Rico's Advice Thread 2015

[Ricochet]

Hey mate, can you have a look over my team and see what needs tinkering?
Backs are a bit weak, I think I may need another premo in the Mids......and still looking at Rookies

DEF: Shaw,H, Gibson,J, Newens,J, Lumumba,H, Ibbotson,G, Whitecross,B  (Edwards,S, Saad,A)
MID: Ablett,G, Rockcliff,T, Pendlebury,S, Barlow,M, van Berlo,N, Newton,B, Vandenberg,A, Freeman,N (Anderson,J, Heeney,I, Lambert,K)
RUC: Goldstein,T, Naitianui,N (Cox,M)
FWD: Gray,R, Martin,D, Swan,D, Bellchambers,T, Karnezis,P, Hogan,J (Laverde,J, Krakouer,N)

DEF I don't mind this backline strategy man so I wouldn't worry about it. I've done similar. Your top end premo's are fine as are your midpricers. And Whitecross gives you enough room to move when we see who's named RD1.
MIDS Top end premos are very very strong and love the Barlow pick. Going 4 premos may put you back a little early but your other lines should make up for it. Rookies are fine at this stage mate.
RUCKS great premo picks and Belly up front gives you cover. Perfect.
FWDs Hard to falt mate. I'm not a fan of starting Gray but thats just personally. I'd look at MClarke, Salem, Lamb over Laverde too man

[Ricochet]

Def
Smith, B, Shaw, H, Newnes, J def/mid, Higgins, S fwd/def, Pearce, C def/mid, Edwards, S
Hamling, J, Saad, A

MID
Ablett, G, Pendlebury, S, Dangerfield, P, Griffen, Swallow,A, Newton, B, Anderson, J, Boekhorst, B
Vandenberg, A, Freeman, N, Krakouer, N mid/fwd

RUC
Mumford, S, Naitanui, N
Read, T ruck/fwd

FWD
Martin, D mid/fwd, Bennell, H mid/fwd, Swan, D mid/fwd, Mitchell, T mid/fwd, Clark, M, Hogan, J
Daniel, C, Lambert, K Mid/fwd

DEF A little weak I think mate. Newnes is fine at D3, but CPearce at D5 and then a rookie at D6 is a little weak. I'd look at upgrading D5 here.
MIDS Some nice PODs here. Danger and Griffen are decent risks. Not a huge fan of Swallow, can't see him pushing enough to make you enough cash or be a top 10 mind. For you rookies consider NVB, Cripps and Heeney.
RUCKs Premo picks are fine but no cover is worrying. I'd keep enough cash on hand to upgrade D3 if needed.
FWDs Strong mate. And i love some of these premo picks. Martin and Swan are locks. and Bennell and TMitchell are good risks. Rookies are fine, also consider Salem and Lamb.

[Ricochet]

Hey Rico Love the work buddy.

Considering the amount of cheap fwd options this year, what are your thoughts on starting as many DPP players such as grey, zorko, swan, Martin in the midfield and having the likes of a fwd line of Bartel MClark, c.McCarthy saad, hogan, and karneis lambert and steele and as many other DPP rookies. so that they can easily be transitioned into the fwd line over time?

I'm a huge fan of the dpp link but with rookies and not premos mate.

Because there are so many fwd rookie options, personally I think we can only start 3-4 of them in the fwd line if we also have 1-2 of them on the mid bench. This gives us flexibility if a couple miss games

[Ricochet]

Current Team is

Def: ..........................

Mids: Ablett (C) ............................

Rucks : ...............

Fwds: ..................................


What are your thoughts?

How are you fitting all that under the salary cap??

[johnnyy23]

Hey Ricoooooo!

Having a read of your thread and I'm gonna stick with both Gray and Higgins for DPP link to cover Whitex. Not quite sure why ruck cover is so important? If two premiums are playing what is the importance of cover? Just in case of injury?

Here is my team. Opted for a pretty balanced structure. Keen to get your thoughts :)

DEF: Gibson, Fisher, Newnes, Lumumba, K. Kolodjashnij, Whitex (Goddard, Saad) - Thoughts on Jaksch/Rohan?
MID: Ablett, Selwood, Kennedy, Barlow, Rich, Newton, Cripps, Anderson (Heeney, Vandenberg, Lambert)
RUC: Mumford, Goldstein (Cox)
FWD: Gray, Martin, Higgins, Salem, Clark, Karnezis (Daniel, Krakouer)

1K in the bank.

[Ricochet]

DEF very solid all the way through to D5 mate. Can't fault any of these pick. If i was being really harsh though, I presonally thing BSmith will cop a hell of a lot more attention this year. But in saying that he shouldn't drop too much. You might need to find some more cash for D6 though. Just because Saad needs to be upgraded and I don't like the chances of Rainbow playing RD1.

MIDS Top 4 premos are super mate. Not sure at Swan at M5 though. If you're looking for a dpp link then I'd use rookies instead of premos. Just because you have more bench spots in the middle.

RUCKs Goldy + Belly with no cover is very risky man. I'd look to keep some cash to upgrade R3 or push Belly into the fwd line and put someone else at R2.

FWDS three premos and three rooks is a solid structure. And your premo picks are fine. I've mentioned before I'm not a fan of starting Gray but thats just personal preference.

[Ricochet]

Thanks for the critique mate. I've made a few changes see what you think??

DEF: Simpson, Shaw, Newnes, Lumumba, Ibbotson, Hamling (Saad, Goddard)

MID: Ablett, Pendlebury, Fyfe, Kennedy, Ward, NVB, Newton, Cripps (Anderson, Heeney, Krakouer)

RK: Maric, Naitanui (O'brien)

FWD: Martin, Swan, Bellchambers, Clarke, Karnezis, Hogan (Lamb, Lambert)

Is the fwd line too weak?

Am I better off going Fyfe > Barlow and maybe upgrading lamb to Salem? he impressed vs the dogs...

Cheers boss!!

Very nice man, love the inclusion of Fyfe and Ward. Nothing wrong with that structure in the fwd line, as long as you have a rookie dpp link in the mids to give you extra cover, which you have.

Yeh you could look at Barlow and upgrade someone to Salem, but those other rookies are fine at this stage so wouldn't be a massive issue if you didn't.

[Ricochet]

Hey Rico, just wanted to get a quick second opinion on whether this idea is a good one or not.

I've been recently warned against running with my PODs in the mids Beams/Priddis/Treloar. As you know, I'm big on PODs and those blokes in particular. At times, I've had and considered blokes like Sidey/Barlow/Parker.

I've just made the move to ditch Beams for Barlow/Parker (I flipped a coin, went Barlow) and also found the cash to turn Clancee, briefly into Geary, but finally into Adcock who is D6.

Is having GAJ, Barlow, Priddis and Treloar as my premo mids and a backline full of guys who are basically premiums (or ever so slightly below imo) a good idea or simply madness?

Nothing wrong with it at all mate. I see Barlow having a massive year think he's a ripper pick. I've had him for ages, but only recently just upgraded him to Fyfe... becuase I love Fyfe slightly more. And there's not problems running with guys that are just below premiums in the backline. Basically because there is a severe lack of top end defender premos

I like those changes mate

[Nige]

Hey Rico, just wanted to get a quick second opinion on whether this idea is a good one or not.

I've been recently warned against running with my PODs in the mids Beams/Priddis/Treloar. As you know, I'm big on PODs and those blokes in particular. At times, I've had and considered blokes like Sidey/Barlow/Parker.

I've just made the move to ditch Beams for Barlow/Parker (I flipped a coin, went Barlow) and also found the cash to turn Clancee, briefly into Geary, but finally into Adcock who is D6.

Is having GAJ, Barlow, Priddis and Treloar as my premo mids and a backline full of guys who are basically premiums (or ever so slightly below imo) a good idea or simply madness?

Nothing wrong with it at all mate. I see Barlow having a massive year think he's a ripper pick. I've had him for ages, but only recently just upgraded him to Fyfe... becuase I love Fyfe slightly more. And there's not problems running with guys that are just below premiums in the backline. Basically because there is a severe lack of top end defender premos

I like those changes mate

Cheers.

Like I said, I think this will be my final team barring any disasters, last minute changes of heart and Round 1 teams. But I mean, if we all got a dollar for every time we said that, we'd be millionaires right? :P

[Ricochet]

Hey Ricoooooo!

Having a read of your thread and I'm gonna stick with both Gray and Higgins for DPP link to cover Whitex. Not quite sure why ruck cover is so important? If two premiums are playing what is the importance of cover? Just in case of injury?

Here is my team. Opted for a pretty balanced structure. Keen to get your thoughts :)

DEF: Gibson, Fisher, Newnes, Lumumba, K. Kolodjashnij, Whitex (Goddard, Saad) - Thoughts on Jaksch/Rohan?
MID: Ablett, Selwood, Kennedy, Barlow, Rich, Newton, Cripps, Anderson (Heeney, Vandenberg, Lambert)
RUC: Mumford, Goldstein (Cox)
FWD: Gray, Martin, Higgins, Salem, Clark, Karnezis (Daniel, Krakouer)

1K in the bank.

Hey man, ruck cover is so so important basically because nearly zero rucks play every single game of the year. In your case, Mumford missing plenty of games. So when our rucks miss 1-2 games what are we going to do? Waste a trade? or cop donuts? This is why its important to have cover.

DEF The structure is perfect mate. I think you need someone a lot stronger at D1 though. Like a Simpson or HShaw. Fisher is also very injury prone so be careful there. Newnes and Lumumba are good picks. Kade is an interesting one. He should push up onto a wing this year but I'm not sure if that necessarily means his scoring will increase enough to become a keeper. I'd prefer someone like Ibbotson there. On Jaksch and Rohan. Not keen at this stage. Keep an eye on Jaksch in his last NAB game though.

MIDS Solid top 4 premos mate. A lot of teams will push for 5 premos so keep that in mind. Rookies are perfect at this stage.

RUCKS Premos are perfect, but yeh I think you definitely need to keep some cash on hand for ruck cover.

FWDS Higgins is a very risky pick in the fwd line mate. There are so many underpriced premo guns, I think you need to look elsewhere. He isn't necessarliy guaranteed best 22 at North either.  Tom Mitchell would be a better pick at that price

[Ricochet]

Hey Rico, just wanted to get a quick second opinion on whether this idea is a good one or not.

I've been recently warned against running with my PODs in the mids Beams/Priddis/Treloar. As you know, I'm big on PODs and those blokes in particular. At times, I've had and considered blokes like Sidey/Barlow/Parker.

I've just made the move to ditch Beams for Barlow/Parker (I flipped a coin, went Barlow) and also found the cash to turn Clancee, briefly into Geary, but finally into Adcock who is D6.

Is having GAJ, Barlow, Priddis and Treloar as my premo mids and a backline full of guys who are basically premiums (or ever so slightly below imo) a good idea or simply madness?

Nothing wrong with it at all mate. I see Barlow having a massive year think he's a ripper pick. I've had him for ages, but only recently just upgraded him to Fyfe... becuase I love Fyfe slightly more. And there's not problems running with guys that are just below premiums in the backline. Basically because there is a severe lack of top end defender premos

I like those changes mate

Cheers.

Like I said, I think this will be my final team barring any disasters, last minute changes of heart and Round 1 teams. But I mean, if we all got a dollar for every time we said that, we'd be millionaires right? :P

haha Bllionaires*

[barlowlove]

Rico I've noticed a common thread in your responses is to tell people they need ruck cover, which is of course a smart idea!
My question is what do you think is the best form of ruck cover? An expensive R3 (and I'm struggling to find one under $200k that will actually play) or Belly/Lycett/Sinclair linked in the Fwd Line?

[Ricochet]

Rico I've noticed a common thread in your responses is to tell people they need ruck cover, which is of course a smart idea!
My question is what do you think is the best form of ruck cover? An expensive R3 (and I'm struggling to find one under $200k that will actually play) or Belly/Lycett/Sinclair linked in the Fwd Line?

Yeh I'm pretty big on us needing cover this year. Especially with only one bench spot.
I've started planning for life without Belly as well, just in case he does get a ban.

So we have two options

You either start a fwd/ruck in your fwd line like Lycett/Ryder/etc

Or we have a 200k rookie at R3, which gives us enough room to move down (or up slightly) if a rookie ruck is named round 1.


Atm I'm running with the second option, with a Mummy, NicNat (Phillips) ruck line. Its not ideal, and I'm not entirely happy with it but it gives me room to move leading into RD1.

[BomberSam]

Tossing up between Martin and Deledio. Seems Lids may be in a smaller percentage of teams now that he has been overlooked for Dusty. I am holding out with Deledio in F1 at the moment, but with Martin cheaper and more likely to play a midfield role, which one should I choose?

Thoughts on:

Lahie Neale? (In M6 at the moment)

Shannon Hurn? (D2)

Kristian Jaksch? (D5)

Ivan Maric? (R1)

[Ricochet]

Tossing up between Martin and Deledio. Seems Lids may be in a smaller percentage of teams now that he has been overlooked for Dusty. I am holding out with Deledio in F1 at the moment, but with Martin cheaper and more likely to play a midfield role, which one should I choose?

Go Dusty mate. Will play a hell of a lot more midfield this year and Lids is still managing an achilles injury, plus will always get the #1 tag. So there's a good chance you can get Lids cheaper later

Thoughts on:

Lahie Neale? (In M6 at the moment)

Going to be a star but don't like him as a SC pick this year. Dominated on the wkend but Barlow didn't play and Mundy only played just over 50% game time. He'll improve but not enough to be a top10 midfielder

Shannon Hurn? (D2)

Great pick imo mate. Not much to say. Will be a top 6 defender

Kristian Jaksch? (D5)

Not sure tbh, need to see more of him in NAB3. Looking ok so far though

Ivan Maric? (R1)

Another great pick. He's been in and out of my side all preseason