What's a trade worth? You know you want him, but want to save money... How much value do you put on NOT having to burn 1, probably 2 trades to get him in. The biggest problem this year, is that the premium backs without Hodge are quite thin. Last year you could avoid Ablett and take Judd, Swan, etc, etc, but there really is no other standout in the backs this year. Especially with Lake out due to a full body overhaul operation!
Spending a large chunk of your starting salary on the most expensive player is never easy when they haven't performed over the preseason. But as I'm sure has been said many times, great players always come good eventually and I feel the Saints will burst out of the blocks given everything that has happened in the off season and the lost grand finals. Swan is a notoriously slow start so I can see a good justification for people waiting on him, especially as Pendles is more than a viable alternative and is probably starting at a low price comparatively. But as MM mentioned, he's the best backman by a mile so I can't see him not starting in most teams.
<blockquote>Quote from b_frazer5 on March 20, 2011, 11:59 how good would it be if goddard got injured so we'd all have at least 120k to spend elsewhere</blockquote> Actually, I reckon that would be pretty bad
My strategy this year has been to have three premiums in each line and a set and forget rucks. In each of the lines I went with the best player available. In my opinion, they are; Goddard, Swan, Riewoldt. These guys are going to be in everyone's team by round 16 (Barring injury). If you don't have them, you WILL NOT win your league let alone the comp. Take them now and save the stuffing around.
Last your I did a similar thing with Ablett: Leaving him out and hoping for his price to go down enough for me to pick up in a trade. He never ended up in my team and got severely burnt in the midfield. Goddard has always been in my team in the past and never let me down. I'm not looking at cash from him, he'll be a score machine no matter what. I don't think it's worth the risk leaving him out