Bully's Boys

[Bully]

Solid plan Bully and hope the SC gods smile on you.

Reckon the gods have smiled on me already as Tucker has emerged and Trengove will get his first game. Slight change of plans now that Matho is off the board, Tucker in, Bennedy out, Murphy to Gray. That leaves 156k in the kitty for next week which will be enough for Dahlhaus.

Backs - Shaw, Docherty, Bartel, Laird, Rich, Byrne-Jones (Ruggles, Tucker)

Mids - Dangerfield, Pendlebury, Ablett, Selwood, Gray, Priddis, Liberatore, Rockliff (Smith, Keays, Hopper)

Rucks - Goldy, Gawn (Cox)

Forwards - Martin, Merrett, Hall, Wells, Kerridge, Adams (Petracca, Menadue)

Ruggles to Collins looks like a solid trade next week, will be touch and go as to whether I'll have the cash to go Menadue to Dahlhaus but here's hoping that Ruggles pumps out another 70 and Dahlhaus goes sub 100.

[Bully]

Thanks to GOAT I'm back in the game, held him through the tough times and he's paid back the faith. This week was by far my best for the year, 2497 and am now sitting at 1034, within reach of the top tier and fully prepared for the bye period. As far as trades go this week, I think it's time to offload Hall and bring in Zorko. I've been patiently waiting for a spud score to roll in but much like Hanners, it just hasn't materialised. The worst Zorko has dished up has been a 97, hardly terrible stuff but I'll use this as a buying opportunity given Brisbane have a nice run coming up playing Freo, West Coast at home, Richmond & Gold Coast. Thought long and hard about Dahlhaus given he's a bargain at 519k but with a 69 in the rolling average feel that he can be picked up either next week or in round 15.

So with Collins in for Ruggles and Hall making way for Zorko, the team is as follows.

Backs - Shaw, Docherty, Bartel, Laird, Rich, Byrne-Jones (Collins, Tucker)

Mids - Danger, Pendlebury, Ablett, Selwood, Priddis, Gray, Rockliff, Liberatore (Smith, Keays, Hopper)

Rucks - Goldy, Gawn (Cox)

Forwards - Zorko, Merrett, Martin, Wells, Kerridge, Adams (Petracca, Menadue)

Looking ahead to my final preparations for the bye rounds, I intend to use all three trades next week, it will only leave 7 trades left for the season but I should have enough money for an extra upgrade which will leave me with a full team by round 14. I think I'm going to run with Adams at D6 and Libba at M8 for now.

So this is how I hope it will pan out for that all important round 13.

Def - Shaw, Docherty, Bartel, Laird, Rich, Byrne-Jones (Collins, Tucker) = 6

Mids - Danger, Pendlebury, Ablett, Selwood, Priddis, Gray, Rockliff, Liberatore (Jansen, Trengove, Hopper) = 9

Rucks - Goldstein, Gawn (Cox) = 2

Forwards - Zorko, Merrett, Deledio, Martin, Wells, Kerridge (Adams, Petracca) =  5

Total = 22

This formation should eliminate all the poor rookie scores, the week after I plan on using the residual cash to bring in another defensive premo for Byrne-Jones, possibly Rance who looks to be excellent value. Dahlhaus or Joey will be on the cards the following week.

[_wato]

Team looks really really good man. What are your plans for Round 15 though?

Docherty, Laird, DBJ/Rance
Pendles, Ablett, Pridda, Gray, Libba, Smith
Gawn, Cox
Merrett, Dusty, Kerridge, Adams, Tracca

So two donuts?

[RaisyDaisy]

Pretty sure he will trade Hopper and one of Tucker/Collins after Rd14

Nice looking team Bully!

I'm having a cow a year :(

Good Luck with your pursuit of Top 100 - reckon you're a good chance :)

[Bully]

Team looks really really good man. What are your plans for Round 15 though?

Docherty, Laird, DBJ/Rance
Pendles, Ablett, Pridda, Gray, Libba, Smith
Gawn, Cox
Merrett, Dusty, Kerridge, Adams, Tracca

So two donuts?

Menadue becomes Dahlhaus or Deledio next week, just need to monitor the health of my list at the end of round 12 to see if I need an additional round 14 player. The other move will be Tucker out, Adams back to defence and Joey to the forwards.

If I really need to generate cash I have a strategy which involves trading out a guy like Hopper, moving Kerridge to the mids, moving Cox to the forwards and bringing in a 102k ruck/forward. I intend to do this at some stage as I'm keen to loophole my forwards.

After the bye period I suspect I will only have 4-5 trades remaining. This will hopefully cover any long term injuries, it may be cutting things fine with 7 rounds to go but I'm prepared to roll the dice.

Pretty sure he will trade Hopper and one of Tucker/Collins after Rd14

Nice looking team Bully!

I'm having a cow a year :(

Good Luck with your pursuit of Top 100 - reckon you're a good chance :)

Cheers Raisy, I feel your pain, that was me last year, every single 50/50 decision turned out to be the wrong one. Sometimes SC can be a cruel game. I think you mentioned it earlier in the season but first instinct is usually the best one, that's been my mantra this year.

[Bully]

And I'll just add that Trengove will play round 15 so I should be fairly safe to get a full quota of players. The fact that all the rookies have their bye in round 14 or 15 is a real bonus this year, it's one reason I've loaded up for a full premo assault in round 13.

[Bully]

The agony and the ecstasy, well one would expect to be over the moon with a score of 2653, and don't get me wrong, I'm still delighted with that tally. But my decision to move the VC off Danger and onto Rocky cost me 105 points and left me out of the running for the weekly prize. As it turned out it would have been disappointment anyway, third place was 2767, so 9 points short of the $250 presuming I had the Danger windfall.

Anyhow, I'm into the top 1000 for the first time this year, ranked 378 and well placed with the byes coming up. I don't plan on anything too radical this week apart from some possible downgrades. I think Keays to Trengove is looking good and may also consider Hopper to Mathieson if named.

My targets for next week will be Montagna and Simpson, I'd also like to slip Deledio into the equation but would need to make an early call on Phillips this week. Still undecided whether I should go all guns blazing but will assess that when the teams are named.

So the team for this week will probably look something like this -

Defence - Shaw, Bartel, Rich, Byrne-Jones, Tucker, Collins (Docherty, Laird)

Mids - Dangerfield, Selwood, Priddis, Gray, Rockliff, Liberatore, Trengove, Hopper (Smith, Ablett, Pendlebury)

Rucks - Goldstein, Gawn (Cox)

Forwards - Zorko, Merrett, Wells, Adams, Petracca, Kerridge (Martin, Menadue)

So that tallies up to 21 starters and 13 premos, hopefully sufficient to get me something close to 2000.

I haven't quite worked out the permutations to acquire Joey & Simpson but hopefully I can rid myself of Menadue in the process. Phillips will also be a likely replacement for Smith.

[Ringo]

Nice Bully - Expect Mattho to replace Keays this week so you will be able to do that.

I am looking at Tags but he has a B/e of 122 so may not bring him in till Rd 15 given that I have 14 premos playing Rd 14 but will assess next week.

[Bully]

Nice Bully - Expect Mattho to replace Keays this week so you will be able to do that.

I am looking at Tags but he has a B/e of 122 so may not bring him in till Rd 15 given that I have 14 premos playing Rd 14 but will assess next week.

This is true, Joey could drop another 20k or so, will wait and assess the numbers for round 14. At the moment I have 19 starters, so may need to beef it up with another premo or two. Simpson is well priced at the moment so he's almost a certainty.

[Bully]

Not too bad this week apart from missing out on another Danger bonanza. Finished with 1948 and have moved up to 310 in the rankings. This week's trades will be Hopper to Montagna and DBJ to Simpson. I currently have 19 starters this week so don't need to jump on Phillips a week early. Next week I'll trade out Tucker and swing Adams back to D7, that should leave approximately 120k in the kitty.

The team this week is looking decent, with 16 premos and Kerridge, Jansen & Cox. I'll be hoping to hit 2000 and crash through to the top 100. Given my team will be threadbare next week it's critical I climb a 100 spots or so.

Def - Shaw, Docherty, Simpson, Bartel, Laird, Rich (Tucker, Collins)

Mids - Dangerfield, Selwood, Pendlebury, Ablett, Montanga, Rockliff, Jansen, Gray (Priddis, Liberatore, Trengove)

Rucks - Goldstein, Cox (Gawn)

Forwards - Zorko, Martin, Wells, Kerridge, Merrett, Adams (Petracca, Menadue)

The plan next week will be to bring in Deledio for Kerridge, that effectively leaves me with a full team but two glaring weak spots , that being Rich & Liberatore. Given I will only have 4 trades remaining, I'm not so sure I can deal with both and leave myself adequate injury trades. I could trade out Adams but i like having the security of an 80+ defender to cover for any injuries.

The other option would be to trade out Adams this week and then do a triple upgrade the week after. Rich to Boyd, Libba to Hannebury & Kerridge to Deledio. That leaves me only two trades for the rest of the season.

What do people reckon?

[GoLions]

I'd probably say upgrade Libba and keep Rich at this point.

Team is looking good man, hope you can crack into the top 100! :D

[RaisyDaisy]

Very similar position to myself Bully, in that trades are running very low and we still have guys like Libba that would be ideally upgraded

2 trades is a massive risk, so I think you need to just hold Libba and Rich for the next month or so and then if you still have a few trades left make that luxury then

I've got Libba and Hall, and would love to upgrade them both but just need to hold a few trades a bit longer

[Bully]

I'd probably say upgrade Libba and keep Rich at this point.

Team is looking good man, hope you can crack into the top 100! :D

I think that's probably the best wise thing to do, Hanners has a huge BE and is predicted to drop to 530k. If all goes to plan, I'll be able to pick him up for an additional 50k, hopefully the Kerridge to Deledio trade leaves just enough in the coffers.

Very similar position to myself Bully, in that trades are running very low and we still have guys like Libba that would be ideally upgraded

2 trades is a massive risk, so I think you need to just hold Libba and Rich for the next month or so and then if you still have a few trades left make that luxury then

I've got Libba and Hall, and would love to upgrade them both but just need to hold a few trades a bit longer

Two trades is cutting thing incredibly fine, no doubt about it. I really need to make allowances for the 2-3 week injuries & suspensions that will almost certainly occur in the last month of the season.

[Bully]

It has to be said that I'm disappointed with where I stand after the two byes, Zorko & Wells being late outs caused a fair bit of grief and despite scrambling to fill the void with Deledio I'm a long way out from where I planned leading into round 15. My rank of 266 has left me well out from the top 100 and it's now time to get really aggressive, whether that leaves me with few trades then so be it but I'm not going to be content with another mid table finish in the top 1000.

So this weeks trades will be Tucker to Phillips, Kerridge to Treloar, which leaves me with only 3 trades with one reserved for Dahlhaus (in all probability a swap for Libba). I have 50k in the bank so will also be looking at upgrading Petracca to another 100+ forward which will reduce the trades down to one. Living on the edge for sure but all teams are starting to look identical so best to go all guns blazing now rather than later.

Here's the team for this week.

Def - Shaw, Docherty, Simpson, Bartel, Laird, Rich (Adams, Collins)

Mids - Danger, Pendlebury, Selwood, Ablett, Rockliff, Treloar, Priddis, Gray (Liberatore, Trengove, Jansen)

Rucks - Goldy, Gawn (Cox)

Forwards - Zorko, Martin, Merrett, Montagna, Deledio, Petracca (Menadue, Phillips)

As far as this week is concerned, I have 19 starters with Menadue the 20th on the bench. My premos come to 14 which is solid in the scheme of things. This really has to be the week I make up the ground otherwise I sense it will be stagnation.

[Bully]

Version 2.0, have thought about the prospect of Petracca at F6 for 3 weeks and it makes me nervous, feel I need to address this now and wait patiently for Dahlhaus, meanwhile my cows will hopefully fatten enough to make a one trade transition. This particular model will use up all three trades this week but I will technically have a full team with Libba at M9, Collins at D7 and Phillips at F7 (for now of course). 98k in the kitty so I will require one of Trengove, Jansen, Menadue or Phillips to hit 320k (based on Dahlhaus dropping another 60k). It's a gamble but the salary predictor has him hitting 418k, it's a risk worth taking in my opinion.

Trades will be Petracca to Phillips, Kerridge to Treloar & Adams to Franklin. Team will be as follows.

Backs - Shaw, Docherty, Simpson, Bartel, Laird, Rich (Collins, Tucker)

Mids - Danger, Pendlebury, Ablett, Selwood, Rockliff, Treloar, Gray, Priddis (Liberatore, Trengove, Jansen)

Rucks - Goldy, Gawn (Cox)

Forwards - Zorko, Martin, Deledio, Merrett, Montagna, Franklin (Menadue, Phillips)

With two trades left this is risky but I can hold off trading for 2-3 weeks barring some major catastrophe.