First up, thought I’d throw up (excuse the pun) my team from a few weeks ago for comparison.
A few of these have left the building for various reasons, most of which I am incapable of explaining fully, but will endeavour to. Got a little anxious about Kerch’s lack of ball handling pre season, although he will still rack them up if playing half back. Was more about Sinclair’s and Windsor’s rise in appreciation after the AAMI and R0 I guess. Gibcus presented as less of option once some rookie defenders put their hands up to provide faster cash options.
Daws went mainly due to varying roles in the trials and AAMI, Culley for injury and Brodie needs to get picked. One for a later downgrade!
Set and forget disappeared with the emergence of McAndrew and the chance to strengthen elsewhere, and the forward line does not look to have room for my early POD Freijah, who I believe will come back to haunt me sooner rather than later. Murhy’s Law. Treloar and Parish made way for Tracca despite the clash of byes early.
Here’s what it looks like today, but I am still a little unsure if I have too much mid price madness despite some good solid scoring in the AAMI and R0. Just think back to the 119 point difference between the praccie and R0 for Buku Khamis to see how this thinking could stuff you over.
IN DEFENCE: Sinclair’s role looked sensational and his efficiency is terrific, so he slots in. Rozee, everyone needs him with his insane early draw. I think McCarthy will keep a midfield role and improve exponentially and be the Weagle’s top scorer, and I’ve tracked Rivers role closely and am happy he will deliver above his price. Serong and Jaques can fight over the last on field spot as much as they like, and Lindsay looks a player and should get the nod for R1. NB I got scared of NAS when I saw how easily he can be tagged. Might be a false dawn but he already has that low score in his cycle and will likely drop in price after R1.
MIDFIELD: Butters, no brainer!! Brayshaw is my POD mid despite a quite preseason. I listen to the wisdom of Father Dougal who says they return to their normal in the real stuff. Hope you are right FD. Erroll looks so fit it’s scary and I couldn’t resist despite removing my favourite Crow to fit him in. I’m taking a punt on value in Sam Walsh who looks brand new and the Blues certainly need him. Tanner Bruhn has a really SC friendly role with some centre stoppage and then back to half back. He covers the ground well and they seem to look for him as an outlet which can only be beneficial. Heard rumours that Hayden Young left the track early and may be doubtful. Could be a worry so if anyone has any further news, please drop it in the comments. Parish would be a like replacement if needed.
Rookies are not super prevalent in the mids but I’ve still decided to go with two on field rooks in Dyson Sharp and Jagga. Sam Grlj is in the mids as a DPP for defence in absence of many options, and Blamires is a walk up at the price if he makes the cut. Jack Carroll can be good from what I’ve seen, but Chayce Jones can be as well and is still a consideration
RUCKS: McAndrew ! Leapt from about two percent ownership to over fifty five and has thrown a spanner in the team sheets of heaps of us. Most of us voted him as a treasure in the polls so I went with you all. Timmy English looks fit and roving the length of the ground at will so should pick up transition points as well as HTAs. Not sure what happens if the McAndrew experiment is shortened so I stuck Reidy in the forwards as a DPP as a worst case scenario. With the early bye rounds, it may mitigate the problem somewhat.
FORWARDS: Sheez and Flanders, everyone’s got. I tried to avoid too many early bye players (so my Tech Team should be good) but Tracca popped up and said pick me, and Buderick was a way toward that juggling to get him under the salary cap. It does give me five omissions from the field in R3, plus Jaques and Lombard cannot be used as cover. That’s an area of concern but with 40 trades I’m willing to burn one or two if need be after a few rounds to mitigate that problem. The two cheapies at D5 and D6 are also unilaterally owned, so self explanatory. I’ve mentioned why Liam Reidy is there but he may not even stay in Carlton’s team, let alone mine, and Leo Lombard looks a beast, tackles hard and covers a shiteload of territory for a forward which I think helps his scoring avenues outside of goal kicking. Tracca is flex for now because of his DPP.
Twenty of my players are owned by over 40% of all coaches (21 if you count Erroll at 39%), which certainly screams cookie cutter, but I’m hoping the less than 21% owned in Walsh, Buderick, McCarthy, Rachelle, Rivers and Brayshaw can make a difference. I reckon there might be thirteen keepers in there which I’m OK with, but the seven mid pricers may be a stretch. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts and comments as I can still be swayed on a couple of these selections.
Brayshaw, hmm, let’s see….His past season was his best but just by a bit, and he is 26. So I hope stable around what you are paying for? Good byes. He’s the right age to up his game and his history is compatible with that being possible. I thought about him because he has good byes and is pretty eastabished as solid. The big risk is the Dockers change everything up so much his past numbers come from a different situation than this season. That’s something to talk with a Dockers supporter about. If Jackson plays mids a lot, what will that do to him? He is amazingly unowned for such a good player. I suppose side by side with Naicos peoeple are going with Nick. a 110 average in 23 games is 2530 points and that means 2530/22 = 115 for Nick to make the same. More like 112.5 if you assume a cow to fill in. Could be a very clever selection. I just wish I knew what was up with the Dockers.
Jackson and Young make it very interesting midfield at Fremantle. Ive had Serong all pre-season (due to no early bye), now starting to wonder why he is in my team.
Also add Murphy Reid to to the mix a lot of chefs in the kitchen so I feel Serong and Brayshaw will both have a lower average this season.
good team Jimmy
i particularly like White at R3 and Reidy at F8, lets you get Reidy’s cash out if he does make some money and White becomes a nice Forward & Ruc loophole
the one player who jumps off the page is Rivers. are you hedging your bets with both Windsor and Rivers and dump the one that doesn’t get the midfield minutes? Rivers is pretty much the same price as Meckercher, and an easy bail out if he is flying.
what are the Melbourne supporters saying about the midfield mix? unfortunately we didn’t see a full game in the AAMI and they didn’t play R0, is Rivers getting the minutes, or Windsor?
No Parish is also a big call, i know it is Parish and i was laughing at anyone who suggested him in December, but he does look a decent pick and in 45% of teams.
Hi Derek. I look at the Dees midfield (although from limited data) and I don’t see them sharing the minutes. With the big two gonsky, and Jack Viney on a break I see Tom sparrow and Jack Steele doing mainly the grunt, Langford and Rivers a bit of both inside and out and Windsor and Kozzy mainly receiving and zooming.
Lindsay appears to be settling into a role down back so is probably not in the mid equation, and with Viney absent, it leaves only those six above to share the load, unless I’m missing something. Rivers scores well without apparent sizzle, probably due to his efficiency. Origin score was great when I didn’t neccessarily notice him, and he was a stand out in the abandoned game with a projected ton there. I looked at two things here, byes and ownership and I guess I’m hoping for a similar or better output than Kerch who is heavily owned.
Kerch is a safe bet by any standards, and you are correct in the bail out assessment. Also, I still have Jase Burgoyne on my radar at $140k less and lawson Humphries and Will Powell are sneaky options but down the order because of the two byes.
It was either Parish at flex or as a sacrificial lamb to include Tracca after his monster opening round. I just did the Maths. Thanks for your feedback champ.
Reidy DROPPED after one game, how prophetic was I ? Looks like I’m gonna need a bigger bench !!!
Melbourne’s midfield is ideally shared between: Steele, Pickett, Langford, Windsor, and Rivers.
Are you worried about fadding Bontempelli? Had an uninterrupted pre-season, had high CBA’s during both preseason games. His next 3 opponents are the depleted mids of the giants, crows and Essendon, and won’t run into a tagger until round 6. Played forwards last week mainly to avoid a tag and Croft getting hurt (could just be a one off move) and it was against the best team for the last 2 years. Is the 113 a down week and his floor. He certainly looks fit and is kicking straight (knock on wood) , fadding a fit Bontempelli is a dangerous game.
Absolutely John, and there are myriad others on that bye being faded, Anderson, Grundy, Heeney, The Chad, Richards and Libba off the top of my head. Not to mention Freijah who I reckon is going to burn me the other way. However I’m more comfortable with the mix of other R3 bye players of which I already have seven. To not increase that number, it would be Erroll on the chopping block and I like that less at this stage of the season.
Bont will be/also is a must but I still have a couple of rounds to figure out how to get him (LOL)