Team Reveal Revisited – Gunboat Diplomacy

Afternoon, all. We’re getting together a little Team Reveal Revisted series as some of our regular programming winds down. I’m kicking things off with the other admins to follow. We’ll go with my original Team Reveal and the final team I went with, a summary of key moments of my season and then, finally, how the team has shaken out.

Original Team Reveal

Team Reveal – Gunboat Diplomacy

Changes

Between the Team Reveal and Round 1, I ended up sacking Heeney for defensive depth and grabbed Dale, I had to free up cash and dropped Ryan, who I harped on about all pre-season, to Whitfield, who I’d railed against all pre-season, and Darcy missing Round 1 meant he became Grundy.

Starting Picks

The Good: Dale, Hewett, Brodie and ponying up for Rachele, Hinge, Gibcus and McCartin. Not to blow myself, but Dale has been superb. Pencilled him in for a 105 season, he’s done exactly that and slayed popular starting D2/3s like Short and Crisp. Very happy with him and, SC aside, he’s a very good player – such an excellent field kick.

The Bad: Ridley, Whitfield, Butters over Heeney, not paying enough mind to English or Witts. Also, didn’t start N. Martin, which I just should’ve, and passed on Hayes due to JS concerns which were warranted and injury allowed him back in.

The Ugly: Not starting Neale like an absolute moron.

Season Summary

Been a pretty horrific one for me. To be honest, I don’t mind my actual team but a few miscalculations at critical junctures has me sitting a ways off from my personal best of three consecutive years of 2k finishes.

1) Not Starting Neale

• Absolutely horrific. Don’t ask what was going through my head. Vaguely, it was the chatter about him being moved around to make way for OB time for Rayner and Bailey which I bought into given how firm Fagan seemed to be and thinking it would be prudent to pay up for a POD-esque Top 8 lock. Initially it was Walsh, I was hot on him, then he wasn’t a go for Round 1, so it was Laird – same deal. Ended up on Parish, who I’d quite liked. He was serviceable but nowhere near the high CP purple patch of 130s had had late last year. I was behind the 8 ball without Neale and missed his double ton, which I’d advised everyone to captain lmao.

2) Neale-Grundy-Preuss Maneuver

• I immeadiately resolved to get Neale and, I have to say, this was kind of a sage move by me. In Round 3, I dropped Grundy to Preuss and Berry up to Neale. Worked out great as Grundy continued to slut it up (I was happy with my read on him) and then get injured and I got Preuss early who did 110 until the mid-season madness. Berry also wasn’t what he was cracked up to be, so no issues there.

3) Reilly O’Brien aka SLOB

• I was not a fan of paying over 600k for a player I couldn’t comfortably straight C whose ruck minutes were being eaten away in Max Gawn. That proved, to an extent, to be a good read. I went for ROB who, counting on him getting past his injury affected 2021, I thought could do 105-110. At one point he was right up there on total points and had been a great value proposition and then it happened: a 60 against TDK, a match up he should have gone 120+ in and instead served up his 2nd 60. He was promptly dropped by both the Crows and myself, with Darcy entering my side. Not in full flight but been okay.

4) Getting F*cked at F6

• A brief but painful chapter of my season. I had a finished and super sexy midfield REALLY early and was full premo by Round 14, however I got decimated for a solid 6 weeks by rookies at F6. Most notably/traumatically I was one of those peasants who fielded Rioli and Rosas’ sub 20 scores on separate occasions. Should have taken the gain of a FWD rookie doing 40 up to a FWD premo as opposed to rushing to finish my midfield early.

5) Mills over Laird

• This one hurts the most, y’all. Goddamn. I thought when Steele went down why not take the opportunity to pay up for the highest ceiling MID in the comp? Liked Laird but couldn’t get past Mills’ ceiling and thought I should take the rare opportunity to tack some coin onto a departing Steele and pony up the 680k for Mills. Been painfully wrong on that. Deprived myself of a must have averaging 127 and an ultra-reliable C candidate. Mills still Top 8 and been good but the deficit Laird’s put on him is painful to even consider.

6) Tingles to Bont

• Perhaps the only other sage move I’ve made was trading Tingles to Bont in Round 16. I’d grabbed Tingles the week he went 160 against West Coast but heading into Round 16, and having held him through 1 missed week already, the following factors led me to sack him: the refusal to cop a donut, the liklihood of Bont hitting his straps and becoming a must have and a serious look at Tingles concussion/injury profile and opposition ruck run. Decided I would bet against Tingles and knew Bont would be a must have. It’s netted me around 300 points and think it can continue to pay dividends if Tingles bombs 1 or 2 more time at 35% ownership.

7) PODs

• Usually I just angled for Top 6/8 picks only and don’t really mess with PODs, however I’ve ended up with a handful of high ceiling ones I got at cut price. Allowed me to finish my team early and they’ve been alright and, admittedly, quite fun to watch!

8) Hall

• A minor setback but one that stung, losing him in Round 5: sacked Whitfield for Hall by boosting the same week I did the Neale-Grundy-Preuss move. Came full circle when I went hard against him in the Trade Talk threads and a few private messages when was popular a few weeks back. Maintained that his injury profile was now a bridge too far.

Current Team Reveal

Rank: 16,103/ 1 trade left

The obvious glaring issue is not having Laird and I’m sure seeing LDU, May, Saad and Hawkins is disarming but bar LDU (which was a fun little indulgent dice roll with my season shot) May, Saad and Hawkins have performed well relative to their price, with big ones from the 3 of them last week jettisoning me to 2500. The total lack of bench cover is obviously also a problem but to be perfectly frank there wasn’t a lot I could do there: Thompson injured and gone, D’Ambrosio dropped, Hamilton disappeared like Jimmy Hoffa, Owens concussed and cya later, Angwin and Teakle injured on debut, Clarke done and Long a starting loop who hasn’t gotten a late debut as I’d hoped – what the actual f*ck. Missed a few juicy rookies so was never going to be able to invest in bench depth (props to those who have) and narrowly scraped to finish a team. Recent moves have included Big O to Gawn and Hewett to Docherty and just hoping drill captains and shoot for an increased rank week to week.

So, there we go. The first of our Team Reveal Revisted series. Next up is the inimitable and well ranked Abs!

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