Planning for the BYES...

[CuStArDaRm]

hope your right I have 6, 10 & 13 guys out in respective rounds complete debarkle if they leave it as is. Even with best efforts your team will be majorly compromises, and besides a lot happens in 10 rounds my team will look nothing like it does at the start. Throw a few injuries in and then ya completely stuffed. 15 players in those rounds max imo.

[Torress]

end of the day we will all be in the same boat. whatever the rules will be for these byes, a coach who can make the most of it could propel themselves up overall quite a bit.  will be interesting to see what unfolds here.
I think 16 teams makes the most sense to put 4 byes out there to cover the 3 week mid season break. and us coaches will recieve donuts! - but an overall oriented coach may burn some trades here where a GF oriented coach will not.. as i said we'll all be in the ame boat, i kinda like it!!

[Capper]

the only position the byes are going to impact my decision are the rucks!

Surely not only the rucks???

the backs are the big issue i see with Blues, Tigers, Hawks and Saints having the bye in week 13

[eagles929406]

well cat is outta bag i guess, we will be playing league games in bye weeks, and one extra trade per rnd is the catch, so you can trade 3 in those bye weeks instead of the usual 2, i dont mind this, makes for interesting. but how many people gonna run outta trades this year (next year)  with itchy trade fingers

[demon_spud]

Seems that 'trades' are now used for covering byes then for covering injuries or upgrading. Like I said in another post, they should have started the league matches in rnd 1 or keeping the number of teams to 16 than 18 and having to play more games.  16 teams only would have allowed the byes to be take out of the leagues comp completely.

Perhaps just looking after those wanting the $50k.

[Kuruki]

Been hearing rumours from those that have a bit of inside info that we may well only be using between 15 to 18 players in those 3 weeks not the standard 22 on the ground.

5 minutes ago i would have thought oh wow that's great!. But the more i think about it, the more id rather it stay how it is. Why?. Because i think it will benefit those who actually plan and put some work into it rather then those who just arrive there and deal with it when it comes.

[Ringo]

Over the holidays have done a fair bit of pre planning and calculations and have come up with the following bye strategy:

Team will be be set up as 8/11/11 based on teams with byes by round 9/10 will all playing.
This will then allow, barring injuries, no trades in round 11 and maximum of 3 trades in Rounds 12 & 13 may even get by with 5 using DPP.
I know all the best laid plans can go out the window but my strategy at the moment will be and trades will be on a needs basis and cashing in peaked cash cows:
Maximum 6/7 trades to Round 10
6 Trades during bye rounds
5/6 trades to round 20
Leaving 6 trades for finals.

[Grazz]

Been hearing rumours from those that have a bit of inside info that we may well only be using between 15 to 18 players in those 3 weeks not the standard 22 on the ground.

5 minutes ago i would have thought oh wow that's great!. But the more i think about it, the more id rather it stay how it is. Why?. Because i think it will benefit those who actually plan and put some work into it rather then those who just arrive there and deal with it when it comes.

Got the email from DT today regarding changes to DT as no doubt you all did and no mention of reduced squads during the byes, so appologies there lads if anyone did extra work due to this, bit of a blow.

[Grazz]

Over the holidays have done a fair bit of pre planning and calculations and have come up with the following bye strategy:

Team will be be set up as 8/11/11 based on teams with byes by round 9/10 will all playing.
This will then allow, barring injuries, no trades in round 11 and maximum of 3 trades in Rounds 12 & 13 may even get by with 5 using DPP.
I know all the best laid plans can go out the window but my strategy at the moment will be and trades will be on a needs basis and cashing in peaked cash cows:
Maximum 6/7 trades to Round 10
6 Trades during bye rounds
5/6 trades to round 20
Leaving 6 trades for finals.

Gotta say looks great on paper Ringo. As they say those that fail to plan are only planning for failure. Hope you get the luck you need to pull it off. We all need that bit of luck dont we.

[Ringo]

Thanks Grazz and despite all this still face the prospect of one donut as a minimum.  Maths does not allow it as because of byes and with four on ruck line the 8/11/11 structure does not avoid a donut and with most DPP Rucks with bye in round 13 can not use this as well.  Only hope is if Scott Lycet is playing for Eagles but with Cox and Nat highly unlikely,

So that is why I am now working on best team from round 1 and looking at byes when upgrading to my ideal finals team.

[Fletch74]

After only just really looking at tis for the first time this morning (brain shuts down for SC/DT over summer) I would say without even planning a team, that a reasonable strategy if they leave things the way its always been, would be to start to look at having rookies. etc from those teams who have byes in Rd 11, and begin to look at upgrading them by then.

This may change of course, after I see the rules and put together a side, but I that is the logical way to go.

[Sabretooth Tigers]

 ;)

The  Sabre's approach to the bye will be very, very basic. The most obvious of the easybeats is GWS. In round 11 they have the bye, but in round 13 they play Melbourne who they also play again in round 21 which is the second week of the finals. Sabre's will adjust team to have the most doughnuts in round 11 but include some of the Demons very top, players as keepers for round 13, with round 21 in mind, and try to recoup any losses that way. Will be keeping trades for the finals reguardless of cost to load up for the last final. I.E.  Already have A.Swallow and T Goldstein, but hope to further add D Petrie, D Wells, L Adams and perhaps J Ziebell. You guessed it GWS play Nth Melb during the SC grand Final.  Sabretooth has run 2nd in 8 out of 10 leagues since joining the fun, no more Mr. Niceguy. Hope this makes some sort of sense, comments are not only welcome but are wanted bigtime. Cheers. 

[Colliwobblers]

There are a couple of points to make about the byes.

1. the structure leading into the byes needs to be 8-11-11. this doesnt need to be the setup from round 1 just from round 11.

you then make no trades round 11. you trade 3 out round 12 with round 11 players. (11-8-11)

you trade 3 out round 13 ( ?-?-8) this way you only evver have the 8 players each round on the bye, providing that all other players you have a re playing you have all those 8 on the bench you get no donuts.

2. no donuts wont happen because it is almost impossible to expect every player you have to be playing during these three rounds, with zero backup (all other players 8 on bench are on byes).

3. this plan will only work if you DO NOT PICK ANYMORE KEEPERS THAN 2 IN EACH d/m/f line on the same bye.

for example, if you have goddard, scotland and delidio in your backline- you either have to trade one out before round 13 or accept a donut for one of them during round 13.

same if you have swan penleds and jelwood in the mids, one must be traded out before round 12 or you must accept a donut for them.

* this is where the dilemna starts and you must ask yourself which option you prefer.

1. start with the best premiums and ignore byes, = then =

a) take donuts for them during byes or (cost you no trades but may cost you having the best premiums from the start)
b) trade them out before byes to avoid donuts, = then =

b1) trade them back in after byes ( this has cost you 2 trades per premium) or
b2) keep them out of your side and keep the premium you traded in for them before the bye. ( this costs you 1 trade per premium but means you give up the premium you thought best for the second half of the season)

2. You start with balanced premiums that work for the byes and do not have to sideways trade them or take donuts for them, but you may want to in order to get the better premiums you didnt pick because of byes in later or you simply ugreade rooks to those premiums as you go.

either way the options under 1. allow you higher scoring for having the best premiums and may cost you 2 or 3 donuts (extra) at most. SO do the "best" premiums score more than the donuts they may cost you over the first 10 rounds??
And Or the option 1 options may cost you a lot of trades in sideways trading premiums out and possibly back in, this means YOU BETTER have balanced rooks by those rounds because you will be using all your bye round trades on the premiums.

Option 2 you don't have the best premium neccessarily on the field but you dont have to trade any premiums out over the three rounds, all your trade leading up to the byes and during them are to upgrade and downgrade rooks (which is kinda preferable to a sideways trade that avoids nothing other than avoiding a bye donut)

Me I am looking to go option 1 a) pick the best and dont trade them out cop a donut for them (if they are flying if not i will sideways trade and avoid the donut if possible (keeping in mind all the rooks have to be balanced by then also so trades will not be in great supply)

For my team at the moment this will mean a donut in def and a donut in forwards (or a premium trade required) DEF in round 13. FWD in round 12.

My rucks and mids will be spread to not need any premium trading over the byes.

THE UNAVOIDABLE BYE DONUTS

this is with my rucks it works out different with different rucks / and working on a 8-11-11 structure coming into round 11.

* ok so having 8 on the bench means no donut right? wrong.

say you have burger/sandi giles/stephensen  11-12-11-12 (byes)

in round 11 you have 2 on the bench (with bye) and 6 (with bye) in total from all the other lines to go on 6 bench spots
in round 12 you have 2 on the bench (with bye) and 6 (with bye) in total from all the other lines to go on 6 bench spots
in round 13 you have 0 on the bench (with bye) and 8 (with bye) in total from all the other lines to go on 6 bench spots

with this set up of rucks you HAVE TO take 2 donuts in round 13

WHY? because with the 8-11-11 structure as described above you HAVE TO trade out 3 round 13 players to avoid donuts, so you dont have any trades to fix this.

I THINK the only option to deal with this problem is DPP rucks and that means bid risks in scoring potential of your rucks.

What this means for my team is my round 13 defender premium is 1 compulsory donut (yay)
my round 12 forward is a (non-compulsory-extra) donut (boo)
i also get my second compulsory donut in round 13.

So some people (who do not use a dpp ruck strategy will get 2 donuts only where i have chosen to get an extra 1 by having 3 premium round 12 bye forward. I cant fix this as i have explained due to the ruck set up.

My only other option to cut my donuts to 2 is to remove the 3rd round 12 bye premium forward i have and not take that optional extra donut.

Hope this all makes some sense and more importantly i hope it is correct and i hope even more if it is not someone will correct it.