Milchcow 2023

Ended up going Hands last week. The Hodgson surgery news meant I should be able to rely on him as a scorer.
A safe 35 points better than a 40+ point guy who might get dropped from first grade

2 below average weeks mean I've dropped to 574th overall, but hoping I can maintain that going forward
Nikorima to Haas this week (potentially Niko to Fifita instead but might give Fifita 1 more week)

Gives me a best 17 of

Grant
Haas JDB Horse
Bateman Preston
Hynes SJ
Lemuelu Penisini
Edwards Drinkwater Tedesco

Hopgood Cook Tohu Ponga
Bula Turpin Hands Billy

2 trades left until round 20, but unlikely to trade in R19, unless there's a crazy origin (non)selection or a reliable cow appears

Then R20 Preston to Fifita (likely funded by Turpin downgrade)

Drinkwater was going to be my Cleary funds, but may have to dump Teddy or Bula instead. Will see how it goes when Cleary returns.
Assuming Cleary in requires a downgrade I'll have a strong 17 and 6 trades left to swoop on any real value guns (eg potentially Cam Murray) just get genuine upgrades (eg Bird, Moses, DCE, Yeo) or to deal with injuries.

R18 (pre lockout) scored 1019 small gain to rank 545

Traded Cook to Haas (Cook better play origin now)
and Billy Smith to Seb Kris

Considered a few other CTR options - VTW is cheap but having both him and Lemuelu means I'd be short for the dolphins bye and didn't want to force myself into another trade. Also considered a premium option (someone like Staggs, Best, Tago, Talakai ) but in the end figured they'd only play when Penisini/Lemuelu are unavailable so no point spending money. And Canberra have a theoretically good run home so should be opportunity for points. Will see how bad a decision it was


Team now looks

Grant
Haas Horse JDB
Hopgood Bateman
Hynes SJ
Penisni Lemuelu
Teddy Drinkwater Edwards

Tohu Preston Ponga KNik
Turpin Hands Bula Kris

$374k in the bank, allows a direct Fifita upgrade for Turpin/Knik after origin to give me a strong 17.

Then can use my 8 trades in guys like Preston, Knik, Bula to strengthen. Looking at guys like Cleary, Murray as next priority, maybe iPap/DCE, whoever looks like they can come in at a discount.

Lemuelu is an interesting one. I think I’d prefer a Tago/Best over him from here on out. Not sure what position he actually played this week but the chance of him scoring a 70+ seem pretty slim. The other guys have that multiple try effort in them and their dud scores are usable. Obviously it requires a trade but yeah just my thoughts on them

Just don't see the point in spending a trade on Lemuelu. Only got 9, and can get better upgrades in the rest of my squad. Might end up regretting it later but for now he stays

R20 MID issue

I have 5 MIDs - Haas, JDB, Horse, Tohu, Hopgood
With Haas out only 2 available in R20, so thinking through my options


The MID I most want to add to my existing is Cameron Murray due to his price, but he's also out in R20
I have spare WFB, maybe I could trade one to a MID for 20, although also have Fifita and Cleary pegged as trade ins, and that could stuff with that a bit

Tohu, JDB, Hopgood all play this week, so no point trading this week as no room for an extra MID anyway, will mostly think about this in R20.

9 trades left, so don't really want to spend one sideways trading Horse/Haas to someone like Yeo just to effectively get 1 extra week scoring

In order to get all my upgrades to my 17, will need to make a downgrade, so my big hope is there's a cheap playable MID.
They'll only play in R20 and then to cover injuries/bye (and not as first choice) so a sub $300k player who can score 30+ points as a one-off would be great. That's what I'll be looking for in r20 TLT, and hope that someone doesn't backup from origin or something
If Storm stars don't backup Bronson Garlick might be OK. Even keeping an eye on Mad Dog Hetherington

For a little bit more Ryan Sutton might be cheap enough. If he survives this week and retains the starting spot he might be worth the cash for an acceptable 19th/20th man

not stressing too much as I think there will be options, just have to work out the best of them this time next week.

Team before trades

Grant
Haas Horse Harris
Preston Bateman
Hynes SJ
Penis Null
Teddy Drinkwater DEdwards

JDB SJ Hopgood Bula
KNik Hands Kris Munro

If we could get clarity that Yeo, Cleary, Fifita would all play, and SJ doesn't, I would like to make the 4 trade block of

Haas, SJ, Bula, KNik to Cleary, Yeo, Fifita, DCE

4 guns trade ins, none of who have a bye remaining (although would leave me with 3 panthers , and vulnerable to a last round resting).
But 2 clear upgrades in Bula, KNik out. And Haas/SJ would miss 2 games each in the run home, which I think justifies the sideways-ness of those trades
Preston to Murray next week would leave me with a good final 17, and 3 trades for injuries.


Unfortunately playing order and uncertainty over injury/backing up makes these trades hard to plan.
So working on contingency plans. perhaps Tino instead of Yeo. Also thinking about Nat Butcher, but Roosters team changes a lot so not sure if he'll last the whole 8 weeks as required


Other possibility involves Munro to Palasia as a one-week loan to cover MID, and keep Haas around.
But think 3-4 trades this week for bye-less guns is the way to go.

Normally I wouldn’t advocate the Haas out, but those 4 trade ins are huge and I think it’s worth it. 

As you said only concern is if Yeo is a late out. 

Could you just lock in Bula > DCE today and then wait for further info before tomorrow’s games?

Yeo a likely non starter, plus Teddy out mean I need to pivot a bit.

Might go Munro to Palasia, as need to trade an extra red dot out, and want to keep Teddy.
have looked at Butcher and NAS, but not sure they work longer term

Bula to DCE for tonight. Nikorima to Fifita all but locked in
Hopefully some more concrete news tomorrow about who is and isn't playing

Milchcow wrote:
Yeo a likely non starter, plus Teddy out mean I need to pivot a bit.

Might go Munro to Palasia, as need to trade an extra red dot out, and want to keep Teddy.
have looked at Butcher and NAS, but not sure they work longer term

Bula to DCE for tonight. Nikorima to Fifita all but locked in
Hopefully some more concrete news tomorrow about who is and isn't playing

Those 2 locked in trades are as good as they come anyway. 

Best of luck for the week Milchy

Trades I ended up making were Bula, Haas, Munro to DCE, Palasia, Fifita

Like many, may regret yeeting Bula.
But still scored 1022 for the week and have $481k for next week.

Looking at bringing in Cleary and Murray next week to complete the team with 3 trades for injury cover.
Original plan was Nikorima and Preston out, but may look at ditching Tohu instead. Will see what TLT brings

Captained DCE last week in an attempt to win the monthly, which cost me a few ranks

Also failed in the monthly, because not only did Cleary kill it anyway, the person leading the monthly also captained DCE, so even if his and Cleary's scores had been reversed, I wouldn't have gotten the benefit I wanted.
In any event, the dud scores from Lemuelu and Edwards (and somewhat Teddy too) meant captaincy choice was irrelevant anyway and I had no chance.

This week I need to move on JDB, but can't afford Haas or Yeo in 1 go.
So either need to downgrade Hands (no good hooker at that price - maybe Mitch Kenny I guess)
or settle for Tapine/McInnes

JDB and Hands are my only MID/HOK cover respectively so sort of need to cover like for like. with only 3 trades left, could well be down to 1 trade after this week, so McInnes + Koro/Cheese may be better than Yeo+Kenny to cover future injuries.

That's my exciting decision for the week.

Yeo + Kenny gets my vote. I think Kenny is a perfectly fine 19th man.