Defensive Dilemmas'

[6ft Hick]

Every year my DT stress has been the backline. Donuts, injuries a major headache and a waste of many of my trades.
Always trying and salvage a good defence out of the money left over from picking the premium mid's and fwd's.
2013's strategy for me will be to go with 7 consistant defenders that have averged over 70 plus play every game in the year.

B Gibbs, G Broughton, B Reilly, B Houli, S Dempster, H Taylor and A Rance for example.

Using the fanplanner it's not a cheap backline costing $3 mill with 2 rookies, plus once you've taken the must have mid's, doesn't leave much for the fwd's.

But then again it's justs the same old dilemma of "Taking from Peter to pay Paul."
So next year my topic may be "Forward Fiasco's."

There are some good cheap fwd's out there next year, plus more rookies in the fwd's than the backs out to make a name for themselves with a reasonable job security to choose from.

Do you's guys feel it's worth taking the risk with the forward line this year?
And who do you think are the most consistant  defenders year in and year out under $400k?

S Dempster will be my 1st def lock - played every game for the last 2 years with only 2 games in 2012 scoring under 50 and 5 in 2011. Plus will get more of the ball with Goddard out of the picture.

H Taylor has been improving every year he plays and hasn't missed many games in the last 5 years.

D Cassisi has been reliable, but i feel he is on the way out.

[felsty]

Dempster and Taylor could be good POD but Cassisi has had it as a fantasy footballer...

and i wouldnt be going out to get 7 defenders from the get go.. if youre having so much trouble why dont you just grab a few premiums, say 2 or 3 at the start, and wait and see with which defenders are playing well throughou the year?

should really be going for guys who run through the midfield - Gibbs, Goddard, Carazzo, Heppell, Scotland - the only guys who play predominantly down back and play well are Waters and Shaw, however they also have their ups and downs

[zeddyzed]

B Gibbs, G Broughton, B Reilly, B Houli, S Dempster, H Taylor and A Rance is a horrible backline mate. I'd also be pretty stressed if those guys were my initial defenders :P

You should be aiming to include guys that will finish in the top 10 of their respective lines. Broughton and Gibbs would fall into this category, but i'd scrap the rest.

[Ricochet]

If your aiming to spend more money in the backline, you have to consider Grimes, Waters and Birch over guys like Taylor, Dempster and Rance. Otherwise you'll be leaking 10-20 points per player every week

[Grazz]

Backs always seem to be where most of my stress comes from to.

[Justin Bieber]

I really like Rance and Houli as players, but not prem defs...

[Holz]

having that backline setup i can see creating huge amounts of problems with alot of very average backs in there. Really for safety im spending quite abit of money down back and having cheaper other lines.

Goddard is a must should be very solid, rarely misses a game and should be top 3.

Birchall is very solid always seems to get around 80-85.

Gibbs: Obvious

Grimes: Looks to be over the injures and will peform

Broughton/Hartlett: Both risks but will score well

I think you shoudl go rookies for the other 4, you will find out who they are over the preseason but if you have a very solid 5 like above than you wont have to worry too much about an underscoring backline. If guys like docherty play i think they can score jsut as well as players like rance.

[Grazz]

having that backline setup i can see creating huge amounts of problems with alot of very average backs in there. Really for safety im spending quite abit of money down back and having cheaper other lines.

Goddard is a must should be very solid, rarely misses a game and should be top 3.

Birchall is very solid always seems to get around 80-85.

Gibbs: Obvious

Grimes: Looks to be over the injures and will peform

Broughton/Hartlett: Both risks but will score well

I think you shoudl go rookies for the other 4, you will find out who they are over the preseason but if you have a very solid 5 like above than you wont have to worry too much about an underscoring backline. If guys like docherty play i think they can score jsut as well as players like rance.

Think your right Holz.

[tbagrocks]

Heppell?

[Grazz]

Heppell is in the mix, no question, at this stage the jury is open on all tbh. 

[mezzoculo]

Anyone considering Jordan Russell for ~250k? He's a solid DTer at a new club. If he gets the opportunity he could get the scores.

[Toga]

Anyone considering Jordan Russell for ~250k? He's a solid DTer at a new club. If he gets the opportunity he could get the scores.

not sure how much game time he'll get tbh :\

[mezzoculo]

Anyone considering Jordan Russell for ~250k? He's a solid DTer at a new club. If he gets the opportunity he could get the scores.

not sure how much game time he'll get tbh :\

Yeah, that' my concern too. At best, he's competing for the position that Marty Clarke couldn't make his own last season.

[GM]

There seems to be some good cheap fwds in 2013 so i am going with 5 to 6 back locks .
The backs caused so much frustration last year so i am setting & forgetting and let backs be backs.
Go with the reliables.

[stew42]

Yeah, I'm going 5 premos and Pederson, who could average 70-85