One of the litle side games that has taken off in the forums here is the Trading game. The idea is that everyone decides on and starts with the same starting team, so that we can see who pulls the better trades throughout the season.

What I didnt expect to see though, is a 180 point score differencial based solely on Captain and Bench selection- Particularly when 6 GC rookies and Hibberd brought the made it that only a handful of players were in range to be benched.

This highlights to me just how important it is, in the early day, to get your captain and bench selections just right! heck, 180 points is the difference right now between a top 50 start and a top 7,000 start, or a top 7,000 start and a top 50,000 start.

In short, it can make a huge difference to your standings until youve got your team upgraded.
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So, lets take a look at some good princibles in selecting your onfield rookies, and where better a place to start than <a href="http://tooserious.net/ticker.php">the Ticker[/url].

Firstly, lets take a looks at the big scores from last week.

Robbie Tarrant 119: Looking at the ticker, we can see that West Coast give up points to opposition defenders (well, everyone except rucks really!) - which certainly would have helped here.
Ed Curnow 118: Again, Richmond leak points to each of the oppositions players, except for defenders (Ball not down there enough? *zing* Tigers fans!)
Cam Pedersen 114: While technically playing in the ruck, he was given the job of letting Cox run free so that he could as well. Had he played tighter on Cox, dare I say, his scores would have reflected that.
Luke Tapscott 113: This was impressive- Sydney have long been regarded a SuperCoach kryponite- however, a closer look at their chart reveals that they give up an average amount of points to defenders. Still, a debut ton against an "average" tick is nothing to be sneezed at.
Nick Lower 110: Brisbane are running HOT in the ticker- they give out a lot of points to all positions on the ground.
Dyson Heppell 90: The dogs were well off the form that saw them give up an average tick that is cool on the forwards, but it does go to show how short-term form needs to be taken into consideration.
Jack Darling 80: The Roos are average through the mid and up forward, so that was a good outing for Darling.

So, lets examine the ticker and see if we cant identify which of our rookies we should be fielding.

Brisbane coming up against the dogs spells bad news for both forwards and rucks- luckily, it youve got Bewick- he should be right. Those with Lester though might want to park him on the bench as hell more than likely be playing forward again with big JB sitting out.
Avoid

Collingwood are dominant. I dont need a ticker to tell me that Krakouer should be on the field.
Get on.

The Bombers are facing the Swans, but as we saw last week- they arent so scary with defenders, so Heppell should be reasonably safe to field this week.
Hold.

Fremantle are up against the Cats this week, which history says is bad news. They are cool and cold across all the lines- however, I still feel that there are question marks over the new Geelong, so it might be worth waiting another week or two before making a strong call one way or the other.
Avoid anyone who isnt Lower.

Hawthorn are coming up against the Dees this week, and if youre interested, it probably means youre holding Savage. Melbournes tick is similar to the Crows, though the tend to give more points to defence and less to rucks- so he should be a safe pick to field.
Get on/Hold.

The Kangeroos are coming up against Collingwood. These guys are the best in the business and it really shows- I wouldnt be putting any of these guys of the field, even though a number of them did ton-up last week.
Avoid.

Melbourne are coming up against the Hawks and who we have our eye on here is Luke Tapscott. While hes listed as a Forward, hes actually been playing off the backline, which is the Hawks only cool tick. So there is definitely a bit of risk involved with fielding Tapscott. That said, man is he a big unit, and he did a great job against the Swans last week
Get on/Hold.

Port are facing the Eagles his week and unless youre a Ruck, you should be looking at collecting a fair share of points- so it should be a safe option.
Get on.

Richmond are up against the Saints. The suprising thing about the saints is that even though they slow up play and force opponent defenders to chip it around, they actually have a cool tick for opposition defenders. So if youre sitting on Batchelor you might want to sit him on the pine for the next few weeks.
Avoid.

Sydney are coming up against the Bombers and now seems as good a time as any to mention that Ive introduced a new Very Hot and Very Cold colour to the scheme- V. Cold effects WCE Rucks and COL forwards, while V. Hot effects RIC and CAR rucks, and ESS forwards. However, were seeing a different Essendon this year who dont look to be so easy to score against, so I would go putting my eggs in the Syd forward basket just yet.
Hold.

The dogs are up against the Brisbane leaky boats this week, so if youre sitting on Libba, get him out there. If he cant score well this week, it aint ever gunna happen!
Get on.

West Coast take on Port, who give up points to Defenders and Rucks. So if youve got Cox, nom nom nom. If youve got Darling, he performed very well last week, but will be given more responsibility and attention with Le Cras going down. He did perform admirably last week though.
Get On/Hold.

Finally, we get to the great McElephant in the room- the Gold Coast and just how will these guys go. For a top8 side, Carlton certainly give up a lot of points to opposition rucks and defenders, but sadly, with Smith a bench option and Stanley likely to play a defensive job up forward, it doesnt look like those guys will be helped out. Popular defensive options Toy and Coad, while helped by this still have question marks over how hey will go when stepping up to the big league, but if I were to put my socks on the line, I would predict Stanley/Coad/Toy.

The midfield with Swallow and Harris should be fairly safe to bring these guys onto the field. With the GCs a-list midfield playing, I highly doubt that well see Swallow tagged as he was in the NAB and it should reflect in his scoring- however, if they do get thumped, there might not be that many points to go around. While people will disagree, Im gunna go Swallow/Harris on this one.

Finally, up forward, we have Matera, Dixon and Prestia sitting in a bunch of squads. This will be interesting. Last week with their defensive outs, Carlton looked powerless to stop the machine that was Riewoldt, but then, it *is* Riewoldt and they did do a decent job on the other tall forward options, so I would probably bench Dixon is you have him. Prestia still isnt assured a gig, but well find out tonight I guess. Matera on the other hand is definitely an option. he performed very well in the NAB and should get a fair bit of the pill. The big question though is do you have room on the field with Tapscott and Darling fighting for the spot.

And finally the Carlton boys. With the GC being such a big question mark, I gotta go with my gut feel- and that is simply. Get on. GC will be competitive, but I still see a pretty heavy loss on the cards- and that spells SuperCoach gold.

So, there you have it, Personally, Ill probably be running with Lower, Duigan and Stanley in my backline, Harris, Swallow and Heppell in my mids (unless Selwood gets up, then Stanley will probably be benched), and am still undecided in my forward spot- though its between Tappy and Darling for mine. Whats your plan?