Koop's Kickas 2019

[Koop]

Much later start for me than usual, starting Uni & a few other things means I haven't paid one bit of attention to pre-season before the other day. This is my pre-JLT squad.

Reasoning:

DEFENCE

Laird - Slightly sceptical re: Lloyd so have Laird of the 'Big 2' for now, subject to change.
Whitfield - Think it's a no-brainer given his finals performances with Williams back in the side.
Ryan - Massive fan & think the new rules will play into his hands perfectly. Expecting big things & a rise to top 5.
Roberton (Should be D4 just too lazy to re-take photo)  - Too cheap to ignore given history & full preseason. Brodie Smith also in consideration, although think Roberton the more likely to be top 6 by a long way.
Rozee - Oozes class, won't get enough of the pill I don't think to justify selection in AF/DT, but think he will do enough in SC with his ball use.
Rookies - Normal ones here outside Quaynor. Think something off there but could be a wrong hunch.

MIDFIELD

Cripps, Kelly, Fyfe, Oliver - High % (first 3) no-brainers, think all 4 will have fantastic years. Treloar & Macrae all in the frame as well.
Merrett - 10 points underpriced for mine. Happy to take that risk of staying or dropping his output level
Rookies - Normal stuff, subject to change.

RUCKS

Grundy - Lock, defensive selection.
Mumford - Dunno about this one, placeholder depending on strategy
Fort - Obvious rookie.

FORWARDS

Dangerfield - See Grundy
Dunkley - One of the very few who started with him last year, massive fan & will take the punt that he remains in his role. Tim Kelly
& Heeney in consideration
Greene - Very obviously came back last year underdone. Will miss a game or two for suspension, but too cheap to ignore. Guy is quality
Morrison - My POD of 2019, huge fan of Harry & think he will step beautifully into Hawthorn's midfield as a link in the chain type  (think Macrae or Merrett) and increase his average quite substantially, that thought vindicated by his pre-season performances. Everyone's on the Worpel train given he'll most likely be at the bounces, but I think Morrison on the outside has every chance to eclipse. Clarko rates him highly for a reason.
Rookies - Stock standard.

Thoughts always welcome & appreciated!

[Nige]

Now that we've seen JLT1 just about play out (minus Freo v Pies tonight), I think you're gonna have to make a couple of changes here but overall, if you're committed to the structure of the underpriced second ruck and two mid priced forwards then I reckon this is almost as good as team of this nature can look.

[Koop]

Final Team*

DEF: Laird, Andrews, Williams, Ridley, Collins, Duursma (Burgess, Hore)
MID: Macrae, Cripps, Fyfe/Oliver*, Steele, Rockliff, Walsh, Hately/Butters*, Scott (Hind, Atkins, Gibbons)
RUC: Grundy, Gawn (Bines)
FWD: Dangerfield, Heeney, Boak*, Greene, Setterfield, Drew (Petruccelle, Parker)

Some notes on changes

Andrews - Leon Cameron making noises over Whitfield moving to more of a HFF role scared me off, Harris went at 92 when not getting some cheeky brain damage & I'd bet on a similar output at the very least as the Lions improve.
Williams - Roberton getting ruled out for the season kinda forced the hand. I didn't want to pick Williams, but he should go 80+ minimum and I'd back him to outscore Brodie Smith over the course of the first 10-12 weeks.
Ridley - Really like this kid, clean disposal by foot & a high footy IQ, taken as a POD to the more popular Moore.
Duursma - Not as bullish on his job security as some others, but options aren't really aplenty.

Macrae - Decided I couldn't deal without that scoring potential so I coughed up.
Oliver/Fyfe - Will go down to the wire, really splitting hairs I feel, advice would be appreciated.
Steele - Averaged 112 post-bye with 2 110+ scores in the JLT priced at 94. Value selection.
Rockliff - That mental health plan the GP subscribed me should finally come in handy.
Hately/Butters - Feel Hately is going to be the better volume accumulator and am slightly apprehensive as to whether Butters can maintain a consistent output with a dodgy shoulder, but still working that one out.

Gawn - Coughed up for the points

Heeney - Bit stupid I didn't have him in the first place
Boak - A permanent midfield move (hopefully given Ebert going forward) should yield a 90+ average. Christian Petracca is in extremely serious consideration to slot in here instead though, I really liked what I saw in the JLT.

I'm usually known for going a bit unique, but I'm feeling pretty settled outside of M3 & F3, always appreciate thoughts & feedback though.  :)

[walloo44]

Really nice looking team! Similar structure to my own so I can’t fault that.
As for m3 I have both fyfe and Oliver, however Oliver has never left my side where as fyfe is in and out so I lean Oliver.
F3 similar again boak is currently in my team. Midfield minutes should see 90+ minimum seeing as He went 88 playing up fwd last year!

[Koop]

Really nice looking team! Similar structure to my own so I can’t fault that.
As for m3 I have both fyfe and Oliver, however Oliver has never left my side where as fyfe is in and out so I lean Oliver.
F3 similar again boak is currently in my team. Midfield minutes should see 90+ minimum seeing as He went 88 playing up fwd last year!

cheers chief, I ended up going with Fyfe but that was a last minute call

Also ended up swapping out Heeney to TKelly to get the rookie I wanted to replace Hind (Constable), that proved a lucky move. :P

Stuck with Boak too, oh boy!



Scored 2221 and ranked 2088 for the round. Easily my best ever SC rank and I'm pretty shocked.

Gonna try and make the most of it though and fine-tune my team to how I want it, go hard & go early.

I'm not too stressed out by missing out on the Adelaide boys, 4 of my mids went 125+ and Jack Steele roared home for a 115 after a pretty average first half, so I'm content there.

I do feel like taking Laird over Lloyd may have been a misstep despite the Laird ton, even though it's only been a round. Lloyd didn't look fantastic and still pumped out a 130+ score, so I reckon I may look at fixing that up. Dom Sheed is another interesting case, but I'll stick with Rocky for now.

One player who really impressed me in the pre-season who I wish I'd had the balls to pick Rd1 was Charlie Ballard. Pumped out a 105 today after some good JLT signs and at 240k, I reckon I may find the 60k to upgrade from Collins.

looking at this week;

One of Gawn/Grundy -> Goldy/Hoff

Next week

Laird -> Lloyd
Collins -> Ballard

Relatively settled otherwise I think, but always looking to improve.

[js19]

Great start!

Laird to Lloyd is madness though, and a wasted trade. You want both those guys in your final team, and their scores may be reversed next week anyways.

Don’t sideways at this stage unless injury or major fail. Laird is neither of those.

[TommyC]

Great start!

Laird to Lloyd is madness though, and a wasted trade. You want both those guys in your final team, and their scores may be reversed next week anyways.

Don’t sideways at this stage unless injury or major fail. Laird is neither of those.

[Money Shot]

I would give Grundy/Gawn another week before you trade.

Agree that Laird > Lloyd is madness

[PICCOLLO]

Ridley to Moore?

Perhaps by downgrading Collins to Wilkie?

Don't be trading Grundy!!

Laird to Lloyd isn't amazing either

[Koop]

Yeah look, woke up the next morning and realised that was a dumb post. Didn't do either of those things.

Did trade Ridley to Ballard though, was going to go Moore, but forgot that the Thurs game was a bit earlier than normal and missed it by 10 minutes or so. Ballard was solid in the first half before going completely AWOL in the 2nd (think GC had something ridiculous like 74% time in forward half in the 2nd half anyway so not like he could do much), so I'm happy with a 66 all things considered.

Solid 2284 this week. Moved up to 435th overall.

No Lloyd is hurting, but I'm willing to make him my first upgrade target.

Toby Greene is the main issue I have to deal with at the moment. Don't have a lot of cash to play with though so down to Moore is probably the logical option if he doesn't pull up for this week. That would give me 100k to play with too.

Newman is probably the main midpricer I'm lacking, while LDU is the one rookie that I don't have that I really want, but trying to fit him in with Constable, Walsh & Butters scoring really well over the first 2 weeks is a challenging prospect. Could explore maybe Atkins to him but feel that may be a wasted trade.

So probably looking at

Greene -> Moore if not named
then probably holding the second unless something comes up.

Absolutely ecstatic with this start! Watch me fly dad.

[Koop]

Went Greene to Moore as mentioned, should make a decent chunk of cash despite my pre-season scepticism.

Also went Gibbons to LDU. Might be a waste but I've really liked the look of LDU & have realised he could make a lot of cash VERY quickly. On-field alongside Walsh & Constables with Butters as emergency.

Passing on Gawn's 130 to chase Macrae for reasons outlined in the captains thread, stay tuned for how that pans out.  ;D

[HoleMeal]

Bold move passing on Gawns score mate but you gotta risk it sometimes.
I have Moore and yeah he looks solid after 2 rounds.
Good luck!