It started on Friday night when, to my shock, I realised I had left Drew Petrie on the field of my Toyota AFL Dream Team as a forward, with my forward emergency being Cameron Richardson, another Roo with the bye.
To add further pain from Arden Street - or should I say, Aegis Park - I was playing North key defender Nathan Grima in our private Dream Team champions league and he comfortably beat my score of 1924 by 140 points, finishing with 2064 points. The reality is even if I had an emergency replacing Petrie, I still would have fallen short.
But we move on quickly. Round three was a lower scoring round from the start, as only four players - Dane Swan, Heath Shaw, Chris Judd and Ed Curnow - scored over 100 on Friday night. Swan's effort of 116 was full of possessions in junk time, which pleased everyone who had him as captain, including the Doc.
Brett Deledio continued his unpredictable season with a score of 51 against Hawthorn - make up your mind, Brett, don't tease us! - while Brad Green's effort of 74 again left me underwhelmed.
There were, however, some shining lights in a low-scoring round. Scott Thompson scored a massive 154 in a losing side for the Crows, while a pair of Cats in Jimmy Bartel and James Kelly both racked up 140 points against Port Adelaide.
Be careful to jump the gun and bring in these guys this week, though, because the Cats have the bye in round six. Particularly in the next three weeks with three sides having byes each round, you need to look ahead before making your trades.
Curnow is the competition's most improved player after round three, rising $77,000 after another 100-point game, while Tom Liberatore has gone up $66,400. Luke Tapscott was another Dream Team rookie to jump up in value, rising by $49,000, while Dean Cox was the most experienced player to rise heavily in price, jumping up $41,000.
On the other hand, Nathan Lovett-Murray, after two games as a substitute and another with little impact, has had the steepest drop in value, falling $59,900. A number of other popular picks, including Daniel Connors, Jack Riewoldt, Brad Green, and Brendon Goddard have also been costly inclusions after slow starts to the season.
For many coaches, this week's score would have been disappointing. It's the same for me. I go back to the drawing board, make a few tweaks and hope to improve next week.
Unlike what's happening at St Kilda at the moment, this is not a full-blown crisis. It's the Doctor getting a reality check. And the reality is that even with a player missing, my score was still higher than half of our champions league. I'll take that.
