Discussion 2025 Pre-Season Planning Discussion

[gutsroy]

Preseason starts now Scoops, time to grind, to toil away honing the craft.

Every campaigner and his canine companion at work jumping out of the bushes and asking for some last minute saucy little requests they could have ****ing asked for any time in the last six months.
Obstructionist campaigners, the lot of them.
Absolutely Unaustralian.
Scoops not happy, Jan. Security:s been called.

 

[gutsroy]

rocker_oz33 Bailey Smiff and Jacky 'will turn into a Superstar with the Catters like they all do' Martin?
Thoughts?

 

[South of the Yarra]

rocker_oz33 Bailey Smiff and Jacky 'will turn into a Superstar with the Catters like they all do' Martin?
Thoughts?

Bailey a yes for me, Martin a big no

 

[The Lane Train]

After much chopping & changing this is what I have settled on for now, with Shai Bolton as the flex

Unsure about Cummings place but will see how he tracks over pre-season

Any obvious changes I need to make?

 

[rocker_oz33]

rocker_oz33 Bailey Smiff and Jacky 'will turn into a Superstar with the Catters like they all do' Martin?
Thoughts?

Baz yes cheap plus dpp lock.
Jack huge inj risk ..Will have to p,e.g. well in PS games .
He's never been trust worthy in staying on the park ...

 

[Cactus_]

Will be interesting to see the different strategies the content creator types land on.
jdstorm made a good case for the three premo ruck out of the gate option.
Be I was thinking someone like a Flynn might be a good option if he has his nose in front for the no. 1 ruck role. Means one less potential absolute topliner in your scores early, but less spend and a Flynn rucking solo will do what rucks do and give the ton a nudge, that puts him ahead of a lot of DEF and FWD types from one week to the next,.so you still get a bit of a bump.

I’ve been thinking along the same lines and I’ve put Flynn in the hot seat for now

My other thought is I might just put an extra strong rookie in that spot – Ashcroft, or Langford, or Smilie, or Kako, or someone like that – if my structure is such that I can’t fit all the expensive rookies on the field . . . could work OK . . .

 

[Choppers]

Bailey a yes for me, Martin a big no

I agree but Bailey has the dreaded RD3 bye....which is OK if you only have a couple of them

 

[jdstorm]

Will be interesting to see the different strategies the content creator types land on.
jdstorm made a good case for the three premo ruck out of the gate option.
I was thinking someone like a Flynn might be a good option if he has his nose in front for the no. 1 ruck role. Means one less potential absolute topliner in your scores early, but less spend and a Flynn rucking solo will do what rucks do and give the ton a nudge, that puts him ahead of a lot of DEF and FWD types from one week to the next,.so you still get a bit of a bump.

Credit where credits due, the 3 ruck idea wasn’t mine. It was another poster (who I’m forgetting- give this post a shout and I’ll edit you in)

The more I think about it the more it makes sense. People are thinking about the flex like it’s some special specific role. But really all it does is allow you to play 9 premo mids of 3 rucks depending on who happens to be scoring higher. (Since we know it won’t be F6)

To make a best 22 we don’t need an F6 anymore. That’s the new reality.

If you start with 7 premo defenders or 9 mids or 3 rucks all of their scores will just count from the get go.

At the start it doesn’t really matter because our worst players will be rookies and it’s best 18 early so in practice we’ve got 5 flex spots

It’s just about starting with 10-14 value premiums who you hope are in the top 20ish scorers by seasons end, with 3/4 captain options. wherever you put them. Doesn’t really matter what position they play.

The strongest argument for starting 3 premium rucks is that last year R3 (Marshall) was a top15 guy in terms of average and overall points and there’s a few rucks now that can match the top mids for points.

They might not be value but Captain options normally aren’t and the cover is a nice byproduct. With 3 elite rucks you’re likely going to have at least one good matchup most weeks till you can start to load up your midfield

 

[Choppers]

For the past few seasons, I've never been able to post my team as others have. Mainly because I'm an ole fart still living in the 20th Century and don't own a smart phone.......but I think I can do it(if this works) but its only my 1st iteration and I'm sure it'll be changed many times before SC kicks off...here goes

 

[Choppers]

It worked.......yippee!!!!!!

 

[Cactus_]

For the past few seasons, I've never been able to post my team as others have. Mainly because I'm an ole fart still living in the 20th Century and don't own a smart phone.......but I think I can do it(if this works) but its only my 1st iteration and I'm sure it'll be changed many times before SC kicks off...here goes

View attachment 2190191

Looks good to me

Only Holmes and Meek with early byes, which I like

 

[Cactus_]

How many early bye round players are too many?

I’ve got Mills and Bailey Smith (round 3 bye)

And Will Day (round 4)

Was pretty keen on taking Flanders and Holmes – Flanders is R2 so might not be a huge problem, although I’d still like to minimise players with early byes

Holmes would leave me 3 “primos” short in R3 which I don’t like

Mills, and Smith, and probably Day too are really midpricers rather than bonafide primos so having the miss a round isn’t so bad

 

[jdstorm]

How many early bye round players are too many?

I’ve got Mills and Bailey Smith (round 3 bye)

And Will Day (round 4)

Was pretty keen on taking Flanders and Holmes – Flanders is R2 so might not be a huge problem, although I’d still like to minimise players with early byes

Holmes would leave me 3 “primos” short in R3 which I don’t like

Mills, and Smith, and probably Day too are really midpricers rather than bonafide primos so having the miss a round isn’t so bad

Great question.

Hard to know. Lots of risk reward there with PODs if it goes well.

if you don’t care about overall and just want to win a league then stacking your team with PODs that share the same early bye could be a viable stratergy.

If going for overall the points you loose are the expected value of premium over whatever an average 19th player (rookie) will Score.

So if your 19th player is a rookie with an expected score of say 60 and the player out has an expected value of 100. Then it would be expected to cost you 40 points per player.

The question becomes over 24 rounds will
They outscore a non OR premo by more than that amount it’s costing you to miss their score. If so then it’s worth it.

 

[Cactus_]

Great question.

Hard to know. Lots of risk reward there with PODs if it goes well.

if you don’t care about overall and just want to win a league then stacking your team with PODs that share the same early bye could be a viable stratergy.

If going for overall the points you loose are the expected value of premium over whatever an average 19th player (rookie) will Score.

So if your 19th player is a rookie with an expected score of say 60 and the player out has an expected value of 100. Then it would be expected to cost you 40 points per player.

The question becomes over 24 rounds will
They outscore a non OR premo by more than that amount it’s costing you to miss their score. If so then it’s worth it.

Except it is best 18 in the bye rounds right?

So, you have 22 on field plus the flex so, 23

If everyone is playing, your worst five scores drop out, and your best 18 count

If one primo has a bye round, and you can bring a rookie on field, your worst five scores drop out (effectively your primo is covered by whichever of your worst five scorers scores the best) – so having one primo out might not hurt too much – five chances for one rookie to score 80 - 100

If you have two primos out you’ll need two of your worst five to post big scores

Three primos out and you’ll need good scores from three of your worst five – that is how I read it anyway

 

[Cactus_]

I think that means one primo out in any given round shouldn’t be a big problem (if playing for overall)

Two primos out in the same round is starting to push your luck

Three primos out in a single round should be avoided at all costs

All this is assuming you have enough playing rookies to bring on the field for each primo that is not playing – if not so much the worse,

 

[WaynesWorld19]

It worked.......yippee!!!!!!

 

[Nelso]

Someone gets Houston's kick in's. Could be Ratkins. Maybe Sinn at a similar price.

Nelso any early signs?

I would expect Farrell to take most of the kick in's.

Sinn is first in line to take Houston's spot on the back flank.

 

[VainGlorious]

Every campaigner and his canine companion at work jumping out of the bushes and asking for some last minute saucy little requests they could have ****ing asked for any time in the last six months.
Obstructionist campaigners, the lot of them.
Absolutely Unaustralian.
Scoops not happy, Jan. Security:s been called.
View attachment 2190147

This. Is. Democracy. Manifest.

 

[VainGlorious]

How many early bye round players are too many?

I’ve got Mills and Bailey Smith (round 3 bye)

And Will Day (round 4)

Was pretty keen on taking Flanders and Holmes – Flanders is R2 so might not be a huge problem, although I’d still like to minimise players with early byes

Holmes would leave me 3 “primos” short in R3 which I don’t like

Mills, and Smith, and probably Day too are really midpricers rather than bonafide primos so having the miss a round isn’t so bad

I started 7 round 0 players last season and had my best year in about 8 years. Go figure.

Flanders, Heeney, Gawn and Grundy Whitfield , Touk , Daicos.

 

[VainGlorious]

I started 7 round 0 players last season and had my best year in about 8 years.

 

[Maybe Tomorrow]

I started 7 round 0 players last season and had my best year in about 8 years.

Congratulations, why have you not mentioned it until now?

 

[VainGlorious]

Congratulations, why have you not mentioned it until now?

Well, since you mentioned it, I had my best season in about 8 years in 2024 and I started 7 round 0 players.

 

[dylan93]

This seems the one for a bit.

Whole bunch of lads on my watchlist though.

 

[Kadog]

Allo kents!

Haven’t really looked at byes or thought about the flex strategy yet. V 1.0 below.

Merry Xmas to all.

 

[Cactus_]

View attachment 2190247

This seems the one for a bit.

Whole bunch of lads on my watchlist though.

Yeah, I’ve been thinking about Powell-Pepper at 180K . . .