Don't know about Kosi but Bergman and Highmore are OUT....

I managed to score 2175 which saw my season rank fall down to 2935. I had 4 rookies dropped though so it might be time to focus on league for me unless they all come back next week.

What a nightmare I'm having this year.

Was feeling all smug with Flynn over Gawn in round 1, but having used that extra cash across Neale and Heppell in MF over maybe Taranto and another rookie (Berry/Jordon), and Tom Phillips in FWD line instead of another rookie, I'm now struggling to see what steps to take.

Round 1, like most I had to burn 2 trades on Danger and Rowell. To Dusty and Zorko - both of who were in my original side then culled last-minute so that was frustrating.
Round 2 I had to move Caldwell and/or Heppell. I chose to trade Caldwell and Neale - I didn't want to take the giant $ hit from Neale, think he's playing hurt, and if he comes back up to scoring 150s by round 8 then I'll consider him again then. I brought in Brayshaw and Tex, with Brayshaw immediately dropping in output .

Now I've got Young out, and 3 rookie defenders all on shaky ground. So worst-case could be forced to trade in 2 defenders and let that midfield and forward line stew longer..... but I am really reluctant to use trades to bring in any defenders who won't be final 6.

Thankfully (in a way) I had Jordan Clark in MF for his flexibility as figured he'd score enough to be a M7 or D6 if needed whilst rising steadily and being one of the last upgrades. In a normal year I'd have been looking to trade him out after his underperforming, but now he has a use - swing him back with Sharp and in theory if Highmore or Kosi are named then I don't NEED to trade at all this week.

But Warner looks like a glaring omission. Should I jump on Hickey?
Is Chapman now a must-have given the dearth of rookie defenders? Or Jaith?

I can trade Young to Ridley but leaves only $33,400, so if I wanted Warner too then it would have to be for Dow, who won't rise much but also will at least likely keep his place in the Blues team.

I could go Dow and Hunter, to Warner and Hickey, 92k left over.
Or
Young and Dow to Warner and Ridley, 16,5k left.

Its times like this you really see how important key decisions are. Daniel started off as $545,500, Ridley was $547,700. Now 523,000 and 586,000 - that's a $60,800 swing, in the sense that if I'd started with Ridley I could be bringing in Daniel for 60 grand less outlay.

Any other thoughts?
Jaith seems a candidate to drop back to the 50s as soon as I sign him but is he playing a different role this year? Stringer? Waterman?! I've even seen some moving Hunter for Meek?!

Its a funny year already with the rucks scores, and some of the top premos misfiring. A lot of the rookies look like slow-burners. If I was as highly ranked as yourself I'd give the overall a bit longer.

Thanks - I'm just kicking myself that there was a point about 4 days before round 1 where I had Dusty instead of Danger, Zorko instead of Phillips, Taranto instead of Neale, Warner instead of Brockman and Hurn instead of Daniel. I could have been so much higher up the overall if I'd just stuck with that team.
I chopped and changed far more than I ever normally do based around ruck choices (at various times had Gawn, McInerney, Hickey, O'Brien all as 2nd ruck) and when I settled on 2 rookie rucks, felt the need to use that extra $ to spread around some "upgrades" that actually I'd have been better off without!

I didn't watch the Freo game this week, my worry is that when Fyfe is out Brayshaw can't hack having someone run with him. Mitchell and Oliver got tagged out of games this week, seems the hard-tag is back...

I'm just hoping a few of them come back this week. I feel like some will. Got to generate the cash to upgrade your team. My on field is strong it's my bench that's hurting.

But thanks to you both for the encouragement