Strategy 2026 Planning Thread

[Maybe Tomorrow]

Byes

R2: Bris, Carlton, Pies, Cats
R3: Suns, WB, Hawks, Sydney
R4: GWS, St Kilda

R12: Adelaide, Suns, Port, North
R13: GWS, Richmond
R14: Pies, Hawks, Carlton, Freo
R15: Lions, Sydney, WC, Essendon
R16: WB, Cats, St Kilda, Melbourne

 

[A Bit Dusty]

Just looking at my starting squad:

Fails:

Sheezel, Short, Roberts, Oliver, Knevitt, Camporeale, Hastie, Tsatas, Allan, Flynn, Boyd, Stone, Paton.

Toss-ups:

Elijah Hewett (Good but I traded far too early), TDK (Traded too late), JHF (50/50 due to injury), Kako (Ended up making alright cash and practically played every game, but was the 40s and 50s he dropped worthwhile? I traded him a few weeks back but I reckon if he was your Round 24 Rankine cover you'd have been happy with him)

Successes:

NWM, Clark, Holmes, Trainor, Reid, Dawson, Richards, Lindsay, English, Hall (Traded him too early, amazingly), Daniel, Macrae, Rankine, Davidson.

Looking at the list profile, my successes were:

With 15 rookies started, 8 were abject failures, which is the lynchpin of everything else going wrong.

Daniel and Macrae (And Baz who I grabbed a couple of weeks later, were such popular picks I don't really see them as personal successes, similar to TDK, JHF and Rankine.)

Short, Oliver and Roberts were all in that $400k bracket that failed. Sheezel was the only $600k player, who also failed. The golden area was the quintet of Holmes, Nasiah, Clark, Richards, Dawson and even English to a degree, all within that mid $500k range and all doing well over the whole season; barring any disaster today. Some started slower than others, but over the latter half of the season, most of them came home with a wet sail.

I think in 2026, I'd rather have $300k instead of a Roberts or Short type. The thing will be identifying which players are discounted and will bounce back, and which players are done as Supercoach Options - Clayton Oliver being the prime example. Do you go again hoping he turns his form around?

Current 2026 Starting XXXI idea:

Xerri terrifies me. I've skipped him in 2024 and in 2025 I grabbed him late, and he slaughtered me for missing him. Do Ruck rule changes effect him? Maybe. The ruck-line as a whole is a toss-up; I'm not sold on Sean Darcy either. Sam Flanders at another club with a better role is almost a lock; might even be worth considering if he remains at Gold Coast.

Player	2026 Price
NWM	$627,400​
Rozee	$566,000​
Mills	$535,800​
McKercher	$447,400​
Rookie	$156,400​
Rookie	$145,600​
Rookie	$119,900​
Rookie	$119,900​
Daicos	$625,800​
Merrett	$581,100​
Serong	$575,200​
LDU	$524,500​
Rookie	$204,900​
Rookie	$199,500​
Rookie	$194,100​
Rookie	$188,700​
Rookie	$172,500​
Rookie	$140,200​
Rookie	$134,800​
Xerri	$684,600​
Darcy	$416,700​
Rookie	$119,900​
Sheezel	$577,900​
JHF	$509,400​
Flanders	$391,400​
Philipou	$203,300​
Rookie	$183,300​
Rookie	$151,000​
Rookie	$119,900​
Rookie	$119,900​
Rookie	$161,700​
Team Value	$9,898,700​
Salary Left	$101,300​

That's the first I've heard about Flanders. He still has another 2 years on his contract and I doubt the Suns would want to get rid of him.

 

[Lord De Goey]

That's the first I've heard about Flanders. He still has another 2 years on his contract and I doubt the Suns would want to get rid of him.

There’s been a few rumours of clubs looking at him

 

[Eagling]

That's the first I've heard about Flanders. He still has another 2 years on his contract and I doubt the Suns would want to get rid of him.

I did own him for a mid-season stretch where he was basically bench cover, but whilst I haven't been following him too closely, I think there's something to be said that last year, he seemed to score 120s every week no matter where he was, and this year, he couldn't get near it. His position and role and fitness must have changed drastically, and perhaps he won't be satisfied being a utility half-forward when he showed just how good he could be in 2024.

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

That's the first I've heard about Flanders. He still has another 2 years on his contract and I doubt the Suns would want to get rid of him.

Flanders won't be traded this year. Been playing injured all year, he'll be better next year.

 

[clogwearer]

My two worst years playing SC by a long long way. Just terrible.

Thinking I might focus on leagues next year instead of overall. Start all playing rookies in R1 then fill in missing spots with guns.

I've tried this. It doesn't go well.


Caveat: I'll probably try it again.

 

[Caztheconquerer]

600k players that I’ll consider next year would be xerri Gawn bont butters and nas. The rest I’ll look for value. Rozee will be a lock if he keeps that role and dpp.

 

[Cold Sober]

The opposite of what I've tried the first 4 years. What a frustrating fluckin game.
Hours on hours on hours, for what, different year , same finishing position, [roughly]. back of the bus.
I'll be back.
To Waynes World, Fish and others, thank you for season 25. Congrats to all the winners.
2026 Plan,set and don't change. No Roughies, no Essendon players at all, Callum Mills

14

Callum Mills

Age

28

Ht

188cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.2

5star

K

10.8

4star

HB

7.4

5star

M

5.3

5star

T

2.6

4star

MG

287.0

4star

D

18.4

4star

K

11.5

4star

HB

6.9

4star

M

5.4

5star

T

3.4

4star

MG

293.4

4star

D

17.0

5star

K

9.4

4star

HB

7.6

5star

M

4.4

4star

T

2.8

5star

MG

284.4

5star

, Melbs. Mr. Pickett then fill in the gaps. Good luck to all.

 

[Glorin]

I’m not sure id consider Roberts a successful pick and to an extent Cerra too. Sure they did ok but you end up holding onto them for longer than you’d like and then you struggle to trade them out later on. Roberts shitting the bed was horrific for me and an absolute rank killer. Wish I traded him way earlier than when I eventually did.

Structurally those picks are important but I’ll probably sway away from them next season.

Oliver was a disaster of a pick. I mentioned in one of the pre season threads that it could be worth anti podding him as everyone just assumed he’d be a hit, would have been a genius decision in the end

I think with any of those picks, you need to be prepared/plan to trade them.
I got rid of Roberts at the right time and it worked. Held Cerra much longer than planned and had to use my last trade on getting him out.
Discipline and not getting attached to players is the way forward.

 

[Eagling]

TDK to ST Kilda kills him and Marshall unless Marshall leaves.

Not sure a gap opens up at Carlton either; I see Pitto playing too much to let a cheapie shine but not being worth a pick. Might be beneficial to play ruck shuffle and trying to ride the Gawn/Xerri/Grundy/Jackson/English buy low sell high by targetting easy ruck opponent blocs, although they might not be as wild as they were this year.

Fewer stoppages might be a negative to Xerri?

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

TDK to ST Kilda kills him and Marshall unless Marshall leaves.

Not sure a gap opens up at Carlton either; I see Pitto playing too much to let a cheapie shine but not being worth a pick. Might be beneficial to play ruck shuffle and trying to ride the Gawn/Xerri/Grundy/Jackson/English buy low sell high by targetting easy ruck opponent blocs, although they might not be as wild as they were this year.

Fewer stoppages might be a negative to Xerri?

Depends what they do with the ruck rules. Be an interesting watch in preseason.

Wonder if Carlton trade for a ruck.

I'll probably just go Gawn/Xerri.

 

[Eagling]

Depends what they do with the ruck rules. Be an interesting watch in preseason.

Wonder if Carlton trade for a ruck.

I'll probably just go Gawn/Xerri.

Rucks have slaughtered me over the past couple of seasons. Thing is, I'm not sure if pre-season will help too much.

The way I see it, the rule change factors are:

They want rucks to be able to run and jump at the contest, which probably means good athletic tap ruckmen get a boost, and dour wrestling types are less effective. Someone like Gawn can do just about anything, but Xerri might be negatively affected, not necessarily because he's not a good ruckman, but the ball might go further and offer fewer tackling opportunities.

And the last touch out of bounds - fewer stoppages, fewer chances for Xerri to lay a tackle. But someone like Gawn is a gold mine with his contested intercept marking - assuming Melbourne's new coach keeps Gawn in a lucrative role like that.

That's putting aside all the other issues, like massive averages being hard to back up, the absolutely blessed run Xerri, Gawn and Grundy had at times, the viable alternatives (if any). Additionally, pre-season is pretty free-flowing so we might not be able to gauge how different the changes will be in the regular season.

Fit mobile rucks might also get a boost if the stoppages are played immediately, notwithstanding rucks that can cover more ground to take marks. Not sure if there's statistics on average distance covered per match * TOG, but it might be worth studying.

If you're going purely by aggregate, English was a better pick than Xerri, but now, with Flex, he probably wasn't, even if one didn't have outright cover for Xerri. Maybe English is worth another go. 105-110ish average seems to be his level, and you hope either he bursts out another 130 average, and/or Gawn/Grundy/Xerri have slow starts and you pick them off by starting Darcy/Briggs; maybe keeping some money in the bank.

 

[Scythe]

And the last touch out of bounds - fewer stoppages, fewer chances for Xerri to lay a tackle.

Wouldn't worry about that. It might be introduced one day, but zero chance that it starts from next season.

 

[Eagling]

Wouldn't worry about that. It might be introduced one day, but zero chance that it starts from next season.

Shows what I know, but makes my life even harder because Xerri terrifies me. I thought surely he couldn't keep his tackling rate up, and he didn't l, but he still boosted his average and finished up with consecutive 180s. But backing up a 127 average season is a massive ask.

 

[BOMBERBLITZ]

2025 SC All-Australian Team:

 

[Deliverance]

Now I see why my team was so shit. I had 13/23

 

[BOMBERBLITZ]

Now I see why my team was so shit. I had 13/23

Just checked, I had 24/30 inc the Cows.

 

[St Steady]

Now I see why my team was so shit. I had 13/23

i had same, and got same shit result

couple for the planning thread, gibcus and freo simpson

 

[A Bit Dusty]

It will be interesting if Devon Robertson asks for a trade at the end of the season. He is OOC and surely he goes somewhere else where he will get AFL games. He has played 19 games over the last 3 seasons and 10 of those were as sub. I watched the VFL elimination final yesterday and he was BOG and his stats are great this year at VFL level.

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

It will be interesting if Devon Robertson asks for a trade at the end of the season. He is OOC and surely he goes somewhere else where he will get AFL games. He has played 19 games over the last 3 seasons and 10 of those were as sub. I watched the VFL elimination final yesterday and he was BOG and his stats are great this year at VFL level.

He made a mistake staying at the Lions two years ago. Be interesting to see if WC want him now. He'd be a lock as a bottom priced rookie if he does get the move.

 

[A Bit Dusty]

He made a mistake staying at the Lions two years ago. Be interesting to see if WC want him now. He'd be a lock as a bottom priced rookie if he does get the move.

I think West Coast would still be interested they don't have a great Midfield and getting a ready made 24 year old for almost nothing clubs don't normally say no. Could be part of the Oscar Allen trade maybe

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

I think West Coast would still be interested they don't have a great Midfield and getting a ready made 24 year old for almost nothing clubs don't normally say no. Could be part of the Oscar Allen trade maybe

I think Allen will be a free agent move so WC get pick 2.

They could easily trade for him though. They seem keen on Alex Davies as well, who may be very SC relevant if that happens.

 

[A Bit Dusty]

I think Allen will be a free agent move so WC get pick 2.

They could easily trade for him though. They seem keen on Alex Davies as well, who may be very SC relevant if that happens.

I forgot Allen was a RFA. I would be surprised if Davies was traded he has been pretty good since he has been back in the team.

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

I forgot Allen was a RFA. I would be surprised if Davies was traded he has been pretty good since he has been back in the team.

Yeah I think so too. It'll be up to him I'd say, he has another year on his contract, but if he asks to go the Suns probably let him.

 

[Libbaaaa]

Freijah's position on the official AFL stats site is listed as a forward, I like that.

 

[Here2tellyouwhy]

He made a mistake staying at the Lions two years ago. Be interesting to see if WC want him now. He'd be a lock as a bottom priced rookie if he does get the move.