Team Reveal – The Salamander

Last year, in a bid to avoid becoming overly attached to a particular player, structure, or strategy, I delayed putting together my first team until after the JLT series had finished, by which time I had a good idea of what was actually viable.

I decided that I rather liked that approach.

So, this year, I have done so again, except I have taken it even further: I literally didn’t have a team – not a single player – selected at all until three or four days ago. With all the intelligence we had collectively gathered across the pre-season and Marsh series, it didn’t take long for me to come up with something I was happy with. It then underwent a bit of tweaking over the next day or two, before settling on the lineup I am presenting to you below. Barring unforeseen problems when the round one teams are announced, I don’t expect it to change.

Like many of you, I have adopted a keepers and bargains strategy (because cowpocalypse), though I suspect my implementation of it may be going a little bit further than most people’s.

DEFENDERS

Houston is playing midfield. Smith also looks to be playing midfield. And Docherty is just Docherty. I don’t think the top three need any more justification than that.

Roberton should be a good a good money-maker, and, if something goes horribly wrong with him early, he can be a straight swap for Tom Doedee in a couple of weeks’ time. Speaking of Doedee, if he somehow ends up getting named for round 1, I will probably end up rejigging things slightly to get him in. But I’m working on the assumption that he won’t be.

Beyond that, the rookies here are all pretty standard.

MIDFIELDERS

No stuffing around here. The top five should all speak for themselves, and the rookies are all pretty standard.

RUCKS

This is where things start to get a little bit interesting.

Naismith is just too good a cow-like object to ignore, which made the decision not to start Gawn an easy one. There are serious question marks around his durability (though, as you’ll see when we get to my forward line, I have a plan for that), but if he can average mid-80s he should be able to make around $150K in 8 weeks or so.

If it weren’t for Grundy’s value as a captain, and as a shield against everyone else who has him as captain, I would be very tempted to double-down on the value ruck strategy and start Sam Jacobs as well. Truth be told, part of me is still tempted to, though I’m not 100 percent sure where I’d spend the extra money.

It’s hard to know for sure until the release the new fixture, but Comben was previously looking like the best loophole option, so I’m sticking with him for the time being. Besides, ‘Captain Comben’ has a rather nice ring to it.

FORWARDS

As a general rule, I don’t like having forward rookies on the field. So, I’m not having any.

As to the people I am having on-field:

• Petracca is playing midfield this year.

• With McEvoy having been banished to the backline, Ceglar is the Hawks’ number one ruck this year, a role in which he should easily average 90+. He also provides swinging ruck cover. I like having ruck cover!

• Lynch showed in the back half of last year what he can do when fully fit and playing for a good team, so I think he can average 90+ pretty easily. And even if he doesn’t, all he needs is a couple of big games in quick succession to send his price skyrocketing.

• Brayshaw looks set to spend a lot more time in the midfield this year, which should see the 20-year-old’s average jump a fair bit.

• Steven and Smith are classic fallen premiums.

As to the rookies, Taylor shouldn’t be controversial, but some may have question marks over Rankine, given his lack of Marsh games. Personally, though, as long as he gets named for round one, I have far more faith in him than I do in any of the alternatives. First of all, he has good job security; second, he’s freakishly talented; and third, although he’s likely to start his career as a forward (he’ll eventually be a midfielder), he’s shown himself to be very dangerous in that role, so his scoring shouldn’t be too bad, and if he manages to get up the ground at all, you can pretty much guarantee he’ll rack up the touches.

REMAINING SALARY: $32,600

In all, I count 15 likely keepers in my lineup, which leaves just 7 upgrades for me to be at full-premium (or at least full-keeper). I’d also like to eventually get a 7th forward keeper, so that I can have a nice DPP swinging-cover setup, so let’s say 8 upgrades. Even in the midst of a cowpocalypse, and a 17 week season, I think that’s very doable.

Fancy taking this team on? Join BeatTheSalamander4!

~~League code: 395574.~~

Update: BeatTheSalamander4 is now full. Thank you and good luck to all who joined.