NRL Fantasy 2024 Part 60 - Take your downdates on the Chin

Milchcow wrote:

My plan was always to use a bunch of my R20 trades to cash out the maxxed cash cows and ring in the best origin/discounted guns.

I don't think anyone was genuinely planning on running guys like Weekes/Wishart/Sharpe for the run home so to some extent I think everyone was planning on meaningful changes to their 17 this week and last.

Rob is right though, there was some talk in relation to only trading red dots with the run of injuries we were having. With most being able to field 21 or close to this week, that's certainly relaxed the thinking I think. Wishart and Sharpe obviously weren't on people's lists to keep but Weeks certainly was borderline that may have been an option to keep if the injuries kept rolling. I mean, you'd have no choice if your team was still getting hit by injuries.

Clickbait article by DT (I'm shocked) that Haas missed training... Nothing in it, just given time off and will be back for their captains run

robelgordo wrote:

This is why I was asking about the vibe earlier

A month ago everyone was going to hold onto their 8 trades for dear life, basically only use in case of red crosses

Now we have 1 week of non-carnage, and everyone is spending trades again to get the best players ASAP

Not saying either approach is right or wrong, I probably lean toward the latter, but it's just funny how the mood swings.

I'm sold on three this week (Plath, Weekes & Sipley to Cleary, Brown and Mclean) which would leave me with six for the run home

Wavering on a 4th which would be either Fainu or Strange to AFB this week or Ponga next week. AFB for Fainu obviously would be a serious upgrade but it might compound issues for me in Rd 27 when there will be multiple restings. Strange to Ponga next week is probably the more conservative/sensible play.

Was looking at Fainu to Curran but have gone cold on that move.

Not pulling the trigger on a few last week has probably caused some reactionary trading this week (i.e I held on Weekes to Cleary which I think was not uncommon).

Ideally I would like to have 2-3 for the last round but it feels ambitious to think I will only need to use 2-3 between now and then. There's also a bit of 'fuck it, we'll deal with rd 27 in rd27' floating around.

Second guessing or crystal balling has not proved fruitful this year.

robelgordo wrote:So is the vibe everyone pushing for the strongest possible team now and hoping for luck with injuries etc. over the last 5-7 weeks? Or saving more trades than usual?

I was willing to go down to 3 trades for injuries with a solid 17 but TLT didn't go my way so now it's 4 trades in the bank with 21 green dots. That's about where I would normally land post byes

Bateman pissing back off to the UK for the remainder of the season is annoying.

wolfking wrote:

Rob is right though, there was some talk in relation to only trading red dots with the run of injuries we were having.  With most being able to field 21 or close to this week, that's certainly relaxed the thinking I think.  Wishart and Sharpe obviously weren't on people's lists to keep but Weeks certainly was borderline that may have been an option to keep if the injuries kept rolling.  I mean, you'd have no choice if your team was still getting hit by injuries.

Wishart to Angus might be on the cards, but I'll probably keep the other 4 trades for carnage down the track. I've been gaining ranks for the last 2 months (exept for losing 1 rank after rd19), so I need to trust my team to continue to do well without burning the last trades on minor upgrades that could indirectly sabotage the team ranking in the final rounds

multiple.scoregasms wrote:

I was willing to go down to 3 trades for injuries with a solid 17 but TLT didn't go my way so now it's 4 trades in the bank with 21 green dots. That's about where I would normally land post byes

Was contemplating To’o and hoping for a lot of tries, which is quite possible

At this stage the "hybrid plan" is to go steady for the next couple of weeks (zero or one trade per week if possible), before blowing the remainder in rounds 24/25 and holding on for grim death.

One trade last week and one this week means six remaining...

After Brad Arthur was sacked by the Eels, son Matt will be released on 'compassionate' grounds - and the frontrunners for his signature have been revealed 🧐-Fox

sad for the kid, he looked good

Son and dad combo fail

robelgordo wrote:So is the vibe everyone pushing for the strongest possible team now and hoping for luck with injuries etc. over the last 5-7 weeks? Or saving more trades than usual?

Interesting to read the differing strategies and mine is to save trades.  Personally used more trades than I hoped for over the last 2 weeks (6 used) but Cleary in is obviously a must.

I'm left with 5 and happy-ish with my team (backs a bit weak).  Those 5 trades I am hoping to hold for the last 3 Rounds. Will mean I have the likes of Hands and Strange and Sipley hanging around my Emergencies instead of upgrading them.

Will cost me points over the next month; but if it goes to shit again then gives me the advantage in the last few weeks.

Two reasons I bought it up

1. seemed to be a lot of people spunking loads of trades, which is not what I expected based on the chat in earlier weeks. I actually think it's a fine strategy - people like Booze, Mulvy, manlybeaver seem to succeed more often that not going home early and riding their luck. I guess I was just cautioning against being reactionary to one carnage free week if its not your usual go.

2. Self-interest, obvs. Have 5 trades left before using any, and roughly 7-8 guys I'd like to upgrade. But plan has been to hold steady as much as possible, focus on must buys rather than like-to-sells. Then all these teams going hard and I get antsy to catch em all like it's Pokemon

Anyway with some of the subsequent chat, I'll err toward caution, will probably just go Wishart/Weekes to Yeo, depending on Munster. But it is tempting to try and grab Cook/Campbell/Starling (or any 2 guns plus Starling, really) as well and see what happens.

robelgordo wrote:Two reasons I bought it up

1. seemed to be a lot of people spunking loads of trades, which is not what I expected based on the chat in earlier weeks. I actually think it's a fine strategy - people like Booze, Mulvy, manlybeaver seem to succeed more often that not going home early and riding their luck. I guess I was just cautioning against being reactionary to one carnage free week if its not your usual go.

2. Self-interest, obvs. Have 5 trades left before using any, and roughly 7-8 guys I'd like to upgrade. But plan has been to hold steady as much as possible, focus on must buys rather than like-to-sells. Then all these teams going hard and I get antsy to catch em all like it's Pokemon

Anyway with some of the subsequent chat, I'll err toward caution, will probably just go Wishart/Weekes to Yeo, depending on Munster. But it is tempting to try and grab Cook/Campbell/Starling as well and see what happens.

If Cleary, Yeo and JC weren’t available then I’d probably not be so keen to trade. Those guys should comfortably be 55+ scorers for the rest of the year

Liverpool_Bulldog wrote:

https://x.com/thescxperience/status/1815957197689671750?s=46&t=Qm46odCKKW8EQHObqVyyfw

Do we think maybe NRL should just introduce a week between regular season and finals to avoid this?

Or reduce the season to a sensible number of weeks?

You'd expect Parra players on the chopping block, would have a fair go in front of the new boss.

Liverpool_Bulldog wrote:
If Cleary, Yeo and JC weren’t available then I’d probably not be so keen to trade. Those guys should comfortably be 55+ scorers for the rest of the year

You also have a few more trades to play with, go for it

I own Cleary, but Yeo and JC would be my top 2 buys amongst players I don't have.

Liverpool_Bulldog wrote:
If Cleary, Yeo and JC weren’t available then I’d probably not be so keen to trade. Those guys should comfortably be 55+ scorers for the rest of the year

I'm on the Yeo train this week too

This might be old news, but Sitili to Dogs. If there is one thing Bulldogs need, it's a mobile backrower that can play a range of positions

robelgordo wrote:

You also have a few more trades to play with, go for it

I own Cleary, but Yeo and JC would be my top 2 buys amongst players I don't have.

Yeah that’s true, those 3 in leaves me 8 trades for the rest of the year, which is probably excessive but worked well last year