The Thursday Scramble: Round 1

Months of Study, Reading articles, Reviewing club training notes, listening to podcasts and taking notes have all come down to this. By the end of the day we will have our first set of scores, we will know if we picked well or poorly and we will be able to start planning our moves for round 2.  Footy’s back and how good is it!  Let’s Scramble!!!

Finalising your squad

The one thing we have all been waiting on is the final squads so we know which rookies are playing this week and which aren’t.  We will have all the teams (well squads for Sunday) tonight so we can start to really finalise those rookie selections. This is where setting up your squad with some of the higher price rookies as placeholders really pays off. You may need to pivot really quickly over the coming days as some of the final teams drop and going from a higher priced rookie to a lower one is easy, but going the other way can often mean you need to some structure changes at the top end. And as we get through the weekend towards the Sunday games this can be much harder as you have less room to move as players become locked out.

As the round progresses, have a back up plan. As you go through the options, particularly for the rookies, will dry up fast. This can be very frustrating, so going with the rookies that we believe have the best job security are the ones to focus on. Look ahead and see who is coming up later in the weekend and who may be made the sub (we will discuss this shortly) and hence maybe not someone that you are keen to have. So as you see games start and players are named on the bench without the dreaded yellow vest then if you need someone on field then perhaps take them and leave the other guy on the bench for this week.

The Dreaded Sub is Back!

Yes we had substitutes last year with the medical sub, but now that it is back to being a tactical sub, we are going to be back to sweating it out hoping that our guy doesn’t get the vest. With our rolling lockout we do get a bit of flexibility, but realistically we can’t guarantee that we will avoid having a rookie on field each week that is likely to get the vest.

In the past we have seen that players aren’t generally given the sub vest two weeks in a row. The player will either be put in the team or they will be sent back to the state league team. With the way things are going to go we are likely to end up with a player copping the vest at some stage and this will be more prevalent in the opening rounds when we are relying on rookies more. Another downside is that as soon as a player gets a green or red vest we are going to see their price growth stunted for a few weeks.

Does this mean we should have taken a different view of our teams? This could result in Mid Price Madness being the way to go. There are plenty of mid pricers that are more than capable of making us some money and they have great job security and they are less likely to be given a vest. However, this means that you are also less able to bring in the elite top end talent as you have to shuffle your funds around. So it is really a big balancing act that we need to have between the Mid Price Madness and Guns n Rookies

As Warnie has said in the podcast, the Sub will come from one of the four Emergencies named in teams each week. So if a player is in the 22 we have a very high chance that they won’t be the sub (I say high chance as we know coaches can pull all sorts of things at the last minute).

So we just need to find our way through this minefield and the best answer to it is to get these rookies off our field as soon as we can.  There is no silver bullet to this unfortunately and we just have to hope for a bit of luck and also make some smart decisions.

Draft Thoughts

So you have had your draft, your team is all set and you believe you have drafted the best squad you possibly could and you know they are a winning combination. Well here are a few of my learnings over the years and a few thoughts.

• Don’t be afraid to make changes.  I have been super guilty of this in the past. For me it is always the fear of “what if I trade away/drop someone and they then turn out to be a star”. Because of this I often don’t make any changes and as a result my team suffers because of it. If you have a need to fill or a player that you think could be better than one of yours, go for it, make the change.
• Don’t leave it too late to hit the waiver wire. Another thing I have been guilty of. We all lead busy lifestyles these days, but you should be looking at who is performing and isn’t in your team as yet. You can put in your waiver requests over the weekend. Don’t wait until after everyone hits the FA list before making any moves, by then it will be too late.
• Don’t just jump on the guy that had the big score last week. Would you do that in classic (ok, let me rephrase that), Should you do that in classic? No probably not so why do it in Draft.
• Use “Cal’s Scale of Hardness”. Draft is where this wonderful document with all its’ magical colourings becomes super important. You can stream players that have good match ups each week from the FA or Waiver wire each week (with the quality of these guys dependant on how big your league is) and this can be the key to getting you over the line in a match up.

Sound the Alarm Calvin!!!

It has started already, with Elliot Yeo now being confirmed out for round 1 with a calf.  He was locked into nearly every team in the world and has now forced many people into a restructure.  Some may have the thought to hold him thinking it might be just the one week, but remember he has a history of injury and a calf muscle injury isn’t one that just goes away, he will be dealing with this for weeks. I’m not going to tell you who to take in his place as there are a plethora of options but just make sure you don’t start picking guys you haven’t been thinking about all year.

Things To Remember

• Stay Flexible. With this being the first week of the season, stay alert across the rolling lockout whilst we still have unlimited trades. This is the time to pivot and be ready to make those changes.
• You don’t have to have 30 Green Dots. But 29 would be ideal. The only spot we would be looking at having a red dot would be our Ruck bench. And even then make sure that role is as cheap as they can be and that they are dual position.
• Don’t select players in the hope that they are going to get DPP status at round 6. That is a risky strategy to play.

Have a great season folks and by all means hit me up on Twitter (@pkd73) with what you would like in this article during the year and I will try and accomodate it.

Finally, make sure your leagues are full prior to the Saturday games as after that they are likely to be autofilled at that point.  Jump in these leagues with me if you would like to play against other Scramblers.

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Until Next week, have a great weekend, Enjoy Round 1 and let’s hope all your risky picks pay off!