Position 2026 Rucks

[Significant]

As I said, a score of 80 from the replacement gives a difference of 36, if you're factoring expected performance then that's a different story.

It's quite surprising what the 4th best rookie score (19th) can be. I had a look at rookie scores over the early games in 2024 and the 4th - 6th best rookie scores were consistently around 70-80.

Structure has a bit to do with it as well. I'm aiming to have a team with 5 rookies on the field so theoretically, my 19th score will be the best of my rookie scores (if I have one player on a bye) that score can be 100+. Of course the more players I have on the bye means that the 20th, 21st and 22nd (2nd, 3rd & 4th best rookies) scores come into consideration.

I'm 100% with you. It's short sighted to rule out a player solely because they have an early bye. I wouldn't be loading up, and ideally its one premo out each week at an absolute max, but its as much chance as an LTI, suspension, etc. to have an impact on your overall season. Heck rookie roulette and poor captain scores are by far the biggest impact on week to week scoring.

 

[4tune8]

I'm 100% with you. It's short sighted to rule out a player solely because they have an early bye. I wouldn't be loading up, and ideally its one premo out each week at an absolute max, but its as much chance as an LTI, suspension, etc. to have an impact on your overall season. Heck rookie roulette and poor captain scores are by far the biggest impact on week to week scoring.

I reckon the amount of premos missing is directly proportional to the amount rookies that are fielded, with some adjustments for teams with more higher scoring premos.

A pure G & R team would be fielding 9-10 rookies which means they would have to take 4-5 rookie scores, if they have a premo miss then their 19th score is the 5th or 6th best rookie.

If I go with 5 rookies on field then I don't have to take any of their scores, if one premo misses then I take the best rookie score, 2 premos miss then I take the 2nd best rookie score and so on. I could have 4 premos miss and have to take the same amount of rookie scores that a full G & R team would take with no premos missing. Of course, that is offset somewhat by the G & R team having higher quality players who would score more than my mix of premos and MP's.

Just playing the averages tells me that I could have up to 4 players (2 x premos & 2 x MP's) missing on each round to come out roughly square. I don't plan on having that many miss, but it does give me the opportunity of grabbing a couple of premos that others are discounting because of their bye, those couple of early POD's might just make a difference.

 

[jdstorm]

I'm 100% with you. It's short sighted to rule out a player solely because they have an early bye. I wouldn't be loading up, and ideally its one premo out each week at an absolute max, but its as much chance as an LTI, suspension, etc. to have an impact on your overall season. Heck rookie roulette and poor captain scores are by far the biggest impact on week to week scoring.

The added benefit of having 1 premo on each early bye is it gives you a loop option if you don’t want to start a donut.

That’s worth 20+ points a round which makes the math even more favourable

 

[Significant]

The added benefit of having 1 premo on each early bye is it gives you a loop option if you don’t want to start a donut.

That’s worth 20+ points a round which makes the math even more favourable

Hadn't factored this, but very important for me as I don’t like taking a donut if I can help it. Cash gen is king!

 

[Eagling]

The added benefit of having 1 premo on each early bye is it gives you a loop option if you don’t want to start a donut.

That’s worth 20+ points a round which makes the math even more favourable

You're far more likely to already have that benefit from a rookie with the early bye.

 

[Lindsay_Gilbee]

Keen to see if Jordon Sweet is a lock for Port’s #1 ruck. Had some big scores last year. I think you could make a case against most premier rucks this year.