Many a coach has been able to take advantage of the captain loophole in recent years and in 2013 it has become even more prominent with a rolling lockout each and every week. We have already seen the strategy pay off time and again over the first four rounds thus far; however, having a non-playing player able to be used to exploit the loophole has been a bit of a luxury for a lot of us. I think this could be partly due to the perception that we need as many players available to take the field and making cash for our upgrades as possible.



In those good ol' days before there were byes, it was a common and almost necessary strategy to have set and forget premium rucks and a cheap backup in case of emergency, leaving the R4 position almost redundant and only the cheapest of cheap rucks suitable for the role, with job security irrelevant. Although, with the introduction of the byes when Gold Coast joined the AFL, we had to adjust to the new landscape and job security became more important than ever for all 30 positions, and this carried through to last year as well with the 3 bye rounds still causing havoc - especially if we had any players not pull the boots on over that stretch.



This year is very different in both regards, the effect of the 3 bye rounds have been softened with the new rule of the best 18 scores counting for each given week and, as mentioned earlier, we now have the rolling lockout every week.[span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;]So, having as many playing players as possible is probably not as essential as the last two years... But, having as many players as possible making cash? With the extra trades this year, yes, it is probably better to have as many options to cash in as possible, but is it more important than being able to exploit the captains loophole? I personally do not think so.
Lets have a look at the first games of each round so far and see if there were any VC potential scores from fantasy relevant players...

Round 1, there were two games on the first weekend and a game on the following Thursday and some of the scores produced were as follows: Bryce Gibbs<strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]150[/b][span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;], Michael BARLOW <strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]144[/b][span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;] and Danyle Pearce <strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]130[/b][span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;].

Round 2, on Friday night had: Jack Riewoldt<strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]138[/b][span style='font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;] and Ben McEvoy<strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]130[/b][span style='font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;].

Round 3, Friday night had: Patrick Ryder<strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]145[/b][span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;], Jake CARLISLE<strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]135[/b][span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;] and Nathan FYFE <strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]129[/b][span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;].

Round 4, Friday night had: Joel Selwood<strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]163[/b][span style='font-size: 14.6667px;]and Kieren Jack <strong style='font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;]130[/b][span style='font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;].
And these aren't even taking into consideration the Saturday day games ( Dean Cox[span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;][span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;] round 3 171[span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;] or Travis Cloke[span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;]round 4 195[span style='font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;] anyone?).


There is also the bonus of being able to put the VC on an undisputed SuperCoach champion such as Gary Ablett and see how they go, just for the hell of it - and Gold Coast have played on Saturday in each of their four games thus far.


Anyways, I reckon everyone gets the advantages of it by now, but I thought it would be remiss of me to not include some sort of analysis on that part of it all...



Back to the rucks... I think it is time to go back to having a cheapy R4, so that we can use them for the loophole. Has anyone had to call on their R4 yet this season? With more spots in the forwards and backs, it would be expected that there may be more problems too, with the need for able backup from our F/D 7 & 8; and Im not going anywhere near suggesting having a non playing mid, cause we all know their cash generation is far above the rookies of other positions.


But who would be a good option?



Now, I mentioned earlier that it is a luxury to have a non-playing player able to exploit the loophole, but even though most of our strategies haven't aimed for it, in reality, many of us have ended up with players missing games for one reason or another - Brad Crouch , Patrick KARNEZIS , Brent Macaffer , Dane Rampe , Nicholas Kommer , Majak DAW to name just a few[span style='font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: 1.3; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;].
<div>Importantly though, whether they were[span style='font-size: 14.6667px;]locked out when we needed them is another story. And in some cases, whether they can be counted on to actually miss the game is another story too (Macaffer, I'm looking at you!).
Now, if we're not planning on using them for their super scores, obviously someone as cheap as possible would be ideal, but if they had DPP powers then that may get someone a little more expensive a bit of leeway.
But, most of all, I reckon it makes sense to have someone whose team is more often than not playing on a Sunday.



Here are the teams; how many Sunday/Monday games they have remaining; and how many Saturday evening/night (scheduled 4:30 or later) and Sunday/Monday games they have remaining combined (Excluding the final round and the 3 bye rounds):



Adelaide, 7, 10.

Brisbane, 5, 11.

Carlton, 2, 8.

Collingwood, 1, 6.

Essendon, 4, 8.

Fremantle, 6, 13.

Greater Western Sydney, 5, 7.

Geelong, 1, 10.

Gold Coast, 3, 10.

Hawthorn, 4, 7.

Melbourne, 8, 11.

North Melbourne, 5, 8.

Port Adelaide, 4, 9.

Richmond, 6, 9.

StKilda, 6, 11.

Sydney, 7, 12.

West Coast, 6, 9.

Western B, 6, 13.



I think Sunday and Monday games are ideal here and Melbourne is a clear standout with 8 Sunday/Monday games left over the remaining 15 rounds (not including round 23 as we dont know the schedule, and removing the bye rounds); and there are a number of teams with 6 and 7 Sunday/Monday games remaining.



Out of those teams with 6, 7 or 8 Sunday/Monday games, there are a few with only 3 Saturday evening games and four with at least 12 games remaining on either Saturday evening/night and Sunday/Monday combined. These teams are Melbourne, Western B, Fremantle and Sydney should probably get a mention too on 7 Sunday/Monday and 12 combined. And StKilda deserve a mention because they have 6 on Sunday/Monday and a further 5 games on Saturday evening/night.
I'll take a closer look at the Saturday games for these five clubs and narrow it down to how many night games they have on Saturday,



Melbourne, 3; and 11 combining with Sunday/Monday games.

Western B, 3; 9.

Fremantle, 7; 13.

St Kilda, 4; 10.

Sydney, 3; 10.



So, now we could probably remove Sydney and the Bulldogs from the equation and sing the praises of Fremantle's fixture.

I think with Fremantle having 6 Sunday/Monday games as well as 7 Saturday night games, it places them right up there with Melbourne, who have 8 Sunday/Monday games and 3 Saturday night games.



Down to 3, do any of them have Friday night games, cause that wouldn't help... StKilda have 2 and Freo have 1 (which is this week actually and there are games the day prior).
On this data, I think St Kilda can be fairly ruled out, although considering Fremantle's number of Saturday night games, their 1 Friday night game can be overlooked in my opinion (and there are two Thursday games on before their Friday game anyway).
Which leaves Fremantle and Melbourne - probably in that order too.





But do they have any eligible players?



Fremantle: Craig Moller $96,200; and Jack Hannath , but beware, 'cause he was in the mix for round 1 with some injuries at that time.

Melbourne: nope







CRAIG MOLLER IT IS

Have you ever heard of him? Could he be the next Dylan McNeil?

Craig Moller is a 204cm, 86kg rookie listed player for the Fremantle Dockers.
<a target='_blank' href='http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/player-profile/craig-moller]Here is his bio from the Dockers' webpage[/url]:
Athletic ruckman who joins Fremantle as an add-on rookie after three seasons linked to the club through the NSW AFL scholarship program. A talented junior basketballer, he was considered a future NBL player before being approached by Fremantle as a 14-year-old.
<p >
Although, remember that Fremantle play this Friday night so unless you want to pick a VC from Anzac Day, he wont come in handy this week, but if thats your case, it gives you one more week to fatten up Mark Blicavs and move him on for the young Docker.



Anyway, what has prompted me to analyse this is having my VC on Jack this week when he scored his 130 on Friday night and then being all set with Macaffer to Cap before he was a late inclusion, leaving me with no other options for the loophole. What did I do? I went and chose Cox as Cap, which didnt turn out as well as I hoped.
Unless I have more pressing issues, I'll be bringing in Craig Moller this week

I hope this article is helpful to some of you.

What do you all think? Is it a fair strategy to run with? Is it a waste of a trade? Is it essential this year? Let us know in the comments.