Dreamteam - Before the prices change

Firstly, thanks to Keeks who convinced me to get Paul Chapman instead of Jonno Brown. Chapman scored more points in Round 2 and is looking very likely to score more against Melbourne in Round 3.

I won my first pre-season match, and then lost my second. It seems like everyone else had surpassed me in scoring. I put it down to Port Adelaide playing Sydney with the Cornes brothers being kept very quiet.

My starting plan was to pick a good team with some superstars and some hopefully well-chosen rookies. I was then going to use 2 trades just before Round 3 to capitalise on whomever was about to make lots of money, then sit on my team until about Round 12 (10 rounds to the Grand Final) and then start trading so that I'd have a monster team going into the finals.

My advantange is that most people trade a fair bit and end up going into the finals with injured players. Knowing this, I'm intending to restrain myself.

Anywho, I had to use a trade on Scott Lucas - 12 to 12 weeks is just too long out of the game to keep on the bench. My plan wasn't going so well.

This week I had to make some decisions:

I wanted to use trades to improve my side. Currently my backline is my trouble spot. I put 4 rookies in to boost my money making abilities, but the backline rookies very rarely play. Going into Round 3, Jake Edwards isn't playing, neither is Scott Thompson but Pfeiffer and Nathan Brown are. So I have no emergencies.

The prices of all players are established by their average from the last three rounds they've played. The price will change at the completion of the round - this makes right now the perfect time to trade in some injured or underperforming players and pick up some players that have played much better than their average (or starting price as rookies) and my intention was always to use the full trade allocation (2 trades) this round.

Josh Hill (Western Bulldogs) is set to make the most money in the forwards. Michael Osborne (Hawthorn) and Bret Thornton (Carlton) are set to make a lot of money in the backs. There has been a bit of talk around that these backmen are flash in the pans, and will be out when other players return, others see them as dudes that should be in for the long haul - I have no idea.
My plan was to trade Dale Thomas (Collingwood) for Josh Hill and then Scott Thompson (North Melbourne) for Nathan Bock (Adelaide).

Josh Hill and Nathan Bock are both set to go up in price fairly dramatically. Both can potentially score more than 100 in a game.

Dale Thomas has been slightly underperforming but is a good, proven player. There are many different views on how many games Scott Thompson will play, anywhere from 15 to 5.
In the end though, I'm just not sure there is enough long term benefit in this move. My backline will miss Bock for sure but my forward line is solid and doesn't need to make space for any fashionable player. I've decided to keep my two trades and go it alone with what I've got. All my emergencies are playing except for the backmen and I do expect the rest of my backline to play. It's a gamble, but I now have more trades up my sleeve then anyone else I know which could just win me a final.

I've chosen Trades over Money + Score. This time.

Round 2 score : 1812

Ranking : 4,934 of 157,249