DicingApple's team

[DicingApple]

Ok, here goes. Still a work in progress. Still tossing up between Heppell/Hartlett but also happy to consider Broughton for that possie. Happy to take the risk in the ruck to free up the extra cash for the premo midfield. Don't be gentle  ;D

TEAM NAME: DicingApple

DEF: B. Gibbs, B. Goddard, B. Deledio, D. Heppell, B. Waters, S. Morris, W. Sierakowski (T. Bugg, T. Mohr)
MID: D. Swan, S. Pendlebury, G. Ablett jnr, J. Selwood, D. Martin, S. Clifton (D. Zorko, D. Shiel)
RUC: S. Mumford, J. Giles, (J. Redden, J. Jenkins)
FWD: P. Chapman, L. Franklin, T. Cloke, M. Pavlich, A. Christensen, J. Porplyzia , A. Saad (M. Panos, W. Manson)

CASH LEFT: $378,200

[DicingApple]

Forgot to mention, most of the cheap/rookies are purely fillers until we see who might actually get a game during NAB cup.

[Ziplock]

Def: you won't be hearing me criticising Gibbs Goddard or Lids at this stage in the pre-season. Harlett and Waters both have varying injury concerns- an at Hartlett's price, and playing for PA, that's a huge gamble he'll step it up. I liked him a bit ago, but tbh have gone off him now. Waters I can see stepping it up to a premium level, so decent enough pick

Mids: Jeeeeez. You've loaded up here. You can't question any of those selections. Pendles and Selwood are still ridiculously young and ready to improve more, same with murphy, while ABlett and Swan are both Brownlow winners in their prime, and slightly underpriced due to injury, lock and load.

Rucks: Obviously your weakest line, going for a bargain ruck theory, but, could work out for you. Hmac has every possibility to average 80+, giving little gap for when you upgrade, and I would daresay the same with West as well if he become geelongs no.1 ruckman.

Fwds: Well, it's good to see someone is keeping the old guns around I guess. You're banking on chappy's year being down due to form/injury, not him sliding as he gets older. And also hoping Pav can continue to fight off the age. Fair enough, although I'd say Chappy is a little risky. Buddy and Cloke I can't question, both beasts, Brown is seriously underpriced, and having a full pre-season for once, while porps is rookie priced for someone we know will average at least 70.

lock n load.

a really strong team imo. couldn't really be much stronger, unless you swapped like Hartlett for shaw to minimise some risk, and upgraded either Hmac or West to a premium ruck... which you can do with the buckets of money you have left over.

[Voldemort]

you sacrificed your rucks for an 'OMG' midfield. Spend the Cash, other wise an awesome team  8)

[DicingApple]

Cheers guys, was keeping the salary cap to the 8.78mill so didn't want to use the extra cash.

The ruck department will be the first point of call for an upgrade once some value is added, well that's the plan, who knows if it will work though.

Agree on Hartlett but not sure about "shaw to minimise risk", most of his coaches would have no hair left after his off field antics LOL! Anyway, he will most likely have a point to prove next year so definitely would be considered, although Broughton or Heppell may well slot in nicely too.

Chappy is risky i guess, also Pav, when you consider they are both around the 30 mark, it's just that i really don't see much i truly like in the forward line and not keen on stacking it with Sidebottom/Dangerfield types in the hope they can step it up. Even if Pav/Chap slide a bit next year they will still put in a solid contribution IMO.

Cheers  :)

[jake_fez]

what salary cap did u use?
if its the 8.78m its a great team i would just upgrade one or both of your rucks with the money

[DicingApple]

Hi jake, would certainly love to have premium rucks but my salary cap is currently just shy of the 8.78mill ie. the leftover $360k is based on what FP is allocating at the moment. Anyway, as you can see i havn't gone too risky or unique in my Back, Mid, Forward. My "unique" is my ruckline, it may pan out or it could very well just end in tears. Considering i even thought about starting one of Hmac/West and Giles as my number 1 and 2 rucks i think this was at least a good compromise  ;D

[DT Gun]

you could drop one of your premium midfuelders to lenny hayes and uprade a ruck because st kilda have a great run, including GC twice in the first 11 rounds. He will make you money no doubt.

[DicingApple]

Cheers DTgun, i have actually "tweaked" my team a fair bit and have added Mummy to the rucks. Will update later  :)

[DicingApple]

Ok original post/team has been updated.

Backline; Broughton > Heppell (still happy to switch back but just have a feeling Heppell will push harder next season).

Mid; Murphy > Martin (when he breaks out it's gonna be huge, taking a punt that it'll be next season).

Ruck; Hmac, West > Mummford, Redden.

Forward; Brown > Christensen (Brown is cheap but would only see him back in the 80's, while Christensen has the potential to go mental in 2012, take a look at his scores minus the vested games, yep, already in the 80's. Taking a punt he will play a bigger role with the big outs for the Cats next year)

Considering Fyfe for Pav but something tells me he may ease of a little next year. Have the same niggling doubt over Cloke so may consider a change there also.

[Ziplock]

I honestly think you just made your team weaker...

Basically, Heppell will imo, step up next year, similar to Martin/ZTrengove this year- and with a 15 point increase, you'd be damned happy.
But, if Broughts gets played more in the mids, rather than in lockdown as he was this year, his average will be pushing that of a premium midfielder- look at his mid season to back that up. Both of these are probably at odds to happen greater than 50%, but we're talking potentially 10-20 points difference per game.

I also agree Martin will step up. But, I don't see him stepping up straight away to a 110+ average, which is what murphy is going to be holding

mmmm, your rucks are a bit funny. Basically, by dropping west to redden, you have no solid ruck cover. West will, as geelongs no.1 ruck, have a high probability of averaging up to 80, and could even push 90 (although that's hopeful).

the difference between hmac and mummy wont have been significant enough to warrant losing such solid bench cover, especially considering the byes. And the possibility there may be no scoring difference between the two.

Brown for Christensen is one of the trades I see value in. Pretty much, what you said sums it up- although personally I think brown could push 90. According to my geelong friends, Christensen just slipped in seamlessly into the gf, and is almost certainly in the best 21 now.

I still think you've made your team weaker though :S

[DicingApple]

Cheers Zip, yeh think i let sentiment take over when it comes to Hep, anyway, as stated would be most likely to switch that one back. The rest, all very valid points mate, cheers. I am still uneasy about Cloke in my foward line so need to put a bit of thought into that and a tad conflicted about Pav. As i said before i have considered Fyfe purely based on his good form and going into his third year, however it looks as though he simply blossomed one year early and may drop of as a lot of players seem to do after thier Breakout year? Hmmmm, will still think about that.

No doubt there will be more updates to come, hehehe  ;D