The Friday Scramble: Round 1B

This is what we have all been waiting for… a weekend with more than one game and we can finally see all of our hard work pay off!  If there ever was going to be a Friday Scramble, today is it!  We have the teams, and we only have a few hours left to finalise our starting squads for the year.  Panic stations have been alerted, workplaces have been shut down as we all know there is no chance of any work happening today as we all try and tweak our sides into the perfect unit that will bring home the car…. but don’t worry, I have already made the necessary modifications to the driveway to fit my new FJ Cruiser in.

Are you a Cookie Monster?

The term that gets thrown around quite a bit is Cookie Cutter Team.  This is the team that is picked based on all of the favourites.  You will quite often see these teams listed in newspapers as “the team to have”.  The problem with this sort of team is… it is very hard to win if you all have the same players.  The key is to have yourself some uniques.  Our mate Dr Dreamteam and I were on the same wavelength this week, he just got his article out first, we have both been looking at the guys that you may wish to consider who aren’t in very many teams at the moment but to be quite honest they should be!  For those with Assistant Coach (and lets be honest everyone who is serious about DT will have it) check out the Coaches Choice selections to see what nuggets of gold you can find.  Here are a few that I found interesting:

• Brent Stanton is a point scoring machine from the Bombers.  He finds himself in only 1.2% of teams currently.  Priced at $528,300 and having scored an average of 106.8 last year, he could be a great point of difference for you.
• Liam Shiels is another in only 1.2% of all teams.  The Hawk had a ripper of a year last year and averaged 102.8 and is priced at $508,400.  If he can replicate that form, he could take it up a notch, particularly with the amount of success that the Hawks are predicted to have this year.
• Crows captain Nathan Van Berlo is not only a unique with only 1.4% ownership, but I think he provides incredible value at $462,700.  Have a look at my Deck of DT article on him.  Once he was released from the Craigy Chains, he absolutely dominated!!  I know a few guys around my office have him… but being in Adelaide, that wouldn’t surprise you!
• Leigh Montagna was a favourite in a stack of teams a couple of years ago.  This year he can only convince 1.9% of teams to take him on.  Last year he averaged 98.1 in a Saints side that struggled early, will the new coach revive them and his score?  Teammate Nick Dal Santo is another suffering the Saints DT Curse from owners this year, he is only in 3.3% of teams despite his 103.6 average last year!
• Another Crow, Rory Sloane has had a stack written about him and people have tried to hide him and it seems to be working with only 2.7% ownership at $429,500.  I think a lot of people are worried about that Crows engine room and where all the points are going to be shared.
• Roy’s beloved REDROCK combo seems to be off the menu. Jack Redden is only in 2.9% of teams, whilst DTTalk’s own Tom Rockliff finds himself in only 4.4% of teams.  The most popular guy at Brisbane is Dayne Zorko who is out injured at the moment (but rumoured to be back soon).
• Michael Barlow was touted to be a lock in nearly every DT team as we all knew he would come at a discount, yet he only finds himself in 4.4% of teams currently.

However, the fun with that Assistant Coach feature is to see who is in teams!  Like Darren Glass finds himself in 5.3% of teams and is even 0.05% of teams Captain!  I didn’t see him in Calvin’s Captains on Wednesday!  But the one to leave you on is this little fact.  Chris Judd is in 10.8% of teams… the next most selected player with 10.1% of the vote is Karmichael Hunt with Israel Folau just AHEAD of these two guys in 12.1% of sides.

 What Emergency?

One of the hot topics this week on Twitter and in the forums was “how do I get Kennedy/Bugg’s score on the ground?  I only had them as an emergency“.  I have heard of many strategies to do this which included picking guys that weren’t named this week.  This strategy comes with a massive risk.  If they haven’t been named this week, make sure you are all over the reasons why and you are 200% confident they will be named in the next week or so.  You don’t want to take guys into your team for the year who aren’t going to play.  With only 2 on the bench you may get stuck with them all year.  Just ask Roy about his mate Relton Roberts.

I say, stick with your strategy and make sure that you are still going with the blokes you had planned to pick.  So you have left 50pts mabe on the bench that you could have had on your field.  By picking a guy that you know won’t play means that you could be forfeiting a lot more points than that in the coming weeks.

The only way that you would consider it would be in the following two situations.

• If you have Kennedy on your bench up forward or in the mids, then you could select fellow DPP Dayne Beams who we know is suspended this week.  Put him on the ground and you get your score.  Then next week you can leave Beams on the ground.
• If you have the Bugg score in your backs, you could take Bock in your team as we know he is suspended for a few weeks thanks to that opening goal (that I can’t believe I didn’t bet on after seeing him wander up forward whilst watching on tv).

Both of these strategies will work and have lower risk than having a rookie that isn’t named this week in your side.

 Old McDonald back to the farm.

Many people picked up the $98k old James McDonald.  He was a tasty option that sees him in 21.3% of teams!  Whilst all of these coaches would have been delighted with his 98 points, they wouldn’t be happy with the 2 weeks that he has copped at the tribunal.

If you have McDonald, you don’t have much choice really but to keep him.  It is not worth a sideways trade (after rd1 completes of course) to get rid of him.  That would be a wasted trade.  However, what this does do is opens the door for those coaches that don’t have him (like me).  He won’t play his third game now until at least round 5.  This means that if you have selected a dud rookie in the mids or you have had a rook cop a long term injury (think Coad from last year) in the first couple of weeks, then you can swap them out and pick up McDonald.

The Vest!

So the vest is the most hated thing on the DT Planet!  Last week we all pretty much knew that Dylan Shiel was going to cop the red vest after Dom Tyson picked up the green one (which was predicted by Roy I think).  Then last night Calvin correctly picked Conca and Lucas with the vests.  But what about this week.  Personally I can’t see Magner escaping a vest.  The guy has been out of the game for a few weeks with that dislocated finger and as a result hasn’t had any game time.   Other guys that I think are likely to be vested are….

Aaron Young for Port, Savage for Hawthorn, Yagmoor for Collingwood, Callinan for Adelaide, Recently upgraded Pearce for Freo and Guthrie for Geelong.

However, you never can tell, but they are just a few of my thoughts.

How many times can you be locked out??

So we have just had our second lockout for round 1 and tonight we have our 3rd and final lockout.  This means that as of the start of the Hawks v Pies game tonight, you must have your team set!  So there are a few things that I strongly suggest you do before this time.

Firstly, go back to Wednesday and check out the two articles there.  Chook’s Rooks is a must.  This is where you will find the names of the only rooks you want in your team.  Secondly reaquaint yourself with the mad irish pirate in Calvin’s Captains.  These two articles will help make sure that you have got the lineups as close to right as you can get them.  But to make sure you are on the right track, make sure you shout the boys a beer and buy the DT Talk Premium Cheat Sheet as that will give you an insight into the teams that the guys have put together.

Lastly, what you need to make sure you are doing is checking the team sheets to make sure that all of your guys are playing and if they aren’t, make sure you are sure you know why.  This could apply to guys like Dayne Zorko who are scheduled to come back in the next week or so.   Personally though, I find this a bit risky unless they are the biggest lock of the year but they were late to training or put a bet on (i.e. they are suspended not injured).

Find me on twitter @pkd73