Both in case anyone finds it useful, and because writing down my thoughts helps me with my planning
Firstly, a look at what my final team should look at
Positions
1-18 - best scoring players I can afford.
Ideally I will own every player in the game that averages 60+ (currently Damien Cook is the only player with more than 1 game and an average of 60+, but I expect a few more might be able to average 60+ for the 2nd hald of the season))
Everyone else in the team should be averaging 50+ (WFB and CTR might slip a little)
Position 19
WFB/CTR cover. It is likely that I will not have any WFB or CTR in my 14-18, so need someone here to cover injury/suspension for my starting backs.
If funds allow will get a big gun in here, but compromise is OK
Position 20
Confirmed NPR for loopholing, preferably someone who plays late in the round a lot.
Position 21
Undetermined, but probably someone who was bought in as a $212k player for cash purposes.
Scoring player is OK if one is available, but a 2nd NPR for looping is also acceptable.
The latest this team should be assembled is Round 18.
I think with this year’s bye schedule, if you can assemble your final team by round 13 the extra points from having top scorers will make up for lost points from bye rounds.
Unless you have been able to save plenty of trades for short term bye players (I have not done this)
Once final team is assembled you probably want 4-6 trades.
Only need to trade for injury/suspension. May want to have a trade or 2 to fix mistakes
(Eg for WFB you might bring in RTS over TTrbo given current fortunes. If Manly come good and Warriors start collapsing it may become apparent TTRbo is the better option, and you might want a trade available to make the switch)
Now, my team and trade plans
Cook
Fifita
Kikau
RFM
Murray
JFH
Maloney
Matterson
Hiku
Inglis
Tedesco
Ponga
Thompson
Smith
Rein
Martin
Havili
Arrow
Dugan
Sorenson
Katoa
18 trades remaining
$610k in the bank
Cook, Fifita, Smith, Matterson, Tedesco, Ponga will stay in my team all season if fit
Arrow and Dugan I want to keep in my team but fitness is a more immediate concern than the guys above.
Kikau, RFM, Murray, JFH are all fringe guys who I think will be traded out but may end up staying. Ideally they'll get upgraded but have to prepare that 1 or more of them will stay due to trade/money issues
Katoa may stay al year for looping (and score if he ever makes the team) At this point not sure I have the spare trades to bring in a new cashie and then trade them out again
Hiku, Inglis, Rein, Maloney, Havili, Sorenson, Thompson, Martin will all go at some point.
Problem being, if I have Katoa as loop spot, and want a reasonable scoring 18th/19th man, then I only have space to cash out 1 or 2 of my 8 named tradeout targets.
All the others will be upgrades.
Some will make enough money that an upgrade won't cost much money, and I have a reasonable bank at the moment, but in general, finding cash to upgrade everyone to an ideal final team will be problematic
But in reality it means I'll have to do one or both of the following.
a) Take a punt on another cash cow to try and generate funds.
b) Compromise on final team by picking a cheaper player and hope they pick up their scoring. Eg someone like Gallen/Mannering over Taumalolo/JTrbo and hoping they get back to their best scoring.
A lot riskier, but sometimes you have to go with what you can afford. Pick Gallen over JTrbo and RTS over JTrbo could save me $200k+. If I'm lucky some gun might cop a 0 at some point to drop their price enough t make them affordable
Or a mid-season buy might appear giving guns cores at a discount (Crichton, Cleary, Dylan Edwards of previous years)
If I leave 4 trades for final team tinkering, I have 14 left to get my squad together
8 guys are definite trade outs, which leaves me with up to 6 trades to generate enough cash to upgrade them.
I probably want to spend some of those 6 trades on guys like RFM/Murray but its now looking very tight on spending trades.
Any cash cow I bring has to make a tonne of money or it just isn't worth it, and I think I have room for 1, maybe 2 goes at finding cash cow from this point)
So its all about timing the trade outs for Maloney/Rein/Havili to do so at the time when they are at maximum value, and the guy I want is at minimum value
And I will have to compromise on some of the trade-ins by getting a cheaper guy and hoping he improves for the run home rather than just getting a big guy in and then running out of trades/cash for later upgrades.
Most of you should have more than 18 trades left, and possibly more of your final 17 already in place, so you'll be in a better position than me and can afford to take a couple more risks
And do bye planning 0 which I am now committed to ignoring and hoping for the best.