The word on the street has been that Vikings were favorites for this years title, yes we made finals the previous year but once you make the finals it's all luck. Bad luck cost the win last year and good luck got me win this year. With a 66% win ratio i was confident I could compete with best in the competition and as always i was optimistic this would be the year, but as we all know covid-19 struck and my optimism waned. Players averages improved but also some declined. Petracca was seriously considered as a trade bait as most believed that potential was still attainable, but i wanted something back before that potential was not seen. Lucky for me nothing eventuated and he lived up to that potential, McLean was next on list and I secured an early draft pick as I was desperate for a long term defender to replace Harbrow, knowing the kids were still a year away I drafted in Hibberd for backup another move which payeed dividends as Rampe, Newman, Taylor and Young succumb to year ending injuries. Right there is reason I had the worst defense in the competition. Mitchell coming back from a knee injury gave hope to the side that desperately missed him in last years GF finishing with 113 average. What good comes bad is just around the corner Ross dropped 27 ppg , Viney miss games but increased by 19 ppg, Shuey missed the back end of the season and Crouch had his best season. Believe it or not the real star was Powell my last pick 57 in PSD ! making crucial appearances when the stars were out. Grundy was Grundy, but English an improvement of 20 ppg played a key role in keeping my team competitive. Capping off a great season with a top score of 202 and 143 in the final, Im happy to say putting a high price on his head was justified. Multiple coaches came knocking on the door but none wanted to entertain maybe my unrealistic counter offers, but looking back now those coaches could be regretting it. Besides the hiccups in the backline i was constantly more frustrated in the forward line, maybe I shouldn't have been going from 3rd best 2019 to 1st ranked 2020. After Heeney season ending injury rnd 6, Tucker rnd 7 I felt the walls closing in and basically gave a FU to the gods and mostly gave up on the season. Finlayson dropped 18 ppg but once again McKay and Scott saved my bacon. Feeling the heat and pressure to try and scrape through some wins I drafted Farrell and Weideman, kids of future but getting games. So how did I end up with the best forward line in the comp? Petracca 36 ppg increase, maybe it was being able to fill spots when needed? @fresh might be able to answer that question For me this season felt about damage control, constantly worrying about who would be injured next or what 2nd tier player would be dropped. I realistically thought this would be another year of what could have been, did I become premiers with the best 15 in the comp NO, could I win with my best 15 YES/NO. We all like to look to future when we draft , besides Warner every pick other player drafted served a purpose for the now. Sometimes it's not sexy but I truly believe that those second string players helped me succeed this season. Good Luck to all next year
Great read @bryzza. Very interesting to hear your thoughts on how you approached the season. I was trying to trade up in the last draft to have a better chance of grabbing Young so wasn't too shocked when you took him at pick 2 and felt relieved I didn't end up paying the price I would've to get a better pick and not be able to draft who I wanted. In answer to your question, those rankings are based purely on points scored across the lines which I copy from the match day page. So the fact that you had troops waiting in the wings to fill spots for injured players definitely helped as you rightly said. (Not trying to single anyone out but it's such an easy example to pull out) It's why Hughenden have been ranked so low over the past few years when it comes to their ruck line, they don't really have anyone to step in and score without copping the OOP discount. I don't take into account who played in your forward line, just the points that were scored over the year compared to the rest of the comp and ranked the teams accordingly. Well done again on a terrific season.