View Burgerboys’ Team
Round 14 Score: 1,796
Current Overall Ranking: 6,707
Trades Left: 6
Remaining Salary Cap: $119,600

Dear Burgersboys,

Thank you for submitting your team.

Overall, you have selected a solid squad of 30 players; however, it appears you have been decimated by injuries over the last 2 – 3 weeks like many others. For this reason I’ll be focusing on injuries & how to deal with them during this article because it doesn’t matter how good your team is, injuries can stop a train.

One of my dreamteam golden rules is to never select a player over the age of 30. While any player can potentially get injured regardless of age, statistics prove that players in the twilight of their career miss more games through injury than players in their early 20′s. The proof has been in the pudding in 2009 with plus 30 year olds such as Brent Harvey (31), Matthew Richardson (34), Nathan Brown (31), Troy Simmonds (30), Anthony Rocca (31) & Max Hudghton (32) all missing a large chunk of the season due to injury.

AFL Round 10 - Sydney v Essendon I’m seriously considering amending my policy to not select any player over the age of 27 in 2010, given injuries this year to Matthew Pavlich (27), Dean Cox (27), Chad Cornes (29), Brad Ottens (29) & David Hille (28). The common thread with these five players is that all five are very popular dreamteam players.

Many of us spend hundreds of hours pouring over pre - season form; reading articles about which players are burning on the track in February & determining which players we think are under priced. Unfortunately, our best laid plans can often by way laid due to injuries to key players.

However, rather than blame injuries for our poor performances, we must develop strategies to reduce their impact on our teams. In addition to my rule in relation to plus 30 year old players being out, I believe that picking your 30th player is just as important as picking your 1st player. It’s so important to have depth in your squad, particularly when one of your premiums picks up a 1 – 3 week injury.

I’m forever hearing excuses about injuries to key players “killing my team”, but what do you expect when you pick up an injury prone player such as Josh Drummond, Paul Chapman or Matthew Richardson? Don’t tell me how good your team is when Chapman scores 151 & then blame injures for your poor form when he misses the next 2 weeks with a hamstring strain. Now when I hear dreamteamers out there bleating about injuries, I ask them:

Where the depth is in your squad?

Why didn’t you pick up Hayden Ballantyne, Brad Dick, Beau Dowler or Liam Jurrah to cover your injuries to premium forwards?

Why didn’t you pick up Greg Broughton, Jack Grimes or Nathan Grima to cover your injuries to premium backs?

Why didn’t you pick up Daniel Rich or Liam Anthony to cover your injuries to premium midfielders?

Why didn’t you pick up Shane Mumford, Tyrone Vickery or Nick Naitanui to cover Dean Cox?

My point is injuries are a part of the game which AFL clubs must deal with. They are also a massive part of dreamteam, so we should be prepared when they hit our big guns.

PROPOSED ACTION THIS WEEK – No trades, save them for the finals.

Good luck!