Well, footy is a go, at least for one game tomorrow night anyway. How does a 17 game supercoach season, potentially mid week games whilst the going is good, potentially weeks at a time with no games whilst the going is bad, change how you'll pick a starting team? Is the GNR strategy not a goer this year?

30 trades across a maximum of 17 rounds, leaves you with two every week and none on the very last round. Prices to change from round 2 as well.

At this stage, I've got no idea what I should do to my team, and I haven't even been thinking about it for two weeks.

I’m rethinking my structures and with likely more rested players, I’m focusing on durability and ppm.
So the question is?

Will players returning from injury or have a history of injuries get rested and create a big pile of donuts?

If playing multiple games, surely this means a 1-2 week injury could push out to 5-6 weeks. This will force trades and stuff our seasons. So durable players are essential.

With shortened quarters (16mins) does this bode well for players who have a history of elite ppm?

Without looking to deep into the stats, Mids and Rucks are the highest ppm players.

Pisst!!!! Nic Nat has great ppm stats.

Build in maximum flexibility this year is a safe option.

Is anyone thinking of NOT using Grundy and/or GAWN and using the extra funds to stack the Mids or other lines?

With no byes, will anyone take the three Doggies Mids of MAC, DUNK and BONT?

Thinking about it for sure, NicNat is tempting, but if they're pushing for more games, and shorter breaks between games then NicNat will surely be rested some games. I'm definitely moving away from a guns and rookies team this year.

I'm pleased to see a lot of folk are going for 5, or even 6 premium mids. There's a real dearth of rookie mids, even likely mid-price mids this year, so I think it makes sense to go big there and wing it more in Def and Fwd. At least you can expect to score well early.

I've gone Grundy and English. I expect to end up with Gawn by midseason, but I have a feeling he'll not hit his huge BE early and with no byes to complicate the timing I think it'll be a lot easier to transition into another ruck combo.

Do we get the same number of trades even though its less rounds? If so its even more viable to trade rucks more than you normally would.

I like it. I'm going Grundy and English too with 5 premium mids (Oliver M5) and yes we still have 30 trades so you could make 2 trades every round and only have none left for the very last round

Same trades 30 for the season but prices change after 2 rounds not 3.

KFC SUPERCOACH CLASSIC

— Each team will have 30 trades, with a maximum of two per round. This has not changed from previous years. This is based on a 17-round season and one round being played per week.

— Player prices will change after two rounds, rather than three.

— The size of 18 and 10-team leagues won’t be changed.

— The last four rounds of the home-and-away season — now set to be Rounds 14-17 — will be the KFC SuperCoach finals series.

— If a season is completed the $50,000 major prizes for both KFC SuperCoach and tips.com.au will be awarded as normal, plus runner-up prizes. Weekly prices will be awarded for any completed rounds.

— The 17-game fixture will not feature any byes, so special bye round rules (best-18 scoring) will not apply

Sorry Chief.....don't shoot the messenger

Thinking flexibility might be a goer in this years initial team. With essentially two trades a week the ability to move players around across the lines might be pretty handy.

I am going to try some weird strategies and hope they pay off. This 17 game no bye season has changed things up. I could either be a genius or a complete idiot. I will learn nothing from my mistakes for future years but I feel it's at least kept me interested in this year which has been chaotic so far.