Discussion Your Ten Commandments (Rules) of SuperCoach

Jan 18, 2015
4,863
12,007
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Ten commandments for a good life but a lousy supercoach team
  • Select at least 5 starting players that your girlfriend or wife thinks are cute.
  • Except Lachie Weller. Cause if they watch him every week you’ll soon be single.
  • And Heeney. Every week that goes by where he stands in the forward line for whole quarters doing nothing except scratching his @rse is bad for your heart.
  • Then watch your team of adonises play every week with your wife or g/f and a six pack (beers not abs) but don’t look at their stats.
  • Select Hurn as Hurn equals automatic likes on BF.
  • Don’t select any player whose name gets mangled by BT (narrows your options a fair bit I know). Unless you watch footy on mute.
  • Go out on Fridays without your phone and have a good time rather than waiting for Geelong to make a late change 5 minutes before the bounce.
  • Don’t rage trade… until you’ve consumed at least 4 beers.
  • Don’t cheer goals scored against the club you have supported since you were an infant. Unless you actually have a realistic chance of winning the 50k.
  • As soon as you drop outside the top 10,000 for the season, delete your team and reclaim your life.
 
Ten commandments for a good life but a lousy supercoach team
  • Select at least 5 starting players that your girlfriend or wife thinks are cute.
  • Except Lachie Weller. Cause if they watch him every week you’ll soon be single.
  • And Heeney. Every week that goes by where he stands in the forward line for whole quarters doing nothing except scratching his @rse is bad for your heart.
  • Then watch your team of adonises play every week with your wife or g/f and a six pack (beers not abs) but don’t look at their stats.
  • Select Hurn as Hurn equals automatic likes on BF.
  • Don’t select any player whose name gets mangled by BT (narrows your options a fair bit I know). Unless you watch footy on mute.
  • Go out on Fridays without your phone and have a good time rather than waiting for Geelong to make a late change 5 minutes before the bounce.
  • Don’t rage trade… until you’ve consumed at least 4 beers.
  • Don’t cheer goals scored against the club you have supported since you were an infant. Unless you actually have a realistic chance of winning the 50k.
  • As soon as you drop outside the top 10,000 for the season, delete your team and reclaim your life.

Whats a girlfiend?
 

MagicGnome97

All Australian
Sep 6, 2018
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1) Maximum of 4 x 600k+ players for entire squad.

This rule has served me well the last 3-4 years but it's going to be hard to adhere to this year.
Meanwhile I'm starting with 8 600k+ players :D

Grundy and Gawn at Ruck.

Whitfield up forward.

Macrae, Neale, Mitchell, Cripps, Bontempelli in the midfield.

I disagree with your rule, my philosophy is that when I pick a player at the start of the year, they are either there to be still in my team come the last round or there to make me money (150k or more is about right, I'd agree with that poster). These 600k+ players are all players who I believe are very likely to end up as either a top 6 forward in the case of Whitfield, a top 2 ruck in the case of Grundy and Gawn, or a top 8 midfielder in the case of the rest. The more of these players in my team, the less trades I waste throughout the season on corrective ones for those 350k-550k players that I'd always pick at least 3-4 of every year (and usually only 1 ends up staying in the team, that 1 being someone like a pendles in recent years).

Its worth mentioning that the other "premos" I've picked who aren't 600k+ are: Lloyd and Houston in my defence, as well as Martin and Walters in my forward line.

My hope is that these players - 2 of my starting 6 defenders, 5 of my starting 8 mids, both my starting rucks and 3 of my starting 6 forwards - will all still be there come the end of the season.

I've paid particular attention to the injury records of these players as well. This is why I didn't pick Docherty, hes coming off of back to back ACL injuries and I wasn't impressed by his score in the first preseason game. Its also why I didn't pick Fyfe, because despite how great he was last year, that season was also actually the first in a few years where he had a good run with injuries. I picked Tom Mitchell however despite his recent ACL because 1. only a once off injury and his injury record is impeccable before then + hawthorn tend to be great with the recovery and management of their players with injuries 2. in last season that he did play he was the best mid by a mile 3. his score in the first preseason game, considering time on ground, was excellent.

Currently the main concern injury-wise out of the players that I've selected so far (who I've mentioned) is Whitfield. His injury record from last season is worrying to say the least. He is so far head and shoulders the best forward though by average so I just had to pick him (hes also got that handy fwd/mid dual position status).

I've been playing Supercoach since 2009, gradually getting better and better every year, especially the last few, and I hope some people benefit just from hearing what I've had to say on some aspects of Supercoach in 2020. In terms of overall rank I ended up around 10,000th last season, what cost me from doing a lot better is 1. what i alluded to above, going for a few selections at the start like dom sheed, dayne beams, angus brayshaw and then later on picking tom rockliff (yes i know, the first commandment of SC, don't pick tom rockliff) 2. missing out on Reilly O'Brien 3. Josh Kelly, 2 years in a row now he has burned me by getting injured shortly after me getting him (in the case of 2 years ago i started with him) and being out for 5 weeks+, just dont pick him guys, there are at least 6 better mids available at his price. i know you shouldnt hold grudges against picking players as someone else said above, but seriously... his injury record in the last 2 seasons doesnt lie.

all in all if i was to give some other general SC tips:

- avoid key position players.
- pick a maximum of 2-3 mid pricers (220k - 490k is what I consider mid price), at this stage the only player I've picked in this price range is Dan Houston, but I'm still somewhat considering Docherty and Brayden Sier (though I doubt I will select either at this stage unless they put in impressive performances in their next preseason games).
- try to avoid picking up players during the season at peak price, players will always drop down at some stage. i was guilty of picking a red hot neale at 643k last season, at the time i felt like he'd never go down to being cheaper, he did, also josh kelly at 659k and boak at 580k (where he proceeded to drop down to about 515k just after i got him, after scoring mediocre that week). Anyway, whilst I'd say Neale was ultimately worth it, the other two i definitely picked up at the wrong time, could've saved over 100k (and at least 1 trade) just from timing things better.
 

Squiba

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 17, 2015
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Meanwhile I'm starting with 8 600k+ players :D

Grundy and Gawn at Ruck.

Whitfield up forward.

Macrae, Neale, Mitchell, Cripps, Bontempelli in the midfield.

I disagree with your rule, my philosophy is that when I pick a player at the start of the year, they are either there to be still in my team come the last round or there to make me money (150k or more is about right, I'd agree with that poster). These 600k+ players are all players who I believe are very likely to end up as either a top 6 forward in the case of Whitfield, a top 2 ruck in the case of Grundy and Gawn, or a top 8 midfielder in the case of the rest. The more of these players in my team, the less trades I waste throughout the season on corrective ones for those 350k-550k players that I'd always pick at least 3-4 of every year (and usually only 1 ends up staying in the team, that 1 being someone like a pendles in recent years).

Its worth mentioning that the other "premos" I've picked who aren't 600k+ are: Lloyd and Houston in my defence, as well as Martin and Walters in my forward line.

My hope is that these players - 2 of my starting 6 defenders, 5 of my starting 8 mids, both my starting rucks and 3 of my starting 6 forwards - will all still be there come the end of the season.

I've paid particular attention to the injury records of these players as well. This is why I didn't pick Docherty, hes coming off of back to back ACL injuries and I wasn't impressed by his score in the first preseason game. Its also why I didn't pick Fyfe, because despite how great he was last year, that season was also actually the first in a few years where he had a good run with injuries. I picked Tom Mitchell however despite his recent ACL because 1. only a once off injury and his injury record is impeccable before then + hawthorn tend to be great with the recovery and management of their players with injuries 2. in last season that he did play he was the best mid by a mile 3. his score in the first preseason game, considering time on ground, was excellent.

Currently the main concern injury-wise out of the players that I've selected so far (who I've mentioned) is Whitfield. His injury record from last season is worrying to say the least. He is so far head and shoulders the best forward though by average so I just had to pick him (hes also got that handy fwd/mid dual position status).

I've been playing Supercoach since 2009, gradually getting better and better every year, especially the last few, and I hope some people benefit just from hearing what I've had to say on some aspects of Supercoach in 2020. In terms of overall rank I ended up around 10,000th last season, what cost me from doing a lot better is 1. what i alluded to above, going for a few selections at the start like dom sheed, dayne beams, angus brayshaw and then later on picking tom rockliff (yes i know, the first commandment of SC, don't pick tom rockliff) 2. missing out on Reilly O'Brien 3. Josh Kelly, 2 years in a row now he has burned me by getting injured shortly after me getting him (in the case of 2 years ago i started with him) and being out for 5 weeks+, just dont pick him guys, there are at least 6 better mids available at his price. i know you shouldnt hold grudges against picking players as someone else said above, but seriously... his injury record in the last 2 seasons doesnt lie.

all in all if i was to give some other general SC tips:

- avoid key position players.
- pick a maximum of 2-3 mid pricers (220k - 490k is what I consider mid price), at this stage the only player I've picked in this price range is Dan Houston, but I'm still somewhat considering Docherty and Brayden Sier (though I doubt I will select either at this stage unless they put in impressive performances in their next preseason games).
- try to avoid picking up players during the season at peak price, players will always drop down at some stage. i was guilty of picking a red hot neale at 643k last season, at the time i felt like he'd never go down to being cheaper, he did, also josh kelly at 659k and boak at 580k (where he proceeded to drop down to about 515k just after i got him, after scoring mediocre that week). Anyway, whilst I'd say Neale was ultimately worth it, the other two i definitely picked up at the wrong time, could've saved over 100k (and at least 1 trade) just from timing things better.

Commandment 1: Don't post a short essay unless it's a juicy af melt
 
Sep 3, 2005
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Meanwhile I'm starting with 8 600k+ players :D

Grundy and Gawn at Ruck.

Whitfield up forward.

Macrae, Neale, Mitchell, Cripps, Bontempelli in the midfield.

I disagree with your rule, my philosophy is that when I pick a player at the start of the year, they are either there to be still in my team come the last round or there to make me money (150k or more is about right, I'd agree with that poster). These 600k+ players are all players who I believe are very likely to end up as either a top 6 forward in the case of Whitfield, a top 2 ruck in the case of Grundy and Gawn, or a top 8 midfielder in the case of the rest. The more of these players in my team, the less trades I waste throughout the season on corrective ones for those 350k-550k players that I'd always pick at least 3-4 of every year (and usually only 1 ends up staying in the team, that 1 being someone like a pendles in recent years).

Its worth mentioning that the other "premos" I've picked who aren't 600k+ are: Lloyd and Houston in my defence, as well as Martin and Walters in my forward line.

My hope is that these players - 2 of my starting 6 defenders, 5 of my starting 8 mids, both my starting rucks and 3 of my starting 6 forwards - will all still be there come the end of the season.

I've paid particular attention to the injury records of these players as well. This is why I didn't pick Docherty, hes coming off of back to back ACL injuries and I wasn't impressed by his score in the first preseason game. Its also why I didn't pick Fyfe, because despite how great he was last year, that season was also actually the first in a few years where he had a good run with injuries. I picked Tom Mitchell however despite his recent ACL because 1. only a once off injury and his injury record is impeccable before then + hawthorn tend to be great with the recovery and management of their players with injuries 2. in last season that he did play he was the best mid by a mile 3. his score in the first preseason game, considering time on ground, was excellent.

Currently the main concern injury-wise out of the players that I've selected so far (who I've mentioned) is Whitfield. His injury record from last season is worrying to say the least. He is so far head and shoulders the best forward though by average so I just had to pick him (hes also got that handy fwd/mid dual position status).

I've been playing Supercoach since 2009, gradually getting better and better every year, especially the last few, and I hope some people benefit just from hearing what I've had to say on some aspects of Supercoach in 2020. In terms of overall rank I ended up around 10,000th last season, what cost me from doing a lot better is 1. what i alluded to above, going for a few selections at the start like dom sheed, dayne beams, angus brayshaw and then later on picking tom rockliff (yes i know, the first commandment of SC, don't pick tom rockliff) 2. missing out on Reilly O'Brien 3. Josh Kelly, 2 years in a row now he has burned me by getting injured shortly after me getting him (in the case of 2 years ago i started with him) and being out for 5 weeks+, just dont pick him guys, there are at least 6 better mids available at his price. i know you shouldnt hold grudges against picking players as someone else said above, but seriously... his injury record in the last 2 seasons doesnt lie.

all in all if i was to give some other general SC tips:

- avoid key position players.
- pick a maximum of 2-3 mid pricers (220k - 490k is what I consider mid price), at this stage the only player I've picked in this price range is Dan Houston, but I'm still somewhat considering Docherty and Brayden Sier (though I doubt I will select either at this stage unless they put in impressive performances in their next preseason games).
- try to avoid picking up players during the season at peak price, players will always drop down at some stage. i was guilty of picking a red hot neale at 643k last season, at the time i felt like he'd never go down to being cheaper, he did, also josh kelly at 659k and boak at 580k (where he proceeded to drop down to about 515k just after i got him, after scoring mediocre that week). Anyway, whilst I'd say Neale was ultimately worth it, the other two i definitely picked up at the wrong time, could've saved over 100k (and at least 1 trade) just from timing things better.
We are different beasts
 
Aug 22, 2009
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This year I'm trying to take a more scientific approach. Be more of a SC-Cyborg than a mad free-wheeling SC-artiste. Be interesting to see how much of it I stick to.


Initial team:

  1. Base initial premo selection on an assumption of their average, their predicted games played, and replace the games they are predicted to miss with rookie scores, to get a true indication of their predicted average.
  2. Pick durable players where possible - only pick injury prone players where they are under-priced.
  3. Base starting team around rookies, but also make sure that you have room on each line to grab fallen premos as well as the top-scoring targets.
  4. Don't aim to have top 6/8/6 players on each line, as this isn't attainable. It's better to be open to slightly cheaper players if they represent value and are durable.
  5. Plan for the byes by estimating the points cost of having too many players on a particular line.
  6. Pick players who are in the right age bracket for improvement.
  7. Ignore ownership.

Trading:
  1. Plan out all trades for the year in advance. Not specific trades, but rough number of upgrades/downgrades needed if you assume each rookie makes $150k and upgrades will be a mix of fallen premos and uber premos.
  2. No sideways trades under any circumstances.
  3. Upgrade early and aggressively.

Weekly:
  1. Make sure I don't lose points from simple errors like forgetting to put an E on a player etc.
 
Last edited:
Feb 5, 2018
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Never do the 'start a cheaper ruck and get Grundy or Gawn later in the year' approach again.

Don't ignore the 'flavour of the month' picks because they usually end up working out for everybody (ie. Dunkley and Marshall last season).
 
Aug 22, 2009
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Thy dominance shalt start with thy planning of thy starting squad
Might have overdone the ‘thys’ there just a tad. You can’t win SC by nailing your starting squad, but you can lose it by making unnecessary blues. Some of this is very general, but there are some basic principles it’s probably worth stating, even though many will be fully across them.

Plan around the cows:

The realty is, none of us have our starting squads nailed down because none of us know where our rookies / other cash generators are going to come from.

And how many of those ‘absolute premo locks’ we’re going to be able to squeeze in on what lines will in part be determined by which rookies we’re going to be starting on what lines. An example:

Some will have been thinking about starting an Isaac Heeney in the forwards at F3 (let’s say behind Whitfield at F1 and Dusty at F2) , hoping that this will be the year in which he genuinely breaks out and goes closer to the 102-105 mark many think he is capable of.

But with his thumb injury setting the cat amongst the pigeons, and depending on how the FWD and MID eligible rookies fall (Rankine, McAdam, King, Cockatoo, Darcy Cameron, a bargain-priced Stephen Hill as part of a swingset with a Jordan Dawson down back, maybe a Benny Cavarra etc.), you might be better off looking at a skinnier FWD structure with only F1 and F2 premos and going a premo heavier in the MIDs

In the interim, make sure to include some higher-priced potential cash cows (rookie-priced players who’ve been in the system like Stephen Hill, Cockatoo, Ben McKay, Brandon Starcevich. If lower-priced rookies present, great, it frees up cash to spend in the gift shop, if not, you’ve already got the higher-priced rooks and don’t need to make cuts or compromise by downgrading a pick you had your heart set on.

Once the preseason comp has been run and one, strip your side right back, plug in the cash generators you need and re-plug the premos in around them. You’ll still have your locks (e.g. Grawndy R1/R2 as potential non-negotiables for some) and by placing the rookies first, you'll know what's left for the rest.

Don’t overemphasize the power of the POD:

PODs are great and it can be one of the most fun and rewarding parts of the game when it’s your low ownership uniques getting you across the line in your league and / or seeing you rise in the rankings. But picking PODs for the sake of picking PODs is a high-risk strategy with downside potential. There’s safety in numbers and having a decent overlap on the most commonly held durable, consistent premiums you think will be amongst the top players in their line across the year is a good way to avoid getting caught behind the eight ball. You want to fail in the group and excel on your own, not the other way around.

Pick the players you think have the best chance of fulfilling your purpose for them, regardless of ownership levels, and limit your PODs.

I got caught out being prepared to take on too many PODs (actual starters and negative PODs I'd faded) last year. It is a risky strategy and tough to pull off.

Understand the concept of value:

SuperCoach pricing is based around a ‘Magic Number’ (MN).

The basic principle is that the Total Price Pool (TPP, the sum total of the cash values of all listed players) remains constant throughout a season.

At the start of the season, the MN is around the 5.4k mark (to calculate it for yourself, just take a couple of player starting prices for non-discounted premos and divide them by last year’s average).

But it has to drop in the course of the year, because the rookies coming into the system are all priced based on unrealistically low average expectations (a 124k rookie is priced at around 23 points, e.g., and not even SC royalty like The Rock of Goat-Balta in his blue period before his inevitable march to glory, Connor Makesmespew and other rookie luminaries actually average 23 ppg).

So their prices skyrocket. To offset that, the sum of established players’ prices needs to sink to offset. The mechanism for this is the MN. The magic number gradually reduces over the course of the season, typically ending at around 4.9 – 5.0k per point. 2019 for example looked a bit like this:

View attachment 815387
The important thing here is just to be clear that there is price decay, so try not to compound it by starting too many picks with limited upside

I’ll try to cover price movements and the formula to calculate them in more detail at another stage, but the main take-away is that all established player starting prices carry an element of inflation. This can be compounded by a player having a tough early draw (like a Jacobs / DeBoer tag in early doors).

Looking a bit closer at a player's stats often helps. Barron von Crow did a great job on twoitter of digging a little deeper into Rory Laird's stats over the last few years.You might look at the data and draw different conclusions, which is fine, the main thing is just to see that digging a bit better sometimes unearths things you might not have otherwise noticed.



So ideally, you want to look for premos that you think will finish near the top of their position and have value upside over other options in the line who you think are priced at their absolute peak and / or who might get away to slower starts and be better off as upgrade targets.

One example might be Josh Kelly vs Clayton Oliver. Kelly has had a lot of durability issues over the journey (and every game he misses is a game you’re paying for premo output but not getting it because you’re plugging in a rook or a midpricer to cover him). He managed 14 (admittedly pretty bloody stellar) games at 117 and enters the season priced at full whack, having received no discount. This doesn’t scream value. By comparison, Oliver has proven to be very durable (he made the start of the season, played every game and managed a respectable 110-odd average despite two off-season shoulder recos).

This is a subjective assessment, you might see it differently, but for mine, Oliver comes cheaper, has proven himself more durable, has genuine upside potential in a rebounding side and off a pristine preseason, so I would rather start Oliver and spend the savings elsewhere than chasing the white whale that is a Josh Kelly 22-game, all-universe output season. (It’s the 22 I’m worried about, bloke’s a star.) Chasing that elusive uninterrupted JK full season might just see you ending up like Captain Ahab, being dragged down into the depths of the ocean as old Moby Dick takes you on a one-way trip to Davy Jones' Locker.
View attachment 815396


Give yourself flexibility – but within and with a reason

The potential for swingsets is often beguiling. We dream of being able to fling a premo with DPP around from one end of the ground to the other by pairing them with a lower price option with matching DPP. And this year might present some options, for example a Jordan Dawson / Stephen Hill swingset.

Don’t overvalue the possibility of DPP flex. The rookie won’t be there forever, the premo needs to be able to live up to their premo status in the line on total pts.

Floating Donuts and Captain Loopholes

If you are going with a dedicated floating donut in one rookie position, the best place to do it is usually via a kid with RUC/FWD DPP at R3. This year, Charlie Comben (NM) looks like being a decent option, e.g..

If a decent R3 cash cow presents (like a Sammy Draper maybe around midseason), then you can always trade out a FWD rookie, swing Comben down and plug Draper in at R3 for a while. And having a Comben at R3 gives you the option of going with Darcy Cameron as a FWD rookie if he gets a run early and gives you the bonus of potentially having Grundy handcuff strategies should he miss games, e.g..

Normally, it’s a bit of a waste starting a DPP floater MID/FWD on the MID bench to be able to fling them around with a DPP FWD (e.g. Dusty), e.g., because you tend to get more point production and / or cash generation from the MID line and foregoing that might see you behind the pack.

Anyway, enough for now, will try to post another topic in a few days if possible.


Great post. Especially the magic number graph - excellent. Just updating my magic number now...
 
Jul 21, 2008
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For this season i currently have a few commandments:

1) Given scarcity of rookies, DPP is your friend
2) Dont be too concerned about overall team structure, value is value and with DPP team structure will be somewhat fluid
3) Look for value in at least 75% of selections - by limiting the amount of premium selections that wont increase their average.
4) Dont be scared to pick injury prone players if they are cheap and have considerable upside
5) Dont factor in byes at all while picking starting team. Start looking into them when making upgrades from approximately round 6 or 7 onwards
6) Look for backs and forwards who will either gain more midfield time or - in the case of defenders - will start taking the kick ins
7) Trade aggressively. With DPP there should be plenty of creative trading options open. If a mid-pricer is not performing, trade them as early as possible
 
freudian slip if Ive ever seen one haha
hahaha nah it's my bloody work, I'm in IT, so all I ever type is DEV, QAS, PRD, etc. Aaaaalways type dev instead of def, usually catch it though
 
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🇦🇺 🇦🇺 🇦🇺 West Adelaide
New Season ....do the old SuperCoach Rules still apply, given the new rules

1. Intercept marking was King

2. Backline Seagulls flourished .....now with the extra distance of kickouts, they're basically kicking from the HB line ......will King Seagull still reign supreme ?

Seagull.gif


3. Will KPF's come back into vogue ....with the speed of delivery ?

I'll go to a board of resident SC experts gutsroy Here2tellyouwhy Keg still on legs and Obese Arachnid e.....no more knowledgeable posters you'll find
 
New Season ....do the old SuperCoach Rules still apply, given the new rules

1. Intercept marking was King

2. Backline Seagulls flourished .....now with the extra distance of kickouts, they're basically kicking from the HB line ......will King Seagull still reign supreme ?

View attachment 1059157

3. Will KPF's come back into vogue ....with the speed of delivery ?

I'll go to a board of resident SC experts gutsroy Here2tellyouwhy Keg still on legs and Obese Arachnid e.....no more knowledgeable posters you'll find
Me, knowledgeable poster.

giphy.gif
 
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