NRL Fantasy 2021 Part 4 - Praying that nobody gets hurt

Going with lots of versatility in my 18-21 with Moylan, Averillo, Fusitu'a & Hola. Also have Watson in my 14-17 as a dual position player. 2 of my starting 13 are dual position so ive got 6/21 dual position threats.

3 HOK
5 MID
4 EDG
5 HLV
5 CTR
5 WFB

So 2+ reserves for each position. Happy with that, and i'm not prioritising dual position to the detriment of value, i just use it as a tiebreaker e.g Fusitu'a over Niu

I remember back when Lachlan Croker was at the Raiders, there were some raiders fans convinced he was going to be the next big thing.
More people get hyped up than eventually make it, but I do think of those comments some times when his name comes up for fantasy.

If he does start at hooker I will consider him for my 18-21. Depends what other options are available at that price and what positions I need. If a bunch of other possibles fall through and he survives TLT then I'll be comfortable having him in my squad.

I gotta say, if Croker is starting at hooker and looks like he's going to play decent minutes, I don't think I can resist it. He hasn't been in a single draft or considered thought of mine up until this point... but if he's getting good minutes at hooker at his price, I am not sure I can shun that.

Last season after peaking early, i think i really underutilised dual position players as well as buggering up my team big time by trading away too many midpricers in an attempt to get as many guns as i could quickly.

It backfired royally as although i had lots of guns early, a lot of the cows i traded in tanked and were dropped or injured and my aggressive trading was proven (beyond) reckless. It ended up that i couldnt get the cash i needed to complete my last upgrade or 2 either so i went from coming 3rd overall at one point to just limping into the top 10,000.

In one round i remember having 8 players out due to injuries, suspension and cows losing their place in first grade. It was silly because it was mainly the mid-pricers that got me close to the top anyway. I was so determined to differentiate myself from the other top teams by going aggressive but in the end i was the architect of my own demise.

This season i vowe to have more patience and as such those low end mid-pricers will be crucial. Obviously ive got to find the balance, no use holding onto a sinking ship but i'll try to give my mid-pricers a fair go before cashing them in, and picking a few dual position players will help with that.

To add to my above post, i think i did better at SC partly because of the way its setup with extra bench players and bench players for every position. For Fantasy (and a reason why i like it) it is much more important to create a team that is balanced and you've got to figure out how to make the most of the value players but also make sure that you have cover instead of overloading 1 or 2 positions.

That takes more strategy, and when you add in the fact that prices change after 1 game, it is a bit more difficult to decide which cows to downgrade to when compared to SC as you dont get the 2 free-bee weeks to assess their scoring ability and job security. I like SC a lot but it is simply an easier game and i think that the masses probably play it for that reason. Fantasy is tougher and for the committed fans/tragics, i think it is the more favourable option.

t43597 wrote:Last season after peaking early, i think i really underutilised dual position players as well as buggering up my team big time by trading away too many midpricers in an attempt to get as many guns as i could quickly.

It backfired royally as although i had lots of guns early, a lot of the cows i traded in tanked and were dropped or injured and my aggressive trading was proven (beyond) reckless. It ended up that i couldnt get the cash i needed to complete my last upgrade or 2 either so i went from coming 3rd overall at one point to just limping into the top 10,000.

In one round i remember having 8 players out due to injuries, suspension and cows losing their place in first grade. It was silly because it was mainly the mid-pricers that got me close to the top anyway. I was so determined to differentiate myself from the other top teams by going aggressive but in the end i was the architect of my own demise.

This season i vowe to have more patience and as such those low end mid-pricers will be crucial. Obviously ive got to find the balance, no use holding onto a sinking ship but i'll try to give my mid-pricers a fair go before cashing them in, and picking a few dual position players will help with that.

Your point about trading those serviceable middies and trying to squeeze in the guns too quickly rings true for me too. I was temporarily in first after about 10-11 rounds and ended up 578th (I think). Made two absolutely terrible, unnecessary trades trying to go for it. I agonised over it too. And my 2019 notes explicitly told me not to. But I'd convinced myself that the game was different with no byes and all that, and Gerry Harvey had just donated me two extra trades, and I'd also done well the year before (128th I think) having cut Edwards and Holland quickly, in like weeks one and two when many had held. My learnings from 2020 notes have very little in them, it was a weird year but most of the important learnings came the year before. Cut the duds early, and if a cashie/middie has peaked in round 8 say, and you're worried about them losing cash, patience. Wait until they've actually lost cash before you trade say L. Leilua the week before he tonnes up and K. Mann who held his price all year.

t43597 wrote:To add to my above post, i think i did better at SC partly because of the way its setup with extra bench players and bench players for every position. For Fantasy (and a reason why i like it) it is much more important to create a team that is balanced and you've got to figure out how to make the most of the value players but also make sure that you have cover instead of overloading 1 or 2 positions.

That takes more strategy, and when you add in the fact that prices change after 1 game, it is a bit more difficult to decide which cows to downgrade to when compared to SC as you dont get the 2 free-bee weeks to assess their scoring ability and job security. I like SC a lot but it is simply an easier game and i think that the masses probably play it for that reason. Fantasy is tougher and for the committed fans/tragics, i think it is the more favourable option.

Agree, Fantasy a better game. I've made a supercoach team about 3 or 4 times, they've never last more than a few weeks, just can't get into it. Part of it is laziness, although I put an extraordinarily wasteful amount of time into fanatics survivor last year. Good times though

Mulvy wrote:

Your point about trading those serviceable middies and trying to squeeze in the guns too quickly rings true for me too. I was temporarily in first after about 10-11 rounds and ended up 578th (I think). Made two absolutely terrible, unnecessary trades trying to go for it. I agonised over it too. And my 2019 notes explicitly told me not to. But I'd convinced myself that the game was different with no byes and all that, and Gerry Harvey had just donated me two extra trades, and I'd also done well the year before (128th I think) having cut Edwards and Holland quickly, in like weeks one and two when many had held. My learnings from 2020 notes have very little in them, it was a weird year but most of the important learnings came the year before. Cut the duds early, and if a cashie/middie has peaked in round 8 say, and you're worried about them losing cash, patience. Wait until they've actually lost cash before you trade say L. Leilua the week before he tonnes up and K. Mann who held his price all year.

Yeah being near the top can do strange things to a person! I remember there was an outcry on here about the 2 extra trades but i thought 'you beauty' and got overconfident and really i might as well have not even received the extra trades given how poor my trading was.

As you elude to, its a fine balance. You have to cut the duds early but be patient with the ones that are actually scoring decently. I dont even want to remember the circus that was my centres last season. All ill say is that once i traded Lomax out it began a chain of ill-thought out and terribly reactive trades. I spent so many on that position and i ended up with worse players than i started with. Ridiculous!

Anyway, i think you can still be aggressive in this game but not stupid like i was last season. If you trade hard early, maybe have a plan to wait out a few weeks at some stage, you might slide down the rankings but theres time to make that ground back later in the season when all those that went too hard too early fall in a heap.

Mulvy wrote:Agree, Fantasy a better game. I've made a supercoach team about 3 or 4 times, they've never last more than a few weeks, just can't get into it. Part of it is laziness, although I put an extraordinarily wasteful amount of time into fanatics survivor last year. Good times though

not sure what to do with all my extra free time this year...

Jele wrote:

not sure what to do with all my extra free time this year...

whispers that MS's know your shitto will be making a return

multiple.scoregasms wrote:

whispers that MS's know your shitto will be making a return

YAY!!

That was a lot of fun last year

Does anyone have a list of backs moved on from the Raiders due to keeping Croker all these years?
Dugan comes to mind but I bet there are at least 10

13CokeHeads wrote:Does anyone have a list of backs moved on from the Raiders due to keeping Croker all these years?
Dugan comes to mind but I bet there are at least 10

Dugan was sacked though.

Who remembers when Dugan signed to the Broncos? That was a funny week.

13CokeHeads wrote:Does anyone have a list of backs moved on from the Raiders due to keeping Croker all these years?
Dugan comes to mind but I bet there are at least 10

I don’t think Dugan moving on is related to Croker.

t43597 wrote:Going with lots of versatility in my 18-21 with Moylan, Averillo, Fusitu'a & Hola. Also have Watson in my 14-17 as a dual position player. 2 of my starting 13 are dual position so ive got 6/21 dual position threats.

3 HOK
5 MID
4 EDG
5 HLV
5 CTR
5 WFB

So 2+ reserves for each position. Happy with that, and i'm not prioritising dual position to the detriment of value, i just use it as a tiebreaker e.g Fusitu'a over Niu

Niu will be DPP come TLT assuming he is named at CTR so that doesn’t give Fusitua an advantage

Not hugely relevant, but Mead is not named for the Broncos trial this week. Not injured at present, which  ~could~ indicate he is higher up the pecking order for a rnd 1 start on the wing. The only other players that are eligible, but not named, are Dearden, Isaako, Glenn and Turpin

my tv broke wrote:Not hugely relevant, but Mead is not named for the Broncos trial this week. Not injured at present, which  ~could~ indicate he is higher up the pecking order for a rnd 1 start on the wing. The only other players that are eligible, but not named, are Dearden, Isaako, Glenn and Turpin

Is there a reason his stats are missing at footystatistics?

mattnz wrote:
Is there a reason his stats are missing at footystatistics?

Created the site in 2018, mead had already left the NRL at that point so didnt exist in the system

A little bit too expensive for a gamble, but I expect Tommy Talau finally in his preferred centre position to be a huge POD smokey for a premium CTR this year. If you were going to splurge though, you would just pay the extra 45k for Kelly so it’s a bit too awkward a price.

t43597 wrote:To add to my above post, i think i did better at SC partly because of the way its setup with extra bench players and bench players for every position. For Fantasy (and a reason why i like it) it is much more important to create a team that is balanced and you've got to figure out how to make the most of the value players but also make sure that you have cover instead of overloading 1 or 2 positions.

That takes more strategy, and when you add in the fact that prices change after 1 game, it is a bit more difficult to decide which cows to downgrade to when compared to SC as you dont get the 2 free-bee weeks to assess their scoring ability and job security. I like SC a lot but it is simply an easier game and i think that the masses probably play it for that reason. Fantasy is tougher and for the committed fans/tragics, i think it is the more favourable option.

Great summation, hope ur approach this year pays off. Thinking similar this off-season in terms off a little increased patience, but thats still a decision to be made every time anyway, hindsight just a mere comforter haha