Warning long post!!
I was looking at my team today and working out all the places I still need to upgrade. Now that three weeks have passed and I've seen most of the players play at least one game, in many cases two or three, I'm more confident in my thoughts about who I want in my team and who I don't. The question becomes, what order do I want them in? (In the following I'm putting a $ sign to indicate a massive upgrade needed, and UG to indicate only a sideways or small cash need)
I currently have one 'hole' in my backline (covered by Brown and Taylor) and two questionmarks over other guys. Unless Taylor can hold his place and keep getting about 75 points a week I will need to get a new backman in very soon, I'm dropping too many points otherwise; Brown is useful as a cash cow and an emergency, but not a first-teamer. My other bench player is not playing or looking likely to.
So I would think my first priority is to get a gun into this spot ASAP, preferably in the empty non-used position. (1 trade soon $, 0-2 later depending on form UG).
In the midfield I am more patient. There some guys who have yet to fire as they can at their best, so I think it is worth holding off there and seeing how the form changes over the next few weeks. Thankfully I am fully covered in this part of the ground on the bench. When the time comes to upgrade probably two guys will need it. (2-3 trades later UG)
In the ruck division I have trouble. My second ruckman is servicable, but not a season option. On the bench neither of the guys are playing. The prefered option here is one of the bench players to a gun and hope the other guy can get some games. (1 trade soon $)
Up forward things are similar to the midfield. I need one more guns at the least, with possible upgrades for another 1-2 players depending on form. Thankfully all the rookies are playing and doing ok, so I won't need massive cash to do it. (1-3 trades later UG).
Over the team I need to upgrade between 6 and 10 players dependong how things go, two quite soon.
Given that big money will be needed for two of them then there would have to be two cash cow sales at some point to get this money, and two trade to get the guns in. That's four trades gone.
The other 4-8 trades will not require as much money, but will probably still need a bit. Assume the one cash cow sale can get enough to upgrade two-three others, that's still 2-3 used. So between 6-11 trades used there.
That's 15 trades all up to get my ideal team. I only have 17 trades left. That leaves only 2 spare room for injury troubles. Making these trades as soon as possible would give me my prefered setup at before week 10 but this would then leave me with 2 trades for the remaining 12 weeks of the year.
That's obviously not going to work, is it? A new plan is needed. What do you do?
Are you going to stick with some rookies for the whole season and not use them as bench players/cash cows? Stick with some middle-range players and not try and get too many guns? Only make the key changes at this point and try wait to later rounds and see how things go, even if it means less points now?
I'm thinking that instead of my whole team overhaul I should just go for upgrading one defender, one mid, one ruck and one forward. If I make a cash cow out/gun in trade for all of them then I'm left with 9 trades to use later on. Perhaps that's the wise way to go.
But part of me wants to try and get most of my ideal team up and going soon and just try and scrape my way through the season with some luck.
I was looking at my team today and working out all the places I still need to upgrade. Now that three weeks have passed and I've seen most of the players play at least one game, in many cases two or three, I'm more confident in my thoughts about who I want in my team and who I don't. The question becomes, what order do I want them in? (In the following I'm putting a $ sign to indicate a massive upgrade needed, and UG to indicate only a sideways or small cash need)
I currently have one 'hole' in my backline (covered by Brown and Taylor) and two questionmarks over other guys. Unless Taylor can hold his place and keep getting about 75 points a week I will need to get a new backman in very soon, I'm dropping too many points otherwise; Brown is useful as a cash cow and an emergency, but not a first-teamer. My other bench player is not playing or looking likely to.
So I would think my first priority is to get a gun into this spot ASAP, preferably in the empty non-used position. (1 trade soon $, 0-2 later depending on form UG).
In the midfield I am more patient. There some guys who have yet to fire as they can at their best, so I think it is worth holding off there and seeing how the form changes over the next few weeks. Thankfully I am fully covered in this part of the ground on the bench. When the time comes to upgrade probably two guys will need it. (2-3 trades later UG)
In the ruck division I have trouble. My second ruckman is servicable, but not a season option. On the bench neither of the guys are playing. The prefered option here is one of the bench players to a gun and hope the other guy can get some games. (1 trade soon $)
Up forward things are similar to the midfield. I need one more guns at the least, with possible upgrades for another 1-2 players depending on form. Thankfully all the rookies are playing and doing ok, so I won't need massive cash to do it. (1-3 trades later UG).
Over the team I need to upgrade between 6 and 10 players dependong how things go, two quite soon.
Given that big money will be needed for two of them then there would have to be two cash cow sales at some point to get this money, and two trade to get the guns in. That's four trades gone.
The other 4-8 trades will not require as much money, but will probably still need a bit. Assume the one cash cow sale can get enough to upgrade two-three others, that's still 2-3 used. So between 6-11 trades used there.
That's 15 trades all up to get my ideal team. I only have 17 trades left. That leaves only 2 spare room for injury troubles. Making these trades as soon as possible would give me my prefered setup at before week 10 but this would then leave me with 2 trades for the remaining 12 weeks of the year.
That's obviously not going to work, is it? A new plan is needed. What do you do?
Are you going to stick with some rookies for the whole season and not use them as bench players/cash cows? Stick with some middle-range players and not try and get too many guns? Only make the key changes at this point and try wait to later rounds and see how things go, even if it means less points now?
I'm thinking that instead of my whole team overhaul I should just go for upgrading one defender, one mid, one ruck and one forward. If I make a cash cow out/gun in trade for all of them then I'm left with 9 trades to use later on. Perhaps that's the wise way to go.
But part of me wants to try and get most of my ideal team up and going soon and just try and scrape my way through the season with some luck.