Review 2021: Round 1 Review

[PranavSanthosh]

Final Team

D: Laird, Docherty, Hunter Clark, Young, Jordan Clark, Highmore (Sharp, Kosi)
M: Neale, Kelly, Walsh, Cripps, Rowell, Green, Campbell, Berry (Powell, Gulden, McNeil)
R: Gawn, Grundy (Flynn)
F: Dangerfield, Dunkley, Ziebell, Dow, Warner, Bergman (Scott, Rowe)

Score: 1828
Rank: 76354

Heroes: Both Clarks, Young, Walsh, Gulden, Flynn, Ziebell, Rowe
Villians: Neale, Rowell, Grundy, Green, Bergman
Trades: Likely Rowell to Williams

Comments: Structure is a concern going heavy in the backline has paid off for coaches and I don't see that slowing down anytime soon but I'm happy enough with the player selections I've made expecting to make ground back up in round 2. Going Neale and Green over Lloyd and Taranto isn't looking good either but won't try to dwell on it too much. Most likely holding Danger even if it is 3 weeks, 4 weeks and he's gone obviously, just contemplating whether holding Danger and then getting rid of someone like Grundy or Neale is perhaps overthinking it? Grundy is on the chopping block for me if he scores poorly and looks disinterested like he has since last season and/or Meek does well against Flynn that will be a trade to make in round 3. Not interested in any of the mid price rucks and Hunter but Meek seems pretty impressive considering he was up against Gawn so keen to see how he goes. VC Cripps into Gawn this week think Cripps has the highest ceiling out of him Walsh and Docherty and I am not losing faith in the Gawn C this early. Sharp, McNeil and Bergman the rookies most likely to be dropped and Jordon looks to be the one I'm missing so that's an easy correction in Round 3 although Round 3 does look like a bit of a pain with Sharp and McNeil playing before the Saturday teams even drop and Bergman is probably dropped by then as well so the temptation to make that correction this week is there but it will depend on how many good rookie options look like getting a game this week Macrae, Chapman etc. Finally leaning towards Williams as my replacement for Rowell would love to potentially keep Rowell one more round because I think watching another round will help make better decisions on trades but is that worth losing the points that keeping Rowell will lose me potentially not.

 

[OnTopBar]

Best start for me and pretty happy considering I'm running with 9 rookies on field, also have the 3 rookie ruckline.

Lost points by having Rowe on the bench and Fullarton on field.

 

[Maso]

Muppet F.C

D: Laird, Stewart, Short, Doc, J.Clark, Highmore // Sharp, Kosi*
M: Bont (VC), Merrett, Jelly, Cripps, Caldwell, Campbell, Powell, Berry // Gulden, Scott*, Brockman
R: Gawn (C), Flynn // hunter*
F: Danger, Dusty, Degoey, Phillips, Ziebell, Daniher // Henry*, Rowe

Score: 2076
Rank: 8,611
Heroes: Dusty (158), Flynn (140), Stewart (113), Ziebell (115) Gawn (93) - was looking a lot worse !
Villians: ME for taking the VC of Dusty , the premo's that started great but faded !
Trades: Maybe Danger to Dunkley or Mills
Comments: Not a bad start not a great start , missed out on the top rookie scores like every other year but i do have them in the side
Danger goes for 3+ then he is gone from my side.
Overall happy with my side as always there is some regret like having mills as D2 all preseason to only change him out on thursday
Have a few guys on close watch this week Degoey being the main focus after only having 8 CBA's and sidebottom coming back in i cant see that number rising much higher ?? so he will need to kick goals not 0.3 to score well ( Feels like i have been sucked into Stringer 2.0 ).

 

[Beg2Differ]

Don’t usually participate in this thread or like posting my whole team but desperate times call for desperate measures. All suggestions welcome.

Really can’t quite believe that this team was good for just 1791 points.

Score: 1,791
Rank: 86,303
Heroes: Bench; there are no on-field heroes in a team that scores 1791
Villians: Team effort
Trades:
Comments: Have Danger to deal with but will probably just sit tight and hope round 1 was an aberration and round 2 will be much better.

 

[OnTopBar]

View attachment 27568

Don’t usually participate in this thread or like posting my whole team but desperate times call for desperate measures. All suggestions welcome.

Really can’t quite believe that this team was good for just 1791 points.

Score: 1,791
Rank: 86,303
Heroes: Bench; there are no on-field heroes in a team that scores 1791
Villians: Team effort
Trades:
Comments: Have Danger to deal with but will probably just sit tight and hope round 1 was an aberration and round 2 will be much better.

I wouldn't be too worried, a couple of rookies on field instead of the bench would have seen a score of 1960 or so which is acceptable.

You have all of the good rookies (Berry is a maybe) You're mid-pricers and stepping stones pretty much did as expected or better. I wouldn't worry about your rucks yet.

What I do worry about is Gaff (I have him too) because he is so outside I think he suffered from being stuck in (as Gawn said) no mans land. Duggan doesn't seem to have the role that he was talked up to have.

 

[WindyHillWizard]

Windy Hill Wizard

D: Lloyd, Laird, Stewart, Ridley, Doc, J.Clark, Highmore // Sharp, Kosi*
M: Neale, Macrae, Merrett, Walsh, Campbell, Powell, Berry, Scott // Gulden, Jordan, McNeil
R: Gawn (C), Grundy // Flynn
F: Danger, Dunkley, Ziebell, Warner, Bergman, Rowe // Fullarton, Brockman

Score: 2003
Rank: 22,681
Heroes: Ridley, Walsh, Dunkley, Ziebell, Rowe
Villians: Grundy and Neale were the main culprits
Trades: Danger to ? Really stumped on this trade. Not sure whether to do the obvious to Martin or look at a midfielder or defender instead.
Comments: Higher priced premiums didn't deliver, but hopefully its a one week thing.
Ended up with what felt like quite a cookie-cutter side, but happy with my overall structure and some premium sections such as Ridley and Walsh.

 

[GrainFedBeef]

Windy Hill Wizard

D: Lloyd, Laird, Stewart, Ridley, Doc, J.Clark, Highmore // Sharp, Kosi*
M: Neale, Macrae, Merrett, Walsh, Campbell, Powell, Berry, Scott // Gulden, Jordan, McNeil
R: Gawn (C), Grundy // Flynn
F: Danger, Dunkley, Ziebell, Warner, Bergman, Rowe // Fullarton, Brockman

Score: 2003
Rank: 22,681
Heroes: Ridley, Walsh, Dunkley, Ziebell, Rowe
Villians: Grundy and Neale were the main culprits
Trades: Danger to ? Really stumped on this trade. Not sure whether to do the obvious to Martin or look at a midfielder or defender instead.
Comments: Higher priced premiums didn't deliver, but hopefully its a one week thing.
Ended up with what felt like quite a cookie-cutter side, but happy with my overall structure and some premium sections such as Ridley and Walsh.

Very similar to my team (scored 1999), surprised you didn't do better though, that 7 man defence (9 with rookies) looks very unique and a cut above everyone else.

Struggling with Danger too, Dusty safe choice. If Grundy does well may hold for one week.

Ideally would like to do the Howe trade of last year, not sure it is obvious.

 

[Ben's Beasts]

Score: 2,079
Rank: 8.239
Heroes: Ridley, Oliver, Macrae, Gulden, Ziebell, Rowe
Villains: Captain Gawn, Dangerfield, Cripps, Grundy, Bergman
Planned Trades: OUT: Dangerfield and possibly a rookie for Jordon IN: Not sure yet
Comments: Reasonable score considering all the premiums in my team who were well down on their usual output.
Grawndy clearly a massive fail one round in but not writing it off yet.
Both Grundy and Cripps are on notice so Thursday night's game is massive and their performances will dictate my trade plans for this round and the next.
Happy to have nailed all the rookies bar Jordon who I maintain had shaky JS heading into round 1 but his debut performance has earnt him at least a couple more games.

 

[jarveg]

Final Team

D: Laird, Ridley, Daniel, Stewart, Docherty, L Young, (Koschitzke, Highmore)
M: Macrae, Merrett, Kelly, Dunkley, Cripps, J Clark, Campbell, Powell, (Gulden, Berry, Scott)
R: Gawn, Flynn (Meek)
F: Dangerfield, Caldwell, Ziebell, Daniher, Warner, Bergman (Fullarton, Rowe)

Score: 2,096
Rank: 6,247
"Lost" points: Captain 1, Bench picks: Def 0, Mid 86, Ruck 0, Fwd 73 = Total 160
Heroes: Ridley (125), Macrae (118), Dunkley (113), Ziebell (115), Stewart
Villians: Danger, Me (for losing 160 points in C and bench picks, and FOMO Walsh to Cripps 2 hours before the first game), Danger.
Trades: Danger to Heeney or Dusty

Comments: I normally would steer clear of posting these, but I had some encouragement last year about talking through my choices and thought process so with a captive audience I figured I might as well continue to commit!

I like my team - a couple of FOMO trades brought in Danger and Cripps (what great moves!) but all in all I like the structure, the players, and the scoring ability on field. Pity I still cant pick a 50/50 rookie coin flip - I'm normally 30 - 50k in the first 3 weeks due to not being able to make the right call, so being just over 6,000th is an amazing start for me!

Danger is the number one problem and the first 'sliding doors' moment of the season - play it safe and remove a (potential) negative POD in Dusty, or roll the dice on Heeney (who was in my side most of the pre-season to be replaced by Danger) and bank some $$$. Decisions decisions. 5 deep defense, only really Steele or Oliver I might? like in the MIDS, and the less said about the ruck scoring the better leaves a like for like replacement in the forwards. Will continue to ponder.

Will have another look at Jordon this week (hopefully with Viney back he'll be relegated to a forward pocket and score -50) to see if I need to bring him in next week. Otherwise its hold on and hope things bounce my way!

 

[blue dreamer]

View attachment 27568

Don’t usually participate in this thread or like posting my whole team but desperate times call for desperate measures. All suggestions welcome.

Really can’t quite believe that this team was good for just 1791 points.

Score: 1,791
Rank: 86,303
Heroes: Bench; there are no on-field heroes in a team that scores 1791
Villians: Team effort
Trades:
Comments: Have Danger to deal with but will probably just sit tight and hope round 1 was an aberration and round 2 will be much better.

Surely Stewart and Ziebell qualify as heroes, imagine your score without them.
Good luck going forward.

 

[Vicwood]

I wouldn't be too worried, a couple of rookies on field instead of the bench would have seen a score of 1960 or so which is acceptable.

You have all of the good rookies (Berry is a maybe) You're mid-pricers and stepping stones pretty much did as expected or better. I wouldn't worry about your rucks yet.

What I do worry about is Gaff (I have him too) because he is so outside I think he suffered from being stuck in (as Gawn said) no mans land. Duggan doesn't seem to have the role that he was talked up to have.

I have gaff also. Although I’m disappointed with the score I am more concerned about how his normal running patterns where ignored and his field positions had him chasing the ball most of the game.

Do we give him one more week? Currently this is my thinking as he is in the team for his durability until the byes.

Danger to Titch already done via Campbell.

 

[The Underdogs]

Round 1 Review:
Final Team:
Def: Lloyd, Laird, Clark, Harmes, Clark, Highmore (Kozi, Fyfe)
Mid: Neale, Oliver, Cripps, McGrath, Taranto, Campbell, Powell, Gulden (Jordon, Berry, McNeil)
Ruck: Gawn, Grundy (Flynn)
Fwd: Dunkley, Heeney, Phillips, Ziebell, Dow, Scott (Rowe, Brockman)

Score: 2095
Rank: 6369
Lost points: Mainly playing Scott over Rowe, Gawn as C was underwhelming. Always bound to be some lost points
Heroes: Gulden, McGrath, Clark and Ziebell
Villains: The 3 big dogs and Harmes
Planned trades: Harmes out (he’s injured with a broken wrist) maybe Hayden Young in.
Comments: Wasn’t happy or unhappy about my round, a few good pod selections did well. Harmes is a bust now he’s injured which throws a spanner into my team. I will probably be forced to go to Hayden Young as I don’t want to downgrade anywhere else. The promising thing is I have Neale, Gawn and Grundy to hopefully lift. Open to suggestions on what to do with Harmes! Good start hopefully a better round 2

 

[stephen]

Final Team

D: Laird, Daniel, Stewart, Docherty, J Clark, Highmore (Koschitzke, H Sharp)
M: Macare, Bontempelli, J Kelly, Cripps, Taranto, Dow, Campbell, Powell (Berry, Gulden, McNeil)
R: Gawn (c), Grundy (Flynn)
F: Dunkley, De Goey, Ziebell, Daniher, Bergman, A Scott (Warner, Rowe)

Score: 1920
Rank: 47,082

Heroes: Ziebell, Gulden, Rowe
Villians: Gawn, Grundy, De Goey
Trades: Daniher, De Goey > Jordon, D Martin

Comments: Well, that was bad. Not sure yet how bad. I like my structure but pretty dirty on myself for letting Dusty slip out of my team in some late tinkering. A good example of bamboozling yourself with X v Y's as you finalise your team. Was thinking of Dusty as a 105 and JDG as a 95-100 and suddenly your team looks better with JDG in it. But do you really want JDG instead of Dusty? Not now I don't. I think I also tricked myself into thinking my team wasn't value-oriented enough, and I needed to squeeze a clever POD value pick in to give it a boost. Stupid noob stuff really. Like many, I'm sure, I also wish I'd been a bit bolder with the rookie rucks. But I was always more focused on whether the rookies appeared on other lines and they did, so I didn't feel it was necessary. I wasn't wanting Flynn on field because I thought he'd outscore Gawn by 50 points. SC sure knows how to whack you over the back of the head about these things though. I am going to hold with rucks for now and cross fingers. If Gawn can't give me a good captain's score against Hunter/McKernan then he is a terrible pick. I will be too far behind those who started without him then, and trading to get Flynn on field will only make my team more similar and therefore less likely to make up ground. But you probably have to do it at that stage and just accept that you're playing for a respectable finish. The only thing we Gawn, Grundy owners have to hold onto is that the other ruck rookies failed, so the advantage isn't what it could have been. And it really did seem like a perfect storm for Flynn, playing in wet against Hunter/McKernan. So I still think things can change quickly. Fingers crossed, and good luck all! Well done to all the teams starting well, particularly @Herbie66 after his long fruitful preseason - will be watching your progress with interest!

 

[bomberboy]

Oxford Kommer
D: Lloyd, Laird, Short, Docherty, Harmes, Clark (Kosi*, Highmore)
M: Neale, Macrae, Cripps, Rowell, Taranto, Campbell, Powell, Scott (Berry*, Sharp, Gulden)
R: Gawn (C), Grundy (Flynn*)
F: Dunkley, Hind, Dow, Cahill, Warner, Bergman (Rowe*, Jones)

Score: 1743
Rank: 96,919
Heroes: No-one.
Villians: Everyone.
Trades: Harmes to Hayden Young and Rowell to Walsh
Comments: Season over after Round 1 is a new record. Not sure what I did wrong, but everything I think. Ah well. Looking at my team, I don't think it's that bad? Bring on 2022.

 

[Deeman1]

Oxford Kommer
D: Lloyd, Laird, Short, Docherty, Harmes, Clark (Kosi*, Highmore)
M: Neale, Macrae, Cripps, Rowell, Taranto, Campbell, Powell, Scott (Berry*, Sharp, Gulden)
R: Gawn (C), Grundy (Flynn*)
F: Dunkley, Hind, Dow, Cahill, Warner, Bergman (Rowe*, Jones)

Score: 1743
Rank: 96,919
Heroes: No-one.
Villians: Everyone.
Trades: Harmes to Hayden Young and Rowell to Walsh
Comments: Season over after Round 1 is a new record. Not sure what I did wrong, but everything I think. Ah well. Looking at my team, I don't think it's that bad? Bring on 2022.

To a degree bad luck can't be helped.

Rowell (6), I thing he was a reasonable pick, but got injured, Gulden over Campbell/Scott/Powell adds 80 points, Rowe over Bergman adds another 70, so thats 150. Gawn, Grundy, Neale under-performing.

Team stucure is OK, just need some more luck and go from there.

There is nothing can do about Round 1, but I wouldn't be giving up on 2021 just yet. Bad start, but best thing to do is accept the challenge and recover as best you can

 

[Herbie66]

Final Team

D: Laird, Daniel, Stewart, Docherty, J Clark, Highmore (Koschitzke, H Sharp)
M: Macare, Bontempelli, J Kelly, Cripps, Taranto, Dow, Campbell, Powell (Berry, Gulden, McNeil)
R: Gawn (c), Grundy (Flynn)
F: Dunkley, De Goey, Ziebell, Daniher, Bergman, A Scott (Warner, Rowe)

Score: 1920
Rank: 47,082

Heroes: Ziebell, Gulden, Rowe
Villians: Gawn, Grundy, De Goey
Trades: Daniher, De Goey > Jordon, D Martin

Comments: Well, that was bad. Not sure yet how bad. I like my structure but pretty dirty on myself for letting Dusty slip out of my team in some late tinkering. A good example of bamboozling yourself with X v Y's as you finalise your team. Was thinking of Dusty as a 105 and JDG as a 95-100 and suddenly your team looks better with JDG in it. But do you really want JDG instead of Dusty? Not now I don't. I think I also tricked myself into thinking my team wasn't value-oriented enough, and I needed to squeeze a clever POD value pick in to give it a boost. Stupid noob stuff really. Like many, I'm sure, I also wish I'd been a bit bolder with the rookie rucks. But I was always more focused on whether the rookies appeared on other lines and they did, so I didn't feel it was necessary. I wasn't wanting Flynn on field because I thought he'd outscore Gawn by 50 points. SC sure knows how to whack you over the back of the head about these things though. I am going to hold with rucks for now and cross fingers. If Gawn can't give me a good captain's score against Hunter/McKernan then he is a terrible pick. I will be too far behind those who started without him then, and trading to get Flynn on field will only make my team more similar and therefore less likely to make up ground. But you probably have to do it at that stage and just accept that you're playing for a respectable finish. The only thing we Gawn, Grundy owners have to hold onto is that the other ruck rookies failed, so the advantage isn't what it could have been. And it really did seem like a perfect storm for Flynn, playing in wet against Hunter/McKernan. So I still think things can change quickly. Fingers crossed, and good luck all! Well done to all the teams starting well, particularly @Herbie66 after his long fruitful preseason - will be watching your progress with interest!

already feeling the pressure 😀

suspect scores will turn very quickly

 

[WindyHillWizard]

Windy Hill Wizard

D: Lloyd, Laird, Stewart, Ridley, J.Clark, Highmore // Sharp, Kosi*
M: Neale, Macrae, Merrett, Walsh, Campbell, Powell, Berry, Scott // Gulden, Jordan, McNeil
R: Gawn (C), Grundy // Flynn
F: Danger, Dunkley, Ziebell, Warner, Bergman, Rowe // Fullarton, Brockman

Score: 2003
Rank: 22,681
Heroes: Ridley, Walsh, Dunkley, Ziebell, Rowe
Villians: Grundy and Neale were the main culprits
Trades: Danger to ? Really stumped on this trade. Not sure whether to do the obvious to Martin or look at a midfielder or defender instead.
Comments: Higher priced premiums didn't deliver, but hopefully its a one week thing.
Ended up with what felt like quite a cookie-cutter side, but happy with my overall structure and some premium sections such as Ridley and Walsh.

Minus Doc from that defence.

 

[WindyHillWizard]

Very similar to my team (scored 1999), surprised you didn't do better though, that 7 man defence (9 with rookies) looks very unique and a cut above everyone else.

Struggling with Danger too, Dusty safe choice. If Grundy does well may hold for one week.

Ideally would like to do the Howe trade of last year, not sure it is obvious.

Minus Doc from that team. 😉
Could Mills be that Howe trade you are looking for?

 

[Herbie66]

Oxford Kommer
D: Lloyd, Laird, Short, Docherty, Harmes, Clark (Kosi*, Highmore)
M: Neale, Macrae, Cripps, Rowell, Taranto, Campbell, Powell, Scott (Berry*, Sharp, Gulden)
R: Gawn (C), Grundy (Flynn*)
F: Dunkley, Hind, Dow, Cahill, Warner, Bergman (Rowe*, Jones)

Score: 1743
Rank: 96,919
Heroes: No-one.
Villians: Everyone.
Trades: Harmes to Hayden Young and Rowell to Walsh
Comments: Season over after Round 1 is a new record. Not sure what I did wrong, but everything I think. Ah well. Looking at my team, I don't think it's that bad? Bring on 2022.

Gawn & Grundy return to normal sooner rather than later and you are well and truly back in the game , at least a 100 point turn around from those 2 players alone.

 

[kakarot]

The Dude Abides FC
D: Lloyd, Ridley, Daniel, Short, Highmore, Sharp (Koschitzke*, A Fyfe)
M: Neale, Macrae, Merrett (C), Laird, Taranto, Campbell, Powell, Gulden (Berry, Brockman, Scott*)
R: Grundy (VC), Flynn (Meek)
F: Dangerfield, D Martin, Phillips, Caldwell, Ziebell, Briggs (Rowe*, Warner)

Score: 2244
Rank: 290
Heroes: Ridley, Macrae, Gulden, Flynn, Martin, Ziebell, Rowe.
Villians: Neale, Grundy.
Trades: Danger to an M or F gun.
Comments: Good start for a change, nailed the week with Gulden and Flynn on-field. Decided to run both a pure FD (Fyfe) and an FDTP (Briggs). Hopefully I trade well enough to o***et any losses in cash generation. On Brockman/whoever watch for Jordon. Good luck all!