Your side looks pretty good to me Eagling. In terms of specific comments:
- Your defs are potentially your most risky line. I initially liked Yeo a lot, but cooled on him because (on my calcs) he only averaged low 90s when he played mid, and the Eagles have brought in Redden. See Rowsus' write-up of both Redden and Yeo for why this might be an issue. I also struggle a lot with Rich. He's seven seasons in, and he has a best season of 91 and a second best of 86. I'd rather back someone like KK (who I don't have) to continue to improve than Rich to rise to an acceptable level in his eighth season. If I had to downgrade one player to raise cash, it would be Rich, then Yeo.
- Your mids look fantastic. Not much to say here assuming they're all fit. Fyfe is probably the main one to watch on that front.
- Your rucks are interesting. I have Lobbe, in part because I don't like the vast bulk of the rucks, so I imagine you're thinking similarly given you've gone with him and Blicavs
Blitz is an interesting one - I think it's worth reading the comments on the Questions for Rowsus page about him. I would tend to agree with Rowsus' sentiment that it's hard to see where he improves. Arguably he has more competition this year in both the ruck and the mids at Geelong, and they're the two areas you want him spending time from an SC scoring perspective. NicNat is the option I've gone with, and he's a very similar price if you elect to look at other alternatives. On Wyatt, it's a minor thing, but my understanding is that M King from Melbourne (there are actually two of them!) is better for loopholing.
- Martin and Barlow both look like good picks to me. Zorko would be in the same camp if not for Rocky/Beams presumably playing more games this year and taking a few points off him. I think he's slightly overpriced as a result, but he is a pretty consistent high scorer, and durable, so if one of the other Brisbane mids goes down, Zorko would be pretty high in my list. [That hasn't happened just yet, although unfortunately with Beams it is probably largely a matter of time.]. Boomer, Tippett and Buddy (for a risky pick) would be the alternatives to Zorko that I'd look at, and they are all cheaper. On Merrett, he's not the type of pick I like, but I get the argument, and he could end up being a good contributor at his price.
- One other thing I noticed is that it looks like you've spent nearly your full complement of cash, and you don't have any expensive rookies. If a $200k bolter pops up, it's not clear to me how you would get him in at this stage. I think it's probably better to put one in as a placeholder for now, or have some extra cash in the bank, so you don't end up missing a really good rookie prospect, or having to do additional trades to get one in. It can also be messy trying to restructure things just before round one lockout to raise cash, although few of us seem to have trouble spending any spare cash that turns up An easy way to address this would be to downgrade someone who doesn't look like being a solid keeper on their line. Rich would be an obvious choice given my view on him, but essentially the one you're least keen on would be my suggestion.
As I said, your side looks pretty good to me, so a lot of this is more refinement around the edges, rather than major changes. Good luck.
- Your defs are potentially your most risky line. I initially liked Yeo a lot, but cooled on him because (on my calcs) he only averaged low 90s when he played mid, and the Eagles have brought in Redden. See Rowsus' write-up of both Redden and Yeo for why this might be an issue. I also struggle a lot with Rich. He's seven seasons in, and he has a best season of 91 and a second best of 86. I'd rather back someone like KK (who I don't have) to continue to improve than Rich to rise to an acceptable level in his eighth season. If I had to downgrade one player to raise cash, it would be Rich, then Yeo.
- Your mids look fantastic. Not much to say here assuming they're all fit. Fyfe is probably the main one to watch on that front.
- Your rucks are interesting. I have Lobbe, in part because I don't like the vast bulk of the rucks, so I imagine you're thinking similarly given you've gone with him and Blicavs
Blitz is an interesting one - I think it's worth reading the comments on the Questions for Rowsus page about him. I would tend to agree with Rowsus' sentiment that it's hard to see where he improves. Arguably he has more competition this year in both the ruck and the mids at Geelong, and they're the two areas you want him spending time from an SC scoring perspective. NicNat is the option I've gone with, and he's a very similar price if you elect to look at other alternatives. On Wyatt, it's a minor thing, but my understanding is that M King from Melbourne (there are actually two of them!) is better for loopholing.- Martin and Barlow both look like good picks to me. Zorko would be in the same camp if not for Rocky/Beams presumably playing more games this year and taking a few points off him. I think he's slightly overpriced as a result, but he is a pretty consistent high scorer, and durable, so if one of the other Brisbane mids goes down, Zorko would be pretty high in my list. [That hasn't happened just yet, although unfortunately with Beams it is probably largely a matter of time.]. Boomer, Tippett and Buddy (for a risky pick) would be the alternatives to Zorko that I'd look at, and they are all cheaper. On Merrett, he's not the type of pick I like, but I get the argument, and he could end up being a good contributor at his price.
- One other thing I noticed is that it looks like you've spent nearly your full complement of cash, and you don't have any expensive rookies. If a $200k bolter pops up, it's not clear to me how you would get him in at this stage. I think it's probably better to put one in as a placeholder for now, or have some extra cash in the bank, so you don't end up missing a really good rookie prospect, or having to do additional trades to get one in. It can also be messy trying to restructure things just before round one lockout to raise cash, although few of us seem to have trouble spending any spare cash that turns up
An easy way to address this would be to downgrade someone who doesn't look like being a solid keeper on their line. Rich would be an obvious choice given my view on him, but essentially the one you're least keen on would be my suggestion.As I said, your side looks pretty good to me, so a lot of this is more refinement around the edges, rather than major changes. Good luck.
The mids pretty much explain themselves, and like me, you seem to like the look of them
Now the Rucks are probably the toughest line. I did pretty poorly overall last year, but I started with Nic Nat and Goldy, and brought Gawn in for cover, so I did alright in the Rucks.
Looking back on how Rucks score from season to season, the odds of Goldy repeating his heroics of 2015 seem to be stacked against him. I do have a nagging niggle that not starting Goldy is a gargantuan misjudgement, but I'm quite likely to give him a miss.
I had Lobbe in 2014, and he underwhelmed for me, but I believe that there is enough upside @$390k to pick him up.
As for Blicavs; there is a toss up between him and Nic Nat. Rowsus analyzed Nic Nat and he seems to score poorly in losses, and West Coast seemingly have a tough start. Now we all know West Coast is going to win by triple figures every single week, but the one thing Blicavs has that Nic Nat lacks is DPP. Say Lobbe is flying and so is Nic Nat; and say Goldy has a string of average games interspliced with a terrible one, because of injury, for instance. With Blicavs I have the potential to upgrade a midfield rookie to Goldy without doing a sideways trade. Additionally, Blicavs seems pretty likely to be the most consistent ruck.
Zorko is probably overpriced, he might be available later on in the season for a better price; and he'll probably score better in the second half of the season, but I want to finish with him, which I can't say for anyone around him. Still, he's probably the most susceptible to a cash generating move to a Buddy or Tippett or Boomer. I could do a similar move with Fyfe to Selwood/Sloane/Priddis, but I'm waiting for the NAB to assess rookies.
Most of all, I'll try to avoid mid-priced traps like Brett Goodes last year's. Having a non-split round will go a long way.
We seem to have pretty similar thoughts on a lot of the selections I've made. If Sinclair/Tippett seem to be the clear No.1 at Sydney, I will consider starting him in place of Zorko, who I'm so much more unforgiving towards despite him being one of my favourite Supercoach Players
