I'm interested to hear your thoughts Herbie as I'm running with 9 rookies on field.
My 'premo's' were:
Lloyd-Laird-Stewart-Short
Macrae-Merrett-Oliver-Steele-Kelly-Gaff
Danger-Dusty-Dunkley
I've already moved Danger > Titch and tossing up what to do with Gaff, probably to a Fwd premo (I have no idea as to who yet)
Ideally hoping that I would fill D5-6, M7-8 and F4-6 with cheaper upgrade options. R1-2 will be the most expensive upgrades and I might end up with 1 or 2, 2nd tier rucks.
I don't have access to how much rookies rise in price so I'm assuming that I'll get maybe 6 traditional one up/one down type trades, using 12 trades. The other 3 upgrades will hopefully need just the 3 trades each, so another 9 trades. That might be overly optimistic, so even with 4 x one up/one down trades I'll need to use or budget 23 trades to get a 'full' side.
I'll have already used 3 trades for corrections/suspension leaving me only 4 trades for LTI's/suspensions for the year.
My assumptions might be totally out of whack and I'm probably running with an 'ideal' type scenario, but I think it's doable with a lot of luck and good timing/trades.
Based on hindsight the 13 premium structure probably needed to be :-
5-4-0-4 for a a all rookie starting ruck
or
5-3-1-4 for starting Gawn/Grundy
At this stage the "boom" recruits (aside from Rucks appear to be)
Highmore
Berry , Gulden , Powell , JordOn
Campbell , McDonald , Warner
(12 currently averaging over 60+).
The problem I am seeing already is the bench rookies appear to going to struggle to generate enough $$$ (although Brockman , Lazarro , McNeil scored reasonably well so.maybe their is a chance) while a few of the popular ones could have JS issues already.
Looking at your team you appear 1 premium light in defence (so many NM Premiums to choose from)
Can you go Gaff - > Ridley if not by a rookie D/M then use Laird
Who is your D5-8 ?
You seem too heavy in the mids , if you can field 3 of Campbell , Gulden & JordOn and then move Berry & Powell to the bench or field Campbell forward.
Heeney will always be my value pick forward or seriously would take Walker for 4-6 weeks and hope he gets to $ 450k.
Looks to be in the best shape of his career , the game and scoring has changed from previous seasons.
Theoretically he won't be a season long keeper but maybe he gets close.
Footywire I find the best place for BE and projected cash gains/losses for individual players.
TooSerious is another good site
@Professor loves it when I give them a plug 😀
My simple formula is :-
$ 125k starting price ideally makes $ 150k profit = $ 275k
so 2 downgrade rookies to new rookies gives me $ 300k profit
2 down to fund 1 upgrade = $ 275 + $ 300 = $ 575 k premium to trade in
Hopefully I can get them for $ 525k ish
Rucks will be different though.
Plenty of D & F in that $ 200-300k bracket that could be value in bringing in this round eg Cumming , Jiath , Switkowski etc etc
Just need to get the must have "boom" recruits onfield and get the right structure
Hope some of that makes sense and helps