Monday, May 9, 2011

What to do with Jack Grimes

@Dreamteam_Guru BLOGs on the issue effecting 24% of dreamteamers - what to do with Jack Grimes.

It's a shame that the young defender did such a bad injury. With the dees in the 8 and with the potential to play finals footy, Grimes was looking at having a good season - not a season on the sidelines.

Nearly one in four DT players have Grimes in their team. The Guru has already had some people enquire what to do - here are my tips.

Firstly - don't trade until squads are announced for the weekend. You'd hate to spend money only for your player to be dropped!

Secondly - make sure you do trade him this week. No point having $300k+ on the bench for the rest of the year.

Now who to bring in. I'd be looking at the following:

Do you want to upgrade for a keeper or gain value with a cheapie?

How are teams placed for the bye?

Exchanging for a def/mid to allow changes between positions?

Is this the chance to pick someone who others don't have in an opportunity to win games?

Guru has Grimes. With the above in mind at present I am considering Hibberd, Harbrow, Enright, Drummond & Shaw. No doubt a lot more thinking to come this week.

Over half the DT players have Goddard. If you don't, this might be the tine to pick him!

As an afterthought, Broughton will get a reprieve because of Grimes' injury - he is very lucky!

This blog has been written by the @Dreamteam_Guru - follow on Twitter. To ensure comments are read, please send via Twitter.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Having Faith in DT strategy

@Dreamteam_Guru has had a bad week. I didn't even crack 1800 this week in DT, and I have become moody, introspective, reclusive and doubting my DT skills.

Then I considered my bench & bad luck for the week.

Firstly Prestia & Krak didn't play forcing me to play Richardson (whose 14-odd saw his price increase!!!) and get the dreaded zero. Broughton didn't play meaning I picked up 37 for Tape. I had Petrie on my bench and he scored 6,000 (slight exaggeration). I had Sylvia, Jack & Grimes on my bench too.

My initial strategy was to take a hit in non-league weeks. I picked players from teams that had their byes twice during multi bye weeks.

My score this week is a reflection on this strategy as well as bad luck. That's ok - I didn't lose any matches!

This week is another multi bye round with lots of my freo players having a week off. That's ok - they will be back for head-to-head competition the next week.

I'd be happy with 2000 this week and hopefully get higher scores there after!

This blog has been written by the @Dreamteam_Guru - follow on Twitter. To ensure comments are read, please send via Twitter.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Dreamteam & Twitter: The Unwritten Rules

@Dreamteam_Guru has a look at twitter etiquette on how we interact with afl football players.

Andrew Bogut (Australian NBA player) tweeted this week. To paraphrase, he wrote "yes - I'm out for the season. No - I don't care about your fantasy teams."

This reminded the guru of when his primary school buddy played with an afl club. Chatting over facebook, the guru kept asking the player afl related questions before the player wrote "can we talk about something else - I get a bit tired of talking about work all the time."

In short, AFL (or sport in Bogut's example) is a career to these people. Dreamteam is a hobby of ours, but one the players don't necessarily care for.

Scenario - let's say twitter's Jobe Watson goes down with injury. Diagnosis out for 7 weeks. This would figuratively cripple some dreamteams. He would probably like to get messages stating "all the best in your recovery mate."

He probably wouldn't care much for an addition of "get better quickly as The Gurus Men need you" or "great - now I have to play Dion Prestia" or "you just cost me a trade, Jobe!"

If you do contact players via twitter, have a think first - what are you actually saying, will 150 people write the same thing & does your hobby interest your audience. You don't want them to pull a Bogut on you!

This blog has been written by the @Dreamteam_Guru - follow on Twitter. To ensure comments are read, please send via Twitter.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Dreamteam - What Happens Between Rounds 4-6?

@Dreamteam_Guru looks at the peculiar 2011 DT rules and what it means for your strategy.

Dreamteam players play for several reasons. The most common for the dedicated are:
A) Win the league
B) Win the overall competition (the car)
C) Win the week

For the next three rounds, there are three teams sharing the bye. This can effect your strategy for all of these player types.

The League winner: no head to head competition means don't burn your trades. Save them up, and only use them for cash cows. If an Ed Curnow makes his debut this week, trade him in before his third game. If not, don't trade at all and save the trades up for DT finals time or for when you need them.

Win the whole comp: make sure you have enough cover for the multi-team byes. Use trades as normal - when necessary and for cash cows. Try not to use more than one trade a week for the whole season.

The Weekly Winner: with Goddard, Libber & Riewoldt having the bye this week, there will be lots of Dreamteams using their bench cover. Trade these players out, and instead of using your bench you can bring in other high profile talent that doesn't have the bye. Multi-bye weeks are a good opportunity to win the week while other players starting 22 are far weaker than normal.

Are you playing by either of these strategies or one the Guru hasn't considered?

This blog has been written by the @Dreamteam_Guru - follow on Twitter. To ensure comments are read, please send via Twitter.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Round 3 - Why the Trade?

When @Dreamteam_Guru has the time, he will BLOG on his trade decisions.

This week there was two - both value trades.

1 - Curnow in, Atley out. Curnow is averaging. 99, Atley 40. I want Curnow now before his value rises. That way if & when I sell him, I would have made profit off him.

2 -Dawes in, Davis out. Although named this week, it has become apparent that Collingwood don't have Davis in their best xxii. I liked the way he played in preseason and 2 years ago he averaged 99. That's why I had him. Now I pick up Dawes as he is averaging 100+ and is less than $300k. This leads to another value trade.

As I twitter-ed, I wanted Luenberger for Cox this week, but I didn't have the dosh!

This blog has been written by the @Dreamteam_Guru - follow on Twitter. To ensure comments are read, please send via Twitter.

Round 3 - Captain's Choices

Each week @Dreamteam_Guru looks at three possibilities as captain: his captain, someone he doesn't have & a smokie.

Guru's captain this week. Dane Swan, same as most weeks.

Someone I don't have that could be a good choices: Leigh Montagna. Stepping out of the Hayes shadow to lead the saints against a young Essendon team. Could be DT gold.

Smokie: Tom Liberratore. Playing against a team of his peers, he will be motivated to show them what they missed out on thanks to the doggies use of the father/son rule. Huge risk here, but huge potential too - especially if you have your eye on winning the week!

This blog has been written by the @Dreamteam_Guru - follow on Twitter. To ensure comments are read, please send via Twitter.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

What is @Dreamteam_Guru on about when he says "unaffected by the bye" (2nd attempt)

I received a good question via twitter. What do I mean when I talk about teams that are unaffected by the bye?

This year with a 17 team comp, each team has 2 byes. As there isn't 34 rounds, there are some weeks when 3 teams have a bye.

When 3 teams have a bye there is no head to head games in DT. Therefore if you have a player whose team shares a bye with 2 other teams you don't need a quality back up bench that week to win a game. You just won't have a high score that week. As this doesn't effect league competition, it's ok to make this sacrifice (unless you are trying to win the whole thing - the car that is).

Melbourne, Sydney, Freo and Brisbane all share both their byes with 2 other clubs. The Guru has stocked up on dockers and dees for this reason and also has a couple of swans and a lion.

Adelaide's remaining bye is shared with 2 other clubs so from now on the crows too are unaffected by the bye. The Guru has Knights & McKernnan for value reasons, but may keep them for this reason too.

So if you are considering upgrading a defender and you can't split Enright, Grimes or Deledio this could be the deciding factor. Enright has a bye in DT finals, Deledio is effected by the bye and Grimes isn't. In this scenario, Grimes would get the nod. (I currently have both Grimes & Deledio by the way!)

It's a strategy the Guru is keen on to position himself well within the league. Is it something you'll look at too?

This blog has been written by the @Dreamteam_Guru - follow on Twitter. To ensure comments are read, please send via Twitter.