The Watchlist - Season started, team Angry Pirates

[Mat0369]

I just decided to play around with a stronger back line and this is what I came up with

Simpson, Smith, Shaw, Birchall, Lumumba, Seedsman/Ibbo/Ricky Henderson, Lever, Hugh Goddard
Gaz, Pendles, Sidebottom, Hanners, Van Berlo, Biggs, Heeney, Boekhorst, Jed Anderson, Freeman, Krak
Nic Nat, Kreuz, Durdin
Goddard, Franklin, Martin, Salem, Laverde, Clark, Hogan, Lambert

It leaves me with $100 if I have Seedsman otherwise more cash with one of the other two.

[fasttrack13]

Hanners is my only question mark.
I think you could go Lumumba to Whitecross and upgrade Salem.

It's a very interesting team!

[My Chumps]

Really rate it, but I personally can't go without a solid ruck back-up with NN and Krooz.

Not sure about Salem's scoring potential either.

[Mat0369]

I still prefer my prior team with Harley at F4 and Salem at F5. I think he should be a decent forward rookie option with a better tank this year and strong pre-season and I like committing the cash to him at this point compared to finding the cash for him later.

With the ruck cover I will go with a playing rookie if there is one otherwise I will take a punt with one of Drudin, Lobb or Nank as I don't like the Belcho option.

I just thought with how weak the backline looks I would see if I could get 5/6 keepers and see what the rest of my side looks like instead of the 4 I had.

[Money Shot]

So I was fiddling around with some formations today

My F4 changed from Jeffy to Swan to Gus to Harley. I had to downgrade Whitecross and Lobb to Brown and Durdin to get the cash from Swan to Bennell.



I have 25 k in the bank with this team

I also had Beams instead of Hanners and Goldstein in the ruck at one point if I do go Garlett up forward.

I still like this team but maybe downgrade Waters to Whitex and get a super premium mid.
Would love your thoughts on mine.

[Mat0369]

That team with the tweaks of Waters, Birch and Lids out due to injury clouds and then replaced them with Newnes (temp), Martin and Pearce is the one I am running with into the NAB

[Mat0369]

Playing around with my team again and I have gone with a few options



cash left over $116,900

I don't mind the cash left over to play around with in the NAB. Bennell has become Swan due to a few more question marks over Bennell at the moment. I am still not sold on Swan but I do have the cash to upgrade him need be. Pearce became Seed due to what I think might be better JS at the moment. Nicholls has become Belcho who after I saw his hitout to advantage numbers I am happy to slot into R2 in this side



cash left over $2,100

The extra cash I spent on Birch who I like this year but I dislike the 5 premo defender set up. The other issue I have with Birch is his knee injury which is why I turned him into Newnes but all the other defenders have question marks as well



cash left over $20,600

Pearce and Nicholls back in, Clark to Belcho and Durdin to Cox for ruck coverage



cash left over $19,000

Belcho and Cox out (assuming Belcho suspensions) and Jeffy in with Durdin. Jeffy is one I named earlier in my write ups and keeps tempting me with the way he is flying this pre-season. If he keeps it up through the NAB I will have to seriously consider him.

[Ricochet]

Personally like team 1 the best mate. Have enough cash to get a decent rookie ruck if one pops up. Would upgrade Newnes, but I'm just not sold on him.

[AaronKirk]

Personally like team 1 the best mate. Have enough cash to get a decent rookie ruck if one pops up. Would upgrade Newnes, but I'm just not sold on him.

Agree team one is the better side. The reason for me is Nicholls. He is the 2nd choice ruck behind Zac Smith at the suns,

Yes he will get games but I just dunno what his role is going to be.

[Mat0369]

Personally like team 1 the best mate. Have enough cash to get a decent rookie ruck if one pops up. Would upgrade Newnes, but I'm just not sold on him.

Team 1 is also the one I am leaning towards

I am not super confident with Newnes either but of the guys I am looking at priced above hiim, Malcho is too expensive, Brodie Smith has his own question marks, Birch got injured so he is now an upgrade tartget in my eyes, Hibbo has the ASADA stuff hanging over him and Hurn has managed an injury over the last two seasons which has seen his price drop heavily. I have him as a placeholder for now and I will monitor him in the NAB to see where he plays and how he uses the ball

Agree team one is the better side. The reason for me is Nicholls. He is the 2nd choice ruck behind Zac Smith at the suns,

Yes he will get games but I just dunno what his role is going to be.

Dixon is injured again which opens the door for a Smith/Nicholls combo. I see Nicholls shouldering most of the ruck work if that is the case as the Suns have always talked about Smith being able to play forward in some capacity. Of the mid price guys I prefer Nicholls to Leuenberger right now, but due to his price I see him as a decent placeholder for the minute. He is another I have had every intention of monitoring through the NAB and since Nicholls had pretty decent hit out to advantage numbers and high contested possession numbers I can't see the ruck changes hindering him.

And for those that can't be f'ed going back to read it

Tom Nicholls - I think a lot of people will look at this a bit wtf. Tom Nicholls plays a very similar game to Nic Nat and the way he plays is brilliant for SC. Now that Smith is back and the Suns have tall timber it will be a battle between Nicholls and Smith for the #1 ruck role, if Nicholls wins out I really like him for his price. He is about 10k more then Kreuz. I am pretty sure during his run in 2013 he averaged 100 if you take out his sub game.

[Gandalf123]

i rate team 1 the best mate, love the hanners pick! Will have a massive year, great work!

[Ringo]

Interesting structure in Rucks that you have gone with Matt. Could really pay off for you as it allows extra strength in other lines. You need to take risks to get the biscuit. I also will be keeping an eye on GC and Nicholls during NAB cup and may even go down to Metricon for lions/Suns clash.

Like Team 1 overall but all have merit. Would keep an eye on rookies in NAB cup and adjust accordingly.  Keep an eye on Dick at Carlton as a possible replacement for Brown.

[eaglesman]

If Nicholls shoulders most of the ruck I will definitely be picking him. Big watch in the nab for my team

[My Chumps]

Definitely like the last team heading into the NAB cup which will ultimately determine whether I rate the Nicholls pick.

Still think Mitchell > Swan tho.

[AaronKirk]

There is not a lot of data to go on as they have only ever played one match together. That being against Adelaide, Round 8 2012

Smith played mostly in the ruck with Nicholls forward with some ruck time.

Smith had 20 disposals and 22 hitouts to Nicholls 11 and 10 respectively.

In all their other games, roughly speaking, Smith average 12.5 disposals and 18 hitouts compared to 12 disposals and 21 hitouts for Nicholls.

As noted Smith can go forward and at times as a resting forward has kicked goals.

When you take out their injury affected games from last year both average  roughly 12 disposals and 23 hitouts per game.
Smith scored 2.4 whilst Nicholls didn't trouble the scorers.

I wish I knew their HTA stats to see what sort of averages could be predicted for them but my gut tells me Smith is the better player and will have more ruck time, not that I am going to pick him, But I concede Nicholls could be an option, very ballsy option, but an option none the less.

Put it this way though, there numbers over their careers in terms of hitouts and disposal match Nic Nat who averages 12 disposals and 20.69 hitouts per game.