Ando 2024

First Draft:

XXXX
Hass (vc) XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX
Cleary (c) XXXX
XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX XXXX
Smithies XXXX XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX XXXX SHughes

That's a lot of beer. Nice.

Ours teams are exactly the same.

Preseason

Round Score: N/A
Overall Rank: N/A

Spent the majority of last season hanging around the top 5 along with a few of the other fanatics before running out of trades with 3/4 rounds to go and plummeting to 145th overall. It was still a solid season but not my best finish which was a little disappointing. Starting with the likes of Talau, HSS, TMM and Doorey meant I had to burn a lot of trades early on so with that in mind I'm going to try use that in my starting team this year and avoid those with low job security.

Currently players I have locked in:

Lussick/Hands - as long as there is only one of them in the 17, I'm not a massive fan of any HOK bar Grant so just going for value
Haas - best MID in the game both real life and fantasy
Piakura - no explanation needed
Smithies - DPP and good byes, hoping he holds down the 13
Cleary - Captain Chin
Penisini - not going all cheapie at centre, expecting Parra to be better and Moses back should see upside
Papenhuysen - same as everyone else
Tedesco - held all of last year, always going to be up with the highest scoring WFB's
Rapana - potential gun scores at FB, priced at Wing
SHughes - best 250k option I can see

This gives me a solid scorer in each position so now I just need to fill in the gaps, looking at the following but have my doubts:

Levi - cheap starting hooker, don't want too many Raiders
Cheese - injury prone and rooster roulette
Tyrell May - rooster roulette and bench MID
Tatola - not the most exciting prospect, low ceiling
JT13 - chance he returns to gun scores, chance he scores what he's priced at
Tupouniua - rooster roulette
Wong - rooster roulette
Luki - more than likely in my team
Lane - some poor scores last year even in 80minutes
Curran - is he starting 13?
Salmon - is he starting 13?
Blore - looks like he might not be starting straight away
Hammer - Origin player, early bye but playing full back
Cobbo- Origin player, how does his game convert to centre
Aitken - poor job security however I am a sucker for OOP centres
Kini - how many games is he getting

Trying to just focus on my Vegas players to begin with so decisions need to be made about which Roosters to take...

Round 1 (week 1)

Round Score: 306
Overall Rank: 56,009th

Cook (60)
Haas (76) Tupouniua (22)
Wong (44) Piakura (0)
Cleary (c)
Brbo (51)
Teddy (53)

A last minute trade in for Tupouniua makes it an ok start to Round 1 rather than a good start. Piakura's 0 will be affecting 90% of serious teams so not too worried about that. Now I'm eagerly awaiting TLTb so I can lock in the rest of the troops for the year.

I made a late call to get Cook in over Hopgood, reason being I don't really like any of the options at HOK except potentially Lussick but I didn't want to run the risk of BA scuppering my plans by naming both Lussick and Hands. Happy enough to lock in his 60 points.

I do have quite a lot of my budget now locked up in Cook Haas Cleary Teddy which means I will only really be targetting mid rangers and cows in TLTb. I am hoping to keep around 100k spare in case I need to upgrade Wong or Tupouniua before RD2 depending on injury, Terrel May could be a goer.

My team prior to TLTb is as follows:

ITB: 150k

Cook
Haas Tupouniua Smithies (once he gets DPP)
Wong Piakura
Cleary Hutchinson
Brbo Penisni
Teddy Papy Rapana
Lussick Luki Salmon Levi
Mikaele SHughes Strange Cotric

I am struggling to see any value in any of the basement guys so outside of SHughes and Strange/Weekes so I am going to try get cows who are a little more expensive. Last year I was caught with HSS, Doorey and Talau and don't want to make the same mistake.

Lussick, Penisini, Luki, Salmon are all interchangeable with the other midrangers depending on who is named tomorrow.

Also I'm aware of having 5 Raiders but their first BYE isn't until RD10 so hopefully time for them all to make $$$$$.

Unlikely I can back up on last years performance but I would like to give it a good go, all suggestions greatly welcomed as always

Same Vegas players as me, except Ted v Turbo, which long-term as well as this week is pretty similar anyway. Oh, and I captained Haas. Good score but of course a possibility Cleary goes better.

Also the same sort of decisions about filling in the team next week, although I'm really trying to find a way not to have Hutch/Flanno as second half.

Whatchya going do when Burbo is replaced by Schuster next week?

rhinoceroo wrote:Same Vegas players as me, except Ted v Turbo, which long-term as well as this week is pretty similar anyway. Oh, and I captained Haas. Good score but of course a possibility Cleary goes better.

Also the same sort of decisions about filling in the team next week, although I'm really trying to find a way not to have Hutch/Flanno as second half.

You know you are on the right tracks when you've got a similar team to Rhino Even happier about the Cook pick now Lussick and Hands are both named.

The Dolphin Conspiracies wrote:Whatchya going do when Burbo is replaced by Schuster next week?

Strange will come into the team for Brbo as soon as that happens.

Not too many changes after TLTb, currently on the following:

Cook
Haas Tupouniua Smithies (once he gets DPP)
Wong Piakura
Cleary Hutchinson
Brbo Penisni
Teddy Papy Rapana
Hosking Luki Salmon Levi
Chan SHughes Strange Cotric

However after seeing Strange's cup stats at HLF I am tempted to run him at CTR with Brbo, leave Cotric as cover and then use cash left over to upgrade Luki, not overly keen on him and that 4 forward bench.

Luki > Fogarty for my 8th Raider?

Ando wrote:Not too many changes after TLTb, currently on the following:

Cook
Haas Tupouniua Smithies (once he gets DPP)
Wong Piakura
Cleary Hutchinson
Brbo Penisni
Teddy Papy Rapana
Hosking Luki Salmon Levi
Chan SHughes Strange Cotric

However after seeing Strange's cup stats at HLF I am tempted to run him at CTR with Brbo, leave Cotric as cover and then use cash left over to upgrade Luki, not overly keen on him and that 4 forward bench.

Luki > Fogarty for my 8th Raider?

Do you think Hosking will make enough to justify his inclusion? He only makes a little over 50k in three games if he's scoring 55/game, then Whitehead may be back.

Obbeats wrote:

Do you think Hosking will make enough to justify his inclusion? He only makes a little over 50k in three games if he's scoring 55/game, then Whitehead may be back.

Yes that's a pretty good point, he's an easy switch to Cotter.

Penisini (via Strange to CTR) & Luki > Any combination up to 1,077k. If there was a standout 230k option I think I'd just go for Hopgood.

Team is near enough locked in now with 13 out of the 21 played. Ended up with the following team after plenty of chopping and changing. Found the 350k - 600k market really tough to try and identify solid mid rangers with the main preseason targets Blore and Curran not getting named to start. Team to start the year is as follows:

Cook
Haas Smithies Tupouniua 
Wong Piakura 
Cleary Fogarty
Kiraz Brbo
Papy Teddy Rapana
Hutch JT13 Salmon Strange
Levi Chan Hughes Cotric 

3k leftover which doesn’t give me a lot of wiggle room. 

6 Raiders and 4 Bulldogs isn’t ideal but just hoping to chase value for most of them in EMG. Whilst some of these will needed to be traded out before origin those that will be held have the benefit of playing the first 2 big bye rounds.

My main thought process finalising the team was having things in place to avoid needless trades early on. This involved was avoiding players who have the early bye rounds, having plenty of position cover/DPP and having a gun in each position so I can easily pivot to any must have player that pops up.

JT13 probably my riskiest pick but that price range really didn’t offer much, if he and the Cowboys find some early season form he’s definitely value and I can’t see him losing anything. 

Also wasn’t too keen on what I saw from Sitili and he might be on the chopping depending on his injury.

Roll on Captain Chin’s 100 tomorrow!

Round 1

Round Score: 720
Overall Rank: 30,246th

Scoring 17

Cook (60) - Happy to have him in my team and could easily be the top scoring HOK this year, only Grant will likely challenge that
Haas (76) - Same as Cook, glad he's in my team and one more position I don't have to think about
Smithies (52) - Didn't leave my team all preseason, backing him to keep the 13 when Big Red is back
Tupouniua (22) - Was a player I wasn't really keen on but picked up as I struggled to find anyone else in that price range
Wong (44) - Great work rate and will hopefully make a good amount of cash
Piakura (0) - Disappointing to cop a 0 first round but pretty much all will be in the same boat
Cleary (102) - The Fantasy GOAT, set and forget captain for the year
Fogarty (56) - Was one of the last players I picked and worked out well, great bye schedule
Strange (21) - Will need to be stored in EMG for cover, will need attacking stats to kick start the cash gen
Brbo (53) - Great first score and Schuster still a week or 2 away
Rapana (43) - Not that convincing, lucky late try whilst he was getting a breather on the wing
Teddy (53) - Roosters look a lot better this year and that should lead to more points for Teddy
Papy (20) - Similar to Piakura, disappointing score but everyone will likely have him
Taumalolo (20) - My worst pick of them all, awful performance, awful minutes, awful score. Getting traded straight out!
Hutchinson (34) - Average score but all in base, will ride the bench for the first few weeks
Salmon (29) - Great first half score playing in the pack, played second half at centre which dudded him
Kiraz (35) - An ok score in a well beaten team, good chance he goes back to the wing with the Fox injured, should still score ok at CTR

EMG

Chan (26) - Chan ghost points, hopefully stays in the Storm side after a win
Levi (31) - Average footballer, but got the minutes
SHughes (25) - May get more minutes as the season goes, stays stashed in the EMG
Cotric (22) - Should keep his spot on the wing, will need a few tries to make good cash

I was really happy with the start I'd had until the last game when Lolo let me down. I'm surprised he even got 20!

Quite an average start to the year but the good thing is all of the teams are bunched together and I'm only 235 points off first! If I can nail my trades this week and get a good RD2 score I should fly up the rankings.

Taumalolo is 100% getting traded, and then more than likely Tupouniua which would give me $868k to play with. Not going to look at trade in targets until TLT.

Waiting on to see how the Tigers and Storm line up and interested in how bad Egan's injury is.

So after TLT early trade thoughts are:

Lolo > Taylan May
Sitili > Galvin

Brbo may only have a week or two left starting and I wouldn't be confident starting Strange every week so that gives me a gun combo of May and Kiraz set for the season.

Galvin is a risk but in as a base priced cow. The Tigers showed last year with Bula if you are good enough you will play so hoping the same logic applies to Galvin.

Round 2

Round Score: 800
Overall Rank: 18,637th

Trades: Taumalolo > Taylan May & Tupouniua > Galvin
ITB: 11k

Starting 17

Cook (31) - Cook got one of his lowest minute games and scores since he's played for the Bunnies. Still think he will be top scoring HOK for the year so not too worried.
Haas (54) - Carrying a slight injury but still busts out a 54 with ease
Salmon (31) - Same as RD1 scoring great first half and tailing off, moving forward I may try loop his scores
Smithies (46) - Lots of tries in the game meant less tackles but 80 minutes is a good sign
Wong (37) - Unbelievable work rate but minutes a concern. Robbo can't be trusted! Would be a gun if he got the minutes but on the chopping block
Piakura (40) - Bounced back and happy with his performance, 80 minutes a good sign!
Cleary (c) (116) - Patiently waiting for his first monster score...
Fogarty (58) - Mr. Consistent, glad I started with him rather than having Hutch as starting half
Kiraz (25) - Too many negatives and wish I hadn't started with him but he stays for now
May (34) - Wish I'd traded his brother in this week but happy he's in my team
Rapana (36) - Another unconvincing performance. Try saved his score, will be looking to shift soon maybe even this week TLT dependent
Teddy (65) - Teddy is back!
Papy (81) - Showing why he's in pretty much every serious team
Hutchinson (29) - Awful, pretty certain he will be leaving my squad this week
Galvin (43) - What a debut, classy performance and a good fantasy score. Looks to be a playable cow
Brbo (30) - Shifted to centre for a bit of the game but making cash, Manly 2/2 means he keeps the spot a little longer
Strange (44) - Good score against the Tigers, not sure I trust to play him every week

EMG

Chan (35) - Good to see him play 80 minutes, will be playable if he keeps that role every week
Levi (26) - 26 with a try and a bulk of the minutes, awful but making cash
SHughes (29) - Slow burn!
Cotric (DNP) - Used him to loop, good chance he plays after the Kris HIA

Summary

What felt like a disaster start to the week with my big guns Cleary, Cook, Haas and new recruit Taylan scoring poor I was wanting to delete my team. However some of the cheaper options in the team pulled through and finished with a respectable 800 and move up the rankings to where I was after RD1 last year.

Big shout outs to Galvin and Strange especially.

Early trade thoughts are Hutch 100% out and then either Wong or Rapana out. Whoever stays out of Wong or Rapana likely goes next week anyway when Campbell returns.

Hutch > Terrell May is a no brainer May looks a keeper but need to find 151k to do it
Wong or Rapana > Finefeuiaki if he gets named at EDG would be the second trade to generate the funds

Wong would be a gun if he got the minutes he's everywhere in defence but doesn't look like Robbo is going to give him them.
Rapana just doesn't look involved and when the tries dry up so will his fantasy points.

I will wait to see what TLT brings, Tupouniua had a shocker of a game so could see a shake up at the Chooks.

Thanks for reading, all ideas welcomed!

I can't argue with those trades Ando, solid score but the team looks well rounded and similar issues/concerns about the same players.
Rapana has saved his score 2 weeks in a row, and with Cook something seems off and would like to see him running again but we say that every year haha.

I think one thing to consider (and I have started to) is the round 4 bye with papy, and I also have Cotric
So if for some reason JC isnt ready to go or you have other fires you dont want to get caught short at Wfb or forced to bring in a wfb just for that week.

Rapana looks like he can break down at any point but that is 2 more weeks max he is needed if keeping and the raiders are winning. Also when he goes it means Stewart is playing then too so an easy cashout at 230k

Its tough as I prefer Wong if I am being honest but he needs more time out there

Boozecluez wrote:I can't argue with those trades Ando, solid score but the team looks well rounded and similar issues/concerns about the same players.
Rapana has saved his score 2 weeks in a row, and with Cook something seems off and would like to see him running again but we say that every year haha.

I think one thing to consider (and I have started to) is the round 4 bye with papy, and I also have Cotric
So if for some reason JC isnt ready to go or you have other fires you dont want to get caught short at Wfb or forced to bring in a wfb just for that week.

Rapana looks like he can break down at any point but that is 2 more weeks max he is needed if keeping and the raiders are winning. Also when he goes it means Stewart is playing then too so an easy cashout at 230k

Its tough as I prefer Wong if I am being honest but he needs more time out there

Yes Booze, good to have an insight from you mate.

After trades I really really like my 13, the bench and EMG is a little iffy but they're all making money:

Cook
Haas Smithies May
Piakua Finefeuiaki
Cleary Fogarty
Kiraz May
Rapana Tedesco Papy
Galvin Chan Brbo Salmon
Strange Levi SHughes Cotric

Regarding Papy's bye I have May/Kiraz DPP to go down to WFB and then Brbo or Strange into CTR. So the cover is there.

I'd much prefer to keep Wong as I think he's a gun if he gets anywhere near 60+ minutes, it's just Robbo's Roulette is a nightmare!

Tbf I probably expect Wong in 40 minutes to outscore Rapana without a try so might lean that way pre TLT.

May to WFB, Brbo to CTR and hold Wong another week...

Again thanks for the feedback, always appreciated!

Fair point with dpp centres haha. Carry on Wong

@Boozecluez Decision made for me. Unfortunately I don't have a 3rd trade available otherwise I could just about afford Rapana > Lussick.

To be honest I would prefer to be trading Terrell and Lussick in this week but not sure how I can get to it without cutting Cook or Haas loose...