Team Reveal Revisited – Freo Tragic

Written by Freo Tragic on August 2 2022

Hello, all . It’s time for me to drag out my Team Reveal for 2022. This is my initial starting team I posted on March 14 . There was quite a few  last minute changes that I will discuss forthwith. I have also gone through every trade I made during the season. As painful as it is sometimes, I really recommend looking back at what you have done this year.It can certainly help with next years decision making!  So with no further ado: TheDashingDonkeys@SCT.

Original Team Reveal

Team Reveal – Freo Tragic

Changes

I thought I needed to bolster the defence. I felt Hewett at D3 was not strong enough. I decided to drop Heeney and start Short at D3 moving Hewett to D4. Boyd and Sinn went out and in came Hinge and SDK moved back. So my starting back line was Ryan, Whitfield, Short, Hewett, Hinge, Paddy Mac, with  Gibcus and SDK on the bench. In the midfield Steele was swapped for Touk Miller and Rowell went to Berry so I could afford Soligo to Stephens. Long went out for a playing Owens.  Darcy got dropped for Grundy as I just saw him as a safer option. Forward, I ended up getting Brodie (for Heeney) and swapping Xerri for McGovern. This meant I could only really afford J Hayes and Martin on my bench. So my forward line read Dunkley, Butters, Cogs, McGovern, Brodie, Rachelle, J Hayes, Martin.

Starting Picks

The Good: Hewett and the rookies in defence were all very serviceable. I felt I nailed the midfield premiums. Oliver was somewhat of a POD early, and put up some great scores before most coaches got to jump on. Forward, nailing all three of Dixon, Martin and J Hayes as $102K rookies was great as well.

The Bad: Where do I start. Lol. Hindsight is always 20- 20. I guess the overriding thing was not recognizing that the extra trades would allow us to take a punt on some value picks. Ryan was originally Dawson before his preseason niggle.Whitfield could of been Sicily. Somehow I didn’t trust both Hewett and Sicily to both become keepers. Likewise with Witts and English early, either one at R2 would of allowed me to start Cripps at M5.

The Ugly: Talking up Dale all preseason and then going Whitfield for value. Insert Face palm emoji. I must listen to my gut next year.

Season Summary

It’s a funny game SuperCoach. As most of you know from my Rare Gems articles I love a POD, and for many seasons now have almost always messed up my starting team with a few mid-pricers that tend to flop. In 2022 I was determined to mend my ways and start a with a conservative “Guns and Rookies” team. Well I guess 2022 wasn’t the year to do that. If I’d stuck with my earlier more risky approach, maybe I would of looked at a Witts, Cripps or English and things could of been very different. As it is, I started very slowly and I although I traded pretty well (after round 6) I still find myself just outside the Top 5k (5121) and just scraped into finals in a few of my leagues.

Current Team Reveal & Trade History

Rank: 5,121/1 trade

The Good: Early days I messed around a bit (see below) after Round 6 I had some wins and managed to trade with the byes in mind. This set me up for a great run through the byes despite a few injuries. A few wins were. Sicily in Round 6 for $505k before a great run of games. Cripps seemed like a must get in Round 7. Parker and Dawson both cheap in Rounds 8 and 9 were also great. Laird in Round 14 has been a revelation and my Captain many times. Duncan has also been pretty good for his cheap price. Keeping Paddy Mac as cover until last week allowed me to swing him back so I could go Whitfield to Taranto. This gave me the cash to get Stewart this week.

The Bad: I traded both Brodie and Cogs out, then back in again. Brodie had time on ground issues early and after Rowell’s huge first game I felt I needed to get him in for Berry. I was way too reactive and should of at least waited for price changes. Later I traded Cogs out after a few bad games instead of Martin. The change of coach and an injury to Bailey Smith during the byes meant I traded Cogs back in. He had actually been great before that late out last week. Trading Daicos too early was another regret as he’s was amazing cover through the Byes for those that kept him. Hewett missing again and Cogs as a late out meant I changed my trade plans this week. I still got in Stewart, but I kept Darcy Cameron at F7 as my Cogs cover. I then took a punt on Zorko at D6 . It was a sideways trade from Paddy Mac that yielded me cash in case I need it for my last trade.

The Ugly: Who would of thought Walsh over Merrett would of been such a bad trade. Walsh was $100k more and although he has been decent. Merrett has been on fire. Parish going down was impossible to predict, well done to those that picked him up for ~$52oK. Yet another value pick that worked out this year. This leads me on to my biggest regret . Not getting Bont. Sore shoulder my ass! Somehow I convinced myself that having Ruck cover for Sean Darcy meant English was more important than getting King Marcus. This one trade has cost me several league match ups and a significant difference in my OA rank.

Conclusion

After a pretty good score last week ( 2503 ) I managed to win 8/10 league match ups and I’m still alive in 3 major and 5 minor finals campaigns. I feel I’m sitting ok with a 23 premo team and decent cover on all lines. I still have a trade in hand and $83k in the bank in case of a longterm injury. If I get through next week unscathed I may use my last trade to upgrade an anti-POD like Short to Dale or Brodie to Marshall. Just on Marshall – how bloody good is he when he gets to play as first ruck?!? Congrats to those that saw past the Saints’ Campbell tricks and took a punt on him last week. With no word yet on another year for Ryder and also with Ryder’s checkered injury history, Marshall will be hard to overlook as a ruck option next year. Also a shout out to those that managed to trade in Redman, what a jet. He is another that I will be seriously considering in 2023.

I just wanted to also take this time to thanks Motts and all the other contributors on this great site. Although I don’t like to single anyone out, because everyone does such great job, I do want to give a special shout out to Gunboat Diplomacy. He has been invaluable to me with some great chats behind the scenes and helping me edit and reformat my posts. Thanks Habib, much love brother.  It really has been an amazing first year for me joining such an esteemed team. Thanks again Motts for giving me the opportunity. I’m already really looking forward to 2023

Thanks for reading

Cheers FT.

29
0


Leave a comment / Scroll to bottom

10 thoughts on “Team Reveal Revisited – Freo Tragic”

  1. Great read FT, reckon we all broke a few rules this year with the extra trades- Traded Cripps in then out, then back in… watched form taper and now hoping he can repay faith next 3 weeks!
    All the best in finals!

    5

    0
    1. Yeah Mick .

      It’s definitely been a very strange year. Cripps has looked better with Hewett out. Pittto in last week made him even better. He does have some pretty hard matchups coming up, so lets hope he rises to the occasion. He did have his best year when the Blues were struggling. I think he should be pretty solid going forward.

      Thanks for the comments and best of luck to you in Finals.

      4

      0
  2. Great stuff, FT.

    Loved the revision of your trades – I genuinely don’t have the stones to go there lol.

    On Walsh v Zerrett, I’ll happily say that was total bullshit aha. Walsh been a jet then randomly gets thrown into a HFF, while the Dons snap into form, Parish goes down and Zerrett decides to win contested possessions and go at higher than 50% DE. Get f*cked lol. Very unlucky.

    That aside, team looks strong. Real strong. Cameron as an F7 is insane. Grundy might not even come back this week and when he does it’ll likely be in a 50:50, so Cameron will still be capable of the loop-able scores.

    Think Cameron was a real crossroads pick. Those who got him were set. Helped give you that deadly run through the byes. Dane, who’s ranked 198th, also grabbed him and discusses what a boon he was for him in his Team Reveal tmmrw.

    Real talk. You’ve been a killer and well loved in the Trade Talk threads for a while and it’s been great bringing you on board this year. Rare Gems has been sizzling every fortnight and a piece I always read well in advance. My best trades this year? Suggesting you and Abs IN and Motts giving it the green light!

    Take care, cuz, and good luck to Freo! Lookin’ a little shaky!

    7

    0
    1. Aww thanks GD.

      Don’t get me wrong I love Walsh. My main point was the $ saved would of allowed me to get in Bont. As I said hindsight ia always 20-20. overall I think I’ve made mostly good trades this year. I told you a few weeks ago Freo looked shaky. whatever happens we have made great strides this year and 2023 should be more wins you would think. looking forward to another of our chats soon.

      Thanks brother !

      2

      0
  3. You’ve been a magnificent addition to the team, FT, thank you for all your hard work this year. I can completely empathise with your Cogs and Daicos trades – I made exactly the same mistake of kicking them out of The Maulers too early. Every time they ton up, it burns me.

    Good luck to the Purple Haze over the next few weeks. With any luck both our teams will make it and you and I will get another crack at going to a Blues v Dockers game together. Cheers mate.

    6

    0
    1. Cheers Motts .

      Both the Blues and Freo have dropped the ball recently. I still think we are both a great shout to at least make finals. Wouldn’t surprise me if we did have a match ups again before the year is out. I’m not sure if either team goes too far this year. Melb and Geelong look too strong. The Swans are the only ones that may cause an upset. The Pies bubble is sure to burst at some point ! Don’t worry too much about this year. The future is looking bright for both our clubs, so we should see some success in years to come.

      As soon as next years fixture is released I will start planning a trip to Melb and we can finally meet up and watch the game. Beers on me !

      Best of luck this week. I will be cheering your boys on v the Lions.

      3

      0
  4. i hadn’t looked at my trade history until now.

    I shouldn’t have looked. i honestly had forgotten i was that….. bad.

    great write FT.

    enjoyed the read.

    6

    0
  5. Have had a similar story to you this year (I did the Cogs and Darcy hokey pokey as well), with a few of the more recent decisions hurting. Keeping Cripps over Merrett after both delivered a run of 90s hurt, as Merrett hasn’t dropped under 130 since. I got rid of Ryan ahead of Short and Crisp and he has hit over 100 every round since.

    3

    0
    1. Thanks TC.

      Yeah I was considering trading Ryan a while back.. Injuries and a lack of trades meant he will stay. He’s actually been very good for a month now. Having him over an underperforming Crisp has helped heaps. I think a heap of folks were ready to dump Short before the Hewett injury. Most of us will be reluctantly keeping him I suspect.

      Best of luck to this week.

      1

      0

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *