#10: You haven’t got Chad Cornes. Chad is the #1 fantasy back, averaging 101.5 in DT last year. The only other back to average more than 90 in 2007 was Joel Bowden. It is mandatory for a good AFL fantasy team to pick Chadwick, a.k.a. Studley, a.k.a. The Chad. Don’t leave home without him.
#9: You’re starting a rookie ruck in your 22. Yes, it’s easy to see that Matthew Kreuzer is a quality player. Sure, Shaun Hampson looks like he’ll do alright this year. Fine, have Matthew Leuenberger in your 30. Just don’t put any of those boys in your 22. Young ruckmen take a long time to develop. Even Josh Fraser, first picked in the 1999 draft, had a debut season in 2000 that was not fantasy-22-worthy. Keep them on your bench and start Troy Simmonds as your #2 ruck at the very least.
#8: You’ve picked injured and/or sore players. Obviously you shouldn’t have any of the seven players who have already blown out their knees this season, but I’m talking here about players who are probably going to represent some good value at some stage during the season, but not from round 1. These players are on the dreaded “modified program” due to very poor fitness levels from an interrupted preseason, and many of them won’t even play in round 1. This includes Daniel Bradshaw, Sam Butler, Mark Coughlan, Nathan Thompson, Brendon Goddard, Trent Hentschel, Scott Gumbleton, Matthew Lloyd and Danny Jacobs. Warren Tredrea is also on the fringes of this group, preseason media hype notwithstanding. –EDIT– Oh, and I forgot the biggest name on this list: Chris Judd.
#7: You’ve picked a full-time full back. There was a time when Matthew Scarlett was fantasy-relevant, but no more.
#6: You haven’t picked Nick Stevens. 133 in the NAB Cup not enough for you? Come on, he should be an absolute lock. As I said in this week’s Coaches Box, opposition coaches are going to let him rack up cheap outside possessions until the cows come home because his hurt factor is very minimal. Should give you 22 games of sterling service.
#5: You’ve got more than two premium-priced centres. Your centres should be filled with rookies and the odd mid-price improver. Sure, it looks fabulous to have the entire Geelong engine room in your team from round 1, but salary cap fantasy is all about improvement, and there’s not a lot of improvement left in Jimmy, Joel and Gazza. Two of them maybe, but you have to leave room for plenty of cash cows, even in your 22. Which leads me to…
#4: No rookies in your 22. Don’t play it safe! I learned this lesson the hard way. It’s not actually a “risk” to start rookies in your 22, it’s mandatory. You are selling your team short if you don’t. Picking the right rookies is vital, obviously, but the rewards are far greater than picking a bunch of third-year players priced at $150k-$200k who will deliver the same scores at best.
#3: You’ve picked 2007’s fantasy young guns instead of thinking about 2008. No, it’s not a winning move to pick up Joel Selwood this year. Sure, he’s going to score well, but you’d be paying top dollar for his services and that money could be better spent elsewhere. Pick the rookie who is going to be this year’s Joel Selwood. The same goes for Jake King, Ricky Petterd, Andrejs Everitt, Clinton Young, Alwyn Davey, Tim Boyle and David Rodan.
#2: You haven’t aimed for the top. It’s no good having 10 players in your squad who, at best, will improve from averages of 75 last year to 80 this year. You have to pick players capable of cracking the ton every week. It’s worth spending the extra money to get Joel Bowden rather than Jason Gram, Scott Lucas rather than Robert Murphy. Bowden and Lucas are the players who can deliver consistent 100+ games, whereas Gram and Murphy just can’t get there often enough. That sort of penny-pinching will only pinch points away from your team in the long term.
#1: You just posted your entire squad to BigFooty. 
I must say I’m guilty of number 8. I can’t help myself.
Love number 1 - you know what’s going to happen though? You’ll get people posting 4 times, once for their backs, then midfielders, then rucks and lastly forwards
Nice entry.
handy tips but not all true ,i agree on number 3 with the exception of rodan ,the guys was a gun even when he was with richmond,but number 5 is the one i totally disagree with ,i focus alot of my attention on ball winners in all positions obviously but having a stacked midfield is important ,sure ur not gonna get 6 starting superstars so sure throw in 3 or 4 lower priced guys. i have a couple of picks to break out this year ,mcnamara of West Coast will be a sleeper just like priddis from last year and peake of Fremantle should improve with hasleby out for the year and the rapid decline of bell.
The point with #3 is that last year Rodan was way underpriced for the scores he delivered, but this year he’s not going to improve nearly as much, and his ceiling is not high enough to put him in the fantasy radar.
On #5, I would strongly recommend going in with more than 4 non-premium mids. Mids are where most of the improving players are, so that’s where most of the cash cows are. Load up on cash cow mids or miss out.
#10 should be “you havent got dean cox”.
#8 anybody remember nigel lappin?
#4 unless theres a standout rookie theres no reason to start one in your 22. palmer looks like the only one who may get some decent points.
I’m not so keen on Cox this year, he hasn’t had a full preseason so after last year’s round 1 disaster I’m wary.
Speaking of disasters, wasn’t Lappin’s first month or so of 2007 a complete fantasy disaster?? You never knew if he was going to play or not, it was insane.
G, if you don’t play rookies in your 22 then you lose. Simple as that.
Lappin??? that guy caused me more headaches than a bottle of vodka for about 2 months!!!! then everyone got him and my competitive edge was lost!
Personally i think there no rookies who will get a game round 1 in the backline .. i mean none, only like lahclan hanson who will sore like 2.
ive got 3 in my midfield (including bench) because the best arnt playing (masten, cotchin)
and i think theres only one in the forward line that will score big, (henderson) althogh sellar is a bet too
point is not many rookies are going to be playing round 1 .. and whoever goes brad symes of scott stevens is retarted in my opinion
Monty and others, love your opinion on the opposite of 5.
Can you reasonably expect to do any good with less than 2 premium centres? I’m definitely having one but I’d love the ability to stack my forwards and backs a bit more and leave more room for improvement in the middle.
In my opinion, pretty spot on apart from #10. Chad Cornes is the highest scoring defender and priced accordingly. Best case scenario is he holds his average this year - there’s no way he’ll be increasing it signficantly. There are many guns defenders quite a bit cheaper who I’m looking to improve and Cornes will be a great pickup mid-year after a poor round, which is he is bound to have (scored a 38 in DT and 50 in SC one round last year).
Ah yes, but by wasting a trade to get him when you want him all along………
Surely the wording of rule #5 is the problem?
If it read “You don’t have at least four rookies/cash cows in your centres…”
If you have three premiums Stevens, there’s plenty of room to grow and your team certainly isn’t “terrible”.
But each to their own….
^^^^
that should read “plus” Stevens…
Would you put Travis Boak in number 3
or is he still an option because of his limited options?
limited opportunites i should say
mOnty I respect your opinions. But my opinion is that if you start rookies you are falling behind early.
I would only consider playing 1 rookie, max.
I love this blog. One of the best.
I only have 1 Rookie starting, and it’ll be Either Pffiefer, Proud or Selwood.
Freed up heaps of cash for elsewhere.
My mids aren’t SUPER cheap, but are defintely my equal lowest spending section.
Can’t wait.. I really can’t!
G- ppl look to upgrade by downgrading these rookies they have picked and using the extra cash effectively
if u dont do that, even on a basic level u will fall behind mid season and will never catch up
This would be why I didnt start with one rookie on the field last year… and i didnt fall behind.
Rookies should be resigned to your bench, unless you can find a gem like selwood, marc murphy or symes. If you have 3 or 4 rookies on the field in the first couple of rds, you WILL fall behind.
Come back around mid season G and we’ll see where you’re at by playing no rookies.
I was always of that opinion and never even got close to the front, always sat around the middle of how many thousand players.
This year will be different :p
ive always done the rookie approach (not even that well) and finished inside the top 5000 regularly
the backs stink like poo!!!
Dude…you are SOOOO wrong on some of them points. I’m a Pommie and didn’t know Chris Judd from Jude Law in year 1. What I do know is WINNING early and deeply in the 1st 8 weeks of SC is far superior than creating wealth. So, your points where you are wrong from 2 seasons of complete novice:
I’ve packed my Centres with superstars (get the ball both way’s see?) so just for sheer throughput, they will likely score more points.
Unless you’ve got loads of cash and are going to get Cox, Rucks won’t contribute an SC game decisive quantum of points, so why bother wastingit up front. Watch the rookies and buy a couple after round 2 that look like stayers.
As per seasons 2, in my team, get as many ball-playing half-backs as possible.
Actually, go one step further, get as many assigned rucks, full-backs, and full forwards who are actually likely to play the season as Centres and watch their numbers and value go up.
Can’t win SC if you ain’t in the Top 8. So…win a lot early, trade for value in mid season, and buy the form players at the end. Its not rocket science, and this pommie made the QF in his 1st year, and Final in the 2nd.
I’m not sure making the final of the Yooralla league makes you a doyen just yet.. but you go girl.
great work monty - I agree with all the rules
Hey Sze…I think top 7% of entire SC qualifies me to comment…even as a Pom…after 10 years in Canada…who’s only AFL match was Pies V Kilda in 1993.
Unless you play the game as a pro AND have pocketed the prizes for being No.1 in any league, then my strategy seems sound…and probably sounder than yours.
p.s. Yooralla I don’t know…Yoormama I do! C’mon…whats your SC league code and invite us in. I’ve got a Cannuck buddy and we love beating Aussies at there own game…almost as much as the easy baiting.
I’ve got you SOOOOO whipped you’ll think I’m your wife.
Float like a Sandilands, sting like a Bertuzzi.
Ha.. you’re not really sure what you are, are you?.. part Pom, part Canuck with incredibly quick witted “mama” and “wife” american sledging and a self professed lack of football knowledge… although i must admit i liked the Sandilands and Bertuzzi quip.. clever..
I’m sure i like you enough yet to let you play in my league, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep track of how our teams are faring head to head throughout the year does it?..
and i’m not sure a Pom should be going on about beating other nations at their own games.. how’s england doing in all those games they invented anyway? ;-p
Top 7% Chippy?
That’s Top 15000/210000.
I came 3500 and my team was really bad last year. Will dominate this year
The examples used for #2 of this list look REALLY funny in hindsight!
Also never agreed with #8 and at least guys like Bradshaw and N Thompson (and Nick Stevens of course!) made that a worthwhile thing to do. Obviously don’t take guys who aren’t right to play for round 1 (Coughlan!), but fully-fit guys coming off long layoffs are reliably underpriced. The thing with Bradshaw and Thompson was that they’d both had a full year to recover… late season knee recos rushing back for round 1 are a definite stay-away.