Two rookie elevations were announced today: Ryan Davis, who will apparently suit up for the Eagles this weekend in Carrara, and Shane Valenti, the great white hope of the Demons… and of fantasy coaches everywhere. With Cyril Rioli, Josh Hill, Bernie Vince and other forward rookies just about at the top of their rollercoaster ride, Valenti is the perfect downgrade target for those who want to harvest some cold hard cash. Get on board while you can!

It was rumoured earlier in the week that Brad Symes was having difficulties recovering from the knock to the ankle he picked up in the Blues game and it has now come to pass that he is officially out. It sounds very much like just a swelling issue to me, so it’s not going to prevent him playing next week barring further injury. However, it leaves fantasy coaches in even more of a pickle than they were before with the Chad Cornes/Joel Bowden situation, as well as temporary outages for Dustin Fletcher, Bret Thornton and Shannon Hurn, along with rookie favourites Darren Pfeiffer and Adam Hartlett also not appearing in round 7.

Symes’ breakeven is at about his rolling average this week due to the low round 6 score caused by the original injury, so it’s going to be tempting to trade him to cover short-term holes. However, for many coaches this will mean that other positions in their backline will continue to fester, such as Xavier Ellis who appears to have hit a wall, Nathan Lovett-Murray who is going backwards, and underperforming Eagles like Beau Waters, Brett Jones and Mark Nicoski.

If you can at all help it, I would recommend not trading Symes. He delivered two excellent scores in rounds 4 and 5, and his role is still one which will garner a lot of points in future. If that means eating a zero this week to save a trade, so be it. There will be plenty of other coaches who will be in the same boat this week.

Richmond’s team is out, and you guessed it, no Joel Bowden.

B: King, Thursfield, Moore
HB: Hyde, Schulz, McMahon
C: Richardson, Tuck, Deledio
HF: Newman, Pattison, White
F: Brown, Riewoldt, Polak
Foll: Simmonds, Johnson, Foley
I/C: Tambling, Morton, Edwards, McGuane
Emergencies: Jackson, Cotchin, Pettifer

I’m on record on last night’s Coaches Box episode as recommending Jake King for all your Bowden replacement needs. With J-Bo not even making the emergencies this week, and with Chad Cornes out for at least another two games, I think it’s time to cut your losses if you are still hanging onto him. Tell me if I’m right in the comments.

Yes, Joel Bowden is out, as he didn’t board the plane to Perth. Unless the Tigers booked him a ticket on the Indian Pacific in secret.

Yes, Andrew Embley is out. Mark Nicoski travelled with the team as the first emergency, but the Eagles have also rushed Brad Ebert across to cover. No one knows yet whether Nico or Ebert will replace Embers. Your guess is as good as mine. Dean Cox is likely to play through the broken bone in his foot, though again that is by no means confirmed.

Latest news on the Swans through the iffy source of Brad Seymour on radio SEN is that Heath Grundy and Tadhg Kennelly are doubtful for Saturday night, with Luke Brennan a likely in. No confirmation on this as yet.

Update 1: Angus Monfries is also strongly rumoured to be out this evening for Tayte Pears.

This post will be updated as news comes in.

Seriously. It’s all his fault. Naming Scott D. Thompson in round 1 and then banishing him to the magoos, like he did with Lachie Hansen last year. This year, he had to get more creative with Hansen so he named him for round 2 and then withdrew him. This week, still no sign of either of them, not even as emergencies. He’s the root cause of all of this, I’m sure. I reckon he had a word in the AFL’s ear about that stupid 6.10pm game in round 1. It was him who was taking a piece of 4×2 to VirtualSports’ servers when we were all trying to log on before R1 lockout.

He’s the new Kevin Sheedy.

Post your missives of implacable hatred below.

One of the most important set of choices you’re going to make all year with your salary cap fantasy team is what to do with the rookies in your team this week and next week. This is especially true given the 70 minutes of madness last week meant that many, many coaches weren’t able to get the right set of rookies into their squad of 30 in the first place. Here’s a guide to the decisions you’ll no doubt be making.

Backs. Big problems here during round 1, which was a surprise given the pre-season performances of many hot young prospects. Instead of the plethora that we all expected to be able to choose from, the only rookie defenders who ended up pulling on a guernsey were Scott D. Thompson, Jake Edwards, Nathan J. Brown and Adam Hartlett. This week many coaches sighed with relief to see the names of Albert Proud, Lachie Hansen, Harry Taylor and Garrick Ibbotson on AFL team sheets, removing the need to trade out those players. However, Hartlett has been suspended and now Scott DT has been dropped!

Who to start in Dream Team (in order): Hansen, Edwards, Proud, Ibbotson, Brown, Taylor.
Who to start in Super Coach (in order): Brown, Hansen, Taylor, Proud, Edwards, Ibbotson.

Midfielders. A fair few were caught out by surprise non-selections during the madness, though Rhys Palmer, Chris Masten and Clint Bartram are among the rookies who were named this week to escape the fantasy chopping block. Some excellent performers here in round 1 but also some duds, most notably the very popular Craig Bird. None of the centre rookies got dropped this week despite rumblings about several players in the weeks ahead, like Travis Tuck and Sam Lonergan.

Who to start in Dream Team (in order): Jarryn Geary, Keiran Jack, Bartram, Cale Morton, Courtenay Dempsey, Tuck, Masten, Palmer, Bird, Brad Ebert, Lonergan.
Who to start in Super Coach (in order): Jack, Geary, Morton, Dempsey, Bartram, Palmer, Masten, Tuck, Bird, Lonergan, Ebert.

Forwards. I went into the season thinking that Kurt Tippett and Cyril Rioli were the two standout forward rookies, and I didn’t even like Tippett yet I put him in my side due to lack of choice. Turns out the forwards are where the action is at with rookies this year: Josh Hill, Colin Garland, Paul Stewart, Ryan Gamble and even Cameron Stokes all delivered decent scores in round 1, and don’t forget the double eligibility of Edwards, Hartlett and Brown from the backs. This week we’ve got Lachlan Henderson, Ben Ross and Chris Mayne joining the party.

Who to start in Dream Team (in order): Garland, Hill, Gamble, Edwards, Rioli, Tippett, Stewart, Henderson, Brown, Stokes, Mayne, Isaac Weetra, Heath Grundy, Ross.
Who to start in Super Coach (in order): Hill, Garland, Gamble, Tippett, Henderson, Stewart, Rioli, Brown, Edwards, Mayne, Stokes, Ross, Weetra, Grundy.

B: Brent Guerra, Stephen Gilham, Grant Birchall
HB: Rick Ladson, Trent Croad, Thomas Murphy
C: Stuart Dew, Sam Mitchell, Clinton Young
HF: Cyril Rioli, Tim Boyle, Chance Bateman
F: Mark Williams, Jarryd Roughead, Lance Franklin
Foll: Simon Taylor, Brad Sewell, Travis Tuck
Inter (from): Robert Campbell, Tim Clarke, Xavier Ellis, Josh J. Kennedy, Jarryd Morton, Michael Osborne, Cameron Stokes

B: Paul Wheatley, Nathan Carroll, Colin Garland
HB: Ricky Petterd, Daniel Bell, James McDonald
C: Brad Green, Brock McLean, Simon Buckley
HF: Cameron Bruce, Brad Miller, Adem Yze
F: Michael Newton, David Neitz, Russell Robertson
Foll: Jeff White, Aaron Davey, Nathan Jones
Inter: Mark Jamar, Jace Bode, James Frawley, Chris A. Johnson, Brent Moloney, Cale Morton, Isaac Weetra

B: Jason Gram, Max Hudghton, Sam Gilbert
HB: Raphael Clarke, Sam Fisher, Xavier Clarke
C: Jason Blake, Lenny Hayes, Leigh Montagna
HF: Robert Harvey, Nick Riewoldt, Adam Schneider
F: Stephen Milne, Justin Koschitzke, Fraser Gehrig
Foll: Steven King, Nick Dal Santo, Luke Ball
Inter: Michael Gardiner, Charlie Gardiner, Clinton Jones, Jarryn Geary
Emerg: Leigh Fisher, Aaron Fiora, Shane Birss

B: Tadhg Kennelly, Leo Barry, Martin Mattner
HB: Craig Bolton, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Kieran Jack
C: Amon Buchanan, Brett Kirk, Jarrad McVeigh
HF: Ryan O’Keefe, Michael O’Loughlin, Jude Bolton
F: Craig Bird, Barry Hall, Heath Grundy
Foll: Darren Jolly, Adam Goodes, Jarred Moore
Inter: Luke Ablett, Paul Bevan, Nick Davis, Ted Richards
Emerg: Ed Barlow, Luke Brennan, Ben Mathews