Game Day 2025 Round 1 Discussion

[South of the Yarra]

Twas the morning of SuperCoach, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The rookies had been selected by the experts with care,
In hopes that the SuperCoach Gods would be there;
The coaches were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of mid price magic danced in our heads;
With value all over and still room in our cap,
We had just settled our teams from our long summer nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and then came the crash
The moon lit our fears as our dreams all sunk low
We were smacked with reality by the objects below,
Because what to my wondering eyes did appear,
We knew it was coming, carnage was here.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

It's been a huge off season by all the construction teams .....team innovations have been meticulously worked on, to get an advantage on the opposition

Some teams have taken big risks to get that advantage .....will it pay off ....will the reliability of these innovations be tested & found wanting ...only time will tell

It's a marathon .....but you don't want to crash & burn on that infamous 1st corner, that tests most teams .....just play it safe, and then settle down & enjoy the ride that is SuperCoach 2025

Is Callaghan the real deal .....is SDK a tease ....can a 2nd year player in Roberts really be the DEF QB for the Swans
Can Xerri back-up his awesome 2024 season, or will English reclaim his throne as a premier RUCK .....and will age wear our SC God, Gawn down ?

Can our midfielders regain their status as the premier scoring zone, after defenders have recently taken that mantle ?

So many unanswered questions that only time will answer

Welcome to Round 1 Discussion on the BigFooty Board .....we hope you will enjoy all the banter & fun, that traditionally we all have

 

[South of the Yarra]

Two more sleeps

 

[Sherman41]

How the fluck is ……
SC are absolutely reaming …..
Kick it to …… ya muppet!

Just warming up some melts

 

[gutsroy]

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a $10m salary cap and 31 slots to fill must be in want of an SC side.

Scoops almost went with ‘happy SuperCoaches are all alike; unhappy SuperCoaches are all unhappy in their own way', but you can’t eat your cake and have it, too, when you’re trying to give this joint a touch of much needed polish.




Yes, gentlecampaigners and gentlecampaignerettes, it is that time of year again. That time of year that you swore to yourself you were going to let through to the keeper this year, that you were going to devote to perfecting your recipe for low fat blueberry muffins with 145g / 100g of protein that you’re sure are set to take the world by storm, or just, you know, not spend the final hours of your weekend throwing the remote at the TV because that ****ing idiot Riley Bonner just point blank refuses to play on from the kick-in. Just take the step campaigner, take the ****ing step.

SuperCoach is back for another year and a SuperCoach season just wouldn’t be the same without you characters.

So, what’s new?
Not a heap, to be honest.

Trades: 40. In Scoops’ day, we had to make do with 20, and we used to have to walk 30 miles barefoot in the snow to the post office to send them off. 30 miles each way. And we didn’t spend our money on avocado on toast, we saved for a house and the only extravagance we allowed ourselves was a birthday meal down the bowls club every second year. We had discipline, you see (putting aside the inconvenient fact that a house cost 2/3 of 5/8 of **** all back in the day and the landlords shafted us, too, but they really shaft the absolute, everloving **** out of you mob today)



Trade Boosts: 5

Bye Rounds: Rds 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 have best 18 scoring. ( Geelong and Brisbane now play in Rd 3, which was to be their bye round. So presumably Rd 3 is a normal round with best 22.)

Trades / week: Max. 2 per week in all weeks other than Rds 12-16, in which we have max 3 trades. On top of this, with your five boosts, you can increase your trade ceiling in any one week 5 times up to a max of 3 or 4 respectively.

Scoring Players: 22, with the difference being that now, with Flex, those 22 scores come from 23 players, meaning you get to drop the worst score in your on-field 23 automatically. More on that later.



Total Squad Slots: With the addition of the flex spots, we now have 31 players in our squads.

Starting Budget: The starting budget / cap remains at $10m.

Yes, James, the same procedure as every year.

Magic Number: Without getting into the nitty gritty, basically, she’s dropped back a touch to $5,378/pt to accommodate to an extent the fact that we have to select 31 players with the same starting budget. You can see this in that the 124k standard rooks have dropped down to 120k, e.g. In terms of the season long mechanics, wouldn’t expect a heap to change, the ‘steady state’ MN down the line will just be a touch lower, but it’s still the same pool and the same mechanism.


Flex:

A lot of the changes made in recent years have, to put it mildly, not met with the total acceptance and of the stakeholders and co-creators in the fantasy football space of the SC persuasion and degree of enthusiasm in the community has not always been in lockstep with the upfront strategically oriented customer survey rollouts, to put it in the bullshit bingo of the vertically integrated pissgoblins in SC city hall*

(* Actually, they’re a pretty good bunch of fellas, I reckon, Al, big Dossfault, Phantapants and the crew)

But Flex seems to have been welcomed / at least not shitcanned, by and large. So what is Flex?

• Basically, there is an extra slot in our teams (total 31)
• The 31st slot has to be accommodated within the unchanged $10m starting budget
• The 31st slot is also the 23rd scoring eligible slot.
• Consequence: In any one week, leaving aside loopholes etc., you automatically have 23 scores that can go into your final 22, meaning that one score drops out (the lowest)

In terms of tactics, it depends to an extent on the way you look at it, but basically:

• In your final side, you will likely want to be targeting a RUC / MID to fill that FLEX spot.
• Reason: They are the lines with the highest peak scorers and by having one of those in your final squad, you can squeeze out another, weaker on-field scorer (consensus here is F6 is going to be the one friendzoned in the main)
• In terms of the starting side, views will vary, but you probably want a midpriced bloke with a high probability of outscoring the starting price and hopefully squeezing out the rookie you'd otherwise potentially be running at F6 and who is often the Achilles Heel.
• In the long run, whether you decide that you want to pay top dollar for the best RUC / MID you can find or approach it more in the way that you keep the slot available for any acceptable RUC / MID that drops in price due to injury / concussion is up to you. (I’m more in the boat of the latter, maximize your bang for buck and the discounted RUC/MID will be outscoring F5 / F6 comfortably either way)
• But there is more than one way to look at it, and if you reckon you’ve got a better take, don’t be shy. We live, love, learn and do something else starting with ‘L’ that I can't think of at the minute as a community.

 

[iDon]

 

[gutsroy]

Starting Selections:

In terms of players, this year perhaps more than any other, it is much more a case of being clear on who you can’t / shouldn’t start than frothing ‘must-haves’.



MID:

• Marcus Bontempelli (681k MID, WBD) and Zak Butters (649k MID, PTA), two hugely popular selections, won’t be available Rd 1. Nor will Sam Flanders, Adam Treloar, Errol Gulden, Tom Green, potentially Sam Walsh (584k MID, CAR). Green might become interesting post-bye and Treloar apparently isn’t far off, and if Walsh is OK to go, he’s got a great early fixture.
• Nick Daicos’ (631k MID, COL) ownership levels will plummet off the back of the cramp-affected 66, the upcoming tag-heavy fixture and early round bye.
  
  
  
  
• The 550-600k options that remain all have their warts and spots.
• That said, Lachie Neale (646k MID, BRL) and Josh Dunkley (602k MID, BRL) , both previously ruled out due to Rd 3 bye shenanigans, will be giving a fair few SuperCoaches the eye across the bar with the bye now no longer being an issue.
• For that reason, and because the MID rookie crop seems exceedingly strong, most will be looking more at various combinations of discounted / lower price options like Christian Petracca (556k MID, MEL), Clayton Oliver (452k MID, MEL) , Will Day (491k MID, HAW), Connor Rozee (529k MID, PTA - despite the recent ankle hiccough), Adam Cerra (448k MID, CAR – great scoring pedigree and early draw if you think he can avoid niggles) or Round 1 destroyer of souls Finn Callaghan (442k MID, GWS) etc. and you won’t be Robinson Crusoe if you are looking at a starting set-up with Oliver at M4.
  

You are better off focusing on making sure you have the right mix of midpriced and rookie options you feel are most lucrative and slotting in 4 (some will go with 5) higher priced options of your choosing.

RUC:

The RUC line is a bit more settled, but only at first glance, there is still a little bit to wade through.

Why’s that? Cos nunya.

• Tom De Koning (547k RUC, CAR), due to the initial unavailability of Mr Worldwide, big Pitto, a good early roster of opponents and his excellent production around the ground is popular
• Tristan Xerri (646k RUC, NTH) will need to maintain the tackling rage to repeat the dose of his stellar breakout season, but even if he dips in tackles, he might up his HTA% in ruck contests and land around the same spot.
• Tim English (582k RUC) broke a few hearts last year and has had the odd issue due to lingering concussion effects during the preseason, but his ceiling is no lower than that of the two aforementioned and he comes at a potentially attractive price if things click.
• Rowan Marshall has been overworking the pelvic region, big Shrek, Sean Darcy, was actually looking in sensational nick until he picked up a niggle and Kieran Briggs’ price will plummet when he returns from the neck injury picked up on the weekend.
  
  
  
• Lord Meek (558k RUC, HAW - aka Warnie to Brodie Grundy’s Daryl Cullinan) and Toby Nankervis (594k RUC, RIC) have picked up a few admirers and look set to have good seasons. Have seen the odd mention of Luke ‘Wacko’ Jackson, although he is also FWD-eligible and Darcy will become available again at some stage.
• A wildcard worth mentioning is going back to the well on the tried and true strategy of not starting a topliner at R2 but going instead with a likely lone wolf at a nice price and with decent prospects. This year, that would be Matt Flynn (262k RUC, WCE), but – and Scoops has to confess, he’s not as across it as he once was – more seem to be looking at him as hitting that sweet spot of output and value in a starting FLEX pick.

 

[stevebbb]

Round 1 is finally here. Months of research, hundreds (or thousands) of team changes, it's all lead to this. Make no mistake, for most of us, it's all downhill from here. Enjoy it while it lasts, there's nothing like the return of our beloved sport and the start of the SC season. There will be glorious melts, puppies of all shapes and sizes, and roughies galore. Wishing everyone in the BF SC family the best of luck in season 2025, I hope the 2025 winner is among us. Good luck and have fun!

 

[gutsroy]

FWD:
The FWD line has traditionally been a line in which folks were prepared to take a throw at the stumps and be a bit more adventurous than in other lines, leading to greater diversity in starting lineups, but this year, to be honest, every man and his dog will be starting the majority, if not all, of:

• Jason Horne-Francis (537k MID/FWD, PTA) – with Butters out and another year under his belt, he doesn’t scream upside, to be honest, but seems very solid
• Izak Rankine (522k FWD, ADE) – if the avoids niggles, he’s electric and has Bont tendencies in terms of his ability to score in bunches
• Jackson Macrae (392k FWD, STK) - the people’s champ has been able to flee from behind the iron curtain of Magneto / aka Lord Farquaad aka Shovel McShovelface, your friend and mine and all-around top Aussie, Luke ‘Bevo’ Beveridge.
  
  Or, just, you know, play a filthy, thirsty little pill-hunting piglet like JMac off a ****ing HFF, for ****'s sakes.
• Bailey Smith (389k MID/FWD, GEE) has had the odd hiccough, but looks set for Rd 1
• Caleb Daniel (269k MID/FWD, NTH) was smuggled out of the kennel in Macrae’s jockstrap before they went their separate ways and as a good user, there seems to be a decent chance Tom Thumb grab the chance with the kangas with both hands.
• And some combinations of your Sam Davidson, Isaac ‘I should’ Kako and Connor Stone rookie types to round out the 8 and Bob’s your auntie’s fella.
  
  
  
  (Spelling never was Supergrass’s strength)
  
  
• So expect the same level of diversity as you’d see at an IT conference this year.
  

DEF:
The DEF line offers a little more variation.

There really are a lot of different ways to take it this year and, to be honest, there are too many to do justice to them all.

The primary thing to note about the DEF line is not so much the premos. It’s the (potential significant lack of viable) rookies.

So the number of premo / midpriced options you go will be driven by how much faith you feel you can place in the rookie. Have seen some sides stretching to 6 solid premo / midpriced options because they just have little faith that the rookies in the line are going to come through for them.

In terms of premos:

• Harry Sheezel (636k DEF, NTH) will enjoy huge ownership levels despite the pricetag because he just knows how to find the footy and use it exquisitely when he does.
• Sam Flanders (642k MID/DEF) won’t get to the line for Rd 1.
• Luke Ryan (628k DEF, FRE) and Jeremy McGovern (594k DEF, WCE) are at lower ownership levels, with many being skeptical that Gov can avoid niggles for another year and a fair few showing more interest in Ryan’s stablemate Jordan Clark (564k DEF, FRE).
• Likewise, James Sicily (533k DEF, HAW) showed his scoring pedigree last week but also showed that (a) he will attract attention at times, being effectively nullified for more than a quarter) and (b) will be thrown forward on occasion. So caveat emptor areas.
• Jack Sinclair (592k MID/DEF, STK) had issues with the calves again and although he should get to the line in Rd 1 (and the calves do have their own facey appreciation page), it would be something to weigh up.
  
  
• Lachie Whitfield (598k DEF, GWS) is coming off a stellar season, and he played well on the weekend before finishing out the game with low TOG late due to some minor cramping, he won’t have it all his own way with the kick-ins as both Harry Himmelberg and Lachie Ash were caught angling the snout at the trough in the kick-in party fueled by mah Pies’ complete inability to kick a ****en snag for the love of God and all things holy, campaigners. Faark.
• Dayne Zorko (595k DEF, BRL) should surge in popularity given he is now bye-free, settled in the backline role and without Keidean Coleman (269k DEF, BRL, very popular in early drafts of our sides but no longer in the frame for Rd 1) muddying the waters early doors.
• Lil Nas Wanganeen Milera (544k DEF, STK) and Max Holmes (534 MID/DEF) will have their fans and rightly so, both have 105-average upside in them if it clicks, Nic Martin (566k DEF, ESS) and Bailey Dale (528k DEF, WBD) have a slight degree of role uncertainty for the price but definitely have the scoring chops if they get stability in their most lucrative versions).
• Tom Stewart (522k DEF, GEE) could be a diamond, could also just be a rock. At 521k, if he splits time between MID and DEF and avoids ‘imperial entanglements’ (aka campaigners tagging him), he could be a special. He might also not quite have the role or have issues with niggles, as he is another year older (though he’s never had big dramas on the soft tissue front).
  
  
  
• There are also several more midpriced options such as Jayden Short (444k DEF, RIC), Matthew Roberts (435k DEF, SYD), as well as Trent Rivers (464k DEF, MEL), although the latter has a lower degree of role certainty and you’d have to say the strong form of Trac and Clarry, as well as the presence of Viney, Sparrow, potentially even Ed Langdon) limits the likelihood of him getting that ‘more midfield time’ upside case you’d be pondering him for. Short will see plenty of the footy, Roberts is a beautiful user, neither is a lay-down misere.
• Harry Perryman (418k DEF, COL) is a good pick-up for the Pies in real footy terms and will pick up DPP, whether you think he is a 90-95 sort of operator over the journey or really has 97.5+ output in him is up to you to decide. With the early bye, it’s a no from Scoops.
• There was some preseason love for Sam ‘brother of Tom’ DeKoning (362k DEF, GEE). His viability, or lack thereof, depends on whether he gets that share of time in the RUC and can sustain it. Rhys Stanley is still around in between organizing tours of the farm for potential recruits and getting on the quad bikes with the dart and Toby Conway is no slouch. Probably one I wouldn’t have the confidence in given clueier Cats posters than me seem to be hesitant.

 

[tigland]

long pre season done. When is the no trades thread being added

 

[gutsroy]

Rookies:
This will look a little like taking the easy way out, but this year more than any other, I think we will just have to wait and see the first named sides for Rd 1 and adapt as we go this year, so keep your eyes on team sheets and the excellent sources of information around here.

The clear worry and the line that will force a rejig is the backline if things go **** up, so have a back-up plan in place.

And, above all, remember, these puppies aren’t for life (they’ll all be getting culled sooner or later), but they are also not jjust for Christmas, so do your homework on their JS before you commit.

James Leake (129k DEF,GWS), as one example, had very low TOG against the Pies and Tom Green looks likely to return in the near term, raising questions as to when he would string together, say, 6-8 games and generate the sort of cash you’d be hoping for at minimum.


Closing Remarks:
Break it down. IT’s SC, not a ****ing Toastmasters evening.


Look after yourselves and each other, and never forget the first rule of SC: Never, ever, and I mean ****ing ever, pick Jack Lukosious in any form of fantasy footy.

Now go out there and tear the comp a new arseh*le. Do it for Lukey Sayers and devoted family men everywhere.

 

[Scythe]

 

[SavDog23]

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Round 1 is finally here. Months of research, hundreds (or thousands) of team changes, it's all lead to this. Make no mistake, for most of us, it's all downhill from here. Enjoy it while it lasts, there's nothing like the return of our beloved sport and the start of the SC season. There will be glorious melts, puppies of all shapes and sizes, and roughies galore. Wishing everyone in the BF SC family the best of luck in season 2025, I hope the 2025 winner is among us. Good luck and have fun!

No, no .....it's hard to comprehend, I know ....but the more trades I used in 2024, the quicker my ranking dropped

Isn't the reverse supposed to be the case ? .....otherwise, why give us all these trades

Signed
Confused Coaches Association President

 

[pincrusher]

I currently only have 8 players with less than 20% ownership. Is that too few?

 

[Exambolor]

I currently only have 8 players with less than 20% ownership. Is that too few?

I think IMO is best to start as vanilla as possible, going too PODDY to start always backfires, then slowly build in the PODs

 

[WaynesWorld19]

I think IMO is best to start as vanilla as possible, going too PODDY to start always backfires, then slowly build in the PODs

So not starting Xerri, and Sheezel is bad ....Oh My !

 

[Exambolor]

So not starting Xerri, and Sheezel is bad ....Oh My !

I'm just going off personal experience lol, I've done it in the past and it's never worked haha

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

The round thread open on a Tuesday.

What times we live in.

 

[54Dogs]

O/U on how many minutes into Q1 the trades thread kicks off?

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

O/U on how many minutes into Q1 the trades thread kicks off?

15 mins in.

stevebbb $1.01 favourite to start it.

 

[Nelso]

15 mins in.

stevebbb $1.01 favourite to start it.

That Judd_Magic kent will reappear as soon as it opens.

 

[Ed_Gein]

The round thread open on a Tuesday.

What times we live in.

Trade thread to be open at 7:35pm on Thursday

EDIT: Missed it was already posted

 

[stevebbb]

15 mins in.

stevebbb $1.01 favourite to start it.

I have Short, Cerra and TDK, so your odds are spot-on.

 

[tigland]

That Judd_Magic kent will reappear as soon as it opens.

 

[Falchoon]

O/U on how many minutes into Q1 the trades thread kicks off?

If it's anything like pre season, Harry Mackay will be traded into 20% of teams after he goes off on Richmond.