There simply isn’t anything else we can do on the knowledge and dedication fronts. We watch the games, we check the stats and we read the forums. We write programs, we crunch numbers, and we buy the Prospectus. We even call up people we know who are players or officials or best mates with an assistant coach’s girlfriend’s uncle’s caterer just to see how Joel Corey’s heel spur is coming along.
What separates a good team from a bad team isn’t always effort, it’s emotion – namely, how well you can keep yours in check.
Buy now, pay later
In some ways, the entire Dream Team competition is an exercise in delayed gratification – that important psychological lesson most of us learn when we are four years old but many struggle with into their 30s. You want something now but you know you should wait – because if you do, it will be better later.
Take Steve Johnson, for example. You know that he’s near the top of his price cycle. You know that it’s 90 per cent likely you’ll be able to pick him up more cheaply later. You know that $442,300 is too much to pay and that Alan Didak still has a 46 in his system and will bottom out nicely the following week.
You know all of this but you want Steve Johnson NOW. You want to pick him up, put a little ‘C’ next to his name and smash the living hell out of Edmundo, that annoying twerp you’re playing in league. You want him to sit down at his screen, scroll down the team lists after lockout and then have a mild heart attack when he realises what’s happened:
"Where the hell did Steve Johnson come from? I – am – TOAST!"
It’s this sort of short-term, emotion-charged stupidity that explains how Stevie J came to captain the Mayors last week and rack up the monstrous tally of 61.
The dark side
In Star Wars terminology, being good at this game is like being on the good side of the force. You need to remain calm and follow logic, not emotion.
I reckon Yoda would have made a great Dream Teamer. He’s wise, he’s calm, he’s knowledgeable, and he doesn’t allow emotions to cloud his judgement. The surest way to screw up your Dream Team is to give in to the dark side – fear, anger, hatred.
When you trade to destroy people – when you bring in players because you’re afraid of losing or hate your opposition, you are lost.
That’s why the Mayors wear black, carry red sabres and fell out of the top 1000 last week.
This week’s question
This week, I want you to answer this question “I knew I’d thrown logic out the window when…” and send it to dreamteam@afl.com.au, making sure to put ‘Hindy’ in the subject line. I’ll run the best answers in next week’s column.
There was a big response to last week’s request to send in your favourite team names. Thanks to all those people who sent them in and it was a pleasure reading them.
Damon Melville went with “Fat Man’s Cleavage”.
Heidi Champa goes by the name “Ranga Management” (and added in her email - “I'm a red-head myself, so don't judge me!”)
But my favourite name was submitted by Siraaj Alexander who heads a team called “Multiple Scoregasms.” Nice one.
Cheers,
Hindy
CEO and coach of the Hindsight Mayors
