December Team Reveal – Freo Tragic

Written by Freo Tragic on December 29 2023

Hey Guys just thought I’d play around with the Team picker and upload a team. It obviously very early on and although I haven’t really considered the Byes too much, I am conscious of not including too many high priced players that have the early Bye. Basically anyone that plays in the opening round has a bye in either round 2,3,5,6. So unless I consider them “value” I have left them out. The hardest one to leave out is Nick Daicos. He is almost certainly going to be D1 and I may just have to find a way to either start him, or have a pretty solid plan to get him in straight after his early Bye. So let’s go line by line and then I will post the whole team at the end.

Defenders.

I think theres some real value to be had in defence this year. I have seen a heap of teams loading up on the big guns in Sicily and Stewart. I’ve gone the other way and concentrated on players I really think can out perform their price. Houston will be a POD and his huge ceiling can hopefully shine early. Sheezel may become Daicos 2.0 if he can maintain that Half back role. Everyone will pick Young and Williams. Rivers could just be the one to take advantage of the gap left by either Oliver or Brayshaw ( or Both) He showed some real signs last year and I think this could be his break out. I really want to see how Adelaide use Dan Curtin before I include him here.

Midfield

Butters , LDU and Brayshaw all provide some value as they either started last year poorly or had some injuries to contend with (LDU). They also all miss the early Bye carnage, and I think thats important. Walsh and Touk both provide excellent value and I hopefully this outweighs their early Bye. These rookies will be quite popular, but are obviously just place holders at this stage.

Rucks.

I would love to start at least one of Marshall or English this year and still may if money allows. At this stage despite the early Byes I have gone with the value in both Gawn and Grundy. Grundy is a lock at that price. Gawn maybe upgraded if I can find the cash. Naismith is there for now, as I would love to start a playing R3 if possible.

Forwards

Macrae and Flanders kind of pick themselves the rest are mainly just placeholders.There’s really not much to get excited about here until we know more about what roles some players will receive. Guys like Adams, Tsatas, Jordon, Robertson, Perkins, Baker, Rachelle and more, are all a watch and see, if they can up their mid time and become relevant.

Cash left $11.900

Well thats the very early version of my Team Picker side. I plan on doing an early version of Rare Gems in the new year, with a few players I haven’t seen in many sides, but maybe worth considering.

Hope you all had a great Xmas and have a fun and safe New Year.

Cheers FT.

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15 thoughts on “December Team Reveal – Freo Tragic”

  1. cheers FT….great food for thought…logic pretty well spot on…
    a few things stand out to me…

    …who do you expect to captain and/or loop week to week…Daicos along with Bont or English rotate pretty well

    …will Miller (and the other GC mids) fall victim to Hardwicks playing style and subsequent relevance to SC?

    …why burn a trade trying to grab Daicos later in the season?…

    …Lynch is attractive but may start a little slow i reckon…agrre with your comments on forwards…

    …love the Houston pick…Rivers a great POD and ready to step up imo

    happy new year and stay safe all

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    1. Hey PP.

      Yeah Captains maybe a little challenging with this side.As I mentioned Its killing me leaving Daicos out and this may change. I have had English in past versions and would love to get him back in. It would require me downgrading someone like Touk to a Cam Guthrie type. Certainly something to look at.

      It will be interesting to see how Hardwick approaches the Suns. He used to let the prime movers play to their strengths and mould the role players around them. This Suns team has arguably more talent so he may want to play a slightly different Style. I still think Touk and Anderson should be at least solid midfield selections this year.

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  2. Way to early to be publishing a team.
    Gotta love it though!
    Bringing up some of the key decisions around value v Rd.0 subsequent bye teams.
    I’m thinking G&G ruck combo as my only exception to the non section of premos playing in round 0.

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  3. Rivers. Lmao. I’m dead, FT. So on brand for you. I love it.

    Honestly, his scores we’re kind of banging late. Closer to 400 than 500 and it’d be far less of a sweat.

    Structure’s as nice as it can be rn, brother. Good stuff.

    6 R0 players potentially a concern. Hate Houston’s price but, yeah, did 106 last year and has the best bye.

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    1. Houston, Young and Rivers likely won’t be top 6 defenders. Are you going to trade them or stick with less scores once full premium teams are established? With only 2 spots left for premium defenders I’d be scared.

      Rest of the team looks good. I can see you are going for value/further breakout options in the midfield. Still not sure about Brayshaw. Can honestly see a world where butters, ldu, brayshaw, walsh and miller all underperform to an extent, so I’d have to call the midfield high risk/reward.

      I’m sure your team will change but for now it is very hopeful and high risk

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        1. Yeah Houston will also be close enough to top 6. He was 7th last year and this year we lose Dawson. I also like the Houston pick because he has the best Bye by far. I’m still not convinced he’s a lock at nearly $600k though.

          I’ve also cooled considerably on Rivers. I’n not sure if he’s likely to get the mid clock even if Oliver misses a chunk of games. I don’t mind Wanaganeen Milera, although I want to see his role in the practise games. He averaged 94 post bye last year and could maybe boost that to over 100 this year.

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  4. Hey Gunboat.

    Rivers certainly not a lock, but he sure has potential depending on how things shake out at Melbourne. If I remember rightly one of the top few coaches last year got him around the time Clarry went down. He road the pick until the end of the season and nearly one the lot.

    I would also rather have a few Round 6 Bye players than other early Byes. There’s a bit of water to go under the bridge before round six and some of these players may make way for must haves like Daicos ( after his Bye) This will of course all depend on how many Trades / Boosts we get for next season.

    Have a great New Years Brother !

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  5. No Bont is interesting

    At the end of last year we all posted what out best pick was for 2023, Bont was mine and many other people had same.

    Those who didn’t start him cursed.

    History will repeat.

    Bont seems the must have of the 3 big dogs (Bont, Daicos & English)

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    1. Don’t sleep on Petracca Derek, every year people look for the sexier options. And then nearly every year he ends as a top 8 mid/top 3 forward.

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    2. Yeah Derek I’m starting to have a rethink on Bont. He’s sooo expensive, but he’s also very consistent. This makes it very hard to trade him in. I think I will probably start him .

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  6. no doubts there are some great value picks in the midfield.

    Walsh, Miller & Steele can easy be M5 starters (i like Steele because of his bye rounds). Not sure you can have more than 1.

    Although, i prefer to have another one at M6 and not have Flanders at F2. Steele/Miller for another $50k than Flanders, yes please.

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  7. FORWARDS…
    How poor is the options for picking forwards in 2023?
    Jack Macrae top pricer and No1 pick- yet his drop off last couple of years and age probably means continue to drop off.
    Then No2 is Luke Jackson, who won’t have as much ruck time if Darcy stays fit, so probably drop off too!
    We lost the top 7 forward point scorers from last year, and just hoping guys like Flanders keep their mid time!
    Hmmm- might be where it’s won or lost!

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    1. our big hope is for DPP changes. A couple of years ago we had Libba, Parker & Bont, last year there was Macrae & Smith, with Gawn missing by 0.1%

      crazy things happen, Blake Hardwick will be mostly in the hawks forward line this year, so you never know. We might get Docherty forward this season, or one of the Port Boys, maybe Parker again. leave some spots free

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