Cow Talk R14 –> R15

Small or Far Away, Father Dougal on Cows

 

Hi Everybody!

This week I was facing a similar problem to last week; lack of thoughts for Cow Talk.  My Imaginary Interlocutor remains unhelpful, and the Hamster tried to convince me that this was a sign to discuss Pumpkin seeds. But, again, real life prompted a thought. 

Of pumpkin seeds, please let it be of pumpkin seeds.

No, way less fun, but at least gave me an idea.. 

So, summary of real life event: Doing acroyoga in a public greenspace. A man of questionable mental health smelling of booze shows up, and is verbally bothersome to one of the ladies. Things remain non-violent and pretty polite, but we end up calling it quits early. (Not a lot early at least.)  Four men, three of whom are, shall we say, very fit, and me, so anything started would have not gone well for him, but still, rather annoying. 

What the bleep is acroyoga?

If you care, look it up. 

I can’t you won’t let me use the computer after “The Incident” 

Yeah, ok, it is, like… artistically balancing people on other people. Usually it is smaller people being balanced, and often the smaller people are female, and they wear tights and are fit. 

Oh….got it. 

So, how does that relate to Supercoach, or at least Cow Talk?

It got me thinking about dealing with things going wrong. A very super coach problem. Which got me thinking about preparing for things to go wrong. 

…is this about planning again?

Well, we are all trying to finish up our teams, so not really? Sort of maybe? It is different, really!

Sigh, Go on…

 So,we know that there will be injuries over the rest of the season. They seem to happen more often as the year goes on, Makes sense as wear and tear builds up over time. Anyways, We will have both long and short term injuries. We will have some players dropped. We will have some players who drink from the fountain of suck and for whatever reason just stop scoring well. 

 The Fountain of Suck is just a metaphor right?

That’s right. I was looking for a way to put together role changes and other things that can affect scoring – bad luck, getting tired, and any other non-injury reason for someone to drop off from the first half of the season.  That way I could avoid writing them all out.  Was worth a try.

Oh good. 

There isn’t a water bottle of suck is there? 

No, that also does not exist. 

Because I have this nightmare where I go to drink from my water bottle and somehow it drinks me and I end up trapped inside it. 

…I promise there is no water bottle of suck. Or cursed water bottles, or water bottles of many things, or anything else like that. 

Oh good. 

Anyway, what can we do about covering problems?  Player buying wise. We can’t just have 27 premiums so there is one to cover each line.

First, try to get rookie scoring players off the field. Even if someone has a ceiling of 100, if they have a floor of 80 that is far better than rookies who can easily go for much less anytime. 

Why?

Aside from not wanting rookie scores, if you have someone miss a week and you have a no-rookie best 22, then you may not be hurt much. Even missing a 120 means just a 40 point loss down to 80. A 120 to a vest affected 20, well, far worse. 

Next, try to have at least one playing backup per line. Hard for rucks, but if not there, at least the main three. That way if you are playing 22 premiums and a rookie sub, the rookie can at least cover for a premo who gets hurt early or otherwise has a nightmare score. A few times already we have had very low injury affected scores, and a 50 is far better than a 5.  

If possible, you can have a spare mid-pricer, or at least someone who you can buy at a less than premo price. Most of these guys have some risk, but they are probably better than rookies as backups. You also might be able to loop them as a regular plan. 

DPPs

Right, and as much as possible you want Dual Position Players. If you can use a rookie, even a dead one, to allow a mid-price or rookie backup to cover more than one spot, that helps for times when you know someone will miss ahead of time.  SEH, for example, lets McCarthy cover both Def and Mid.

All those things do not involve trading. 

Right, because we want to be able to cover surprise outs, and short term outs. If a premo gets hurt for one or two weeks you may want to keep him, which means a backup of some kind. 

Any other thoughts?

 Yeah. While we are probably not trading out anyone we bring in, including rookies, having rookies that will make money is still good, in case they get hurt, or in case you need cash from them to fix a long term injury. It may be better to keep playing rookies as a bank and not swap them for non playing chaepos for cash in the real bank.  

What about long term injuries?

We will need some trades. I am hoping to have four left once I bring in a 24th non cow, but I will be ok with just three. That is less than before, but if I can get a 24th non-cow, then It will most likely take 2 simultaneous injuries to force me to take a rookie score. If I have three premiums who need to be replaced, well, I can do that. If I need 4 replaced, well, I go down to 23 premiums and rookie backups. I’d have to lose 5 players to end up with a best 22 premos and 1 cow.  I’d still be decently off if I ended the season that way. It would mean having 5 of 24 players taken out long term in seven weeks. Possible, sadly possible, but not likely. (Knock on wood)

Knocks on a pumpkin seed. 

 

At this point who stays and goes is mostly about how much cash is needed for trade ins and bye cover. Guys are either walking cash, dead or too low priced to care about. Sticking to the numbers this week, mostly I think. Please let me know if I missed someone, new guys especially. 

 

Defenders

Trainor:  Did Not Play

 

Prior:   

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		169,200
1	50	169,200
2	57	169,200
3	78	169,200
4		163,100
5	54	163,100
6	92	235,500
7	43	273,000
8	57	285,500
9	93	296,300
10	69	304,200
11	87	321,100
12	59	346,500
13	61	350,100
14	99	350,200
15	69.2	356,200
16
17	69.2	363,462	7,262	7,262
18	69.2	372,405	8,943	16,205

 

Bice:   Did not play

 

Connor O’Sullivan: 

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		148,700
1	48	148,700
2	88	148,700
3	77	148,700
4	103	203,900
5	42	268,200
6	54	295,400
7	95	306,400
8	48	310,500
9	49	317,300
10	26	319,300
11		289,800
12	95	289,800
13	50	288,500
14	57	288,800
15	64.0	303,200
16
17	64.0	298,793	-4,407	-4,407
18	64.0	301,706	2,913	-1,494

 

Brock:  

Sandy Brock
Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		99,100
1		99,100
2		99,100
3		99,100
4	80	99,100
5	39	99,100
6		99,100
7		99,100
8		99,100
9	60	99,100
10	57	152,300
11	79	181,200
12	51	220,000
13	70	244,600
14	41	269,200
15
16	59.6	270,500
17	59.6	259,931	-10,569	-10,569
18	59.6	268,493	8,562	-2,007

 

Travaglia:  

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		172,000
1		172,000
2		172,000
3	83	172,000
4	52	172,000
5	21	172,000
6		195,400
7		195,400
8	0	195,400
9		195,400
10	22	195,400
11	56	186,100
12	49	180,800
13
14	43	189,200
15	40.8	205,600
16	40.8	210,004	4,404	4,404
17	40.8	190,694	-19,309	-14,906
18	40.8	195,383	4,689	-10,217

 

Midfielders

 

M Reid: 

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		131,500
1	50	131,500
2	75	131,500
3	106	131,500
4	73	199,100
5	58	258,500
6	82	294,900
7	35	312,000
8	50	308,200
9	36	302,000
10	69	276,500
11	104	272,400
12	50	292,900
13
14	50	314,100
15	64.5	322,800
16	64.5	310,366	-12,434	-12,434
17	64.5	285,558	-24,808	-37,242
18	64.5	289,274	3,716	-33,526

 

Lindsay:  Wow, what a drop.  Why we don’t rely on cows in the field. . 

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		158,500
1	86	158,500
2	78	158,500
3	9	158,500
4		193,400
5	48	193,400
6	55	202,000
7	78	198,700
8	56	227,000
9	71	251,700
10	67	276,500
11	80	289,600
12	59	309,700
13	19	319,000
14	10	305,600
15
16	55.1	265,100
17	55.1	232,448	-32,652	-32,652
18	55.1	224,254	-8,195	-40,846

 

Moraes:   Did Not Play

 

Rucks

 

Flynn:   

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		261,900
1	87	261,900
2		261,900
3		261,900
4		261,900
5		261,900
6	141	261,900
7	105	261,900
8	53	341,100
9	80	384,900
10	111	389,500
11	46	395,000
12	79	395,700
13	79	395,600
14	68	382,900
15
16	84.9	383,200
17	84.9	384,576	1,376	1,376
18	84.9	388,188	3,611	4,988

 

Forwards

Levi Ashcroft:  

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		185,500
1	84	185,500
2	72	185,500
3	36	185,500
4	87	221,700
5	90	249,100
6	89	277,400
7	68	322,500
8	99	347,800
9	77	370,800
10	68	381,800
11	95	389,300
12	59	392,800
13	66	387,300
14	45	383,500
15	73.9	359,100
16
17	73.9	346,136	-12,964	-12,964
18	73.9	340,068	-6,068	-19,032

 

Davidson:  

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		113,500
1	39	113,500
2	72	113,500
3	129	113,500
4	54	189,800
5	61	252,100
6	82	293,200
7	51	303,700
8	46	310,400
9	55	309,000
10	58	295,400
11	77	288,000
12
13	29	296,100
14	66	291,300
15	63.0	291,800
16	63.0	271,904	-19,896	-19,896
17	63.0	268,679	-3,225	-23,121
18	63.0	282,585	13,906	-9,215

 

Kako:  

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		149,500
1	62	149,500
2	34	149,500
3	62	149,500
4		163,100
5	38	163,100
6	55	191,700
7	49	210,200
8	60	218,300
9	30	234,200
10	32	234,500
11	44	226,900
12	52	214,000
13	39	214,100
14	50	217,900
15	46.7	228,700
16
17	46.7	228,329	-371	-371
18	46.7	231,441	3,112	2,741

 

Curtain: 

Week	Score	Price	Proj. Change	Total Proj
0		158,600
1	26	158,600
2	82	158,600
3	90	158,600
4	65	204,500
5	42	254,900
6	48	274,600
7	41	271,400
8	73	258,700
9	22	263,200
10	65	254,600
11	83	258,400
12	72	265,400
13	76	292,500
14	74	318,300
15
16	61.4	333,900
17	61.4	339,189	5,289	5,289
18	61.4	336,643	-2,545	2,743

 

Dodgy Advice:  Mills is so well known I feel like mentioning him is redundant. Lots of possible options. 

Think carefully about sideways trades. How likely is it that you are making a long term move because of a short term blip is scoring? 

 

Remember the Cow Talk guarantee: “All predictions wrong or triple your money back!”  (Offer not valid if money is actually involved.)

I am time zonally challenged.  When Cow Talk goes live, I’m probably asleep, so replies from me may take a while.

Thanks for reading!