Hi all, sorry to bring this up on a Monday when all might still be reviewing the weekend that was but I can't stop thinking about how to use my final trades. If I could trouble any of you for some advice that would be great! I have 4 trades left - $50K in bank, going for leagues. Trying to maximise the use of my final 4 trades. My team is currently (D) Lids, God, Gibbs, Enright, Broughton, Adcock, Lower (Poops, Pedersen, Toy) (M) Swan, Pendles, Selwood, A Swallow, Ablett, Boyd (B Jacobs, I Smith, Didak) (R) Cox, Petrie (Vardy, McCauley) (F) Buddy, Goodes, Pav, Fyfe, Sylvia, NRoo, JRoo (Mzungu, Howe, Richo) As you can see I am going to have a ruck problem come rd21 with no Petrie, will also have a mid to cover in rd21 and possibly rd22. Plus a defence upgrade probably needed (can go Lower to Fisher with no downgrade needed ATM). I have some ideas of what I can do with this team but just wanted to get other people's thoughts? Thanks everyone
Very very important question - how are you going in your leagues? Will you make top 4? Are you a chance to miss top 8? Do you have an important final league game (round 20)?
Oops thanks Anthak was just thinking I forgot to mention I will finish top 4 in both my leagues. In Rd 20 I should win against both of my opponents so have pretty much cemented a double chance.
My opinion is then... Hold onto your last trades till finals I would normally say to only use a trade in round 21(1st final) if you are faced with a zero. But, I wouldn't want to rely on one of your d7's in the finals. Especially when stretched to d8 as well in r23. So I would get that trade done early. Upgrade one of lower, puopolo, Pederson or toy sometime in next 3 weeks, so that you will have fully upgraded team and still have 2 trades to use in your first knockout final if necessary/required. Maybe you could trade lower next week, just before his massive r17 score vanishes out of his 3-game ave. Or pederson the week after - while this weeks 99 still making a diff to his $. Pederson also still has a bye, so he may be best option - and it also gives you an extra week in case you are forced to change your plans. Only other thing I want to say is - only save 2 trades for granny if you still have 4 on preliminary weekend. I hate the feeling of losing a final knowing that I haven't used my trades to improve my team. Although in saying that it could be handy having 1 trade saved for granny, but that part is up to you. Well it all is obviously up to you, but the different strategies in relation to that factor are neither here nor there, so it comes down to personal preference I reckon.
Thanks very much for the advice Anthak. Was definitely going to save trades for as close to finals as possible. Dunno bout saving them for the grandy though as might not make it that far, got very hard teams I will have to face in finals!! :S Pretty much have locked in Lower --> Fisher can do this this week with the cash I have. If I wait til next week might miss out but will think about it. Depends what I do in relation to below, as I am still quite worried about my ruck situation. My thoughts on my options for my 4 trades left are: (1) Just keep Petrie for now in ruck and wait and see. If Vardy is playing rd 21 can use him as a replacement but not real confident of his scoring capability. If Vardy not playing or if I think he will just suck, might have to straight swap Petrie to Mumford or even Sandi if back and depends who I can afford. Use my other 3 trades to do one downgrade (for cash making purposes) and 2 upgrades Lower to Fisher and then either Pedersen to another defender or upgrade a rookie forward to a gun forward (Cyril?) (2) Trade say Mzungu to Hale to open up link to forwards. Use Hale in ruck and Petrie in forwards with JRoo as coverage for Petrie in rd 21. Use my other 3 trades as per above with a downgrade but then do 2 defensive upgrades say Lower to Fisher, Pedersen to Birchall. This solves my ruck problem and gives me an extra forward and 2 extra gun defenders for coverage. I am leaning towards option 2 TBH, I know I asked the TS community about Hale last week and was told he was pretty much a spud but he has now got three 90s in a row and with Hawthorn's easy run home this could continue. Option 2 allows me to keep Petrie and still do upgrades. Option 1 is either relying on Vardy or being able to straight swap Petrie to Mummy or Sandi which might not happen as they might be too dear. Thoughts?
when looking at your team, i considered similar to the two options you have outlined as well. At first I thought Option 2 - and funny that i was thinking Hale would be a good option for f7 for you too. but then i thought you should just go with Vardy in round 21. only trade if likely to cop a zero. you will finish top 4, and have a 2nd chance anyway, so no need to waste a trade on that round i reckon. plus, I reckon Jackaroo is a good option for F7 right through the finals, as richmond fwd's should go alright against their opposition in those weeks. if you bring in Hale, you will prob have him wasting away on the bench, so the trade could be better used imo. on Lower to Fisher - you could do it this week, but i would personally hold off until next week and see what options there are. What if Fisher gets injured this weekend... i would even wait an extra week, and then way up which def is best to upgrade - maybe pederson.
Thanks again Anthak, will def give consideration to all you have said. Think I might get Hale though, jus to give me that extra option. I can always play him in ruck and Petrie forward and if I use one of my other forwards (ie Pav) as my midfield sub then JRoo can come on. If I upgrade Pederson and Lower to Fisher and Birchall I have the luxury of putting Adcock on the bench. Then I can choose my sub cos I can move either a defender (Gibbs) into the midfield as coverage or a forward (Pav) into mids. Then I have the choice of JRoo or Adcock to play on field. Maybe too many options though??? Although if a case of the dreaded "general soreness" comes on at least I might have coverage this way even though I won't have any trades left.
Sorry to butt in on this two-way conversation, but will throw this into the pot: Prior to R21, down JRoo for Lobbe. Logic is, JRoo (and I have him) looks less and less likely of cracking the promised big one. Lobbe is averaging about the same as him anyway. You can then use Lobbe to swap with Petrie when need be. Then up Richardson to Cloke if you can manage it. Hold remaining 2 trades for finals. Personal opinion; think your DEF looks fine and no need to bring in Fisher (who is now under-performing anyway). Keep mixing it up between Lower, Poops, Pedersen for a run, depending on who they are playing.
Cheers TiB, was becoming a 2 way convo but I am keen to get other people's input too. Any extra ideas help. Last week I was gonna down JRoo to JTip to free up cash and open the link to Petrie. Then wouldve traded Vardy for Mummy and still had enough cash to get Fisher. Now with Mummy having another blinder (damn it) I can't do get him for Vardy without using all the cash from the Jtip trade so doesn't seem worth using 2 trades. didn't think of Lobbe though, worth considering. I also think Jroo stinks, wish I never bought him - only did it cos he was "cheap" at 350K now he's dropped even more! Lesson learnt, people are usually "cheap" for a reason!!!!!