a great game last week it doesn’t mean that they will go that big again. They are a week to week proposition. The main thing you want to see is them outscoring their break evens, if they are doing that then they are doing what you got them in for. If you get the right one on the field then I see that as a bonus.

As for which rookies you need to have, make sure you go back to Wednesday morning’s article by the Milkmen where they have analysed the rookies that played and those to keep an eye on.

If you missed one or two of them the strategy is different based on the format of the game you are playing. If you are playing RDT or SC I would say don’t trade for rookie errors. Their prices won’t change until after their third game so you have one more week to gather data on them before you have to do anything.

However, if you are an AFL Fantasy player, we know that the prices have changed already. In this case, if you don’t have any other issues to deal with you should be making sure that you have the rookies that are playing and are generally doing well. As I said earlier, some of the rookies can be inconsistent so don’t get upset if it doesn’t work.

Trading

Should you be trading this week and if so who?

Supercoach and RealDreamTeam
If you don’t have any LTI’s to deal with like Ryder or Libba then no, don’t trade. Trades in these formats are too valuable. The time to fix up rookies will be next week before prices start changing.

AFL Fantasy
Hell yeah, you have two a week, use them or lose them so go for it.

Trade Thoughts

Before you go tinkering with any rookie selections you should be dealing with any LTI’s first. So if you do have Paddy Ryder he is a must trade in all formats, he will be out for at least 4 weeks but I suspect it will be longer. So now that we know Nic Nat is up and running I would be tempted to go straight to him and bank some cash. Similarly Libba is also a must trade in all formats of the game. Given he is a midfielder, you have a heap of options, far too many for me to consider here. But you may want to go down to a performing rookie you missed to make some cash or a mid-pricer that fired for us.

For someone like Zac Merrett or Matthew Kreuzer who we don’t know yet if they are playing or not I would be holding if it is only going to be one week for SC and RDT. However, in AF you can afford to trade them out if they aren’t on the team sheets tonight.

If you are thinking about trading out someone like Nat Fyfe or Michael Hibberd, I wouldn’t be tempted to trade them just yet. It is one bad game. Everyone has one bad game during the season, this could be their only one this year. You would kick yourself if you trade them out and then they go big next week. As always, it is up to you, but I try not to trade premiums out just yet.

Rocky, as fantasy royalty, deserves his own paragraph. I will put it out there, I am not an owner, but if I did own him I would hold him for now as we know he didn’t have a pre-season and it was his first game in a new team. Cut him some slack. He is more than capable to come back and score big next week. Having said all of that, if you have no other issues in your AF team then you can be forgiven for trading him.

Team Selection

As we stand right now we won’t know the teams and squads for the rest of the round until later tonight, just before the game gets underway. That is fine and all normal. However, the issue we have is that final squads for Sunday’s games won’t be announced until about 5pm on Friday night. Also, we won’t know final squads for Monday’s game (hence Danger’s status) until late on Saturday night. Now. Why is this all important? Well in AF and RDT full lockout will occur at the start of the Good Friday game which begins at 4:20pm EDT. Hence we won’t know the final status of the rookies and injured players (like Danger) before Lockout occurs.

Things To Remember

• It is just round 1. Don’t panic. There are plenty more rounds to come.
• Rookies will frustrate you, don’t stress about getting the wrong one on the ground, as long as they are in your team you are winning.
• Remember the Lockout Deadlines!

That’ll do us this week, the main thing is, don’t panic trade after just the one game. Anything can happen. Not only can the guy you are trading out go well, the one that you trade in might have had one out of the box!

In the meantime have a great Easter Weekend, let’s hope our rookies have another fantastic scoring weekend and these big scores become a regular thing for us this year. Next week I will return to my regular Friday morning spot as there is no Thursday night game next week. Cheers til next week @pkd73