Have been looking at my final MID upgrade and thought I would do a review as to who really is a POD where it counts at the pointy end of the comp - the top 20. Anyway here are the results, being the number of teams each player is in of the current top 20 SC teams. Selwood - 18 Pendlebury - 15 Swan - 14 Judd - 10 Boyd - 8 Murphy, Mundy - 6 Cotchin, Bartel - 5 Thompson, Priddis - 4 Harvey, Goodes - 2 Watson, Montagna, NDS, Ablett, Fyfe, Delidio, Hodge, A Swallow, Mitchell, Pavlich - 1
Hodge and Ablett were the obvious standouts although I would imagine that they will be traded in to a number of teams this week.
Now I know why I am not in the top 20. Very interesting to see players like Pavlich and Deledio only in 1 of these 20 teams.
Interesting that Watson was only in one team. I bet he was in plenty more but they all offloaded him after his injury.
Having PODs in your team is only useful if they actually score more than the popular players. For example i went with a risk at the start of the year. I chose Priddis and A Swallow as a unique midfield pairing. My other option was Pendlebury and Bartel who are far more popular. My unique pair cost me $10k more and so far has yielded 57 less points. Yes i can boast i have a POD but the fact remains i made the wrong decision. I understand you need PODs to catch up to the leaders, but if the popular players are the ones scoring the best then that gap will never be breached.
Very true words there Swert, but if you don't take a gamble, you won't win. Unless your on top of course. No point picking up Swan or Boyd if most teams above you have got them already. I would say your combo of Priddis/Swallow will probably just beat Pendles/Bartel come the end of the year.
DW from my experience being top 5 for about half a season, I suggest don't concentrate too much on PODS. Get your base team right and hope that the PODS you do have will be enough. I had more than enough PODS in my year, but I didn't have the bread and butter enough to get me the (then) $20k. When I look at this list I like Judd and Boyd. Happy to have Judd, Boyd, Ablett as my less selected to complement the top 3 (Pendles, Swan, Selwood). Teams that don't have this top 6 mix - and from what you've listed, Kel, not many do - will in my view have to either waste trades getting there (that are already scarce enough for these teams) or just cop the points hit week-in, week-out as their teams just don't have the power of the Rommel's Legion. The issue for me is they kick my a.rse in every other area on the ground.
The 900 point gap is not going to be smashed down over time either unfortunately. Ah well better making up ground late than never I reckon.
Quick update - Hodge now in 3 of the Top 20 teams including 1 new entrant, Ablett in 6 including 4 new entrants. Of those that dropped out (8), none had Ablet and 2 had Hodge. Only 1 team has both and they jumped from 24 to 7!