Stylebender lost his team tracker virginity

GarethEllisismyDad wrote:admiration for the ability to concentrate on H2H when the team is going so well overall

must be a bit of a mind f*ck watching the rank plummett

great team and good trades

Haha it definitely is mate. But with around $2000 on the line I gotta stay strong and play for the coin.
Next year I’m definitely making a second team for overall.

Appreciate you!

Round 15 score:
1091
Overall Rank:
568

Trades:
1. Nathan Cleary to Isaah Yeo
2. Heilum Luki to Isaiah Papali'i

R15 squad:
Grant
Haas Tohu Yeo
Bateman iPap
Hynes (C) SJ
Lemuelu Manu
Teddy Walsh Bula

Cook, Ponga, H.Edwards, Loiero
Oloapu, Alamoti, Hands, JDB

Pros:
- Payne Haas. Very happy I decided to hold him as he's going to prove difficult to get back in. Backing up from origin or not, absolute superstar.
- Isaah Yeo. So far I'm happy with how I spent my Cleary money. Yeo is such a reliable top tier gun.
- My Tigers edges. Was a little nervous about owning both Bateman & iPap, but they're rewarding me so far. Both fun players to watch.
- My hookers. The Grant/Cook combo proving why they're the best in the game. Happy I've locked up the two best in their position.
- My WFB. Ponga, Walsh, Teddy & Bula. Don't plan on selling any of them anytime soon.

Cons:
- Trent Loiero. My only real let down in the squad this week. My gun centres were very mediocre, but a 23 from Loiero just isn't cutting it. A mere 32 would've got me to the 1100 mark.

Trade Out Options:
- Trent Loiero. Happy with the money he's made, along with some solid scores, but I think it's time to go. Absolute plodder on attack so he's going to score like ass whenever Storm thrash a team.

Trade In Options:
- Ryan Matterson. Planned to grab Matto this week, but named at #6 with a high BE has me thinking of waiting a week or two. Will stay on my watchlist at this stage.
- Nelson Asofa Solomona. Nasty NAS. This might be more of a "pick with your heart not your head" pick as a Storm diehard and NAS fan. But at $537k I think he presents good value as my 17th man, as well as bringing myself enjoyment watching him play for my side. The rib issue is a worry, but if he continues to get some time on the edge on offence then I think he should be able to stay on the paddock and produce good scores.
- Jake Simpkin. $220k and has the starting hooker spot for a good amount of time. Not expecting anything crazy scoring wise but a 30avg will make a lot of coin.

A 'bye' week for me as a H2H player. However I do want to move on from Loiero before he bleeds too much cash, so I'll be making one trade this week.

Initial thought was Loiero to NAS, but I also quite like Loiero to Simpkin. My thinking with Simpkin is that I have a top 4 finals spot pretty much secured in my H2H leagues, so all I really need over the next 6-7 rounds is cash gen. I probably won't be playing Simpkin often at all, but he should be good for $150-200k in price rises until Api is back. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

I've never really been a H2h player so not sure what the main goal is, is it just to get to the finals?

Because Simpkin would give you 7 players on the bye next week meaning you'd have only 14 green dots and that's with hoping all of your Origin players back up.

If you're only interested in Cash Gen then Simpkin is easily the best pick.

Ando wrote:I've never really been a H2h player so not sure what the main goal is, is it just to get to the finals?

Because Simpkin would give you 7 players on the bye next week meaning you'd have only 14 green dots and that's with hoping all of your Origin players back up.

If you're only interested in Cash Gen then Simpkin is easily the best pick.

Yeah, finals start R23 so R23-26 is all that really matters to me. My record is 13-1, so I’m pretty much guaranteed a top 4 spot even if I lose every week until finals. Therefore I’m happy to sacrifice R17 and purely focus on cash gen for the next 6-7 rounds.

Thanks for the response mate!

Yeah if cash gen is the main goal and you're happy to sacrifice R17 then it's gotta be Simpkin.

How many trades do you have left? Because if you really wanna go all in on cash gen then you could do Alamoti -> Valemei too as a potential cash grab. That's a high risk high reward play and possibly just chasing last week's points though, so I'd only consider that if you have plenty of trades and don't mind risking burning one.

mrbrownstone wrote:Yeah if cash gen is the main goal and you're happy to sacrifice R17 then it's gotta be Simpkin.

How many trades do you have left? Because if you really wanna go all in on cash gen then you could do Alamoti -> Valemei too as a potential cash grab. That's a high risk high reward play and possibly just chasing last week's points though, so I'd only consider that if you have plenty of trades and don't mind risking burning one.

I have 8 trades left. I think I'd rather play it a little safer seeing as I am in top position in my leagues. Would like to go into finals with a few up my sleeve.

Appreciate the feedback mate.

Haven't been so active on here as a result of life happening and not requiring much time to make decisions for my team at this part of the season as I'm purely H2H.

Overall rank has dropped down to 4000 odd as expected, which doesn't bother me as I'm purely chasing the money & bragging rights from my leagues. The first 12 rounds of the season I proved to myself that I'm not a horrible coach and definitely going to give overall a go next year.

Trades this week are Alamoti, Oloapu & Lemuelu to Kris, Munster & Dylan Edwards.
My thinking here was Alamoti is dogshit, and going to Kris frees up a bit of coin & covers WFB as well as CTR.
Oloapu is injured/peaked and Munster is my favourite player in the comp (and great value at current price), so that was a no brainer.
Lemuelu is leaking cash and in my eyes is not a CTR keeper if only playing 50-60 minutes on the edge. Was tossing up between Edwards and Garrick and landed on Edwards as I expect Penrith to finish the year hot compared to Manly who I expect to fall off a cliff.

This leaves me with 5 trades and $340k in the bank. My short term plan is:
R19 - Walsh to Penisini
R20 - Harrison Edwards to David Fifita

Which will give me the following squad with 3+8 trades remaining:

Grant
Haas Yeo JDB
Fifita iPap
Hynes SJ
Manu Penisini
D.Edwards Teddy Ponga/Bula

Cook, Tohu, Bateman, Munster
Ponga/Bula, Hands, Simpkin, Kris

Very happy with that squad rolling into H2H finals. The only one I'm worried about not owning is Cleary. I could run without him for week 1/2 of the finals (R23/24) and then trade Haas to him R25 as Broncos have the bye.

Appreciate I haven't been super active lately so not expecting a bunch of feedback, but any discussion is always very much welcomed This is primarily just a method to articulate my thoughts into words to look back on for next season. Hope everyone's enjoying their season, saddens me that there's only 10 rounds left!

Those trades all look solid mate. Only thing I'd say is why wait a week in Walsh to Penisini? If you're going to do it anyway, I'd do it this week. No real benefit in waiting that I can see.

mrbrownstone wrote:Those trades all look solid mate. Only thing I'd say is why wait a week in Walsh to Penisini? If you're going to do it anyway, I'd do it this week. No real benefit in waiting that I can see.

Cheers mate.
Penisini doesn't play this week. Rather not in case of any freak injuries during training.

Stylebender wrote:

Cheers mate.
Penisini doesn't play this week. Rather not in case of any freak injuries during training.

Oops. Duh. Ignore me haha I thought I must have been missing something obvious.

Not a massive H2H player, but why the urge to trade Haas during final (prelim final H2H) when if you get through you’d probably want him in H2H GF

Camo123 wrote:Not a massive H2H player, but why the urge to trade Haas during final (prelim final H2H) when if you get through you’d probably want him in H2H GF

I also have Cook who misses the H2H GF so I could possibly trade him back to Haas.
Nothing set in stone yet, Haas is probably just my easiest path to Cleary. Will cross that bridge when we get there I guess

Round 18 score:
961
Overall Rank:
4357

Trades:
1. Nathan Cleary to Isaah Yeo
2. Heilum Luki to Isaiah Papali'i

R18 squad:
Grant
Haas JDB Yeo
Bateman iPap
Hynes (C) SJ
Manu Kris
Teddy Edwards Bula

Cook, Tohu, Munster, Ponga
Simpkin, H.Edwards, Hands, Walsh

Pros:
- Payne Haas. God.
- Kalyn Ponga. Huge bounceback game for Kalyn. Will be in my starting WFB all year if fit.
- Tohu Harris. Good to see Tohu bounce back with a 60+ score, and to my eyes the knee didn't seem to be bothering him quite as much, he looked a little more free. Which is a good sign moving forward.

Cons:
- Yeo, SJ, Cook, D.Edwards. All certified guns who had down weeks. The only one I'm worried about here is Cook. Could have his minutes managed until finals with Havili back.
- Jahream Bula. Very pleased with his efforts since getting the opportunity, surpasses all expectations. Although I think it's time to cut him loose. Not necessarily because of his own form, but his team looks abysmal.

Trade Out Options:
- Jahream Bula. As above.
- Reece Walsh. Held onto him last week as the guy I wanted to trade him to (Penisini) had a bye.

Trade In Options:
- Will Penisini. To me he looks like the safest centre pick. Has a solid base and plays for an in form team who need to finish the year strong. He can partner Manu in my centres for the remainder of the year.
- Valynce Te Whare. I had planned to have Bula as my 18th man for the rest of the year, but I've decided to take a punt on big Val instead. As a starting centre I think he can average close to 40 for the rest of the year.

These two trades give me the cash required next week to go H. Edwards, Simpkin & Cook to Fifi, Cleary & a red dot cashout for looping purposes. This will complete my squad heading into H2H finals (prior to any injuries/suspensions).

Final squad:

Grant
Haas Yeo JDB
Fifita Bateman
Hynes Cleary
Manu Penisini
Edwards Ponga Tedesco

SJ Tohu iPap Munster
VTW Hands Kris cashout

Obviously my 18-21 isn't ideal, but it allows me to have a strong 17. I've set up my squad so that Haas is the only one with a bye during H2H finals, so I really shouldn't have to play anyone in my 18-21. I'll still have 8 trades remaining which allows me to trade out whoever gets injured/suspended for a week or 2 in H2H finals.

Been traveling overseas so have been slack at updating my tracker over the last couple weeks. Nothing major to report with my only trade being Harrison Edwards to Jesse Colquhoun.

One final week of regular season before the H2H finals, I've got an important matchup this week to secure #1 spot (which I want as #4 is an easier matchup than #3). So I'm looking at burning 4 trades this week:

1. Hands to Murray. No brainer. Hands has made me plenty coin and his time of getting 80 minutes may be over. Murray is close to a must have for me with the Rabbitohs fighting for a top 8 spot.

2. Simpkin to Cleary. This could wait a week considering Cleary's huge BE, however as mentioned above, I'd like to win this week's H2H matchup and I'm not too concerned if Cleary drops 30-40k.

3. Cook to DCE. Cook has been a little underwhelming all season, but now he's not even playing 80 minutes so I think it's time to let him go. Means I'll be running with Grant as my sole hooker going forward but I'm okay with that. DCE has his hands on everything at Manly and I can see him averaging 60+ on the run home.

4. Manu to Garrick. This may seem a little sideways, it's a bit of a gut instinct trade. Manu is overvalued while playing centre and I can see Garrick being the top centre on the run home. I think Garrick could very possibly average 10 points more than Manu going forward.

This leaves me with $2k in the bank and 6 trades remaining, with the following squad:

Grant
Haas Yeo JDB
Bateman iPap
Cleary Hynes
Garrick Penisini
Ponga Teddy Edwards

SJ Murray DCE Munster
Tohu VTW Kris Colquhoun

Very happy with that squad heading into H2H finals. The only extra moves I'd consider making would be cashing out Kris or VTW to upgrade Tohu to Fifita (depending on how they each score this week).

Shoutout to Camo123 for the idea, taking a look back at my starting squad and giving each of my trades a grade. Hopefully writing this down stops me from making the same mistakes every season

R1 squad:

Grant
Carrigan Hopgood Haas
E.Katoa Loiero
Cleary Doueihi
Alamoti Talau
Warbrick Miller Ponga

B.Smith Boyd E.Butcher Ford
Preston I.Katoa Doorey HSS

Didn't start off horribly. There's not too many picks I wouldn't make again. Trusting base priced centres from shit clubs probably wasn't the smartest idea.
Next year I need to learn to take a punt on cash cows with scoring pedigree, even if their shelf life originally seems short. Trindall was the one to start the year. Also missed Hosking and Turpin.

Trades:

R2:
Brandon Smith to Izaac Thompson (D)
Isaiya Katoa to Bryce Cartwright (A)
It was the right idea to sell Cheese, however Izaac Thompson was not the move. Selling Katoa and bringing him straight back was odd, but it turned out to be a good play. Getting on Cartwright early was important.

R3:
Kalyn Ponga to Reece Walsh (A)
Tommy Talau to Isaiya Katoa (A)
Ponga was a risk that didn't pay off. Reece passed the eye test with flying colours so I took a punt on him and wasn't disappointed. Had plenty of great scores right up until his suspension and made me $130k in the process. Katoa made me over $200k.

R4:
Egan Butcher to Shaun Johnson (A+)
Adam Doueihi to Tom Trbojevic (D)
Bit of a mixed bag here. Possibly my best and worst trades all year. SJ was an incredible buy, only regret was I didn't get on sooner. Saw him as a good medium term option while making plenty of coin in the process. Didn't expect him to turn into a captaincy option. Selling Doueihi was the right play, however Turbo was a punt that went horribly wrong. I knew it was a risky trade but my plan this year was to be extra aggressive to start the season. Sometimes it paid off, other times it didn't.

R5:
Matt Doorey to Connelly Lemuelu (A)
Izaac Thompson to Brendan Hands (B+)
Lemmy ended up becoming a top tier centre keeper (although I've since sold him). Got a little blessed with Hands, he was looking like a dud buy until Hodgson got injured. However, I went into that trade expecting Hands to get the starting hooker role at some point of the season, whether through injury or form. Both guys ended up making good coin while filling difficult positions.

R6:
Harley Smith-Shields to Alofiana Khan-Pereira (C+)
This was a pure cash grab as AKP had a huge negative BE. Only ended up making $70k, so it's a reminder not to get horny over a negative BE especially if it's an outside back playing for a mediocre team. Still made profit so it wasn't a horrible trade.

R7:
Pat Carrigan to Ryan Matterson (C-)
J'Maine Hopgood to Jack Bird (C)
Will Warbrick to Toby Couchman (D)
Well I found my worst trading week. Carrigan ended up going huge up until origin, and after 1 week on the bench Hopgood continued to get huge minutes through injuries. Matterson and Bird were both solid up until their injuries. But I guess that's always a high possibility when you trade in two injury prone guys. Couchman was just a waste of a trade.

R8:
Bryce Cartwright to Brandon Smith (B-)
Sold a peaked Carty and gave Cheese another go after returning from his injury. He made me $100k and filled in at hooker when Grant was on his bye. Solid short term trade.

R9:
Eli Katoa to Jack De Belin (A)
Tom Trbojevic to Joey Manu (A)
AKP to Jahream Bula (A)
Great week of trading here. With all 3 of my buys generating plenty of cash and providing great, keeper level scores.

R10:
Toby Couchman to Nicho Hynes (A)
Jacob Preston to Heilum Luki (C-)
Lachlan Miller to Karl Oloapu (B+)
Purchased Nicho at peak price and he rewarded me with his lowest score of the season. But otherwise it was a no brainer slam dunk trade. Selling Preston was a mistake. Luki made $80k so it wasn't a complete disaster, but a trade I wish I hadn't made. After selling Miller, he ended up losing some more cash then losing his spot in the team. Oloapu made me $125k.

R11:
Jackson Ford to James Tedesco (B+)
Ford got injured and I didn't have cash in the bank to upgrade him as such. Didn't want to mess around with midrangers so I took a punt on a cut priced WFB keeper in Teddy.

R12:
Tanah Boyd to Harrison Edwards (B)
Started with Boyd and then sold him at his peak price which was nice. Edwards wasn't ideal but he still made me $100k.

R13:
Ryan Matterson to Damien Cook (B-)
Brandon Smith to Tohu Harris (B+)
Isaiya Katoa to Kalyn Ponga (A+)
Matto & Cheese both got injured. Cook missed origin selection and provided some solid scores without being amazing. Tohu has also been solid. Sold Katoa at his peak price and picked up Ponga for $420k.

R14:
Jack Bird to John Bateman (A)
Bird got injured, thought Bateman passed the eye test so I picked him up for $675k which turned out to be a great buy.

R15:
Heilum Luki to Isaah Yeo (A)
Nathan Cleary to Isaiah Papali'i (B)
Was sick of carrying Luki in my side and Cleary got injured. Yeo is as consistent as can be and is a good buy at any point of the season (especially as a H2H player). iPap hasn't been incredible but he's still a keeper in the tricky edge position.

R16:
Trent Loiero to Jake Simpkin (A)
Sold Loiero at close to peak price and picked up Simpkin for $220k who ended up making me $150k. Good trading.

R18:
Paul Alamoti to Seb Kris (B)
Connelly Lemuelu to Dylan Edwards (B-)
Karl Oloapu to Cameron Munster (B+)
Alamoti to Kris freed up a bit of cash and gave me a solid backup CTR/WFB. Turns out Connelly wasn't a sell, and the timing on Edwards wasn't perfect as his scores without Cleary are far worse, but overall not unhappy with that trade. Sold a peaked Oloapu to my favourite player in the comp (also happens to be a decent fantasy scorer).

R19:
Jahream Bula to Will Penisini (B)
Reece Walsh to Valynce Te Whare (B-)
Bula overperformed and made a tonne of coin, Penis is a keeper centre. Walsh was suspended so I cashed him down to VTW to use as a looper WFB/CTR.

R21:
Harrison Edwards to Jesse Colquhoun (B)
Simple base priced cash out here.

R22:
Joey Manu to Reuben Garrick (B+)
Damien Cook to Daly Cherry-Evans (B)
Jake Simpkin to Nathan Cleary (A+)
Brendan Hands to Cam Murray (A)
Thought the Roosters were going to fall off so jumped from a peaked Manu to an in form Garrick which I'm happy with so far. Cook to DCE sounds a little sideways, but with Cook having a bye in the H2H GF I was happy to jump off him now. Simpkin & Hands to Cleary & Murray were no brainer slam dunk trades.

R23:
Will update this accordingly.


Summary:
Lots to learn from for next season. Probably took a couple too many punts on injury prone players which ended up biting me in the ass. Overall I thought I traded rather well. One thing I'm proud of is my timing with some of my trades. I wasn't afraid to cut ties with anyone which resulted in selling players at the right time, at their peak prices. Hopefully I can look back at this little write up next season and avoid making some of the same mistakes.