Aardvark wrote:
You should do you but you should anticipate that a bunch of players will not back up either this round or round 18 and it would be a real advantage to have a few trades left to plug those gaps.
Any gains made by having one extra player this week will disappear pretty quickly if you have to play a few rounds a man down.
Yeah I think a lot of people are going to have huge problems next week.
In my case I have eight Origin players: Cook, Cotter, Haas, Matto, Munster, Cleary, Hynes, Ponga.
Of those, I think there are three categories:
Likely:
* Hynes - 18th man, plays Sunday
* Matto - plays Monday
* Ponga - plays Sunday - if he doesn't back up I have the option to just trade him, especially if Papy's back early and I have someone to downgrade (MKing or Elliott)
Unknown:
* Cleary - plays Sunday but club may not want to risk him
* Munster - plays Saturday but no travel as he will already be in Sydney
* Haas - plays Saturday, historically has backed up but not guaranteed
Unlikely:
* Cook - plays Saturday, has to fly to the Gold Coast and doesn't historically back up
* Cotter - plays Friday, has to fly to Townsville but he's such a freak I wouldn't put it past him
if neither Cook or Cotter back up (likely scenario), then I will have to trade Hastings to Mahoney, otherwise I can hold trades. I think Munster and Haas are pretty good chances of backing up, and hopefully they both do.