With the official launch of SC 2024 this week I thought it opportune to pop the JJ’s Circus team up for the good viewers to analyse and critique.
If you are reading this 50 days out, you are obviously a SC buff and will be aware of all the changes to the structure of the comp and the rules around byes and trades, so I will only delve deeper where necessary, but will try to give my thoughts briefly on the selection process at this stage.
Defence:
Have Daicos at this stage, plus four other round zero players in Coleman, Williams , Budarick and Gibcus, accompanied by rookie priced Pink, Coffield and Curtin. As it stands, I am unlikely to retain five early bye round players but I have the chance to get a peek at their output during round zero and change accordingly. Daicos can become anyone, but if he pops off round zero and a price rise looks certain, he stays as he will be extremely difficult to attain with said price rise after round two. Similarly, Coleman stays despite the early bye if he continues his finals form.
I like Budarick’s chances of improved game time, and Williams, if fit,
will be in so many sides that he will be a must have. If either or both show crickets in round zero, they will become another premo and a rookie. Chapman or even Elliott Yeo are some possibility as well. If Coffield is named, he’s a no brainer, and ADL showed no signs of holding Max back last year, so I doubt Curtin will be nursed this year.
Midfield:
Gone with bye free, and heavy mids until round twelve. I figure these are
the potential higher scorers and would like not to miss any of their scores on the run to the byes, plus they provide alternate captain’s armband each week. The Bont’s potentially undefined role worries me a little but will be
an easy swap if I get cold feet. I figure you have to have all the high priced rookies, not just because they will play early, but also because of scoring ability and job security.
I’ve gone with the Bont for obvious historic reasons, Dawson because he scored so well in his first year in the role and could get better, LDU is on
the up if he stays fit, Serong came home the stronger of the Freo boys I feel, although that is a tossup. Butters may be the Port guy to keep the faith with as Rozee may decide as captain that he plays more of a team game. Rookies as always, place holders although I’m not sure the pool is as large as the pundits would have us believe.
Rucks:
I’m sure the majority of us will be looking at a Gawn/Grundy combo this year. Not sure I can fiddle the books enough to include English as well as Bont, so the double bye will have to be part of the set up using Jackson’s DPP and swinging a forward rookie onfield. Livingstone is a DPP with zero chance of playing and will be the floating donut due to ten of his first
fifteen games being on Sundays.
Forwards:
Attacking this line with minimal confidence, probably the same as almost everyone. Bolton depends on how Yze uses him in round zero but I feel he has a bit of breakout in him if given the right role. If not, I think he needs
to become Jack Macrae which is no biggy. As said, Jackson is the ruck cover and he may ruck a bit as well given Darcy’s injury history. I’m hoping Adams back in the guts is a return to a stronger scoring stream, and the hype around Harley Reid is real. Wizard Watson probably fits the hype category as well and hopefully plays early while Harmes just needs to be given a role to make money.
I’m a wait and see person this year when it come to the SUNS and Dimma’s game plan. It may not be obvious by round one but I would like the limited opportunity of a peek in round zero to assess the Millers, Flanders, Humphrey types to see if they could fit into my plans. This theory may be
a bit wishy washy but there is still a long way to go before we start and like you all, I’m sure there are many more iterations of this team to come.
The spreadsheet below offers up some alternative thinking in the forward line, but as I said, not with any confidence. It also has the Bank but may be a bit small to read – $63,800 left for contingency
Twelve potential keepers might be a bit light on to start but I am keen on exploring how the forty trades can/will be used to our advantage and whether earlier upgrades will be possible or not. My initial thinking is we can burn a few trades to get important early upgrades/sideways trades and still retain enough for the usual kerfuffle that is SuperCoach.
Let us know what you think, and as always, thank you for reading.
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Hey Jimmy, love the explanations provided here. I also like the distribution of premos in this version. I’ve come around on the idea of Jackson as F1 or F2 for the very reason you mention re ruck cover, so really like that pick. LDU and Serong are underrated stars, so also a big fan of those selections.
Budarick is an interesting one, I don’t really know what his scoring potential will be given his injury history never giving him a good run thus far, and the coaching change you refer to. Would be good to know how much $$ you have left over, as my preference would be to jump Bud up to Ridley or Young using some of the funds you can access by including some slightly cheaper rookies. I don’t know anything about Emmett so he might be a great pick but that’s a lot of rookie $ on the FWD line between him and Watson. I’m a Hawks man and I’m pretty excited about Watson, but he’s likely to be very volatile as a small forward in what will probably be at best an average team.
Thanks Bozza, like the quality of your reply as well. Really appreciate your feed back and thoughts.
I forgot to write in the Bank, but it is in the spreadsheet. It’s $63,800, but will edit into the article now.
Budarick is one of those that I’m looking at being a unique os sorts. Now 22 and priced to average around 54 but definitely capable of much more. Has a few SC tons in his past. Cruised his way to 82 in game 2 of season two before suffering the dreaded ACL and missed almost both the next seasons with a second ACL, before coming in for the last two rounds last year for a 77 ave. That ave would price him at around $430k so I reckon it’s value. Also Dimma has said he sees him in a similar role to that which he employed Jayden Short at the Tiges which could be potentially exciting.
If he somehow doesn’t win that spot in R0 there’s a few similar priced dudes (Cox/Chapman) to fill in so as not to create too much chaos.
As for the high priced rooks on the forward line, that is deliberate so that any changes should be easier if different rooks get selected in R1. As for Emmett, he’s a mature age SA boy, powerful medium forward (186cm) who debuted in the last two rounds last year for 30 disposals, 4 goals and an 82 point ave. Speculative I know, but who knows, YOLO??
I find the backlines and forward lines as an interesting choice. Many teams are having more of a reverse choice in stacking more of the backline and using the forward line for midprice players.
Players like Billings, Jordan and Lynch are all looking like popular choices for that.
Seems like a decent rough draft though
Great Stuff Jimmy Dee.
I know its early but I’ll give some thoughts.
Defence. Having both of Daicos and Coleman with early Byes is really not ideal. Daicos I get to some extent, but Coleman will only play 1 game before missing a game. Coleman also shares his Bye with Williams. With 40 trades I would seriously look at starting someone like Himmelberg in that position. He plays North and WC first 2 games. You could then trade him to Coleman after his round two bye. There’s talk of people doing something similar with Tom Green and Walsh.
Midfield. I love it. Almost the same as mine. I have just gone Green over Dawson with the plan to flip him at his early Bye. Serong will be huge this year, particularly if Fyfe does play more midfield as this will take a heap of pressure off him. I was going to pass on LDU but
with 40 trades he is worth the injury risk. Bont is a great Captain so overall this is a fantastic midfield.
Rucks. Gawn and Grundy will be very popular so I wouldn’t worry too much about their early Byes.
Forward. I love Jackson more than most. he is totally over priced though. Yes he gets you through those early byes, but if we get a playing R3 I would pass on him unless for some reason Darcy is injured. Bolton and Adams could both work despite the early Byes, We just need to keep an eye on early season roles. Love the Emmett pick, I have had him in a few early drafts. There is some news that he maybe behind a few to make best 22 though. I thought he would walk into Shultz’s spot. Apparently Banfield has been promised a run at it after many years as our Sub. Also Cooper Simpson $117k M/F has been killing it in match sim and may get some game time early. He took Pav’s 29 out of retirement, so I expect big things from the kid.
Overall a very solid early draft. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers FT.
Hi FT, thanks for the thoughts, as always, most appreciated
As said, don’t expect to keep all the bye players in defence, although I do like Coleman and Daicos as potential keepers. However, if they both pop off big time R0 it may be hard to get them in after their byes. Food for thought.
Call me crazy but I also had the two game and swap theory for Coleman using Yeo despite GD thinking he is cooked. Aparently he’s “up and about” so might excel for at least two games???
There’s bunches of potential swap outs in defence if the game changes significantly by R1 – Hinge, Weddle, CJ, Mass, Rivers, Salem, Windhager, Campbell, Duggan & Yeo could all slot in for two games at a pinch.
Midfield’s good, and yes, have Cooper Simpson highlighted on my watch list. We all know forward is tricky this year and that could change with each praccy match or R0, and probably will.
Good luck for the season.
G’day Jimmy,
I think your draft is quite solid, although I have some thoughts about it.
As FT said, Early bye will kill your defence, but I see your thought process with it. Playing best 18 through with all your premium mids is possibly a good way to combat it. I do believe though that there is enough premium defenders to get through without doing something like this – bit risky with Coleman and Budarick.
I’m a bit the opposite with structure though. I’m currently toying with the idea of starting Fisher as my F1, allowing me to grab an extra premium in defence. I had Macrae as a placeholder at F1 until something caught my eye, but I’ve had the idea of downgrading him to a rookie, Cadman for now and getting Pink up to Sinclair. I think it actually looks alright.
Lining up as;
Daicos, Sicily, Sinclair and Young, Williams, Coffield
//
Fisher, Harmes, Billings, Reid, Duursma, Macrae
Risky but I’m not much of a fan of the forward premiums. I coming around to the Jackson pick and the DPP is very handy, but there is too many question marks around the others. I can give my thoughts on them but them if you really wanted but not much of a fan of starting Bolton and Adams.
I just find those forward ‘midpricers’ are a lot better than the defensive ones while the defensive premiums are obviously better than the forwards. I’d rather wait and see who presents as options in the forward line and get guaranteed (used loosely because anything can happen) premiums in defence.
Saying all that, love the midfield, like the Emmett pick. Good job and best of luck.
‘Serong came home the stronger of the Freo boys I feel’
I’ve seen/heard this a few times but I can’t make sense of it? I’m asking because I too was originally deciding between the 2 freo boys but thought Brayshaw was the better option
Brayshaw Rd11 on: 115.2
Serong Rd11 on 107.1
Brayshaw final 6 games: 121.0
Serong final 6 games 111.3
There is word Brayshaw may spend some time on the wing. Expecting starting trio to be Brayshaw, Serong, Young with Fyfe, Johnson, Erasmus, O’Meara potentially rolling through.
Zerrett, Macrae, Gulden etc have been doing that for a while. It’s the quality of their on ball team mates that make the difference…….
Cheers Ramdy, my bad. Statistically you are correct but I didn’t check those picking the team, hence the use of the words “I Feel”. A lot of this team is on feel as an early draft and I probably only remember Serong Pulling 126 and 140 to help me win two big weeks of finals, and not going back into the history. Possibly should have written “I feel Serong will be the stronger of the two” for me. Brayshaw would be the best option based on your research.
Sorry if it has given you a bum steer but I’m sure you will make the right choice based on your feel and not mine at the end of the day. Hope you have. great season and good luck with it all.