As the SC season wraps up I thought it might be interesting for people to list some of the lessons they have learnt over the course of the year, hopefully in sharing these as a community we can all learn a few extra things and probably have a laugh while we're at it. I'll start it off with the following 3 lessons I learnt this year: 1. Never trust a Riewoldt. 2. Never trust the St Kilda or Fremantle medical staff or reports (sorry guys), but after Kozi being out with "ankle soreness" only to find they had rushed him off for an MRI on his brain and Lurch and the Pav I think credibility has to be questioned. 3. Gazza will always be a champion. Anyone else learn anything they feel like sharing?
<blockquote>Quote from BlueBeliever on August 23, 2011, 18:20 2. Never trust the St Kilda or Fremantle medical staff or reports (sorry guys), but after Kozi being out with "ankle soreness" only to find they had rushed him off for an MRI on his brain and Lurch and the Pav I think credibility has to be questioned. </blockquote> I could have told you that before the season even started.... I liked that week Kosi was late withdrawel. Think entire world knew it was happening and i even put McEvoy on field even though he wasnt named!!!
I've learned that I should listen more to The Oracle. http://tooserious.net/mpp-insurance-peace-of-mind-for-about-269k Now bear in mind that Judd hasn't really had an injury lay-off this year, and that the article is from pre-season 2010, but the predictions are uncanny!
1. Don't avoid trading in players just because they have a bye left - easy to get a 23rd premium to sub for them 2. Trade hard and trade early 3. Ruck scores are inflated, don't get a forward as your ruck (Petrie)
1. Research research research. Getting it as good as you can at the start helps alot. 2.trade out cash cows at the top of their price rise. cant afford to get sentimental. 3. MPP to the max in all directions 4. dont drink and trade and think before you trade All pretty standard stuff. 5. My main thing has been to have a excel spread sheet of all my trades...in coming and out going funds, incoming and outgoing players. very very useful tool.
1. Never skimp when selecting your midfield premiums. 2. Never, ever trust Higgin's preseason reports. 3. Never, ever, ever doubt the perma-captain.
1. create two separate teams one for overall and one to beat your mates in leagues. very important as wasted a valuable trade offloading stevie j early in the season to prevent a donut to keep pace with overall, how handy he would have been this week beating up the swans @ skilled. didnt trade anywhere near hard enough to have a real shot at the 50g anyway only just getting my team finalized now 2. pavlich and nick riewoldts fantasy days are over (for me anyway) 3. if you think you are onto a gun in the preseason back your judgement and dont get talked out of it by the masses it could be the ace up your sleeve...until every man and his dog trades him in 4. as have learnt from previous years keep trades up your sleeve for finals, as all hell breaks loose at this time of year 5. be nice to your mother
1. Guns and Rookies strategy works...and its a lot more fun. 2. Watch for midfielders hitting 22/23yo who could move to elite (Murph, Pendles, Thomas) and pick them early. 3. Sell your rookies on the way up - don't wait too long. Trade HARD when they are reaching their peak, then sit back and pray you've picked the right guns. 4. Never pick Higgins. Never. He may look like value but he isn't. Full stop. Don't pick him.
<blockquote>Quote from Senator96 on August 23, 2011, 19:41 1. create two separate teams one for overall and one to beat your mates in leagues. very important as wasted a valuable trade offloading stevie j early in the season to prevent a donut to keep pace with overall, how handy he would have been this week beating up the swans @ skilled. didnt trade anywhere near hard enough to have a real shot at the 50g anyway only just getting my team finalized now</blockquote> Well that's illegal that...
1. No matter how good his form and preseason do not buy Jack Grimes because he WILL end up with a LTI. 2. No matter how good his form and preseason do not buy Jack Riewoldt because he WILL end up being a spud. 3. Do not skimp on midfield premiums, GAZ, Swan, Pendles, Boyd, Murphy et al are worth every cent. 4. Your season will be determined by the rookies you pick up. Spend all summer researching. 5. As above, mature aged rookies / recycled players provide some of the best buys (think Barlow, Curnow, Pods, Krakour, Mzungu in the last 2 seasons) 6. Trade hard early and finalise your team as soon as possible. 7. Find bargain priced premiums early on who are waiting for that breakout season.
I'm a rookie, so it makes sense my lessons learnt are classic rookie mistakes. 1. Higgins 2. Trading on a Thursday night 3. Higgins
1. Don't waste time on question mark players, next year, I'm avoiding Brown, Didak etc. They are too questionable on performances now, despite Didak gathering 30 possession's on the weekend, he gets 70 odd SC, and if you say that's because there was a lot more higher scorers between the team and on 3300 to share, well I think you'll find that in a lot of Collingwood games, as they dominate a lot of teams, Didak is no no, Brown a no no, too couragous for his own good. In my opinion anyway. 2. Find a POD, sometimes going the best from each team doesn't work as well, if you picked Dal Santo ahead of Montagna this year, you nailed it, if you picked Sam Mitchell ahead of Hodge this year, you nailed it, if you went Pendlebury ahead of Swan this year, quite even, but Swan went to Arizona, I'd probably say you nailed it. If you went Scotland over Gibbs, you nailed it, if you went Fisher ahead of Goddard, you probably nailed it early on. Think, Think, Think, think about who you think will drop this year, who will average more. This is not so much POD, but can still work if you get it spot an, and give you a lead over the whole competition. 3. Look for a couple of mature age recruits for bench spots. Think Lower, Duigan, Puopolo, Curnow, Z.Smith, Mzungu of this year etc. 4. Something that I use, is create a base of premiums, then build around them. 5. Soak up as much information as you can in the pre-season/off-season. Learn from the top teams which strategy they used (i.e. Impromptu, Yamum, Shags etc). 6. Don't over expose your POD find to the world, keep it to yourself, maybe a few people who support the team that your POD plays for in a pm, if they don't approve, listen to what their points are, whether you still think he is a good buy/you now have doubts, keep him anyway, get good depth to cover him if he has a bad start, before Round 3, get the best rookie (performances over rounds 1-2 and is on the bubble) who is averaging consistent scores, think Darling, Tapscott etc, they can be handy cover, and earn you more cash then other rookies so you can upgrade them quicker, and only when they are at there pick.
Made some mistakes this year as it's my first year, but next ear should be a whole different story, especially with the info people provide on here! 1 - don't be afraid to trade a fallen premium - NRoo comes to mind, should have traded him 2- most pokies will get tired and drop form - zac smith! Shoul have traded him when he peaked at 400, especially cause sandi got injured 3 - injury prone area are alwas injury probe - grimes and higgins
1. If you find yourself in a good position after a couple of rounds, don't stop there and "save my trades", keep going, keep trading, find PODs that the top teams don't have, like Kel did a month or 2 earlier, doing an analysis of the top teams, and see who is a rare player among those teams. 2. Trades are like Gold, decide how you are approaching the year, for example; A; You are all Leagues, meaning keep trades in hand for finals B; You are overall, meaning trading hard early to get your team as best as possible early. C; Find a balance in between, a strategy that was used by my mates earlier this year, they were trying to find a balance between both, a mate of mine, who is 100-odd overall at the moment, only traded when he scored well below par, if he scored well or rised in the overall, he kept hs trades, this has a mix of both, not exactly trading hard in every round, but trading hard where there is weakness, then saving trades ("for finals") in leagues by doing so.
Firstly, decide whether your going for overall or for leagues and stick to that strategy. For me personally: 1. Starting 3 premium mids was to few, should have gone 4 2. A guns and mid priced strategy is by far the best if you can pick those mid pricers 3. Don't blindly pick premiums (Riewoldt, Goddard, Montagna) who have terrible preseasons 4. Trade hard early to get 22 premiums on the field ASAP 5. Don't skimp on ruck or midfield premiums 6. Value can be found in Def and Fwd's for mid pricers
Amen to all that! Especially any reference to Higgins or Roo Boys. Paid the price right from week 1 as Dane Swan started smashing out big scores...and I didn't have him. Need to separate alcohol and trading, a work in progress. Congratulations Walesy for all that you and your amazing band of contributors do for this community.......we gotta ramp up our support so you can take it to the next level. Good luck.
1. Preseason, the only time to consider an injury-plagued player is if i) he is priced with a huge discount (eg. Malceski 2010); or ii) he has scoring ability far ahead of almost all of the premiums in his position (eg. Chapman). Rioli, Higgins, Grimes, Drummond etc. do not average enough to justify the risk of injury. 2. Preseason - don't pick any player whose WAG just got pregnant and who is scheduled to give birth during the season. Don't want any missed games due to the birth, or sleepless nights affecting scoring. 3. MPP if deciding between two otherwise equal players (eg Scotland instead of Shaw/Newman). 4. For the non-super premiums (super premiums = Ablett, Swan, Pendles), pick those with a weak starting schedule...likely to get more points early that others cannot easily claim back, and your opponents will be at a disadvantage as they spend more $$$ to get those premiums in. 5. Evaluate all the permacaptains and have them in your team from the start. By definition, a permacaptain should be as safe as houses...so things shouldn't backfire like they did with Goddard this season.
Always check players pre season re injuries or disruptions to training. If they can't build a strong fitness base then, they can't do it during the season as they spend most of the week doing recovery and will under perform. Never ever nevr evr ne ev pick Higgins!!! Not even if he's related to you, not even if he pays you. You can't get drunk enough to make that mistake again. Concentrate much more on getting captain picks right. Sounds obvious but can't put too much effort in that endevour. Will pay off in spades.
Glad someone started a post like this cos my errors this year have been playing on my mind!! Note to self for next year: (1) Just because they were a gun last year doesn't mean they will be this year. If injured in pre-season steer clear otherwise you end up carrying them all year ala Didak!!! Too stubborn to trade him out cos he cost me $500K prior to pre-season lockout and has dropped faster than a stone since. At least I also didn't get Brian Lake (despite thinking about it!) (2) Similar to above, fallen premiums are usually cheap for a reason, cos they suck!! Don't trade them in based on their name and hoping they come good (ala JRoo, Sylvia!!) (3) Don't jump on the first cash cow you see but don't have after preseason lockout is done. Ie Tapscott this year, everyone was raving about him and I decided to buy him in rd 2, trading away JTip and F/R link in the process. Worst move of the year a definite YOU IDIOT moment. THERE WILL BE OTHER CASH COWS!!!! (4) As mentioned above, don't trade away your MPP links or you WILL regret it later!!! (5) SAVE YOUR TRADES!! Have a trading strategy in mind and don't be swayed by it or what others are doing or what "cheapies" are on offer. Get who you think you need to win, not someone just cos they are cheap. Confiscate your computer if necessary to prevent unnecessary trading as you WILL need trades late in the year when the general and injuries WILL strike.