What am i thinking???

[Capper]

Its the night before Christmas and no one can sleep. The battle of the bridge kicks the season off this year tomorrow night and with so many cheap GWS players to pick from i find myself flipping a coin on whom to choose.

I just took a look at my team and found i havent looked at the byes. I know some people arent too worried about the byes but i am going with a similar notion of 2 premiums per position per bye. Im looking to start at least 3 premium forwards, backs and mids and 2 premium rucks. I start by selecting who i beliveve is the team that i would like at the end of the season, who are going to be the top players in each position.

Backs - Goddard, Heater, Lids, Birchall, Scotland, Enright, Lake
Mids - GAJ, Swan, Pendles, Boyd, Jelwood, Mitchell
Rucks - Cox, Mummy
Forwards - Goodes, Chappy, Stevie J, Franklin, Martin, Fyfe, Pav

Problem!
Goddard, Birchall, Scotland and Lids share the Round 13 bye in the backs. Swan, Pendles and Jelwood share the Round 12 bye in the mids. Chappy, Stevie J, Goodes, Fyfe and Pav share the Round 12 bye in the forwards. Cox, Giles, Gold, HMAC, Berger share the Round 11 bye in the rucks.
Not too worried about the rookies and their byes as most of them will be out of there by then.

So starting at the back, which 2 to choose out of Goddard, Birchall, Scotland and Lids? Lids has a tough draw to start the season, playing the Blues, Pies, Cats in Melbourne and WC away in the first 6 rounds, so no to lids. Goddard is usually the first back picked and i am still tossing to go with either Scotland or Goddard. Goddard for now with Birchall and Heater.

In the mids i am questioning whether to go with 2 premium players, a couple of mids and rookies or 3 premium players with mids and rookies. GAJ was the first player choosen in my team this year, and with the way Swan scored last year it was hard to leave him out. But along came Boyd and has thrown my plan of 2 premium mids into caos. So it looks like 3 premium mids at this stage, and thus avoid the Round 12 issues.

On to the rucks. Cox was the second choosen in my team and with Giles on everyones bench including mine, that means that its a no to Goldy, HMac and Berger. So that leaves me with Sandilands, Mumford or McEvoy as my second ruck. Why havent i joined the everyone else in jumping on the 1 premium, 3 rookie ruck line up, because i can set these rucks and forget it. I only have to change them when the byes occurs or they have reached there their top price (if i need the cash). The second ruck is coming from the heart, Mummy. Not too sure on Sandilands coming back from turf toe and you always want to grab as many players from the team you support.

The forwards are the main issue. 5 high quality forwards all with the round 12 bye. So which 2 to pick out of the 5.
Goodes - Normally starts the year slowly and finishes strong
Stevie J - Absolute gun, but comign back from knee problems last year
Chappy - Playing his 13th year in the AFL, and has only missed 3 games in the last 2 seasons and is injury prone
Fyfe - Coming back from injury and also not affraid to throw his body on the line
Pavlich - Apparently moving to the forward line this year. Averages more in the forwards but will it be the same this year?
So who to pick? Firstly going with Goodes, nothing to do with barracking for the swans, but he does play the GWS twice which is good. So who to choose second? Chappy/Stevie J or Fyfe/Pavlich?? Steering away from Stevie J and everyone is going with Fyfe. Do i take Pavlich as a unique or Chappy? These two keep swapping in my side everyday. Third premium, Martin along with Lids has a tough start to the season so i will use him as an upgrade target, so going with Buddy.

So along with these premiums do we go with mid pricers and rookies or just rookies? That is the million dollar question.

[mezzoculo]

First saw this post about 15 minutes ago and decided it was too large to read without a coffee.  :)

I won't comment on too much but needless to say its very thorough tabs. I'm sure this post describes the thought processess of many coaches so far this pre-season. A cheer for your effort here!

I'm considering a mixture of both rookies and mid-pricers in my team. My backline loaded up with midpricers (four in the $150k - $400k bracket) while my forward line, rucks and mids will be keepers and rookies only.

Among the rookies/mid-pricers, each line (except rucks) has a Round 13 cashcow who I hope has good JS and scoring potential. These guys will essentially act as placeholders for premiums to be traded in after the Round 11 and 12 byes.

Well, that's the plan anyway  :o

[Shiftynev]

I too have a cunning plan.
Load up with mostly rd 13 bye players, Currently have 5 missing rd 11 (1 gun), 4 missing Rd 12 (2 guns), no more than 2 per line.
So I expect to be playing depleted / compromised teams in rd 11/12 and win easily.
And I'll tank in rd 13.
2 out 3 will do me.

[nathan11]

I too have a cunning plan.
Load up with mostly rd 13 bye players, Currently have 5 missing rd 11 (1 gun), 4 missing Rd 12 (2 guns), no more than 2 per line.
So I expect to be playing depleted / compromised teams in rd 11/12 and win easily.
And I'll tank in rd 13.
2 out 3 will do me.

That big fat guy who stole a microphone to sing at last years GF says 2out of 3 ain't bad

[Cicjose]

I too have a cunning plan.
Load up with mostly rd 13 bye players, Currently have 5 missing rd 11 (1 gun), 4 missing Rd 12 (2 guns), no more than 2 per line.
So I expect to be playing depleted / compromised teams in rd 11/12 and win easily.
And I'll tank in rd 13.
2 out 3 will do me.

That big fat guy who stole a microphone to sing at last years GF says 2 out of 3 ain't bad

you mean this guy?