What did you learn in 2011?

[Off Tap]

This has been my 3rd year in Dreamteam and I have improved each go. To the experienced DT'ers some of the below are obvious but here's 5 things I've picked up this year, or finally learnt, that might help you in 2012.

1. Upgrades - start upgrading from week 7. Previous years I've let it go longer before I started cashing in my rookies. This was mainly through greed and hoping that I could squeeze another $10k out of my rookies. Get in the premiums ASAP however you must balance this with still having trades left for the finals.

2. Early mistakes - I've also learnt that burning a couple of trades early to improve your side isn't a bad thing. If you have made a mistake with your initial team, don't be scared to make the changes.

3. Injuries - stay clear of the players that have had a bad record with injuries. It has taken me 3 years of putting up with Higgins, Sandilands & co to learn this. Pick the players who are injury free. Be weary of 30+ veterans also. If one of your premiums gets a serious injury, cut them loose ASAP.

4. Rookies - when upgrading your rookies, make sure that new ones coming in have job security. I was burnt again this year by a couple of rookies sitting on my bench and not playing. Don't get caught picking a rookie after they have smashed out 2 good scores over a rookie that will play out the year.

5. Keepers - find the 21 and 22 year old guns that are going to end up keepers. This year we had Fyfe, Rockliff, Redden and co.

What are your pearls of wisdom you have gained from 2011 that you can share?

 

[loyallion]

Never write off a team after round 15 ( Did this and then went on to win the next 8 in a row and win my Major DT GF

Even a 5th placed team can win a Major Premiership ( I did)

Trades are very valuable things

Even if it takes weeks to settle on your team Just take your time on building your team it may be a great thing in the end!

 

[Tippaz]

Alan Didak is a total coont

 

[dylan123]

That DT isn't very fun when you're having a shit year....

 

[Jars458]

Its better to make mistakes wiht rookies than premiums. If you don't really have a clear view on who a premium should be, better to go a rookie.

I put Broughton and Duffield in my defence because I really had noone else I wanted. would have been better to get two more rookies.

I won 3 out of 5 leagues so was happy enough with that. Still can't believe how much better the experts are at this than me. Not enough hours in the day I guess

 

[Keystone agony]

That you should stick to your own thoughts eg: pick Mcevoy, Broughton will play small defender role early. Never trade proven Premiums unless playing different role, or team has severely declined without watching seeing them.

To separate yourself from the crowd go unique in the premiums. It was well known everyone was going to pick Deledio, Grimes, Broughton, Riewoldt ect so why not take a risk and pick someone else who you also like. Goodes was a perfect example instead of maybe Riewoldt or Fisher/Enright instead of one of Broughton, Lids and Grimes.

You can always come back from looking at a disastrous season. I think i was ranked 13k at one point and had used more trades than most. Ended up ranked quite highly top 400 and had only one trade left after round 15 :O How i did it, i dont know.

 

[GiantForce]

That I still can't find that place in the middle between "safe but sure" and the "risky but could pay off".........

Players can average 110+ even if they play for the worst of teams.

Alot of the stuff we learnt this year means nothing again until Tasmania come in.

 

[Atavistic]

* Sometimes it's better to hold onto star rookies (Heppell, Stanley, etc) rather than trade them for premiums.

* I'm shit at picking uniques (went for Astbury this year. Ugh)

* Unlike real footy, you can win your GF from eighth on the ladder.

 

[loyallion]

The one thing I learnt from dt 2011 was NOT to get suckered in to any panic that others are talking about.

I mean before the the season even began you had people panicking about the Bye situation and even warned us not to have any essendon players in our because they had the bye in the last round.. FFs why the hell not? I mean they had the bye in the last round by the time that came along i didnt even have any Bomber players in my team anyway...

I must admit I thought at first about how I'm gonna handle the bye etc etc but I sure didn't panic the way some others did.

I will admit though I was wrong about Gary Ablett this year I thought he would struggle... I can tell ya along with Swan Pendles and Cox he is a must get next year..

 

[RustNeverSleeps]

Alan Didak is a total coont

Didak is a dirty DT bandit.

Special thanks to Brent Stanton for his scores of 34, 0, 69, 0(b), 87, 0 from rounds 7-12 when the heat is on... never again you biatch.

 

[Byron_Clanger]

Byes, Subs, Concussion Rule, Gamblers and General Soreness can suck a nut

 

[huggy_b]

Trades are gold, particularly late with people going to surgery early and missing with "general soreness".

 

[Covvy]

Head over heart. I went players like Hodge, Higgins, Drummond because I liked them. That's the reason why I got 70,000 odd. Next year I'll be doing my reasearch and using my brain more!

 

[West123]

I learned that 2011 probably will be a completely unique year. Whatever you learned this year doesn't apply to next year.

For example;

1. Upgrades - start upgrading from week 7. Previous years I've let it go longer before I started cashing in my rookies. This was mainly through greed and hoping that I could squeeze another $10k out of my rookies. Get in the premiums ASAP however you must balance this with still having trades left for the finals.

Well not really. This year you upgrade early. Our reigning league premier missed the 8 because he didn't upgrade early enough. But if we go to 20 trades and only 2 bench spots in each position you won't have the cash or trades to get through the whole season.

 

[James]

Trades are gold, particularly late with people going to surgery early and missing with "general soreness".

Not necessarily. I ran out of trades before Rd 15 yet still improved my overall ranking after that. Finished 1842 overall. Had a full squad to choose from in Rd 24 with a couple of emergencies. 2361 score in Rd 24.

Hanging on all to my Carlton & Geelong players, helped. With Duigan pumping out a season high 110 in Rd 24. In fact hanging on to rookies with excellent JS regardless of their 65-70ppg averages really helped, especially when teams rested their gun players.

Not a lesson that I learned, as I resisted trading in a bunch of Hawks in anticipation of a Rd 24 scoring fest. But I would think a few people would think twice about trading in players in the final rounds from teams who have all but secured a top 4 finish.

 

[West123]

Not necessarily. I ran out of trades before Rd 15 yet still improved my overall ranking after that. Finished 1842 overall. Had a full squad to choose from in Rd 24 with a couple of emergencies. 2361 score in Rd 24.

Hanging on all to my Carlton & Geelong players, helped. With Duigan pumping out a season high 110 in Rd 24. In fact hanging on to rookies with excellent JS regardless of their 65-70ppg averages really helped, especially when teams rested their gun players.

Not a lesson that I learned, as I resisted trading in a bunch of Hawks in anticipation of a Rd 24 scoring fest. But I would think a few people would think twice about trading in players in the final rounds from teams who have all but secured a top 4 finish.

Yep. 2011 was a strange year and the finish was stranger. The rookies became premiums for the last couple of weeks. I basically lost my prelim because of the difference between Suckling (90 average) and Puopolo (70 average). Puopolo, Issac Smith, Mzungu & Duigan etc meant that a lot of understrength teams came out best.

 

[Hank93]

Same here. I ran out of trades by round 18, but went from 31,000 to 19,000 in 6 weeks. A weekly ranking of 15 in round 19 helped.

Selecting more DPP players and picking more 2/3 year players is something I will be doing.

 

[huggy_b]

Not necessarily. I ran out of trades before Rd 15 yet still improved my overall ranking after that. Finished 1842 overall. Had a full squad to choose from in Rd 24 with a couple of emergencies. 2361 score in Rd 24.

Hanging on all to my Carlton & Geelong players, helped. With Duigan pumping out a season high 110 in Rd 24. In fact hanging on to rookies with excellent JS regardless of their 65-70ppg averages really helped, especially when teams rested their gun players.

Not a lesson that I learned, as I resisted trading in a bunch of Hawks in anticipation of a Rd 24 scoring fest. But I would think a few people would think twice about trading in players in the final rounds from teams who have all but secured a top 4 finish.

Fair to say that it was probably more good luck than good management though?

 

[mezaire]

First thing I learnt is not to get sucked into big $$$ players.

I didn't start with Swan or Sandi this year and they were both great decisions. I did start with Goddard and that wasn't the best idea!!

My thoughts for next year is not to have any players over let's say $440k to start with and then trade to those players that might fall a bit.
Well that's the idea anyway!!!

 

[Sergian]

Trading is EVERYTHING.

 

[NT.Thunder]

You really don't need to spend hours on end to achieve a high ranking!

I'm more involved in SC and spent around 40 minutes at most putting my DT together. Hardly even looked at it until half way through the season when I started to move quickly through rankings.

Simplicity is the key IMO.

SC I took players which were in form and scoring heavily at the time and as such were at premium price, this was because I was ranked highly in SC and wanted to maintain my ranking...Players like Mundy, Broughton, Fyfe etc

DT I just took the proven guns from years gone at base price and hoped they came good......Mitchell, Enright, Chappy etc and let them do their thing.

 

[AirFyfeOne]

dont pick players (even talented ones) that have a history of soft tissue injuries. even when they do come back, they take a while to get back to full fitness and score well. hence no higgins or rioli for me next year.

 

[TimeReaper]

Byes, Subs, Concussion Rule, Gamblers and General Soreness can suck a nut

That about sums up my year.

 

[rooke33]

That my team sucked.

Every year I try to find value in the mids instead of stacking it with the tried and tested guns and every year it back fires. Maybe I will do it differently next year...although those Shuey and Sloane kids look alright.

 

[rooke33]

You really don't need to spend hours on end to achieve a high ranking!

I'm more involved in SC and spent around 40 minutes at most putting my DT together. Hardly even looked at it until half way through the season when I started to move quickly through rankings.

Your right but I was the opposite I spend all my time on dream team which my team was about 25,000. Whereas I threw together a supercoach which ended up in the top 1000.

I can assure you luck plays a big part in where you end up. I had very few injuries or problems with super whereas my dt had never ending player issues, bringing in Shaw for two games before an 8 game ban didn't help.