You won’t have the opening three or four rounds to play around with your side before head-to-head matches begin so these are your last few days when trades are free and opportunities are rife to play around with your side.
Round one is essential, and I’ve put together a checklist for the next four days before Carlton and Richmond kick off the season on Thursday night.
Keep your eyes on the injury list
As we’ve seen in the last two weeks (Tendai Mzungu and Ian Callinan, I’m looking at you) injuries can strike at anytime to anyone. So you need to keep your eye to the ground, keep checking afl.com.au for injury updates, and be wary about picking anyone going into the season under an injury cloud or without any match practice during the pre-season. Anyone without any pre-season games under his belt is a risk. Know all your players’ injury histories - or hopefully lack there of.
Get your formulas right
When double checking your side before you click that ‘Save’ button for the final time, you should be looking back over every part of your side and scrutinising the potential of your squad.
If you’re aiming to place as high as possible in the overall rankings, it’s vital you score well from the start. Ideally, if you are hitting 2000+ on a weekly basis, you’ll be tracking for a good ranking.
Look through your team player-by-player. Scoring more than 2000 means each player will need to average just over 90 points per week. Break your team down into components: Can my backline score 640 between them? Can my midfield score 550? Can my rucks score 180? And can my forwards score 640? Of course weekly variation will exist, but if you think that’s definitely achievable, without even considering your captain’s double points, then you’re on your way to bigger things.
The last-minute upgrade
We all look at our teams at this stage of the season and question one or two players. Often, we’ve spent so much time on the make-up of the side that you lose a little perspective (and in my case sleep) over a couple of dodgy players.
We always think we’re one star short. So see if you can somehow do some upgrading to get that medium-tier player into a bona fide gun. Do this particularly if you have cash lying around on your bench, because that’s a waste. The bench is the place to make cash, not store it, so if you can manoeuvre a trade to secure you a late upgrade, try to find it.
Cover your Suns
We should all remember that we need to cover our Gold Coast boys in round one as they have the first bye. So work out what your team will look like without them in the opening round, and see if you’re happy with it.
Find the options on the bench who will play in round one, with the likes of Cameron Richardson or Michael Hibberd or Dyson Heppell, and pick them to cover the Suns players you’ll be missing. It’s basic advice, but you need to have it covered and need to know how your side will look without your Gold Coast batch.
Watch team selection
Team selection is vital for your side. You need to be aware of the partial lockout due to the Thursday night game - when we’ll know which Carlton and Richmond rookies are playing - but then on Friday you will be know who is selected and who has missed out.
Work out your bench on Friday, but if a player you think is in for a big year happens to be missing round one, don’t necessarily jump off. Having your eye on the teams - which will be published exclusively to afl.com.au throughout the year - is crucial to being a pro Dream Teamer. This week it’s even more crucial as you still have unlimited trades at your disposal.
Hope for the best
Sometimes all we have is hope. By this time of the season, most of us have spent almost two months chopping and changing our Dream Teams like we do our outfits on Saturday night before hitting the town.
If you’ve done your research, are willing to keep your enthusiasm strong and maintain your dedication, you will be in for a good year. Luck, as they say, is the point where preparation meets opportunity.
Even if your preparation only starts today, you’ve an opportunity to sign up, pick your team and come up with some brilliance. Good luck.
