Everybody will be donut-munching. The best I can figure out is this (numbers refer to bye rounds, and the askerisks are MPP rucks) : Rd 11 B: 12 12 12 13 13 13 13* - 11 11 M: 12 12 12 13 13 13 - 11 11 F: 12 12 12 13 13 13 13* - 11 11 R: 12* 12* - 11 11 Trade a def, a mid and a fwd 12 to 11 Rd 12 B: 11 11 11 13 13 13 13* - 12 12 M: 11 11 11 13 13 13 - 12 12 F: 11 11 11 13 13 13 13* - 12 12 R: 11 11 - 12* 12* Trade a def, a mid and a fwd 13 to 12 Rd 13 B: 11 11 11 12 12 12 (13*) - 13 13 M: 11 11 11 12 12 12 - 13 13 F: 11 11 11 12 12 12 (13*) - 13 13 R: 11 11 - 12* 12* The only place there's any leeway is in the rucks - two spare in Rd 13. If one of your rucks is a R/D, and another is a R/F, you can just get away with it. There are 9 Ruck MPPs 7 are R/F - 1 is 11, 1 is 12, 5 are 13 2 are R/D - 1 is 12, 1 is 13 So basically, if you have two MPP rucks with byes in Rd 12, and a D/R and a F/R on the ground with byes in Rd 13, you can swap them all between Rds 12 and 13. If you're happy with a ruck division with 2 premiums having byes in Rd 11 plus Sellar and Hamling - with Roughead in your forward line and Lever in your back line - and if your entire team is available in Rounds 11-13 - you can avoid donuts. Just. But you'd probably be mad to try it.
There's a slight variation possible, because Lycett (R/F) has a Rd 11 bye. But your team would still require at least one 11-bye premium, and Sellar and Lever, plus either Lycett or Hamling, in order to work. My expectation is that the vast majority of teams will cop 3 donuts minimum over the three weeks - two because they're unavoidable and one because the likelihood is no-one has 30 players available on any given week. 5+ would be pretty common. My plan at the moment is to ensure I have a strong team on at least one of those weeks, and a respectable turn-out on one of the others. I'll probably concede one of them. It should work out even over the three weeks, but help me with leagues.
@ Heavymen I'm still not seeing it. As PL pointed out they share byes and the main issue with the rucks is not missing games, its playing too many. As you only have an eight man bench every time over the three rounds that you have a playing emergency you receive another donut elsewhere during the byes
OK BB & p-l I'm giving this away. For the life of me I don't get it! So Hale & Rowe Share the same bye. Surely in 11 rounds I can upgrade one of the 3 rookies or simply have the choice of Berger with Giles/Big O if they're still there & trade Hale/Rowe into a fwd who's not having a Rd 12 bye? My theory is Hale will hold his value at around $400 & give me plenty of choices if I trade him out. I'm hoping to upgrade both Rowe & Hale pre Rd 12 starting or one of them after the bye if possible. Hale to Roughhead would be nice if it can wait till after Rd 12 Good luck with it all & I will be the first to say I'm a dunce if it goes pearshape.