Every week we the panel discuss some of the burning questions facing the fantasy footy community. Welcome to this week’s round table discussion.
How do you determine which players to stick with and which to trade?
Tim: It’s a whole of team approach. So the right trades for me may not be the right trades for you. Some weeks there is an obvious trade in or and obvious trade out (eg if there’s an injury, or there’s a rookie on the bubble that you want or a premium who’s dropped in price and is ripe for the plucking). If there’s an obvious target like those, however, you can often see them coming a week or two in advance. Eg last year Zach Merrett got concussed and tagged in consecutive weeks – you’d be able to plan for him to be a cheap premium trade in target if you wanted to. Outside of those scenarios, it’s a planning exercise – around the bye rounds partly, around making money and above all about scoring points. How many trades/$$$s will it cost to pull off the manoeuver you’re contemplating? What is the payoff? Is this a defensive or an offensive trade (eg are you trading in Rocky this week to be part of the crowd? Are you trading in a Taranto instead to be deliberately different?)? You also need to plan how far your dollars will stretch over the next few weeks and who you plan to trade out and in accordingly.
Rids: I always try and watch their games and not their points then back my gut. If said player is around but just doesn’t seem to be finding the ball then I am more than likely going to back them in. If there has been a role change or an injury then I will try and weigh up everything then back it in.
Jimmy: I’m not sure there is a right or wrong answer for many of these types – certainly not without the benefit of hindsight. I tend to think there is a lot to be said about trading out the players who are most ruining your enjoyment of footy at any given time. Frustrated with watching Merrett? Move him on. Enjoy watching Dunkley and have a gut feel he gets better? Keep him. Simple.
In the opening 2 rounds what has been an observation of how the new rules (if at all) have impacted fantasy footy?
Tim: It’s been tricky to tell with just two weeks as it’s not a large sample, plus we’d expect any trends to change somewhat as teams get used to tactics with new tactics. It doesn’t seem to have led to any monster changes as of yet.
Rids: Nothing at this stage besides the changes of rules highlights the guys that don’t put in the big efforts.
Jimmy: Two weeks is not much of a sample size so I’m not sure how many bows we can draw just yet. I’m interested to see how the trends of ruck scoring develops over the season. And much as we all thought the new kick in rules would change the game substantially, it doesn’t appear to have had the expected impact as yet.
If you could go back in time 2 weeks and make one change to your starting squad, what would it be and why?
Tim: Just one is hard as it needs to be a direct swap of players (ie you can’t shuffle positions). The obvious one would be Merrett out and Rocky in for RDT. Points on the board and all that. Outside that, I remember chatting after our final podcast prior to Round 1 and Rainman asking me who was one player that I didn’t have that I would love to pick (for RDT/SC), with my answer being Boak. D’oh! But hey, at least I started him in AF so that’s something.
Rids: I would have started Lloyd but no regrets. It is what it is.
Jimmy: Other than the early injuries to Perryman (and nobody could predict that!) and Greene (and arguably you could, but he was priced accordingly) – there isn’t much that I’d change with hindsight. None of us had the perfect squad from round one and I’m happy enough with the risks that I did take.
