OK.  Its Grand Final time, and Im playing two this week. 

I feel, well not quite as excited as if Collingwood gets to the big dance this year, but certainly chuffed that for another year, in some reasonably competitive leagues against mates and work colleagues, my team has stumbled, bumbled, steadied, targeted and brought down the leaders one by one.

Now for the big dance.  I have no trades.  They went ages ago.  But what I do have is a team running on momentum, adrenaline, and the joy of Phil Davis getting me over the line with late withdrawal-emergency combination in successive knockout matches (JB/ROK).  Once is a fluke, twice is a very happy coincidence.   Third time may invoke my thoughts that there has been some divine intervention over the team this season.

And now onto my final Best Buys advice for the year.<!--more-->

Let me put it very simply.  Get the very best player/s you can for the money and trade/s you have left.  Theres no point ending the season with oil in the tank.   I prefer running off the smell of an oily rag anyway.

As such, Im not going to give you selections, Ill leave you to ask in the comments and give the forum the chance to answer the questions in their own right.  What I will do, however, is offer some of the strategies you can employ to make sure that you dont experience any Collywobbles this weekend.

In terms of what you can do, there are some varied strategies.  Each has merit.

1) Play the man
Neutralise the opponents best chance of beating you.   If you have a team that you can back one-on-one, but have a nagging suspicion that a player will tear you apart, trading them in can then make your week a lot more relaxing.

2) Play the ball
Get the best PPG average player you can get in terms of "points on the ground" increase in whatever position that might be.  You might actually find trading in the best PPG player isnt as strong as trading in a fallen premium who can give you that one last lift over the line.

3) Play the opponent.  Make  a list of projected trades, and see who they are playing and whether thats now a good trade or not.  Getting say a Jack Riewoldt in this week given hes at Etihad and against a weaker non-Victorian opponent could be a good move just for the week.   Youd think about every and any Geelong player in your team this match, with players like Mackie and Milburn coming to the surface for a shot, given that the Eagles are the wooden spoon team of the year.

4) Play the leader.  Instead of going safety first in captain selections with permacaptain Ablett or Swan, or even Goddard, this might be the week you trial something new, like a Goodes, a Riewoldt (either) or a Boyd, or something that will give you a chance to make up ground in your GF.  Remember it could take an inspired move like this to get a victory.   I remember a GF I won because I put Riewoldt captain, and it was a very close decided final won only because of Nicks goal after the siren.   How sweet it was, particuarly as he was a bit of a risky/left-field selection that week.

5) Play the bench.   This could mean working out where the Phabulous Phil Davis fills in this weekend.  Make sure you have coverage where and when you need it.  If that means a bit of MPP manipulation and rearrangement of how the side looks on paper, then do it, because that one emergency coming into play can be the maker or breaker of your team.   Two knockout finals I have to show for playing a smart bench and keeping Davis down back.

Hopefully some of these bits of advice can help you go for another pennant from Supercoach 2010.

Its been fun bringing  you Best Buys over the year, and will see you back again for 2011 Best Buys after Round 1 next season.

Lucas