View Smokies’ Team
Round 9 Score: 2,041
Current Overall Ranking: 18,583
Trades Left: 8
Remaining Salary Cap: $221,000

Dear Smokies,

Thank you for submitting your team. Firstly, I must congratulate you for selecting Jordan Russell prior to Round 1. Clearly an inspired selection that has paid off with handsome dividends! On the negative side of the equation, I’m very concerned that you have only eight trades remaining with 13 rounds still to be played. Ideally, you should aim to have one trade remaining for every round remaining.

AFL Rd 3 - Blues v Bombers

After looking closely at your 2010 trading history, I am also concerned about some of the players you bought into your team through trades. You have clearly jumped on the bandwagon with certain players such as Mark Seaby prior to Round 3 and Kyle Reimers prior to Round 4. While you were not to know that these two players would get injured shortly after selecting them, these two players should never have been bought in at all. Seaby played one brilliant game in Round 2 and did little else, while Reimers is simply not a viable dreamteam option due to his chronic inconsistency. Neither of these two players lasted for more than four weeks in your team, which effectively means you wasted four trades (two to get them in and two to get them out).

Your team now is very solid with a complete midfield and ruck division. Ideally you would make another four upgrades (two in defence and two in the forward line), but you may have to settle for two more upgrades because of your lack of remaining trades. The chances of you running out of trades early are very high, so you must use your remaining trades very wisely. Unfortunately injuries are inevitable, so you must retain at least six trades to cover for injuries.

With no quality cash cow options priced under $120,000 set to soar in price after two games this weekend, this week is a good opportunity to hold fire and save your valuable trades. Furthermore, you have quality emergency cover in Webberley, Bastinac and Gumbleton (Dangerfield should be in your starting seven in the forward line).

I note in your e-mail to us that you are considering trading out Gumbleton for Pavlich this week. My fear is that this move could potentially end up being another case of shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. Given the fact you are out of contention for the car and I assume gunning for private league glory, I believe it would be best to wait three weeks and then make a decision on inserting another premium forward. Pavlich has been brilliant thus far in 2010, but you need the player who will dominate from Rounds 19 – 22, not Rounds 1 – 9. Waiting three weeks will allow you to assess other quality forward options you may not have yet considered.

My message is don’t just lock in a player simply because he scored well last week. You don’t get points retrospectively for players you trade into your side.

Good luck!