I was having a quick look at projections during the week.
I think I need 3-4 $ 100k downgrades to look at a Laird or Oliver type in about Round 6 with Ashcroft or Mackenzie getting to about $ 350k so can't see that happening.
Curious to see how much the Holmes , Hopper , JHF , Setterfield , Worpel's etc have risen by then (Ash , Bruhn & Fyfe are on the list for comparison as well).
Macrae , Neale and a few others could be of interest price wise but does their form/scores warrant trading them in ?
Dawson & Stewart on the defensive tracking list.
Very curious if people move Ziebell (and Sheezel) to defence are they fielding F rookies over Ginbey & McKenna or upgrading forwards , dependent on DPP announcements.
Interesting few weeks coming up.
We may not even have viable Bubble Boys to start downgrading.
His form and scoring may be a little problematic right now but his bye makes him a must have. At some stage by then at least
As to moving ZB and Sheezel and fielding rookies forward: I think most of us have a Constable/Wilmot/Cowan D6 at the moment. One of the North guys would go back, opening F6 if you're runnig a typical Dunks/Taranto/Rozee/Gulden front 4. Not sure that anyone would have them and Cogs though if they did, he would probably be helping out in the mids and could come forward to replace the first North guy to go back. It's what I'm planning to do with JHF is he survives
If Bowes comes up, there is no need to move Sheezel unless you are running really skinny back there. Most have Naicos and 1 or 2 of Doc/Dawson/Sicily. As I wrote before, I'm ok back there once ZB goes back with Ginbey and McKenna doing D5 and 6. If Bowes comes in, it will be Ginbey to the mids with probably Chesser getting the flick for Bowes. Add Kozzi and another of the forward DPPs can go to the mids.
With regards to us not having enough viable bubble boys worth downgrading, this is another advantage of the MPM strategy.
When the GnR player has 2 x 330k rookies mooing he hopes to have 2 rookies on the bubble. The best he can realistically hope for is downgrading to a 102k rookie, leaving him enough cash to a 560k premo. It's why he has to spend big on Laird and Oliver because there is a really good chance that those guys will never get cheap enough to go 1 up 1 down at a convenient time and if they ever get close, the player risks missing out on other quality trades.
The MPM player has the benefit of an extra couple of hundred k baked into his players' prices in this situation. If he has a couple of MPMs that are on the block, usually for underperforming as if they were performing well the player has scored a budget premium worth keeping, then he might have a couple of 450k type MPs to trade. The player only needs 1 rookie now instead of 2 because 1 downgrade pays for 1 upgrade to a 620k premiumwith maybe 150k left over.
My list currently has: JHF, Setterfield, Hopper, Worpel and I'll add ZB for illustrative purposes (no intention of really trading him but he s an MP right now)
Assuming it goes well and my players get to an average of 480k, I need 2 X 123k rookies to appear. That frees up 2 * 357k = 714k to spread across 3 x 480k players. I could upgrade all 3 to in form, 620k premiums, leaving me nearly 300k in the kitty. Considering I am also likely to have any mooing rookies that the GnR player has (at 330k), I can hit 1 of them up to a bona fide mid premium too.
Forget 1 down one up, maybe getting a fallen premium or someone for your forwards. That's 2 down 4 up and the ability to bring in 4 premium mids in 2 weeks.
It's a dangerous ploy doing the MPM and you need to get those MPs right and unless you nail them all at the start, there's a fair bit of correcting to do. But I'm developing faith that payoff here isn't just in having a supposedly more stable opening round squad.