2018 NRL Dream Team Virtual Sports/Sports Deck (VSDT) Part 1

Rippin and Tearin wrote:For me, you play Ponga if he starts and assume him getting a starting spot means he is good enough to go well.

Just be wary of what happened 2 weeks ago? There was a string of players who withdrew and people got stung late and either couldn't field a 17 or had to filed one or two chumps.

Some well owned players could easily be withdrawals late this week IMO: Harris looks like he is all bu confirmed out, Arrow could easily get a rest, it would never surprise to see SJ get a week off on short notice, and Matterson's starting spot. And if it were to be a WFB, well in my case at least if I didnt play Ponga then good old Mann would get a start.

I get the logic of why you might leave Ponga out, but I'd prefer to take my chances and play him and make sure I have options come the end of the week should there be late withdrawals.

Yes I meant leave ponga out. Hopefully the warriors do rip the titans to shreds.

IConcussed wrote:

SI wrote:Interesting move by opponent, and he must have a tonne of trades left-he traded Mann for Cleary.  Cleary with gk duties again and more general play kicks again but still a big call after 1 good game.


Figured maybe he was tidying up his AE's to loophole but still has Doohickey.

Do you think you still have him covered mate? Are you making any trades based on the matchup at all?

The threat I feel is his Ryan James. 

We both have Arrow but I'm quite happy to fuck Arrow off with no regret to match his James. I could use Hess to trade instead though. I just feel Arrow is going to be nursed to the end of the season now.

Milchcow wrote:
Posting that made me realise how much less of a gun Ponga is in VSDT compared to fantasy. Definitely ditching him for RTS given the injury concern

Yeah I sold him after his injury in this comp and will wait and see how he goes before rushing him back in

Verbal Kint wrote:Gents, how does this one compare to Fantasy? I might switch next season. Sorry - a bit of a broad question...

I am a fan of this format - partly out of loyalty (as this was the original NRL fantasy platform I played on) and partly because of Failhub’s ongoing problems/priority towards AFL (2014 was an all time great stuff-up). For what I imagine is a fraction of the budget and official support, this just seems to be a much more stable platform. The stats come from the same place but I just trust this format and provider much more.

As others have said, it’s a good group who play and post here - and the FF community does very well. Our top league has finished first and is heading that way again, and other FF leagues are highly placed too. Some high individual places as well.

Oh and the biggest value-add is the Eliminator that runs here - a knockout comp from about Round 12. Milchcow won it a few years ago.

That said there is room for improvement - my pet gripe is that penalties aren’t included in the scoring system. They got some criticism a year or two ago that scoring was too hard, so for some reason they decided that penalties wouldn’t be a negative score. Just bizarre- not least because of the increasing importance of penalties in the actual game.

My reasoning for excluding Ponga somewhat justified

61 in fantasy but *only* 49 in VSDT. RTS capable of matching that. Comfortable with my decision either way

(until RTS gets inured in the 5th minute and I get completely pissed off)

Milchcow wrote:
My reasoning for excluding Ponga somewhat justified

61 in fantasy but *only* 49 in VSDT. RTS capable of matching that. Comfortable with my decision either way

(until RTS gets inured in the 5th minute and I get completely pissed off)

Even better, now down to 42 (for you at least, I played him). Looks like he lost a couple of tackle breaks.

I've cashed out Brimson and brought in Matterson to 'complete' my team. Somehow I've ended up with a final 17 plus decent reserves in each position, with four trades and $43k left over. Normally I'm right on the edge with a final 17 and an 18th man to fill in as AE. Was the format tweaked this year, or was it just a bit easier to generate cash?

Final team (until multiple injuries hit this week):

Smith, Cook
Fifita, Taupau, Ese'ese, Paseka
Taumololo, Brown, JTurbo, Martin, Arrow, Surgess
Johnson, Reynolds, Mbye, Cashout
Aitken, Matterson, Hopoate, Cashout
Tedesco, Ponga, TTurbo, C.Walker, Katoa

Yeah not sure what happened with the live scoring on Ponga, during the second half some time he got 2 TBs added and at the time I had no idea what for. I also thought he was given one on a break earlier in the game when he shouldn't have.

42 in the end. Could have been 60+ but the Knights and Ponga really stumbled at the end. Ponga looked a bit gassed. For me his is still a start whenever he plays, and 42 still might be enough to warrant starting him this week too.

Either way, not a disaster.

Im not as convinced about SJ and RTS now that Harris and Luke are gone too....

SI wrote:Interesting move by opponent, and he must have a shit tonne of trades left-he traded Mann for Cleary.  Cleary with gk duties again and more general play kicks again but still a big call after 1 good game.


Figured maybe he was tidying up his shitty AE's to loophole but still has Doohickey.

Opponent must be pretty happy with himself right now! He has the advantage now with Cleary's 85.

I need 11 from James to win. No early injury thanks.

B/L wrote:I need 11 from James to win. No early injury thanks.

Looking good. How's everyone else tracking? Who should we be cheering for/death-riding?

My overall team is having a pretty decent round 754 from 12 including captain. Decent score thanks to Captain Cook and Munster in particular.

5 more to play:

Matterson, James, RTS/Teddy + 2 of Arrow, SJ, RTS/Teddy to play.

With a number of the top teams not captaining Cook, and a number also copping Milford's 13, Im hoping if I can close this round out I could hit 1,000 and get close to being back in the top 10.

I am Goneski's! He had Cleary and Captain Cook yesterday; I had Captain Cam.

RTS and 3 points v his McInnes/BobbleHead/Arrow

Yeah, I figure this week is going to be everyone who captained Cook vs everyone who captained Cam. 58 points difference this week. With teams basically the same on the run-in, maybe captaincy choices will be the difference-maker?

jelejasof wrote:Yeah, I figure this week is going to be everyone who captained Cook vs everyone who captained Cam.  58 points difference this week.  With teams basically the same on the run-in, maybe captaincy choices will be the difference-maker?

Yeah basically, but there have been a few big scorers in the halves (Cleary Munster) which will be owned by a number of people vs Milford's 13 which will be owned too.

So Im picking there could be some 100 point swings for some at the top, despite most having very similar sides.

Rippin and Tearin wrote:

Yeah basically, but there have been a few big scorers in the halves (Cleary Munster) which will be owned by a number of people vs Milford's 13 which will be owned too.

So Im picking there could be some 100 point swings for some at the top, despite most having very similar sides.

That’s me done in Eliminator as well team, unless Mitchell goes absolutely bananas and outscores his 3 Dragons haha.

Warriors are a different team without Harris and Luke. Johnson scored an awesome solo try which saved his score, but RTS is never going to score well with no platform being laid, well that and a feet for hands day

Will struggle to make 900 this week after cracking the tonne last week, that’s the crazy that is fantasy I guess

Concussed wrote:

That’s me done in Eliminator as well team, unless Mitchell goes absolutely bananas and outscores his 3 Dragons haha.

Warriors are a different team without Harris and Luke. Johnson scored an awesome solo try which saved his score, but RTS is never going to score well with no platform being laid, well that and a feet for hands day

Will struggle to make 900 this week after cracking the tonne last week, that’s the crazy that is fantasy I guess

Latrell is a beast, you must of came close!

Anyway I finally cracked the tonne this week, which is nice considering I still can't pick a captain to save myself.

Here's my last few weeks of choices:

Cam Smith - 37
JTurbo - 56
Lolo - 49

Giving away about 20 points a week on poor choices.....but I'm really hoping the weekly winner jags more than 1060 this week and I won't rue the the 58 points I gave up changing from Cook to Smith, all because I thought the Storm would pump the Raiders.

Oz Sport Mad wrote:

Latrell is a beast, you must of came close!

Anyway I finally cracked the tonne this week, which is nice considering I still can't pick a captain to save myself.

Here's my last few weeks of choices:

Cam Smith - 37
JTurbo - 56
Lolo - 49

Giving away about 20 points a week on poor choices.....but I'm really hoping the weekly winner jags more than 1060 this week and I won't rue the the 58 points I gave up changing from Cook to Smith, all because I thought the Storm would pump the Raiders.

I didn't just come close, I managed to get up! I thought I was done for all money going into the game, even knowing what Mitchell is capable of!

How is everyone else travelling? Well done cracking the tonne with the lower captaincy score as well mate, awesome work!

Concussed wrote:

I didn't just come close, I managed to get up! I thought I was done for all money going into the game, even knowing what Mitchell is capable of!

How is everyone else travelling? Well done cracking the tonne with the lower captaincy score as well mate, awesome work!

Awesome bro that's insane! I figured you would have lost presuming the 3 dragons would have been McInness, Aitken, Dufty...

So are you into the final 32? Anyone else from the forum left?

Rippin and Tearin wrote:
Awesome bro that's insane! I figured you would have lost presuming the 3 dragons would have been McInness, Aitken, Dufty...

So are you into the final 32? Anyone else from the forum left?

Looks that way at this stage bro, 1019 to 982, though the game isnt open yet to 100% confirm haha. I had Mitchell & Matterson vs hi 4 players. I was expecting Matterson to score similar to Ferguson (was packing when Ferguson scored near the end there!), and then it would have Mitchell & my 40 odd lead vs De Belin, Vaughan & Widdop...and the rest is history

Hopefully some of the other fanatics are still in as well?

4 guys from our thread now in positions 11-20! Hopefully someone can grab a top ten spot by seasons end.