Quite a few would be around the 14-16 trades left after this weekend, with most cashing cows and upgrading. Those with more trades left are likely the ones who were more thorough in initial team selection. For myself, I have 5 more prems to bring in. If achieving this requires the usual one up, one down, then 10 trades will be required. This does not include housekeeping (think Richardson, Dixon, Hunt, etc.). There will certainly be LTIs to come, byes to dodge and hopefully some trades left for finals. This number of trades remaining suggests 'rookie' selection in future will be for reliable bench cover rather than late cows. Is anyone else starting to feel the pinch and how many do you need to finish your team?
Same boat as you terry, 5 keepers to come in with 16 trades left, pretty happy with that plan to finish my side by r 14 and hope ltis dont bite me on the arse later in the year
I wish I could say that I only had 5 keepers to get! For me, I'm still sitting on 14 premiums, not to be confused with keepers, and this is the same number that I had in my team to start with. Broughton hasn't looked close to avg 95+ for a defensive premium, nor has Varcoe spent as much time in the midfield as indicated in the pre-season which means he is no better than Matera, Grimes with LTI another one to fall off the radar. For me this week baring any late minute issues I'll be getting rid of Grimes and somehow upgrading Varcoe. Had it all planned out then Smith blew a head gasket.
I have roughly 9 to go, but with a healthy 22 trades left. Now it should be clear that I'm implementing a strategy purely for a league victory. But I'm unsure how successful it'll end up being. Right now I'm actually top on points scored but 10th on wins in my cash league, having lost the majority of my games so far. I know for a fact though that most teams have used more trades than you guys. Is this an advantage I can ride home? Lastly, can any of you think of a reason why I shouldn't bring in S. Thomson in this week?
Terry ~ Its at this hard upgrade stage that after a couple of Prems brought in, you all of sudden wonder where all your trades went - so true. I'm sitting at 14 and have completed this weeks up/down...leaving me with 3-4 upgrades left...the unknown (3 or 4) amount is to give me wiggle room if needed and leave Hepp at D7 if it gets too tight. Sadly though, my existing Prems arent all performing as Prems as they bloody well should be....but there really is very little you can do about it until Rd 18+ as any sideways for those boys will be a luxury trade only.
Sitting on 13 trades & need 3 prem to complete. However this means I am inc. Gods, Broughton, Grundy, Hodge & NRoo as premiums (ouch). Also means Tapscott/Darling, Harris (GC) & Duigan/L Thompson may have to remain as viable bench cover until near the end of the season to preserve 7-8 trades for LTI & finals (hopefully). This is the reason along with a growing BE that left me comfortable trading Heppell to Hodge this week. Remaining Bomber is Hibberd who will moo at some point to avoid late trades to clear Bomber players. I think the advent of GC rookies, jackets, inj to players & multibyes saw me tade for more rookies than other years as I made 5-6 trades to get in those gold plated rookies I didn't select at the start (L Thompson, S Martin, Polec (bad move), Materia & Z Smith for the likes of K Hunt, Derickx, Guthrie (ouch) & Irons. Wasted two trades to get rid of Gilbert who I thought would be great at the other end to Grundy & Rioli to J Roo to try & maintain some scoring momentum. Will double trade next week to get Swan or GAJ & then sit for a bit.
Good point Snoz - you may not be all that happy with the performance of some of your current prems, but now is the time to be adding, not changing, and backing your decisions in. For me in particular this means lighting an incense stick every night for Goddard and Broughton. Yeah, try and make Hep the last one to go in case things get too tight. @aerodyte Interesting strategy which suggests you have not been fattening a lot of cows. Right now is the time to start what Lucas calls 'momentum' and S. Thompson is about the perfect choice for this week (as is Selwood). Then you need to start pegging back the field (look at your league draw for the remainder to see when you need to strike with trades) and try to hit your peak on the eve of finals. @JinJ I am starting to feel a little more optimistic about Broughton (don't ask me why!). Varcoe has to go. Any way you can work your strategy to get in a prem for Grimey and maybe Varcoe down to a rookie? Isaac will be back, but I have not hesitated to bring in Mz this week (hell, Jo recruited him a few weeks back!). Also Lynch will be on the bubble next week and the week after that J. Brown may require some serious consideration.
@HM Despite the best of research, there are always a few that catch us unawares (Curnow, Darling, Heppell) and we burn trades trying to keep pace with the pack. Guess the lesson is to be as thorough as possible in research, use TS (even before pre-season TS was saying Z. Smith is a must) and be judicious in jumping onto the flavour of the week. Back your own judgement - much more satisfaction that way.
@Terry It was an observation from last year that made me choose this strategy. One of my mates had rushed to put his team together. He logged in the first week to find half his team were injured or underperforming. In a fit of rage he decided never to log in again. Despite this, the rudderless team eeked out enough wins to be on the cusp of the 8 by round 12 (it was a ridiculously easy league, with several fake (and hopeless) teams to ensure we weren't playing with strangers) Looking at his team I was stunned to realized that with 20 trades in the bank he could absolutely storm home to victory! The injured players were back and scoring well, and all his cows were ready to moo. Sure, he'd missed Barlow and a couple of others, but he'd also missed all the burn trades that killed the rest of us (think roo and J.Brown). He wasn't far off the pace, but had the advantage of including an extra inform player pretty much every week I didn't tell him that, of course. As it turned out I played off in the GF. After a year of dominance I lost purely through soreness and late withdrawls (all those cats and dockers). I decided right then and there that this year I'd save my trades for the back end of the year. If I can squeeze into the 8, surely LTI's, form and the dreaded soreness will work in my favor this time?
Lastly, on my cows, of the top 15 I own 9. Libba being the only one I traded for. Curnow (was overly skeptical on the bubble), Pittard (wasn't sure), Harris (blunder), Martin (never even heard whispers about him), Thomson (should have done), Savage (meh) were the misses. So only 1 trade for libba, and 1 to replace tapscott, making 22 left. 19K overall (poor, I know), averaging a touch under 2100 a round.
@aerodyte Scores are up there, strategy seems to be working well. Sounds like a plan! A lot that we traded around, Broughton, Riewoldt, Goddard are now hitting form and a lot we traded out, Lower, Duigan, Heppell, Conca are knocking out big scores, so you are looking good. $ won't matter until you up/down and you are in a unique position to have had a good look already at who you want to bring in.