Bargain Ruck Theory 2010

[Prospector_1]

Duer Meister Stool!

[nick1408]

Duer Meister Stool!

Vielleicht, aber ich etwas anderes, als ob sich alle an den gleichen Weg dann gefällt was ist der Sinn von einem Spiel wie diesem?

[Prospector_1]

Ob solch ein Sinn neurologisch lokalisiert werden kann!

[Prospector_1]

New rules make for an interesting way around ruck problems - everyone should check Walesey's blog at tooserious you know!

[tonynotte1]

I agree in principal to your theory. I have Mumford and Warnock who I think will be first choice ruckman for their teams. Skipper and Lobbe on the bench who I think will get some game time but prob not 22 games. And I have Tippett in the forward line as back up who can sub with Lobbe if needed without using any trades. Im looking outside of the box like you.

[nick1408]

Ok, so now final prices are out I have made a couple of changes from the original team I posted but nothing too serious:

Lobbe for Warnock
West for Skipper
Rockliff for Lockyer
Barlow for Bastinac

Most of the changes speak for themselves.  The reason I went for Jackson Trengove over Lobbe may not be as obvious but it is simply because I feel Trengove will play more games for Port than Lobbe.  Both players are the same price so if one is picked and the other isn't in round one then it is a simple change back.

Now I will wait for pre-season form and the Friday before the second match and make the final changes required for my team (e.g. who to swap Ladson for) and post it back here.

As most of you will see my initial team has some players that are unlikely to get a game for round one.  This was done delibrately.  The idea behind this was to take advantage of the rolling lockout for round one.  The Richmond and Carlton players I have picked (Vickery, Gibbs and Warnock).  I plan on trying to get Dustin Martin in for Kayler-Thomson in the dreaded hours between the release of teams and the first lockout if one of my backs (or Veszprimi) are not selected.  Realistically a NAB Cup injury to one of my cheaper players will not hurt me too much and could honestly be an advantage as it means I get another highly rated rookie mid in the side.

It is an unusual way to set up a team to look for players that won't be selected (either because of a NAB Cup injury or otherwise) but this is why I feel that posting my stratergy is worthwhile.  It will give people a different idea on how to look at things.  I think that selecting the initial team this way will also give enough cover for early injury (e.g. NAB Cup injury) but unfortunately not for the Liam Anthony injury (if anyone can tell me how to beat this please feel free to share!).

[Trav0]

lids only named as a mid:(
:'( its hurt me

same here, i put him in as a midfielder and it didnt look right expecially when cooney was 80k cheaper!! so hes gone now!!

[Trav0]

im still not convinced on this rookie ruck thing, your 2 ruckmen  should be keeper from the start allowing you to upgrade elsewhere on the field, you dont choose young KPP because they tend to take longer to develop, its the same with ruckmen! its going to be really hard to upgrade vickery or lobbe during the year they should ONLY be used to make money, where as if you look at midfielder type players as the ones to upgrade they have a LOT better chance to make a lot more money!!! and if it gets late in the season and Lobbe and Vickery are still around the 250k averaging 40PPG you are going to be wasting money trying to upgrade them, or worse losing games in your league because you didnt put in decent rucks from the start!!

[nick1408]

im still not convinced on this rookie ruck thing, your 2 ruckmen  should be keeper from the start allowing you to upgrade elsewhere on the field, you dont choose young KPP because they tend to take longer to develop, its the same with ruckmen! its going to be really hard to upgrade vickery or lobbe during the year they should ONLY be used to make money, where as if you look at midfielder type players as the ones to upgrade they have a LOT better chance to make a lot more money!!! and if it gets late in the season and Lobbe and Vickery are still around the 250k averaging 40PPG you are going to be wasting money trying to upgrade them, or worse losing games in your league because you didnt put in decent rucks from the start!!

Hence why I got Warnock and Skipper in the side now (as per previous post).  Both still fit the bargin ruck theory and both should be developed by now.  Remember last season any of Tippet, Kruezer, Ryder or Clark could/would have fit this mould (as long as they were rucks last season.  Was Ryder or Clark?  Tippet and Kruezer were).

[nick1408]

Ok, here we are on the eve of the pre-season and I guess it is a good time to put up my pre-NAB Cup team:

Backs: Brendan Goddard, Luke Hodge, Shannon Hurn, Josh Hunt, Rick Ladson, Simon Buckley, Marcus Drum Beau Waters, Brad Sheppard

Mids: Gary Ablett, Joel Selwood, Leigh Montagna, Dane Swan, Bryce Gibbs, Jack Trengove Ryan Bastinac, Dustin Martin

Rucks: Tyrone Vickery, Robert Warnock Wayde Skipper, Jackson Trengove

Forwards: Nick Riewoldt, Tarkin Lockyer, Jarod Brennan, Graham Polak, Patrick Dangerfield, James Polkinghorne, Chris Knights Trent Dennis-Lane, Luke Tapscott

Rick Ladson being named for the match against the tigers threw up something I didn't expect but so be it.  At the moment I am only tossing up between Skipper and Jordan Roughead but I think Skipper will get the nod due to his previous experiance - even if he has only produced low scores.

My other thought is whether to two backs are dropped for round one.  I am thinking of getting rid of Hunt and one other (probably Ladson) so I can hopefully get Gilbee but this will require a bit of tinkering to actually make it work and I have to ask if it is worth it or not.

*Edit*
One game in and I can say I have nothing to change.  I was impressed with Naitanui but my main concern with him is how many points Cox will take off him.  Sheppard's 30 points from a bit over a quarter is promising but Hurn concerned me.

Essendon-wise Bellchambers had a good first half but fell away in the second half.  Nothing else to note really as I haven't selected any Essendon players.  I will keep my eye on Bellchambers though as he is another option for the bargain ruck at $153,800.

[JUDDY]

thats the best midfeild i have seen yet!! but its too expensive imo downgrade at least one to a cheaper player eg masten, dalziell or mackay and use that money to upgrade at least one of your players in defence iwould suggest beau waters

[nick1408]

thats the best midfeild i have seen yet!! but its too expensive imo downgrade at least one to a cheaper player eg masten, dalziell or mackay and use that money to upgrade at least one of your players in defence iwould suggest beau waters

Yeah, I understand where you are coming from.  The plan is for one of my backs to not be picked in the first round and use the money to upgrade either Waters or Ladson

[bunyip]

i agree. I think you should have at least one quality ruckman. I tried 2 cheaper rucks last year and it didn't really work, having said that I won my GF in DT last year, but I don't think I would be competative against the top sides as I only averaged (from memory) around 1900 ppr. Be careful with Trent West, good player though he is I think he would only get a game if Otto or Blakey fell over. Geelong (or St.Kilda) are poor clubs for cheap options.
I think if there is money to be saved it may be in the forward line. I might try some cheaper options up there after looking at NBA cup form and beefing up the center and back lines. As the year progesses you can recruit forwards that  will work for you.

[PatrickStar]

ruck cheapies are typically far inferior to cheapies in other positions - it makes no sense to choose the former over the latter

[nick1408]

Time for another update.  After NAB Cup round one and on the eve of round two my team currently looks like the following:

Backs: Goddard, Hodge, J. Hunt, Enright, Ladson, Webberley, Polak, Lisle, Sheppard

Mids: Ablett, Swan, J. Selwood, Trengove, Montanga, D. Martin, Bastinac, Gibbs

Rucks: Naitanui, Vickery, Warnock, Roughead

Forwards: Riewoldt, Giansiracusa, Rockliff, Dangerfield, Polkinghorne, Lobbe, Lockyer, Pavlich, Dennis-Lane

Now, two spots I am not sold on at the moment are Lobbe  in the forward line and Webberley in the backline.  My reserves for the backline are Jackson Trengove and Marcus Davies. 

Not too sure on my forward line backups yet.  I am thinking Mitchell Duncan or James Podsiadly but this will then give me five Geelong players in my team.  Can they all score well?  Gerrick Weedon is another on the radar but I am unsure if he will get a game early on.  Gumbleton is under consideration but again, will he make get the games?  I will most probably go with Podsiadly so I can use the saving elsewhere.

You may have noted the players that have changed since my last writeup.  I will list and explain why:

Skipper:  Swapped for Roughead.  Skipper did show something but I think Roughead will offer more until Minson comes back and gives me a good idea of when to trade him as well

Buckley:  Not enough of a go in the Collingwood NAB Cup game.  I chose Lisle in his position after his NAB Cup game, but it was only Richmond.

Hurn:  Poor outing against a weak Essendon.  Chose Enright after his outing against North Melbourne

Drum:  Hard decision this one - especially now Corey is out for a while as I think Drum will come into his position.  My reason was because Geelong didn't select him in the first game or the NAB Challenge outing against Richmond, which is an ideal outing for new players in my opinion.  Drum is also a country Victorian so an interesting player for Geelongto leave out.  If it is good enough for them it is good enough for me to leave him out.  Player selected in his position was Webberley.  I think he will take Nason's spot in the Richmond side and being a mature age rookie should score well, but am not fully convinced yet.

Waters:  Still not back after how many years out?  Swapped for Polak due to him playing more games this year.

Kayler-Thomson:  Swapped for Martin due to Martin's NAB Cup outing

Stanton: Swapped for Montanga.  All due to gut feeling.  No other reason.

Trengove:  Swapped for Naitanui due to his NAB Cup outing.  I wasn't going to make this swap as I wasn't sure of Naitanui's output when Cox came back but after Worsfold said he will play as a midfielder after the first outing I found room to swap him in

Brennan:  Swapped for Pavlich.  I would have liked to have kept Brennan but due to Pavlich's consistancy I have chosen him

Knights:  Injured.  Swapped for Giansiracusa.  Was a gun in the wet of Canberra and has had a full pre-season so he comes in

Veszprimi:  Wasn't sure when I picked him so to drop him for Lockyer didn't hurt.

Gumbleton:  Didn't get a gig in the new Essendon forward line so doesn't get a gig in my forward line.  Swapped for Lobbe.  Not sure on this one as explained above

At the moment I am fairly comfortable with the side but one of my concerns is the four players I have from Richmond.  This is also my main reason I am not sold on Webberley and Polak to a lesser extent.  I am more comfortable with Polak but it will all come down to Davies' and Wrbberley's game reports this week.  If Polak does go I don't know who I will bring in.  I may even just leave it and keep the cash for the future.  I don't like spare cash as I see it as wasted but I also see the upside as well.

I guess that's why it makes this game so interesting!