Footy Tragic

View Watts The Score’s Team
Round 2 Score: 1,871
Current Overall Ranking: 11,787
Trades Left: 20
Remaining Salary Cap: $21,200

Dear Watts The Score,

Thank you for submitting your team.

There is no doubt that the nucleus of your side is very strong with a bunch of proven Dream Team performers. However, I have identified some fundamental mistakes:

1.
When selecting your midfielders, always select 8 players who are midfield only players. Matthew Richardson, Brett Deledio & Jack Ziebell do not fit into this category. While all three players are good selections in your squad of 30, all three players should have been chosen as forwards, rather than midfielders.

The reason for this is that there a plethora of midfield options to choose from, whereas the forward line options are very thin by comparison. This is shown by your 8^th & 9^th forward choices, Mitch Brown & Jarrad Grant. Brown is not a strong Dream Team scorer, while Grant will struggle to play more than 5 AFL games in 2009. Had you selected Ziebell as a forward, rather than a midfielder, you could have selected Mitch Robinson from Carlton as a midfielder & dumped Grant.

While this may seem like knit picking, these are the structures you need in place if you want to climb into the top 1,000 teams. The unfortunate thing here is that the damage is done. However, when selecting your Dream Team next season, follow this rule.

2.
The selection of Nick Naitanui is a poor one. Naitanui was injured during the pre-season & is on the injury list until at least Round 5. Given that West Coast has identified big Nick as a 12 year player & the successor to Dean Cox, when he is ready to play, he will be nursed through the WAFL. At a cost of $146,600, Naitanui is too expensive to hold onto indefinitely. Now is the ideal time to replace Naitanui with Sam Jacobs from Carlton. Jacobs has been a revelation for the Blues in the first two rounds & his price is about to soar!

PROPOSED ACTION:

OUT: Nick Naitanui $146,600

IN: Sam Jacobs $75,300

I would hold off from making any further trades this week. While Grant is a passenger in your forward line, given the fact he is reasonably cheap ($86,600), I wouldn’t waste a trade on him at this point in time. Good luck!

Thank you to all those people who submitted their teams this week.

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View Pingi’s Peppers’ Team
Round 1 Score: 1,618
Current Overall Ranking: 82,514
Remaining Salary Cap: $26,800

Thank you for submitting your team Pingi’s Peppers.

I’ll start off proceedings with an apology, because your team can only be described as mediocre. Nevertheless, you have made the first step towards firing up the dreamteam rankings by submitting your side to the team here at footytragic.com.

At first glance, your team needs a complete overhaul. However, given that we are limited to 20 trades from now until season’s end & 2 this week, we are somewhat limited.

I will be focussing my attention towards your backline, which I would call pedestrian at best. By selecting Daniel Merrett, Shannon Hurn, Dale Morris, Will Thursfield, Leigh Fisher & Matt Maguire, you have committed the cardinal dreamteam sin (the each way bet)! Choosing 6 players priced between $145,300 – $250,500 is definitely not the yellow brick road to dreamteam success. Unfortunately, the each way bets you have taken are almost certain to result in losses.

When choosing defenders, they must fit into one of the following 3 categories:

1 – Gun e.g. Luke Hodge, Andrew Mackie, Sam Fisher, Brendon Goddard, Chad Cornes etc.

2 – Underpriced good ordinary players e.g. Ryan Houlihan, Lindsay Gilbee etc.

3 – Fresh young talent priced below $100,000 e.g. Jared Petrenko, Kyle Cheney, Nick Suban etc.

Shannon Hurn could potentially slot into category 2. However, the other 5 players I have mentioned above are to put it bluntly, very poor choices.

Ultimately, you need all 30 players in your dreamteam squad to rise in value to be successful. I cannot see any of these 6 players rising significantly in value, apart from maybe Hurn.

That’s enough of the negatives, time to focus on the positives. With the Private Leagues not starting until Round 4, we have 3 weeks to plug some holes in your defence. In addition, you have $26,800 available in the kitty.

Proposed action this week:

• OUT: Dale Morris $250,500 & Leigh Fisher $162,700;
• IN: Ryan Houlihan $244,900 & Kyle Cheney $86,600.

This will leave you with $108,500 in the bank prior to Round 3. This leaves you in a strong position to swoop next week before player prices change.

Although I prefer to save my trades until later in the season, you must act now. There is no point saving your trades for the finals of your Private League if you finish the home & away season in 14^th place.

Good luck.

View Firecracker’s Team

Dear Firecracker.

Thank you for submitting your team. On first glance, you have done a good job selecting your squad of 30 players. However, selecting Simon Hogan as your 9th forward shows the lack of quality forward options in this price bracket. My concern with Hogan is that because of the strength of Geelong’s midfield, he will be lucky to play more than 5 senior games in 2009.

The question I am asked most by footy tragics is: “Who should I select as my forward options below the $90,000 mark”? While I agree with your 8th forward selection (Mitch Brown), you should consider the following players for forward selection 9:

• Taylor Walker – Adelaide – The boy from Broken Hill has been very impressive in his 2nd pre-season at the Crows. After being selected as a NSW scholarship holder in the 2007 National Draft, Walker’s development has been rapid. After booting 56 goals in the SANFL in 2008, Walker has averaged 54 points per game in the 2009 pre-season matches.



• Mitch Thorp – Hawthorn – If Thorp played for any other team apart from the Hawks, he would have already played 20 AFL games by now, rather than 1. With Buddy Franklin & Jarryd Roughead holding down the key forward posts, Thorp has been switched to defence to cover the injury to Trent Croad. Thorp was picked up at selection 6 in the 2006 National Draft. He is a star of the future who will make his mark in 2009. While Thorp has averaged just 34 points per game in the 2009 pre-season matches, I expect him to be a big improver this season.

• Hayden Ballantyne – Fremantle – The small forward from Peel Thunder has not played any pre-season matches due to having wrist surgery late 2008. The 21 year old was selected by the Dockers with pick 21 in the 2008 National Draft. Ballantyne simply demanded his place on an AFL list after booting 75 goals in the WAFL & winning the Sandover Medal in 2008. While Ballantyne is unlikely to play until Round 4 or 5 due to his wrist injury, expect him to have an immediate impact when he is selected.