Review Round 18 & 2020 Season: Review

[Bomber18]

And that's a wrap on SC for another year!! (a year that will never be forgotten...)



Round 18 Heroes: Danger's second half , Neale, Titch, Fyfe, Zerrett, Lloyd, Laird, Trac, Stewart, Dusty, Whitfield, Gawn and Grundy
Round 18 Villains: Cripps, Z.Williams, Ridley, MACRAE
Round 18 Trades: Doch to Daniel; Parker to Macrae (ouch.... cost me 40 odd pts...)
Comments: Couldn't be happier with my final ranking of 114! I think mid way through the season I was hoping to scrape a top 1k ranking after the wheels starting falling off. But I kept chipping away, sticking to my guns and kept inching up the rankings throughout the second half of the season. I went up the rankings each round since Round 8 (when I was around 5k)! It's now my third season in a row finishing in the top 250!! (was something I never thought I'd be able to achieve given how much luck is involved in SC).

Slightly bitter usage of my final four trades over two weeks to bring in Wingard, C.Lyons (donut), C.Daniel and Macrae for 0 tons between them but my work in the middle of the season was enough for me to keeping pushing up the rankings over the final two rounds.

League wise, I was lucky enough to prevail in the prestigious SCS PL league, was blown away in the SCSBoTB GF but went down narrowly in my GFs in the SCSLG league and the Draft Gods of SC league (which was the pesky 10 person league that finished No.1 overall!!! - great effort to all involved!!).

Well done to the SCS members that finished very highly and also those involved in the highly ranked SCS Leagues (I counted 6 in the top 10 18 person leagues!).

Feel free to add some extra commentary as part of the end of season review. I'll update my post myself with some more reflections!

Starting Team
D: Laird, Sicily, Docherty, Roberton, Noble, BZT (McAsey, Brander)
M: Neale, JKelly, Danger, Bont, Cripps, Rowell, TGreen, MPickett (McInerney, TBrown, Starcevich)
R: Grundy, Naismith (BWilliams)
F: Dusty, Trac, Brayshaw, DSmith, DFort, Budarick (Cavarra, CTaylor)
*Bolded were held all year (noting I traded Bont out and in)

Final Team
D: Lloyd , Laird , Stewart , Ridley , C.Daniel , Z.Williams (Ling, B.Williams)
M: Neale , Bontempelli , Zerrett , Dangerfield , Macrae , Fyfe , Titch , Cripps (Rivers, Schoenberg, C.Lyons)
R: Gawn , Grundy (Draper)
F: Petracca , Whitfield , Greenwood , Martin , D.Smith , Wingard (Cavarra, Mosquito)

$25,300

Ranking History


Trades History



Best Trades

1. Naismith to Gawn in Round 2 - This trade really set the tone for the restart season. Gawn had an easy draw and put out 6 consecutive scores above 140 from Round 2 (and I had Pittonet's 130 odd cover for Gawn in Round 3).
2. Gawn to NN to Gawn Boomerang between R12 - R15 - This was the main move that helped me push into the top 1k after stumbling in the middle part of the season. NN took the C duties in R13 and posted a 140s score instead of an 80 odd from Grundy which was the cherry on top.
3. Pickett to Zach Merrett in Round 12 - Merrett averaged 123 for me for 545k. Very important selection given I did not have Macrae or Oliver.
4. Lloyd IN before Round 9 for under 600k - it was the last time Lloyd was under 600k all season and he averaged 128 from that point onwards.
5. Roberton to Howe in Round 2 - this one was quite an important trade early and helped me initially bounce back after a poor start

Worst Trades

1. B.Smith to J.Martin in Round 15 bye - terrible terrible decision which cost me points and trades, and created a "musical chairs" effect in my F6 position (Wingard later filled the spot).
2. Brayshaw out for Viney in Round 2 - A wasted trade that also cost me points and didn't need to be done. I thought at the time that a different approach was needed for the unprecedented SC season. But the age old rule of "back your preseason research" held true and A.Brayshaw was one to have held. Viney made his 100k for me but was a bit of a nothing pick (the decision re the cancelled Ess/Dee games only made things worse).
3. Trading a fit JKelly to an injured Fyfe - purely an emotional rage trade following the hard to understand decision to punish those who had loaded up on Ess/Dees players. I knew I shouldn't have done it but my care factor for the season was lost around that time (but it did return after a longer period of normality!).
4. Sicily to Z.Williams - This one was a frustrating trade. Z.Williams missed a week and also only averaged 79 in my side.
5. Parker to Macrae in R18 - cost me 42 points in the end. Would've been nice not to have done this one!

Best Starting Selections

1. Petracca - Easily one of my best selections in SC. He dropped a 180 odd in the preseason and I knew I had to take the punt on him as the ceiling on his type of breakout player is too high. In the end, he exceeded all expectations and finished the season on a 117.5 average.
2. Laird - I wouldn't have known it for the first part of the season, but with an average of 121 from Round 10, Laird no doubt became a season defining starting selection.
3. Neale - It was only a last minute move to upgrade Oliver to Neale during Round 1 AFTER the announcement the season would be delayed, but boy, did having Neale from the start help make SC 2020 that much easier.

Worst Starting Selections

1. Roberton - had to be traded out straight away after dropping a 20 in Round 1. Does anyone even remember we picked him? I was foolishly super bullish on Roberton all preseason and even took him in the SCSUL keeper draft...
2. Fort - another that needed to be traded straight away.
3. Cripps - Started the season well but faded heavily after being an absolute lock for me. A terrible season for Cripps but I'm sure he'll be picked for me in 2021 at a lowish price

 

[Bomber18]

2020 League Wrap Up

Well done to our SCS Leagues!!! (On total points, 6 of the top 10 and 8 of the top 18)

1. SCS CL - 4th on averages (2nd on totals)
2. SCS BestofTheBest - 5th on averages (3rd on totals)
3. SCS Old Farts - 6th on averages (4th on totals)
4. SCS$A - 8th on averages (6th on totals)
5. SCS PL - 10th on averages (8th on totals)
6. SCS$C - 12th on averages (10th on totals)
7. SCS ShakeNBake - 15th on averages (13th on totals)
8. SCS LG - 20th on averages (18th on totals)

And I think we can also claim the pesky 10 person league titled "Draft Gods of SC" that is No.1 on averages when the majority (if not all) members also have accounts on SCS! Great effort to all involved to finish No.1 in a league that was created to decide our yearly SC draft order!

 

[randomcliche]

Part rant. Part analysis.

Round 18. I. Don't. Care. Out of all finals any any chance of overall significance. See below for details.

2020 the year I'll forget.

A lack of interest round 2 and bam, no trades made. Welcome round 3 oh **** prices have changed. Season over.

Petracca over Simpkin round 3 was a win. Lesson buy the bigger mid.

Rucks caused grief. More to follow. Started nic nat went to some ex hawk, should have known better bought gawn at peak should have known better. Lesson there will be falls.

After not starting neale got him at bottom. Lesson there will be falls.

Rookies were okay but not outstanding. More effort required next year.

Went for a rolls royce premo approach and it didn't keep pace.

My few mid prices failed. Tjl, Smith and Houston all didn't make top 6. TJL and Smith GaGF'd.

Early Dunkley, Treloar. Shoulder and Hamstrings. Titch over Oliver hurt. Not starting Neale was diabolical. Lesson. Buy the most reliable 22 game premos, even if you think Jelly will score more cause GWS will murder everyone. Whoops.

Not sure if I'll do 2021 I really don't trust the integrity of the game with additional trades handed out this year. I vehemently disagree with it, makes me want to throw it all in. If want more trades there is Dreamteam, pi$$ off and play that.

Announce the teams before the round. ***.

End rant.

A big thank you to @Professor and all the others who post and awesome amount of content and take the time to consider others sides. Amazing.

 

[frosty1]

Such a littany of bad trades and poorly conceived ideas, but still heaps of fun. Thanks everyone for a good season

 

[Ironhawk]

R18 Score: 2,476
Weekly Rank: 2,602
Season Score: 37 007
Overall Rank: 25,598 (up from 29,887)

R18 Heroes: 15 scores 100+
R18 Villains: Z. Williams (66), Rivers (69), Brayshaw (77), Riccardi (76)

Comments: I achieved my top score for the season in the final round, just like last year. Managed to win the 1 GF that I made it into which was a mates league - happy to win that one for a change!

This was my best final ranking as far back as the SC site shows by far, previously it was around the 50K mark, and to be honest my ranking likely would have been significantly better if I had of started with the team I was planning pre-COVID, rather than a mid price heavy team. I owe this significant improvement to everyone here - thank you. I have learned a lot from some of the best in the game since joining here last year, and I am hoping to improve significantly again next year.

Glad to be a part of some high performing leagues this season and although I may have brought the average down a bit, I still appreciate the invites. Next year is my year - I won't be such an easy beat in 2021!

I'll post a season wrap in coming days. Lots to go through in what was an unusual season, the most unusual part probably being the fact I went through an entire season donut-free. That never happens!

 

[Frank]

While I appreciate the antagonism towards the granting of additional trades, in my case 37 trades got me almost to full premo for the first time - fell one short - so it was okay by me!

I wish I had traded out Hawkins before R17. He was a great POD before that. Indeed I wish R17 had been different: I was ranked 1679 before that shocker (Mitchell, Hawkins, and Danger all posted their lowest scores of the season in that round, and Haynes scored 40-odd). Still trying to get over it.

Ended up at 2583, by far my best ever, with exactly one thousand in the bank and used my last two trades at R18.

My end-of-season average is 2151, would be great to read what everyone here averaged too.

Thank you to everyone for making this strange season as enjoyable as you did! I’ve said it before: this is such a great community and I love coming here every day.

 

[Mudflap]

The Mudflaps have had a great season. Finished 63rd overall with a 2212 average.

Had an average start to the season at around 20K for the first 3 weeks. Made it to 35th overall at round 10 and was in the running but just couldn’t make a move for the next few weeks 32, 34, 33, 27, 26 before dropping a few spots in the last 2 weeks.

Highlight of my season was trading out Docherty in round 7 for 571K when he was averaging 106 and watching him average 82 for the rest of the year.

Lowlight of the season was trading in Walters in round 12 and getting 489 points from him for the rest of the year (including a donut) instead of Brayshaw for the same price that would have given me 648 points. That one decision would have finished me at 30th overall.

At the start of the season if I was told I would finish 63rd I would have been thrilled. After getting as high as 26th overall I spent the last 5 weeks absolutely cursing SC because I could not get any higher and felt like I was blowing my one chance I would ever have to get a top 10 finish. Sort of sucked some of the enjoyment out of it for me.

No chance I would have finished as high without using this site. Looking forward to next season but have a feeling it might be a while before I am anywhere near these rankings again

 

[_Slip_]

Tough year. Season was on track for a top 100 finish but I dropped the ball round 12, but recovered to finish 250 overall. Not a bad result in a tough year on and off the field.

 

[jaca]

I had my best position in R1, worst round score in R2. Fought back to a decent enough spot, but can't help thinking what might have been in a regular season.

 

[Bermi]

Round 18 Heroes: The whole team (see below), all did their bit to help win the Grand Finals.
Round 18 Villains: Would have been any of my players not starting in Rd18.
Round 18 Trades: Had no Trades left.
Comments: My aim at the start of the year was to to win one Grand Final from the 5 leagues that I entered. Rapt that I won all 3 that I played in, SCS Old Farts, SCS Quartet 1 and a Public League.
My biggest disappointment, by far, was losing all the points from my 7 MEL/ESS players in Rd3.

Happy to be under 500 in the Season Rank, best ever. One lesson I learnt is that SuperCoach is not a marathon, it's a sprint from the start, with some breaks during the season to catch your breath.

Congratulations to all the Winners and the Coaches that achieved their PBs.

To me, SuperCoach is not only a game, it is a recreation, and it's SuperCoachScores that makes it so. Thank you all!

 

[lavenderbandit]

Score: 2,441
Overall rank: 11th
Heroes: all my team through 2020! SCS community
Villains: Covid
Trades made: Doc to Saad
Comments
wow what a year. I have really only ever been one of those casual players, really only focussed on leagues previously to try and beat my mates who are basically all crabs at this game. here is my overall rankings from 2014-19 as far back as the site shows: 9,878 - 190,331 (ghost ship year) - 2,860 - 37,368 - 40,979 - 21,632 so nothing really special at all. however last year really got my interest in the game again, and sprinkled with a covid induced lockdown i had a lot of spare time on my hands. read this site a lot, far more than i can ever tell my boss and had a good first round. from there the success equation was simple:
+80% reading this wonderfully amazing SCS website over and over.
+60% lady luck
-40% my skills

If you told me start of the year I would end in the top 1000 i would have taken it hands down! But i must say getting so close to top 10, only 35 points out, is more than a little annoying. Last week looped cripps over parker to get Rivers score (38 points!) and this week Rozee over cameron (28 points) etc etc so have been replaying so many over these what-ifs last night. Of course we forget the other side of the coin eg almost went Doc to Houli rather than Saad (would have been negative 36 points). So no regrets, so close yet so far and what a year.

There has been so much help from this site and too many to call out but special mentions to the likes of @Connoisseur @Tails @nicohighscore @Professor for the stats and info shares. And also to all the leadership team for keeping this site going and on a level far higher than so many others degrade too over time. Sincere thanks for making this year enjoyable.

Best starting picks: Ryan Brayshaw Petracca Zerrett Neale MacRae
Worst starting picks: Cogs
Best Trade in: Ridley
Worst trade in: traded BZT to KKP who was a late covid out after trade made

final squad
Def: Lloyd Ryan Stewart Ridley Saad ZWilliams
Mid: Neale MacRae Zerrett Fyfe Adams Titch Parker Cripps
Ruck: Gawn/Grundy
Fwd: Petracca Whitfield Brayshaw BSmith Simpkin Rozee/Cameron

Peace out, see you next year.

 

[Drew]

My year looks like this:



Has been a pretty good year, started Neale, Gawn and Grundy. Jumped from Gawn to NicNat and then Grundy to Gawn. Laird and Lloyd solid starting choices in defence, but Milera and Brodie Smith didn't work out.

Forward I only started with two premiums in Dusty and Whitfield who were both top six defenders and traded in Petracca for round nine.

Cogs in was probably a fail, but Dangerfield in round 14 for $563k was a steal.

All up a pretty good year, thanks to all for helping out on here and to the leagues which were a blast! I actually won the SA Showdown league!

 

[Drew]

Score: 2,441
Overall rank: 11th
Heroes: all my team through 2020! SCS community
Villains: Covid
Trades made: Doc to Saad
Comments
wow what a year. I have really only ever been one of those casual players, really only focussed on leagues previously to try and beat my mates who are basically all crabs at this game. here is my overall rankings from 2014-19 as far back as the site shows: 9,878 - 190,331 (ghost ship year) - 2,860 - 37,368 - 40,979 - 21,632 so nothing really special at all. however last year really got my interest in the game again, and sprinkled with a covid induced lockdown i had a lot of spare time on my hands. read this site a lot, far more than i can ever tell my boss and had a good first round. from there the success equation was simple:
+80% reading this wonderfully amazing SCS website over and over.
+60% lady luck
-40% my skills

If you told me start of the year I would end in the top 1000 i would have taken it hands down! But i must say getting so close to top 10, only 35 points out, is more than a little annoying. Last week looped cripps over parker to get Rivers score (38 points!) and this week Rozee over cameron (28 points) etc etc so have been replaying so many over these what-ifs last night. Of course we forget the other side of the coin eg almost went Doc to Houli rather than Saad (would have been negative 36 points). So no regrets, so close yet so far and what a year.

There has been so much help from this site and too many to call out but special mentions to the likes of @Connoisseur @Tails @nicohighscore @Professor for the stats and info shares. And also to all the leadership team for keeping this site going and on a level far higher than so many others degrade too over time. Sincere thanks for making this year enjoyable.

Best starting picks: Ryan Brayshaw Petracca Zerrett Neale MacRae
Worst starting picks: Cogs
Best Trade in: Ridley
Worst trade in: traded BZT to KKP who was a late covid out after trade made

final squad
Def: Lloyd Ryan Stewart Ridley Saad ZWilliams
Mid: Neale MacRae Zerrett Fyfe Adams Titch Parker Cripps
Ruck: Gawn/Grudny
Fwd: Petracca Whitfiled Brayshaw BSmith Simpkin Rozee/Cameron

Peace out, see you next year.


View attachment 21847

Congrats on the sensational finish LB, great to see people on here up at the pointy end again!

 

[Bomber18]

Score: 2,441
Overall rank: 11th
Heroes: all my team through 2020! SCS community
Villains: Covid
Trades made: Doc to Saad
Comments
wow what a year. I have really only ever been one of those casual players, really only focussed on leagues previously to try and beat my mates who are basically all crabs at this game. here is my overall rankings from 2014-19 as far back as the site shows: 9,878 - 190,331 (ghost ship year) - 2,860 - 37,368 - 40,979 - 21,632 so nothing really special at all. however last year really got my interest in the game again, and sprinkled with a covid induced lockdown i had a lot of spare time on my hands. read this site a lot, far more than i can ever tell my boss and had a good first round. from there the success equation was simple:
+80% reading this wonderfully amazing SCS website over and over.
+60% lady luck
-40% my skills

If you told me start of the year I would end in the top 1000 i would have taken it hands down! But i must say getting so close to top 10, only 35 points out, is more than a little annoying. Last week looped cripps over parker to get Rivers score (38 points!) and this week Rozee over cameron (28 points) etc etc so have been replaying so many over these what-ifs last night. Of course we forget the other side of the coin eg almost went Doc to Houli rather than Saad (would have been negative 36 points). So no regrets, so close yet so far and what a year.

There has been so much help from this site and too many to call out but special mentions to the likes of @Connoisseur @Tails @nicohighscore @Professor for the stats and info shares. And also to all the leadership team for keeping this site going and on a level far higher than so many others degrade too over time. Sincere thanks for making this year enjoyable.

Best starting picks: Ryan Brayshaw Petracca Zerrett Neale MacRae
Worst starting picks: Cogs
Best Trade in: Ridley
Worst trade in: traded BZT to KKP who was a late covid out after trade made

final squad
Def: Lloyd Ryan Stewart Ridley Saad ZWilliams
Mid: Neale MacRae Zerrett Fyfe Adams Titch Parker Cripps
Ruck: Gawn/Grudny
Fwd: Petracca Whitfiled Brayshaw BSmith Simpkin Rozee/Cameron

Peace out, see you next year.


View attachment 21847

Outstanding performance mate! You have killed it all year and wowee you spent so long in the top 20!

HS still need to conduct their checks and balances on the top 10, I’ll hope for your sake that someone has tripped the TCs (as 11th is so cruel after such a wonderful year!)

 

[jel]

Score: 2,118
Weekly: 52,713
Overall: 9,226 (down from 6,633)
Value: $12,595,700
Trades Out: None
Trades In: None
Heroes: Neale (142), Hurn (138), Mitchell (130), Petracca (130), Gawn (121x2), Ryan (121), Adams (120), Merrett (119), Martin (116), Oliver (112), Laird (108), Stewart (105), Dawson (103)
Zeroes: Duncan (69), Lukosius (34), Haynes (34), Draper (32), Cripps (26), Walters for getting injured.
Comments: A season that started with a bang ended with a wimper. After the heady heights of getting inside the top 1000, a finish in the 9k area is a little deflating, even though it’s my 2nd best result in SC.

As expected, I was hammered in my GF, losing by 185 pts. It doesn’t help when 4 of your zeros are also your unique players.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to SCS particularly when I've looked for help and advice. The insights I’ve gained here this year have expanded my thinking on how to tackle SC and I’m excited to put these into practice next year.

 

[lavenderbandit]

Outstanding performance mate! You have killed it all year and wowee you spent so long in the top 20!

HS still need to conduct their checks and balances on the top 10, I’ll hope for your sake that someone has tripped the TCs (as 11th is so cruel after such a wonderful year!)

 

[The Myth]

Final Rank: 175

Unfortunately a round 18 score of 2239 resulted in a big drop from a season best rank of 93.

Firstly I’d like to thank the contributors here. I didn’t expect to go nearly this well in my first year and wouldn’t have been able to do so without the assistance I’ve gotten here. Has softened the blow of my worst NRL SC season.

Best starters: Macrae, Bont, Oliver, Titch, Sicily, Laird, Grundy.
Worst: Mcasey, ZBT, Ceglar, Devon Smith, Telly.

Best trades:
Round 2: NicNat (458k) to Gawn (697k)
Round 6: Pittonet (435k) to Whitfield (441k)
Round 7: Ceglar (415k) to Lloyd (583k)
Round 10: Sicily (603k) to Stewart (443k)

Worst Trades:
Round 11: Budarick (246k) to Wingard (421k)
Round 13: Georgiadas (260k) to Walters (524k)
Round 13: Bennell (226k) to Balta (325k)

Learnt a of lessons this year but I think the biggest ones for me are:
1. Don’t underestimate the importance of durability. 2. Prioritise the best cash cows. I missed Simpson/Serong and that hurt my cash flow.
3. Avoid the mid-price bracket as much as possible - particularly with trade ins.
4. Target the top premos when they bottom out.
5. Anti-pods can be just as crucial as pods. Not having that 50% owned player that flops can do wonders. I didn’t start with Cripps and that helped massively. Mids seem a good spot to do this with a large number of options.

What a chaotic year.

 

[pizza safety]

Trades Made: Walters to Bailey Smith




Season Review comments:
A lukewarm but decent end to my best season to date. I couldn't really be much happier with how things have gone and am very grateful for a lot of the discussion and advice from this site!

My trading in the early part of the year was what gave me a great season, doing a lot of my own research on rookies and having some unique cash cows really helped! My starting team was good and bad, but my trading in of premiums early in the season and getting a bit lucky with a few discounted premiums (i.e. Whitfield) really helped me to get going. From rounds 4-15 my team was really on fire and was climbing up almost incessantly, before slowing down at the end.

I'm slightly disappointed in myself as I felt like I could have gone even higher, but my trading late in the season was too geared towards post-bye players. I didn't completely love the ZWilliams, Walters or Haynes picks but brought them all in either as slingshots trade or as upgrades. Thought that their ceiling as players without byes would make them worthwhile and could pay off, in the end Williams and Walters missed games through injury anyway and Haynes completely reverted back to a prehistoric state after I traded Stewart to him. These are the decisions which probably kept me from top 50, but it's near impossible to get everything right and all you can do is learn.

Lots to learn from the season and a lot to learn from the things that I did right. I think most importantly this year I didn't listen to any podcasts and tried to get outside influences from those who aren't that good totally out of my head. It was mostly me thinking through picks and making the final decisions, except for listening some people on here and being receptive to opinions which I thought had strong validity. Getting the balance right between trusting myself and listening to others probably gave me this great season.

Well done to all the SCS leagues, we've dominated this year, and congrats to all the other members of SCSCL, we came 4th for average points and 2nd for overall points!

Best starting picks: Petracca, Oliver, Gawn
Worst starting picks: Tom J Lynch, Houston
Best Trades: Roberton > Doedee, Cogs > Viney (after week 1) then Viney > Macrae (after week 4), Howe > Ridley, Bewley > Pittonet, Hayden Young > Merrett at 524k & NN > Gawn a week before everyone else,
Worst Trades: Tom Green > Yeo at 481k, Doedee > Z Williams, Aarts > Walters & Stewart > Haynes

 

[Bontempele]

Biggest lessons from the year:

- a premium and a rookie is better than two uncertain mid pricers
- but one certain mid pricer (e.g. Petracca) and one uncertain mid pricer (e.g. Bewley) is better than a premium and a rookie
- pre season scores are irrelevant for rookies, anyone playing midfield or half back will generally be good
- end of season form doesn't matter for premiums
- old or injury prone premiums aren't worth bothering with

 

[jel]

Biggest lessons from the year:

- a premium and a rookie is better than two uncertain mid pricers
- but one certain mid pricer (e.g. Petracca) and one uncertain mid pricer (e.g. Bewley) is better than a premium and a rookie
- pre season scores are irrelevant for rookies, anyone playing midfield or half back will generally be good
- end of season form doesn't matter for premiums
- old or injury prone premiums aren't worth bothering with

Congrats on your SCS06 win, it was a fun comp to be in.