Considering we are now at the half way mark of the year, it's probably a good time to sit back and reflect on the smart moves we made at the start of the year and conversely the terrible original squad selections and/or trades made since.
So much of my early season planning went out the window with the pre season injuries to Preuss and Marshall. Preuss was to be the cheap no 2 ruck who would be the sole ruck at GWS and Marshall was to be my fwd/ruk allowing me to play a minimum priced R3 who also had dual position status. As it turned out Flynn became Preuss' replacement so all was not lost. My error was using Meek as my R3 thinking I could generate a fair bit of cash from him. As a result I had to find a non player somewhere else. With such a lack of defender rooks I made my D6 a Kangaroos non player enabling me to use him for the captain's loophole. Meek ended up making no money and it simply cost me a trade to get rid of him.
I was convinced that Cockatoo would get a regular game with Brisbane and even though he wasn't named round 1 due to a minor hamstring issue, I kept him in the squad. I'm still waiting for him to debut.
I missed on Impey which was a huge error in hindsight
With the sides not being named until the night before, I got stuck with Jones being in my initial squad. His pre season form suggested he was a certainty for round 1 but it was my error in not looking at team selections the night before their game. Once I realised he was not playing, it was too late. A rookie error! I'm so annoyed with that because I'm not a rookie. The week after I traded him out, he gets selected to play.
Without a doubt there were three or four selections made at the start of the year that set me back horribly and I was playing catch up ever since as a result. I've told myself so many times to take no notice of what happens in practice matches but I got sucked in again. Z Williams, DeGoey and Clark were horrible early selections. With Williams about to miss round 1, I should have bailed out then but didn't.
Equally as bad, was changing Grundy as my R1 to Witts. Grundy was kind enough to repay me for this slight by scoring 150+ in the first H to H match of the year. Obviously all my opponents had the vc on him that night. To rub salt into the wound Witts did his ACL that same week.
Copping early injuries/suspensions hurt as well. First week of trading was taken up with getting rid of both Dangerfield and Rowell.
2 trades - team no better. After round 4 I got rid of Gaff. All the experts tell us that once you have selected a premium, you stay the course unless something extraordinary has occurred. I thought it had. In the first 2 rounds it appeared that his WC team mates simply refused to kick the ball to him. Believing that this was the case and he's not the type to go and get his own ball, it seemed a logical decision. Another trade which turned disastrous.
I seemed to cop injuries to players as soon as I brought them into my team as well such as Ridley and Neale. Other long term injuries to Dunkley and Stephenson were suffered by many other coaches as well.
So, unlike a few of you others posting here, I don't have any good news to report over the first 12 rounds which explains why I am now languishing in the 650 range of ranking.
How does your report card read for the first half of the year?
So much of my early season planning went out the window with the pre season injuries to Preuss and Marshall. Preuss was to be the cheap no 2 ruck who would be the sole ruck at GWS and Marshall was to be my fwd/ruk allowing me to play a minimum priced R3 who also had dual position status. As it turned out Flynn became Preuss' replacement so all was not lost. My error was using Meek as my R3 thinking I could generate a fair bit of cash from him. As a result I had to find a non player somewhere else. With such a lack of defender rooks I made my D6 a Kangaroos non player enabling me to use him for the captain's loophole. Meek ended up making no money and it simply cost me a trade to get rid of him.
I was convinced that Cockatoo would get a regular game with Brisbane and even though he wasn't named round 1 due to a minor hamstring issue, I kept him in the squad. I'm still waiting for him to debut.
I missed on Impey which was a huge error in hindsight
With the sides not being named until the night before, I got stuck with Jones being in my initial squad. His pre season form suggested he was a certainty for round 1 but it was my error in not looking at team selections the night before their game. Once I realised he was not playing, it was too late. A rookie error! I'm so annoyed with that because I'm not a rookie. The week after I traded him out, he gets selected to play.
Without a doubt there were three or four selections made at the start of the year that set me back horribly and I was playing catch up ever since as a result. I've told myself so many times to take no notice of what happens in practice matches but I got sucked in again. Z Williams, DeGoey and Clark were horrible early selections. With Williams about to miss round 1, I should have bailed out then but didn't.
Equally as bad, was changing Grundy as my R1 to Witts. Grundy was kind enough to repay me for this slight by scoring 150+ in the first H to H match of the year. Obviously all my opponents had the vc on him that night. To rub salt into the wound Witts did his ACL that same week.
Copping early injuries/suspensions hurt as well. First week of trading was taken up with getting rid of both Dangerfield and Rowell.
2 trades - team no better. After round 4 I got rid of Gaff. All the experts tell us that once you have selected a premium, you stay the course unless something extraordinary has occurred. I thought it had. In the first 2 rounds it appeared that his WC team mates simply refused to kick the ball to him. Believing that this was the case and he's not the type to go and get his own ball, it seemed a logical decision. Another trade which turned disastrous.
I seemed to cop injuries to players as soon as I brought them into my team as well such as Ridley and Neale. Other long term injuries to Dunkley and Stephenson were suffered by many other coaches as well.
So, unlike a few of you others posting here, I don't have any good news to report over the first 12 rounds which explains why I am now languishing in the 650 range of ranking.
How does your report card read for the first half of the year?
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