Sharing my next team iteration as it relates to my early doors plan.
I've turned Chapman into Coleman & Miller into Hopper/Callaghan.
Rationale is that Coleman has an outside chance at being a D6 keeper and that I think Hopper/Callaghan are a great stepping stone to Gulden after his first bye.
I consume a little content and was perplexed at a few creators pushing Matt Crouch as a viable M5 selection earlier in the year. He may be priced under what he scored at and may be injury free, but for a bloke who handballs an awful lot I don't trust him to make 100k. If he does you keep him as long as you can at M8 till you turn him into an uber premo with leftover change and happy days, you've nailed the pick. I think the chances of that happening are slim. I've also heard creators mention starting Tom Green (as the Giants play North & the Eagles the first few scoring rounds before their bye) and flipping him after his first price rise to another prem, presumably banking change.
Using that strategy, to me it makes sense picking a different player from GWS that has a better shot at making 100k with their nice early schedule before flipping them. Callaghan is reportedly flying this preseason, priced at 409k (73 ave), and made a shift into the midfield in the latter half of last season attending roughly 50% of CBA's. I guess the knock on him is that he needs the pure midfield time to make 100k.
Jacob Hopper. A bit of a forgotten midfielder who was always on the cusp of being a good SC pick although injury seemed to always curtail his potential. He's priced at 439k (78 ave), will get a bulk share of midfield time and has another preseason under his belt to gel with his new side.
I'm happy to take a gamble on either player (as I have the funds) looking at their early draws from the Opening Round to Round 5:
Callaghan: Pies, North, West Coast, Bye, Gold Coast & Saints.
Hopper: Gold Coast, Blues, Port, Swans, Saints & West Coast.
Tigers have the tougher draw, although I know that Hopper has the security of playing on ball. Both of these players could average nearly 90 over the first 5 rounds and give a 100k profit a nudge each. The good thing is I get a look at both during the OR and can pick my poison from there.
The value of this decision (I feel) is that:
- I can gamble on Coleman being a keeper or very close to it before being upgraded as there are still slight question marks over Chapman's role and scoring capacity.
- Only needing the single rookie cull (fingers crossed) to get Gulden in based on the rookie making 100k over the first 5 rounds. I have 45k leftover in the bank as is. The premise of this is that either Callaghan or Hopper get to around 500k (90 average) in that time.
Other than that strategy, I feel my team is well bye balanced and has rookie wriggle room to make adjustments with their prices generally being at the upper end of the spectrum.
