View Tamuharaplapor’s Team
Round 13 Score: 1,962
Current Overall Ranking: 3,493
Trades Left: 4
Remaining Salary Cap: $108,600

Dear Tamuharaplapor,

Thank you for submitting your team.

With 9 rounds remaining and still 5 more weeks until the all important finals, now is a very good time to hold fire with your valuable trades. Ask yourself if you are aiming for a private league win or overall ranking glory. If you are not within the top 2,000 teams overall at this point in time, it’s fair to say that you should definitely be aiming to win your private league. This article is directed towards those aiming for private league glory.

To give yourself a realistic chance of winning your private league, you really need to finish in the top 4. If you finish between 5 – 8, there is simply no margin for error as every final is knock out for the loser. If you are comfortably sitting within the top 4 right now, with a gap to 5th, you definitely should be saving your trades for later in the season.

Finishing 4th is exactly the same as finishing 1st, because there is no home ground advantage in dreamteam. The 4th placed team doesn’t have to travel to Perth, Adelaide or Brisbane in Week 1 of the finals. All you need to do is win in Week 1 and you move straight into Week 3. The added bonus here is that you get a week’s break in Week 2; therefore you won’t need to trade in that week. Therefore, my recommendation is to have your team cherry ripe for Week 1 of the finals (Round 19).

Jurrah Team Tamuharaplapor, as you have only 4 trades remaining, I highly recommend you think very carefully before making any more trades. You’ll most likely need these remaining trades to cover for injuries. You’ll need to use 1 of your 4 trades to take out Jack Ziebell because he won’t play again this year due to his broken leg. Consider either Liam Jurrah from Melbourne ($126,600) or Hayden Ballantyne from Fremantle ($86,600) to replace Ziebell. Jurrah looks a real find for the Demons. I love the way he is so clean with his hands, regardless of the pressure he is under. Jurrah is definitely a “one – touch player”. He also brings a real excitement factor to Melbourne games, which was certainly not the case before Jurrah and Watts came into the team. I’ve spoken a lot about Ballantyne this season and it was great to see him finally debut in Round 13 against Collingwood!

On another matter, I don’t understand why Jurrah is priced at $126,600, given he was taken a pick 1 in the 2009 pre – season draft. I can understand first round draftees from the National Draft being priced at a premium, but not the pre – season draft. I get extremely frustrated with such anomalies in the dreamteam pricing system, because it undermines the entire competition. I encourage readers to write into dreamteam about this, because it is a clear flaw in the system. I also think that the prizes are mediocre at best given that we have over 280,000 competitors, but that’s a story for another day.

NOTE 1: Keep an eye out for Matthew Broadbent of Port Adelaide who is an outside chance to debut this week. Broadbent is 189cms and 84kgs, and has been playing SANFL seniors for the last 2 years. Broadbent is a very likely dreamteam prospect and can be picked up as a defender for only $86,600.

NOTE 2: If you are not doing anything today, I strongly encourage you to get down to the Docklands stadium to witness the conclusion of the Under 18 National Championships. There are 4 games on, starting from 9:30am and entry is FREE! These games will also be telecast on Fox Sports 1. What better way to get a head start on your dreamteam competitors, by conducting some research for 2010! The vast majority of draftees compete at the Under 18 National Championships and all teams will be in action tomorrow.

Good luck!