I've been playing around with a few strategies for my starting team this year. Basing my team solely on a few must haves(Ablett, Franklin the usual suspects). And I'm currently very tempted to start with just one elite mid(Mr Permacaptain himself), Two mid pricers who I think will be this years Fyfes, and loaded up on Rookies. This team allows me to have a planned 3-4 upgrade Def made up of with 3-3-3 Mid of 1-2-5 with one mid priced M/F player and a Fwd Line of 1 upgrade 6-0-3 Rucks are 1-1-2. If I don't hit any of my Mid-Priced Choices it will leave me with 11 upgrades(6 mid-priced, 5 rookies) and If I hit them all(which is a far stretch) could leave me with just 4 upgrades.... My thoughts are that this season might be similar to last years game with premiums dropping values until the byes, then increasing again in the 2nd half of the year after the prices have evened out....(As GWS and Rookies increase by 100-250k) This strategy will take some cahoonas, as I will need to catch this years crop of Fyfe, Rockliff, Suckling. It also might need some very hard and fast trading to catch up the points lost in the midfield vs teams with 3-4 elites. I would love to hear peoples thoughts or other ridiculous/Genius strategies Supercoaches out there have thought up that breaks the hold of the standard GNR strategy....
Gutsy strategy. I have mucked around with several strategies and ended up on three premium mids each with a different bye round. However as kickoff nears I am feeling most comfortable with the idea of 4 premiums and four rookies, but no Pendles until week 13. The 1-0-3 ruck strategy is popular, but I believe that one is fatally flawed due to the 60+ pts difference between a scoring rookie and cox/sandi/mummy/leuy. The other ruck strategy I quite like is 1-1-2 playing Kreuzer, West or Maric at R2. It is a high risk strategy, but if the guy you pick scores at 100+ you are $200k up on everyone else, and Kruezer is very capable of that whilst West and Maric are more of a punt.
Still thinking that West Coast made it work with Cox, NicNat and then JPK and The Big Q down forward. North's lineup is looking similar atm. Could work...
west coast played nic nat in the guts while cox rucked at times i can't see that set up happening in any other team carlton and kreuser would be the only team that could do it but they have the depth in the mids to not do it
I'm not a fan of the 1-0-3 ruck strategy. With all the mid rookies around you will just be spending that cash in the backs or forwards where there is so much uncertainty. Seems silly, and if giles cops an injury your stuffed. I can definitely see some value in the 2-0-6 mid strategy, but not sure there are enough mid rookies around to do the lone permacaptain strategy.
I reckon the 2-0-6 mid strategy could definently work but I don't think the permacaptain strategy could work.
Your midfield is your engine room you need those 3 or 4 premiums that are going to score big from round 1 and by the end have the best 6 mids . There is value in the fwd and def that could average 90-100 for a cheaper price . If your going for league then you may get away with a weaker midfield to start but for overall you need to be scoring big from the start!
I'm running 3-0-5 in my midfield. Gaz, Murphy and Selwood with the 5 rookies being the more popular ones at the moment i.e. Gibson, McDonald, Miles, Magner etc
Thanks for the feedback everyone. This is the 3rd year I've suggested such a risky strategy that goes in line with my GMR approach. @Lucas. I have gone with HMAC at the moment pairing up with Coxy. I remember HMAC being touted as the next big thing before the emergence of Goldstein and injuries. I have also played with the idea on no premium ruck going with Kruzer instead, but that causes too many sleepless nights. My current midfield for the Lone Permacaptain Stategy has been slightly improved. Mids. Ablett. Bartel. Masten. Wingard. Coniglio. Koby Stevens. McDonald. Magner. Yet playing around with it and trying to stay true to form and risking the house on it, it might end up being. Bartel to Benell. And coniglio to neale. Leaving me with nearly 175k to play around with for the first round of upgrades. On Bennell in the midfield, it would, could or should give me a filled out fwd line. Replacing him with Couch or D. Smith depending who's moo'ing the most. Also this idea or strategy or madness whichever you think, would give me a good chance to spot the few rookies I might have missed(like we all do) and take a flier on them in the first few rounds. @weazel. The bombers have played 2 rucks most of the time with one resting fwd. they Might even try 3 rucks this year at the expense of a KPP against WC who smashed us with their talls last year.
@ dabombers I think you shld make Koby Stevens your permacap! i dunno - i reckon you waste a lot of money on wingard coniglio but ok masten is a risk yet i get your thinking... keep in mind the byes with your 6 forward premiums...
certainly been looking at it myself Ablett then depending on who GWS name - Clifton, Hampton, McDonald, Miles, Reid, Shiel, Smith, Treloar (is 8 options)plus Neale, Stevens, Magner, Gibson etc etc will they all play the first 6 to 10 rounds though and score enough to rise significately in price to downgrade and then upgrade into premiums (who may have dropped in value) does allow 5 premiums and 4 rookies in defense Cox + West/McIntosh in Ruck and 6 Premiums plus Dangerfied in the Forward Line so 13 Keepers, plus 2 risk (rewards) in mid+price ruckmen and Dangerfield and 15 Rookies just have to have the balls to do it I guess
I think its a little bit too much pressure on some untried hands! Would be interesting to see if it works, but I like a more balanced team.
Yamum, what was your reasoning behind saying that you need 3-4 mid premiums to score big from the start? Obviously I agree they are the highest scorers but theoretically, all other things being equal, your premiums can be spread across any lines and will score the same. IMHO you're in the same boat regardless of how many mid premiums you have as long as whatever premiums you pick hold steady or go up a bit. You might nail a midpricer who goes premium or a premium who goes ultra premium but that's possible in all cases. Or am I missing something here? I'm also thinking of a 2-0-6 midfield because the mid rookie strength looks good whereas I can't see enough def and fwd rookies to feel comfortable playing more than one or two. Essentially I'm thinking I'll take the best rookies wherever they are and then fill in premiums around that - which is not to say that premiums are completely interchangeable as there are some who demand selection but in my opinion they are more interchangeable than rookies. (Perhaps that's naive of me!) If going 2-0-6 I reckon you might have to include a few premium rookies to reduce risk though so that's a negative.
Given the inconsistency in forwards prices dropping and the mids is where you score the bulk of your points you would make a lot of cash but would be so far behind in points to the leaders that you won't catch up given we all start with the same amount of trades, just doesn't seem worth it, maybe tooserious could put up a team like this with only 1 premium mid(GAJ of course) and a balanced side then at the end of the season we can review this for next year until then GnR all the way!