Ando's Team

Being honest I didn't realise these Team Trackers were a thing until the start of this season but have enjoyed reading everyone's so far. I feel I've been clogging the main thread quite a bit recently with trade ideas and future plans so will post my ideas about my own team here.

9 Rounds down already so I'll post a brief trade history so far:

Round 1 Team

Bold players are players I still own

Kenny
Haas Hopgood Carrigan
EButcher EKatoa
Cleary (c) Doueihi
Alamoti HSS
Teddy TMM Miller
Boyd Cheese Wilton Trindall
Blore Doorey Warbrick Talau

In 2022 I finished just outside of the Top 100 after being ranked as high as 2nd during Origin. By seasons end I'd collapsed after running out of trades with 4/5 rounds to go. With that in mind my initial make up was to try and avoid more than 2 players from the same team and have positional cover for every position. This would allow me to avoid unnecessary 1 week trades during the year in hope I wouldn't run out of steam again.

Round 2

Overall Rank: 18,643
Trade Out: Te Maire Martin & Brandon Smith
Trade In: Jack Bird & Bryce Cartwright
Summary: TMM hadn't got the role I wanted with 0 in play kicking and Smith had a niggling injury so they left the team. My centres round 1 had a horror show so I wanted Bird to solidify that position and Bryce was meant to be a quick cash grab that turned into coin goat.


Round 3

Overall Rank: 2,261
Trade Out: Harley Smith-Shields & Egan Butcher
Trade In: Reece Walsh & Jacob Preston
Summary: Again HSS was an awful pick and Egan Butcher wasn't much better with the Roosers bye coming up I decided to ditch. Walsh had looked good against the Cowboys and had a good run of games coming up, Preston was the same cash grab as Carty the week before.

Round 4

Overall Rank: 1,236
Trade Out: Braydon Trindall & Adam Doueihi
Trade In: Shaun Johnson & Jackson Ford
Summary: Trindall had lost his place to Hynes and Doueihi was moved to full back and reports of a toe injury. Johnson had been gunning it and had a low BE so plan was to flip to Hynes eventually, similar to Bryce and Preston previous weeks I saw him as another playable moneymaker.

Round 5

Overall Rank: 141
Trade Out: Jack Bird & Matt Doorey
Trade In: Connelly Lemuelu & Zac Hosking
Summary: In hindsight this wasn't the best of trades but I felt Lemmy could give the same scores as Bird but for less. Doorey had peaked in price and again like the previous weeks Hosking was the short term cash grab. A bit of pattern emerging looking back!

Round 6

Overall Rank: 686
Trade Out: Mitch Kenny & Bryce Cartwright
Trade In: Jayden Brailey & Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad
Summary: I saw Brailey as a fallen gun who played RD13 and then CNK was a playable 18th man who played RD13. Kenny & Bryce's prices both seemed to have stalled but in hindsight these were wasted trades.

Round 7

Overall Rank: 415
Trade Out: Jayden Brailey, J'maine Hopgood & Will Warbrick
Trade In: Nicholas Hynes, Brandon Smith & Kodi Nikorima
Summary: This was bit of a season defining move for me so far, getting on Hynes quite early, picking Cheese back up after Turpin wasn't named on the bench & Kodi was a massive gamble being the only cow I could afford at the time. Brailey injury in first game wasn't ideal but I was happy enough cutting Hopgood and Warbrick.

Round 8

Overall Rank: 182
Trade Out: Patrick Carrigan, Paul Alamoti & Shawn Blore
Trade In: Jack Bird, Joseph Manu & Jahream Bula
Summary: So at this point my preseason aim of holding trades wasn't going well. I was max trading but the overall rank was getting better every week. I felt after this week I would be in position to hold a few trades as Manu would be played on the bench to provide cover for all positions and I'd be able to rotate/loop KNik and Bula as an 18th man to cover byes. After trading him out Bird was gunning it so I wanted to right that mistake and Bula was just another gamble after not seeing him play but Sheens preseason comments were enough for me to take the plunge before seeing him play.

Round 9

Overall Rank: 53
Trade Out: Eliesa Katoa & Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad
Trade In: Jack De Belin & Kaeo Weekes
Summary: First trade of the season banked! EKatoa and CNK both had CAT1 HIA's and was expecting both to miss a couple of weeks. After seeing JDB play huge minutes I decided I wanted to jump on. I had about 450k to spend but decided to cash out to Weekes as a RD13 player with Trbo at Origin. Although after 1 week this doesn't look this best trade I am happy to hold for the short term.

Obviously my early trade ideas were to try use 1 to keep coin generation rolling whilst using the other to strengthen the 17 each week. Although I wasted a couple of trades you can't get them all right and I'm now in a position where I can run my main 18 players and get some trades banked.

I'm aiming to do just the 1 trade this week with Horsburgh in for Cheese. Turpin is back on the bench and Horse looks to have a 70min role as well as playing RD13.

Current Team

Overall Rank: 11
Trade Out: Brandon Smith
Trade In: Corey Horsburgh

Bank: $114k

Boyd
Haas JDB Horsburgh
Wilton Hosking
Cleary Hynes (c)
Bird Lemuelu
Walsh Tedesco Miller
SJ Ford Preston Manu
KNik Bula Talau Weekes

My only real concern at the moment is no hooker cover but feel this is the easiest position to cover, I think eventually I'll look at trading Boyd to Robson especially if the Cowboys pick up some form.

I should also have enough bank to upgrade KNik to Tatola after Magic Round who I will run as my 18th man up until the bye period. Aside from that I'm pretty happy with how things are going and hopefully can break into the Top 10 this week and push the big boys in Green Schist, ET and Booze.

Thanks for reading, it was a bit of a slog but if people enjoy the content I will update each week at the end of every round. All ideas are welcomed!

I’m currently toying up the idea of doing Preston > Luki this week as well. Whilst it’s been said Luki is likely to have a spell it nets me 162k + the 114k I have in the bank.

This 276k could then be used on the following trades in the build up to RD13 which will also give me 13 players for the first big bye round:

Boyd > Robson
Talau > Tatola

Round 10

Round Score: 1,006
Overall Rank: 7th

Very happy with the weekly score, cracking the tonne whilst captaining Hynes with the rest of the squad really pulling through with some big scores. I set the goal of getting into the top 10 at the start of the week, so this week the target is top 5 although this will be tough with the gun Fanatics above me.

I tend to have a good idea of my trades on Sunday, however this week I feel a little unsure.

Glad I avoided the Luki and Tatola trades but outside of those two I can't really see any standout picks, nor did TLT throw up anything. Current team from RD10 is:

Bank: $114k
Boyd
Haas JDB Hors
Wilton Hosking
Hynes Cleary
Bird Manu
Walsh Teddy Miller
SJ Preston Bula Talau
Ford Lemmy KNik Weekes

Need at least 1 trade as I don't want to start Talau, so trade out options are Walsh Preston Ford KNik.

I have looked at Walsh > Drinky, Ford > Robson although it pains me trading out 2 RD13's.

Any ideas are more than welcomed.

Milchcow wrote:
Cheese is a possibility. He's not a R13 option but does help with HOK cover

I've already traded Cheese out twice this year, don't think I can waste any more trades on him. I've settled on wanting Robson as he plays the first 2 bye rounds, it's just a question of when and who I trade for him.

I think for this week I'd be best just doing a single trade of Ford to someone less than $651, very limited choice though.

GarethEllisismyDad wrote:Are you interested in lane? 640k from memory, and covers 13,16,19

Seems to be the only parra forward who guaranteed 80min

Hasn’t set the world alight since his return but we know he can score well

Hadn't really considered Lane, think I'd prefer Tohu for a similar price but bye next. What a disappointment TLT was! Think I may stick to last weeks mantra, if in doubt hold trades.

Contrastinghobby wrote:

Solid plan, but something to keep an eye on coming through the byes is if you trade Ford/Preston to Harris (Mid) your edge stocks drop so make sure you don't catch yourself short there.
Edge keepers seems tough this year so might have to go a little lower and hope for the best

Thanks for the comment mate, yeah it's in the back of my mind. Currently have no Hooker cover. Trading Ford loses my MID cover. Preston loses my EDG cover so my future plans do bear that in mind.

This leads me to looking at the Walsh > Drinkwater trade, it provides a little bit more cash and like Robson he plays the first 2 bye rounds whilst hopefully matching Walsh's scores over this period with an easier draw.

That then gives me $193k with a bit more room to potentially make the following pre-RD13 trades:

Ford > Robson = definite points upgrade and provides hooker cover
Preston > Hopgood = should be a points upgrade, replaces Ford's EDG/MID cover and extra RD13 number
Talau > Te Whare = finally get rid of Talau the dud king for a RD13 money maker
Knik > CASHOUT = may need a peaked KNik's value to afford the above trades

Again thanks all for the comments guys, it helps bouncing ideas off others for sure.

Round 11

Round Score: 933
Overall Rank: 12th

Probably my strangest round of the season so far. During the weekend I felt my team was really struggling as the majority of my squad put up disappointing scores. I had only 6 players get over 50 points so was expecting a massive slide down the rankings but I only ended up dropping 5 places so my score must have been around par.

Haas 86
Hynes 86 (captain)
Cleary 79
SJ 71
JDB 69
Bird 65

These guys really pulled my out of the mud.

Trades were quite the disaster going Walsh > Drinky and Ford > Robson. In hindsight a Ford > Luki single trade would have netted me well over 100 points.

So even though it wasn't the best of weeks I feel quite confident in the side moving forward with 10 players due to play RD13.

Potential trade ins before RD13 are HEdwards Luki Hopgood Matterson Tohu Davey BTrbo.

Trade outs for this week are:

Manu - Who knows how long he is out and whether or not he will be back in the #6
Hosking - Gun playing 80mins but with Martin back and Sorenson playing great on the left edge I can see them splitting minutes
Talau - No explanation needed

Only 28k so current trades are the following to boost RD13 numbers on positional cover:

Hosking >Davey
Manu > Hopgood
Talau >HEdwards

I don't mind missing Luki, his scores without tries aren't too flashy and I'm essentially replacing the worst pick of all time (Talau) for a potential playable coin goat

Thanks for reading!

Talking to myself it seems A slight change on the trades for this week

Hosking > Tatola rather than Davey.

The Ofahengaue signing likely to impact Davey's minutes and feel he isn't worth it without playing 80. Thinking Tatola's role increases over Origin.

Round 12

Round Score: 1,046
Overall Rank: 4th

So another crazy week, I felt like I'd had a poor start not putting the captaincy on Cleary followed by the late trade change of Billy Smith instead of Tatola. In hindsight it was a poor decision but everything that followed worked out amazingly and I had my highest score of the season so far!

If I'd stuck with playing with 16 I'd have taken Tatola's score meaning I would have missed Bula's 63. I then made a late gamble looping in Nikorima's 58 points by using Weekes who was Manly's 18th man. I ended up looking through Manly's named teams so far this year and they tend to always run out 1-17 unless a late injury so those extra points are what made it a great week.

Trading Hopgood back in a round early ended up working well, it was a little disappointing to see him play the whole second half on the edge which stalled his scoring. Talau > Edwards was my third trade which again worked out well as I finally traded out my worst pick of all time (Talau) whilst gaining a money maker, the added bonus of not having to take his 37 points.

Moving forward after the bye round I think the captaincy will move back to Cleary, he seems to have really upped his game after a slowish start to the season.

Currently have 10 players for RD13 after the rumours of Miller getting dropped to NSW cup.

I have 12 trades left with $41k in the bank. With only 12 trades left I only really want to use 4 trades over the next 3 weeks and my current trade out list over this time frame is the following:

Billy Smith
Miller
Nikorima
Weekes

Think I'm heading towards flicking Smith (copping the wasted trade) and Miller this week and holding Niko and Weekes until next week so I can take their RD13 scores.

Ideally I want to do Smith > Tohu which then leaves me $384k for a EDG / CTR / WFB however the options are pretty dire.

That will leave me with 12 players which will hopefully be enough to hold ground in the Top 5 along with the other Fanatics.

Robson
De Belin Tohu Hors
Hopgood ???
SJ Nikorima
Bird Lemmy
Drinky Weekes

Captaincy will be either SJ or JDB. Currently leaning towards JDB but will wait to see the Dragon's bench make up.

All thoughts and opinions are much appreciated!

@Stylebender Thanks mate. With trades getting low I can't really afford sideways moves so at least Tohu is a season keeper as long as he can stay fit (unlikely as that is).

Some good points made about SJ, I think mine will be a last minute decision.

With Wilton dropping in form a little I'm actually thinking that might be my best move this week as a straight swap to Harris and fielding 11 this round.

From there I can then reassess next week what I want to do with Miller, Smith, Nikorima and Weekes without being blinded by wanting RD13 players as I think I will want Joey Manu back if he's back in the #6.

Hopgood will be on the Bye but I can use Bird and Lemmy's DPP to cover EDG.

RD13 Locked in and ready for Lord of the Byes

Wilton > Tohu - Wilton's form has dropped and Tohu at a bargain price if playing pre-injury role
Miller > Ponga - Bit of a punt, plan is to use Ponga as an 18th man looper until his next injury

$179k ITB - 10 trades remaining

Robson
JDB Tohu Horsburgh
Hopgood
SJ KNik
Bird Lemmy
Drinky Weekes Ponga

2 trades used this week and my plan is to use 2 next week on Oloapu and Manu or an EDG who plays 16+19 (iPap /Bateman) to cover Hopgood's bye.

That will leave me 4 trades to use to prepare a team for RD16 and then 4 trades to prepare for RD19.

That's my rough plan, although obviously injuries etc can easily affect it.

@Rabbits21 Yeah mate it definitely is a risk but I know that he's a trade out any given week. Hopefully I can cop a couple of big scores and loop out the duds in the meantime.

I usually go ok yeah. Main things I aim for with my starting team is avoiding too many Origin players (still ended up with Teddy this year ) and trying to always have a 14-17 that I'm confident will produce playable scores whilst making cash, this tends to be avoiding playing boom/bust type players here.

Then once the the season starts I trade hard in the early rounds picking up the cows I missed, whilst improving the squad each week. If you read my first post in this thread you'll see the early season trade pattern was 1 cow and 1 upgrade each week.

I look back at my RD1 team and it was actually really poor, I've only held Haas, Cleary, Teddy, Boyd all season and I was ranked about 18,000th after RD1.

Round 13

Round Score: 692
Overall Rank: 4th

Wasn't an amazing week for the team but it was enough to hold my rank so I can't complain. I only did the 2 trades in hope I can make ground in RD16 and RD17 by fielding 11 and 13 whilst having a full team in all the other bye rounds.

Was happy with the base king JDB's score as captain, almost looked like a disaster when he got binned.

The Ponga and Tohu trade ins again were ok but not amazing, I must admit it wasn't easy watching Ponga as he could easily have had a HIA on more than 1 occasion but a solid second half saw him hit a respectable score.

Carrying Weekes isn't going to be ideal but good chance he just remains a dead spot in the team.

As mentioned in the previous post my first two trades are pretty set:

Nikorima > Oloapu - The early Niko gamble when he was $243k paid off with him making $210, hoping for something similar from Oloapu plus he plays RD16 and RD19.
Bird > Manu - A bit of a forced move but I have a feeling Bird's could see a bit more time on the sideline between now and the end of the season, Manu playing #1 or #6 is a gun.

I could then run Billy Smith at CTR and move Lemmy to EDG with Hopgood on the BYE this week but I quite like the idea of spending my bank on Smith to one of the gun EDG's that play both RD16 and RD19, therefore it's between:

iPap - I think my preferred option at the moment as he has the better base and could find the try line with the Tigers finding form
Bateman - Cheapest option but most likely to be switched positions in game to CTR
Nikora - Base not as good as iPap's but more likely to get over the line with the Sharkie's attacking footy

Really not sure on my captain pick for the week:

Cleary - Likely to be the most popular, but plays Sunday and potential early shower if they have a big lead against the Dragons
Hynes - Should be locked in for 80mins after short Origin stint but tougher game against the Bronco's
JDB - Base stat king and hopefully no sin bin this week

Main concern moving forward is no CTR cover in the EMG but no standout trade ins, so could look at to trade someone in instead of Oloapu or I could move Weekes on but think I'll just run the risk for now.

Robson
JDB Tohu Horsburgh
iPap Preston
Cleary Hynes
Lemmy Manu
Drinky Teddy Bula
SJ Boyd Edwards Haas
Oloapu Hopgood Ponga Weeks

Any news of players not backing up before the weekend could mean I change current plans.