2023 Mrbrownstone - New and Improved 2024 Edition

ipap is a beauty of a trade,

how many players are you targeting for round 16?

I'm doing bird to talakai who play 16 and 19, think this knee injury is gonna be persistent, so no point waitng

you have loads of trades left which puts you ina great position for a charge

What are people's thoughts on Bird -> DEdwards as a third trade this week?

As annoying as it is having just bought him last week, Bird is probably a sell if he's only playing 3 of the next 7 games.

My hesitation is whether DEdwards can keep this scoring up, rather than going back to the mid-40s guy he's typically been. Also, would leave me with 5 WFBs in Teddy, Bula, Ponga, DEdwards, and Walsh which does feel like overkill in a year where WFB has been fairly low scoring.

It does feel like the kind of aggressive punt I might need to take to claw back some ranks though.

Would leave me with 14 trades and this for R16:

Robson
Hopgood HEdwards Granville
iPap Luki
Oloapu x
Manu Alamoti
DEdwards Ponga Bula

Aiming for a full house so will get Moses/Hynes (if dropped from Origin) in before R16 to fill out that final spot.

Backup plan would be hold Bird this week and turn him into Moses next week.

Think bird to dyl edwards is a no brainer

He’s pretty consistent so wouldn’t worry about a drop off

Those first two trades are pretty spot on, two players who play RD16 and RD19.

And if you consider Edwards a season keeper it's the best time to get him in.

My only concern would be you'd have 5 playable WFB's which has been a very inconsistent position this year. Might be better getting a solid MID as Granville's minutes could begin to drop.

Pretty meh week last week, scored 811 (which was one point below par according to Yafss). Good enough for a slight rank climb from 6608 to 6031, so not the end of the world. Was on track for a big week until (C)leary in the last game, like most. Trading in Oloapu worked out alright, iPap and DEdwards both a touch underwhelming but I back them both to come good.

Trades look fairly generic for me this week:

Cleary -> Moses
Granville -> Fainu

I imagine those will both be very popular. Leaves a 353k bank, might use that to upgrade Luki to Matto next week, or just hold it as a Hynes/Cleary fund for R20.

Will be lining up like this:

Cook
Haas (c) Tapine Tohu
Hopgood iPap
Moses SJ
Manu Lemuelu
DEdwards Teddy Bula

HEdwards Walsh Ponga Oloapu

Fainu Alamoti Robson Luki

12 trades, 353k


If I were gonna make a third trade I'd consider Luki -> Yeo, but that leaves me fairly light at edge. Probably safer to wait for Matto/hope Luki is playable in R16.

Your trade count is killer and should let you gain more once others are sitting around waiting for R20

I’m likely bringing Fainu in this week too

Had a solid round last week - 1046 and jumped to 5275. Looked like it was gonna be a much bigger rank climb after captain Haas, but I'll still take it. Unfortunately, trading in Fainu and Moses looks like two mistakes, was out and missed the news on Fainu, and then Robson and Moses both getting called up hurts.

Before trades I'm lining up like this:

X
Hopgood Fainu HEdwards
iPap Luki
Oloapu X
Manu Alamoti
Ponga Bula DEdwards

Haas Walsh SJ Robson Cook

Teddy Tapine Moses Lemuelu

12 trades, 353k

Obviously, trading in Hynes is almost a must, and with 12 left I think I can be fairly agressive. The standout options to trade out are probably Tapine, Robson, or Moses.

Objectively, given he misses 3 of the next 4, plus the R27 bye, Moses is probably a trade, but fuck it feels like a waste getting rid of him one week after buying him.

Tapine is useful in R19, but his scores have just been frustrating all year. I think my current plan is:

Tapine -> Hynes
Alamoti -> Simpkin/Turpin and play with 12 OR Robson -> Simpkin/Turpin and play 13

Alamoti obviously plays 16 and 19, but not entirely sure he's worth holding for another couple of 20s, especially with a 35 BE and a bye next week. I'd rather play down a centre than down a hooker. Of course that leaves me with no centre cover going forward, which is an issue.

And then that gives me the same issue as most for R17 with Bula, iPap, Hynes, Oloapu, HEdwards, Alamoti (?), and Simpkin (?).

So the questions are:

1. Who to trade for Hynes? (Moses? Tapine? Cook? Robson?)
2. Turpin or Simpkin?
3. Trade Alamoti to a hooker and play with 12, or trade Robson/Cook to a hooker and play with 13?

I think I'm just confusing myself now. Help

That's a bit of a pickle for sure. As much as it pains you, if you treat trading Moses in as a sunk cost then there's no real reason why you can't just trade him straight back out. Especially when Hynes is an upgrade. Of course Origin 3 could mess all that right up and then you're back to square one.

Tapine is very frustrating to own, I can imagine. A warm body next week, but otherwise underwhelming and I can see why you'd want to cut him loose.

Turpin v Simpkin is bye points vs money effectively. If you're not worried about the cash (not sure how much of your bank you need for the upgrade to Hynes regardless of who you use), then Turpin plays both rounds so (to me) makes the most sense.

Following on from that, it comes down to whether you're comfortable running 3 hookers for the foreseeable future. Alamoti will at least put a score up for you this week whereas the other two won't. Someone in the main thread pointed out that Cook misses an extra game over Robson if that plays into your decision.

I guess it all comes down to how badly you want to have a full team/as close to it as possible this round and next. Fwiw I'd probably trade Cook to Hynes and then Alamoti to Turpin and run with 12. With so many trades left you can then jettison Hedwards and maybe Oloapu next week and go from there.

As with most people who traded in Moses last week, the chances of him making Origin were pretty slim but Freddy did Freddy things.

With him now missing 3 of the next 4 rounds I think you're best just copping it as a bad trade and taking him straight out for Hynes. This is what I'm doing. Then as StuDogg mentioned I think the benefit of Turpin playing both 16 and 17 edges him ahead of Simpkin when you already have 5 on the bye next week.

I'd then hold HEdwards and Alamoti this week and then trade him out next week so you have 17 green dots for RD17 as long as your Origin players back up.

Ando wrote:As with most people who traded in Moses last week, the chances of him making Origin were pretty slim but Freddy did Freddy things.

With him now missing 3 of the next 4 rounds I think you're best just copping it as a bad trade and taking him straight out for Hynes. This is what I'm doing. Then as StuDogg mentioned I think the benefit of Turpin playing both 16 and 17 edges him ahead of Simpkin when you already have 5 on the bye next week.

I'd then hold HEdwards and Alamoti this week and then trade him out next week so you have 17 green dots for RD17 as long as your Origin players back up.

Appreciate the thoughts mate, that makes a lot of sense. Who would you trade for Turpin if not Alamoti this week?

mrbrownstone wrote:

Appreciate the thoughts mate, that makes a lot of sense. Who would you trade for Turpin if not Alamoti this week?

It’s a tough one but I’d say Robson or Tapine mate. With Horse back at 13 Tapine will likely revert to his scoring before he played those few games at 13. As shown last weekend.

Or you go Robson who is missing 2 of the next 4 rounds who’s scoring hasn’t been amazing this year. I think Grant and Cook are the top 2 hookers for the run in so you could ride Turpin’s price rises to Grant once Origin is done with. He also has no more byes after RD19.

I’m trading Moses and Robson out this week and I’m more than happy with it.

StuDogg101 wrote:That's a bit of a pickle for sure. As much as it pains you, if you treat trading Moses in as a sunk cost then there's no real reason why you can't just trade him straight back out. Especially when Hynes is an upgrade. Of course Origin 3 could mess all that right up and then you're back to square one.

Tapine is very frustrating to own, I can imagine. A warm body next week, but otherwise underwhelming and I can see why you'd want to cut him loose.

Turpin v Simpkin is bye points vs money effectively. If you're not worried about the cash (not sure how much of your bank you need for the upgrade to Hynes regardless of who you use), then Turpin plays both rounds so (to me) makes the most sense.

Following on from that, it comes down to whether you're comfortable running 3 hookers for the foreseeable future. Alamoti will at least put a score up for you this week whereas the other two won't. Someone in the main thread pointed out that Cook misses an extra game over Robson if that plays into your decision.

I guess it all comes down to how badly you want to have a full team/as close to it as possible this round and next. Fwiw I'd probably trade Cook to Hynes and then Alamoti to Turpin and run with 12. With so many trades left you can then jettison Hedwards and maybe Oloapu next week and go from there.

Thanks mate, appreciate the thoughts, that helped make things clearer. I hadn't realised Cook had the R20 bye too, so his next few games are:

R16: Bye
R17: Origin backup
R18: Plays as normal
R19: Misses for Origin
R20: Bye

Plus the bye in R26 is fairly annoying too. That changes things. Might not be the worst move to trade him now and aim for Grant in R20 who has a clear run home with no byes. So:

Moses -> Hynes (annoying but just take the hit)
Cook -> Turpin

and play with the full 13 this week.

Tapine, as frustrating as he's been to own, is at least a warm body for 17-19 with no worries about backing up from Origin etc. In an ideal world he can become Yeo when the Raiders have the bye in R20.

As annoying as trading Moses is, I have to remind myself that I still have 12 (+ left. If I work on the theory that I wanna have ~4-5 left by about R22-23 for injuries for the run home, then that still means I can spend 15 over the next 7-8 rounds and be fine, so 2 a round is ok. No point saving those trades earlier in the season if I don't use them aggressively now.

Then next week HEdwards and Alamoti out allows me to field 17.

Lock it in bro. Your team is well above average for this round I feel, so I definitely expect another big rank rise for you.

After doing Moses -> Hynes and Cook -> Turpin I have 528k in the bank.

If the plan is to trade Alamoti next week anyway, wondering if it's worth going a week early and spending some of that cash to turn him into Penis this week too? Think that's probably worthwhile.

mrbrownstone wrote:After doing Moses -> Hynes and Cook -> Turpin I have 528k in the bank.

If the plan is to trade Alamoti next week anyway, wondering if it's worth going a week early and spending some of that cash to turn him into Penis this week too? Think that's probably worthwhile.

I’d say so mate yeah, those are 3 pretty strong trades this week!

Weird round. Went well enough at face value with a score of 752 good enough for about 1.1k in rank gains from 5275 to 4164. Was hoping for a bit more than that with 13 playing, but can't complain.

But like most it was very rocks or diamond: Finau, Oloapu, NAS, Penis, Luki stinking it up, Turpin, Hop, Hynes, iPap, Manu, Ponga killing it.

Trading HEdwards to NAS looks like a mistake, but I think it was still worth the risk given I have plenty of trades in hand. Hopefully he can have a couple of boom scores in the next few weeks. Penis also a disappointing in but he still did better than Alamoti I guess, so silver lining there.

Initial thoughts are Oloapu & Luki to KHaas and Yeo/Grant, then probably Fainu to Simpkin next week. That'd leave me with this for R19:

Simpkin
Tohu Tapine Hopgood
iPap KHass
Hynes SJ
Penis Lemuelu
Bula X X

Not sure there are any other WFBs that interest me for R19 so will likely run with that. Maybe grab a cashout WFB if one pops up.

For this week that would leave me with:

Robson
Tapine Tohu Haas
Hopgood KHass
SJ Ponga
Penis Manu
Teddy DEdwards Walsh

Turpin Yeo/Grant Lemuelu NAS

Finau Hynes iPap Bula

6 trades

No clearer on my trades for this week.

I have 7 red dots (Luki, Fainu, Robson, Oloapu, iPap, Hynes, Bula). Was only meant to have 4, but with Luki, Fainu, and Robson, fantasy sure has a tendency to make a mockery of best laid plans.

In an ideal world, I think I like:

Luki -> DiFi
Oloapu -> Cartwright

Then cross my fingers Robson plays and hold Fainu to trade to Simpkin next week. Initially I liked Yeo but DiFi is further ahead of him in his position and my Edg really needs to be addressed more urgently with Lem currently filling in there.

I have very little faith in Cartwright, but the hope is at least his dual is handy and he's a warm body good for 15 off the bench in an emergency...

If Robson doesn't play then hopefully we know in the 24 hour cut and I'll probably do Fainu to S Smith to field 17.

Of course, the issue with that plan is if DiFi gets rested again, then my other two gun targets in Yeo/Grant have already played. Hopefully we'll have some info on that, whether Cartwright actually starts, and Robson's status by the time the Panthers kick off on Saturday. All eyes on late mail. I guess the only positive is that none of my trade outs/targets play in the first two games of the round (although I'm somewhat interested in Hands), so I have until the Panthers' kick off if I want Yeo instead of DiFi, and hopefully we have a bit more info by then.

Any other thoughts/suggestions?

Scratch the above. I didn't realise how cheap Grant had gotten and DiFi's crazy BE. Luki to Grant now the front runner.

Had a fairly average round - was hoping that with trades in hand this might have been a chance to make up some ground with others struggling to make 17, but in the end I scored 846 and lost about 200 ranks to 4343.

First trade this week will be an obvious one, Fainu -> Simpkin. Will also have my eye on an EDG though because right now Lem is filling in there. Will let teamlists and a possible Walsh suspension make that decision for me though. Right now I'll be lining up like:

Grant
Haas Tapine Tohu
iPap Lemuelu
Hynes SJ
Manu Kris
DEdwards Bula Walsh

Robson Turpin Teddy NAS

Ponga Simpkin Hopgood Penis

5 trades, 106k

If Walsh is suspended will look to turn him into an EDG to push Lem back to centre and Kris to EMG. Will also have a decision between Teddy, Simpkin, NAS, and Ponga to lock one in, loop two, and leave one out.

Thoughts & suggestions encouraged as usual, please.

which of your wfb are you thinking of keeping long term?

whats your plans with tapine (i own him and want rid)

are you interested in piakura as a cash down edg cover