Tackling The Bye Rounds

[owenbond007]

There is lots of theorys on how best to tackle the bye rounds. There is so much to think about with overall ranking plus your league matches that you so desperately want to win. I have heard many coaches so they're going to tank round 12 or 13, or they're not even going to give a stuff about the bye rounds and just pick the guys they normally would not caring for structure or a plan. I disagree i think a lot of careful planning and studying needs to be done, to be both successful in overall and your league matches. To those guys who haven't planned, studied or thought out how they will be tackling the bye rounds its not late, but you need to start now. I've put to together a guide that can be used to assist in tackling the bye rounds.

Step 1 - Study Your Opponents

You need to identify and continually track how many players your oppenent will have out in the round they play you. For example in my main league,

my round 11 opposition currently has 4 out in backs (waters, lake, bugg, tomlinson), 3 out in mids (greene, oldmac, boyd), 2 out in rucks (cox, giles), and 5 out in forwards (danger, porps, kennedy, hampton, cameron). Thats a total of 14 outs, but not to mention his reserve rucks are redden and orren his JS is not great, and his already traded in Horsley last week. So from this information i can presume his going to struggle not to field any donuts in that round.

my round 12 opposition currently has 2 out in backs (clarke, Smedts),  3 out in mids (pendle, selwood, magnet), no rucks out, and 3 out in forwards (sidebum, zaha, paine). So i can presume that with 3 trades there is a strong chance i could come accross 22, looking further into his team i have identified boumann in backs as having massive JS issues. This could be a tough one.

my round 13 opposition currently has 6 out in backs, 1 out in mid, none out in ruck, and 6 out in forwards. A lot of those backs and forwards r premiums. From this knowledge i can foresee a few donuts in round 13.

Step 2 - Know your team

So you need to know your sides stucture i have 3-3-3 in backs, 3-3-2 in mids, 1-1-2 in rucks, and 4-3-2 in forwards. So i know i have relatively weak opponents in rounds 11 and 13. So i need to structure my team so that i am taking donuts in these rounds. I have planned my future trades ahead of time allowing for a few different case scenarios on new rookies like zorko/couch getting games. My goal structure is to have a team set 3-2-4 in backs, 2-3-3 in mids, rucks no need to change, 3-4-2 in forwards. With 3 trades in round 12 i could potentially have 22 on the park in my tough round, and also 3 in round 13 leaves me with 22 with a bit of luck.

Step 3 - The Ruck Trio

Thats right its a trio not a duo. Forget about crossing your fingers and hoping orren and redden get a recall. If you get a opportunity set up the trio, mine is giles, sandilands (should return soon, pleas dont get injured in bye period), and Maric (Dirty mullet but who cares im only after points). So if your trio is fit you will not have to use any trades in your ruck department.

Step 4 - Round 11 JS

When trading to get the structure that best suits you really need to consider who has the best JS out of the round 11 guys you have trusted in throughout this period. I plan to have bugg, lake,waters, shiel, boyd, giles, dangerfield, adams and smith. I think there security is slightly better than the guys who i need to cut from my team these being oldmac (only due to i know at some stage he'll make way for rookies), Treloar think his behind smith and adams in the pecking order. Another guy that might get a game soon from round 11 is zorko, if his the goods i would consider trading him in for smith/adams. That cash could be very valuable in round 12 and 13. Ideally though you dont want this guy playing till round 9, but nothing is ideal in the DT world.

Step 5 - Who you going to trade?
Looking into my team further i plan to make 6 trades in round 12 and 13. But who? Well thats easy you dont want to be sidewaying premos if you can help. In round 12 i have Smedts, Couch, and Christensen who r my weakest 3 players. So theyll get the cut. But if say couch still hasnt got a game ill ride that one donut if im confident of a league win in that hard round 12 clash im expecting. In round 13 the 3 unlucky guys are ellis, morris, horsley (just brought in for mccarthy).


After all that planning i have a lot more confidence in what i can achieve. I can see 2.5 wins coming and with a bit of luck maybe only 2 donuts and a lot of points to push me closer to that number 1 ranking. Hope some of you guys find this useful

*Note: You need to do your own planning and study to be succussful. The assistant coach cant help you here.

[Off Tap]

I sat down last night for the first time to have a look at my team and how the byes are going to effect me.

I reckon that I'll cop 4 zeros by using 6 trades and doing no sideways trades of primo's. That's also not taking into consideration my rucks of Cox, Giles, Redden and O. I ran out of time figuring what to do there as if any of either Cox and Giles don't play I'm in trouble.

[Phasir]

I spent a few minutes going over my team and my plans for trading after lunch and came up with this.
Defence Line.

--Possible Defence Premiums--
J.Adcock,
G.Broughton,
R.Hargrave,
B.Lake,

currently 3-2-4

cop the backline bye in R11.
Bye trading- after R11, bring in a R11 defender from the above list at the expense of a R13 defender, at the conclusion of R12 bring in a R11 or R12 premium defender if possible, if not, take a 2nd backline doughnut in R13.


Midfield Line.


--Possible Midfield Premiums--
M.Murphy,
G.Ablett,
B.Goddard,
K.Simpson,

currently 4-3-1

cop the midfield bye in R11.
Bye trading- have 5 premiums & one top scoring rookies (McDonald) pushing out 80+ by bringing in one of the above by (possibly) double trading Magner & Shiel for one of the above listed R13 midfield Premiums at the conclusion of R10. This means I'll be getting 740 regularly from the mids. case. lock.

Ruck Line.

--Possible Ruck Premiums--
I.Maric

currently 2-1-1

cop the ruck bye in R11
Bye trading- None.
2 starting ruckmen are the R11 byes, hopeful that my most expensive & initial "gun" ruck Mumford will play through R11 at the least, will take a doughnut in R11 in the Ruck Dept.

Forward Line.

--Possible Forward Premiums--
P.Chapman,
C.Pearce,
T.Cloke,

currently 3-3-3

cop the forward bye in R11 & R13
Bye trading- Upgrade either D.Smith or A.Treloar to one of the above R12 premiums after the R12 bye, try to avoid a 2nd forward line bye in R13 if trades are available.




WILL be copping 4 doughnuts minimum over the course of the 3 rounds, realistically I'm looking at eating 5 best case scenario though, more likely to be 6+

[Chopps]

top write up, i am fairly lucky that i planned to some degree then decided to trade the rest into place. rucks are my only real dilemma

[Phasir]

I'm planning on having 2 premiums in each round with a 3rd premium in each of the 3 big lines for the "elected" doughnut, but using the other trades which are being looked at as "doughnut avoiding trades/sideways trades" to do most of my upgrades/downgrades so they're not being wasted.

[Off Tap]

Here's hoping that there's no injuries either. A bad run could add another half dozen to the tally very easily.

[owenbond007]

Here's hoping that there's no injuries either. A bad run could add another half dozen to the tally very easily.

Unfortunately injuries are something we cant control in the dream team world. We can pick players with healthy records and guys that arnt to old or young. But even then you get the odd one. This years tally has already been rather high. Just got hope that your 30 guys arnt of the unlucky guys who get injured in the bye period.

[Justin Bieber]

Owen your getting too Many cheers aha.

[owenbond007]

Yeah im well liked  :) got one or 2 cheers today and lots more boos, i swear some nazi out there is booing me everytime they jump on FF. Not that i care.

Is it you Lez? lol

[Justin Bieber]

Look at mine aha

[zeddyzed]

Great write up Owen! Good summary of the bye strategy.
I've planned my team roughly from the start of the season and have worked out my plan accordingly, and will cop 4 zeros over the rounds, that includes my rd 11 rucks, which cant be helped. I think the most important thing during the bye rounds is going to be having a healthy bank account to make upgrades, due to the lack of downgrades on the horizon. I will be going into the byes with 400-500k and forgoing upgrades until r12. Also i think captain choices will be incredibly important to offset the donuts. If you dont have a super premium capable of 150s i think you need to get one in before the byes 8)

[owenbond007]

Great write up Owen! Good summary of the bye strategy.
I've planned my team roughly from the start of the season and have worked out my plan accordingly, and will cop 4 zeros over the rounds, that includes my rd 11 rucks, which cant be helped. I think the most important thing during the bye rounds is going to be having a healthy bank account to make upgrades, due to the lack of downgrades on the horizon. I will be going into the byes with 400-500k and forgoing upgrades until r12. Also i think captain choices will be incredibly important to offset the donuts. If you dont have a super premium capable of 150s i think you need to get one in before the byes 8)

Yes great point on the captains most sides will have a swan/ablett otherwise the likes of pendle/stanton (I better mention this guy so his converters dont get upset. I got GAJ and look to get swan r13. So basically got them super premos as captain ready without even thinking about it.  Having a lot of cash in the bank could be important depends on who you plan to be trading r12 and r13 and if there will be any quality rookies on the bubble.