How many Rookies is too many?

[lovepelican]

It would be good to get advice/thoughts on the number of rookies everyone has. At the moment I am currently playing one rookie in the backs (Hill), one in the mid (Rich) and one in the forwards (Yarran), with eight more on the bench, so 11 in total.

Is it worth taking a "risk" and sticking an extra rookie or two in the starting 22 (i.e say 13 rookies), or is that too many?

[Dees for the Draft]

I've gone for quite a risky strategy also, starting a number of rookies in my team, particually in my forward line.

My rational is that there's plenty of time to trade them out, and as long as you don't suffer too many injuries to your premium players, you should be ok.

However, I think the answer lies in the strength of your league.  Most rookies will start slowly and aren't guaranteed to play, are you able to beat at least 50% of the teams over the season with that strategy.  If so, I'd say go for it.

[mEnty]

Easy answer, it depends.

If you want to win your league, easiest way is to go all premium/rookie structure, deal with any injuries to stars as best, upgrade rookies progessively and end up with fairly gun team.

If you want to potentially win or go close to winning the competition you can't have too many rookies starting from the get go. You have got to have a selection of the mid-tier 200 or 300 k players which you think are in for a big year. Takes a bit more research and luck but can pay off a lot better.

[lovepelican]

Thanks for the advice.

Realistically, got a good chance in my league (made grand final last year)  but no chance of winning $50,000 (well very little anyway).

Last year I went the premium/rookie route and it worked well but may well need to alter this if I want to crack into the top teams.