SuperCoach 2018: Five selection strategies you can use to build a winning team

SHOULD you stack your team with midfield stars, find value in the ruck or bank on the best rookies? The experts explain five ways to set up your SuperCoach team.

GETTING the pick of the board to fill a 30-man SuperCoach squad with players from every AFL team is a fun — and daunting — task. Where do you start?

If you selected what looked like an unbeatable line-up only to run out of cash with eight spots to fill, you aren’t alone.

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AFL coaches love to talk about “structures” and in SuperCoach it’s no different.

If you’re serious about taking out your office premiership, you need a plan before you start the recruiting process.

In the AFL there is more than one winning strategy and the same applies to SuperCoach.

Here’s a run-down of five selection strategies you could employ this year.

GUNS AND ROOKIES

A popular strategy with long-time SuperCoach players based on picking exclusively high-scoring stars and cheap players with scoring potential.

The premise is simple — when building your squad, pick one gun then one rookie through all the lines (defence, midfield, rucks, forwards) until you run out of money to pick any more premium players. Then fill the remaining spots with rookies.

PROS

— Information on newly recruited AFL players becomes more detailed every year. With just a little bit of research SuperCoaches can quite successfully select rookies that will play and increase in value. They can then traded for more established stars during the season.

— Avoids the risks associated with picking mid-priced players.

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CONS

— Most rookie-priced players are unknown quantities. Just because they are named in Round 1 doesn’t mean they are safe in a team’s best 22. Remember Relton Roberts?

— We remember the big rookie scores like Sam Powell-Pepper’s hundreds but 40s and 50s are much more common from first-year players. You can lessen the risk by picking as many mature-aged rookies as possible.

SAMPLE TEAM

Sample 2018 SuperCoach guns and rookies team

MID-PRICE MADNESS

A team based around a core of mid-price players allows you to spread your risk and get maximum value out of players underpriced at the start of the season.

Generally, a mid-price player is valued from $215,000-$500,000. When picking one of these players SuperCoaches are looking above all for value for money.

PROS

— If you can pick the right mid-pricer in your initial team you gain a significant advantage over the rest of the pack.

— A mid-priced strategy is likely to outscore a guns and rookies team early in the season. SuperCoaches who adopt this tactic are more likely to gain valuable wins in the early stages of their leagues and keep them in the hunt for the $50,000 grand prize.

— There is a multitude of mid-price options this year especially in the midfield with the likes of Tom Rockliff, Nat Fyfe, Patrick Cripps and Scott Pendlebury all underpriced plus ultra-cheap players like David Armitage and Ryan Griffen, who all have a proven scoring history.

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CONS

— For every Clayton Oliver who breaks out and becomes an elite scorer, there are just as many players who stagnate or even go backwards (remember Jaeger O’Meara?). Finding that diamond in the rough isn’t as easy as many think.

— It can be very hard later in the year to justify trading out a player who is scoring well but just not at an elite level. You can get all your mid-pricers right and finish with a team of midfielders who all increase their average by 20 points but have a midfield of 95-scorers which won’t compete against the best.

SAMPLE TEAM

Sample 2018 mid-price madness SuperCoach team

LOCKED AND LOADED MIDFIELD

This approach is as simple as loading up the midfield with elite and super elite players, throwing away the key and forgetting about them for the rest of the year.

PROS

— Midfielders make up most of the elite SuperCoach players. By picking as many of these elite premiums as possible in your starting squad, you maximise your midfield scoring potential over the entire season.

— Stacking your team with topscoring players guarantees you will make a flying start to the year.

CONS

— Just as the best scoring premiums are midfielders, so too are most of the highest scoring rookies. SuperCoaches who go with this strategy will most likely be forfeiting some of the best rookies in the competition, which will limit their team’s ability to generate cash for later trades.

— These players are also the most expensive and will leave you with a lot less money to spend in other positions.

— By stacking your midfield from the start you might be stuck with a player who performs below expectation and not having spots to add surprise stars like Clayton Oliver and Josh Kelly last year, or a premium who becomes available for a bargain price.

SAMPLE TEAM

Same 2018 locked and loaded midfield SuperCoach team

ROOKIE MIDFIELD MAYHEM

Instead of loading up the midfield with elite players, fill your midfield positions with rookies instead. You can then fill all your other lines with elite premiums.

PROS

— The best rookies are almost always in the midfield so it makes sense to pick a rookie who could average 80 in the minds compared to picking a rookie in the backline that might only average 50.

— This season we are struggling to find rookies who look like reliable scorers in defence and the forward line while the midfield is well stocked with promising cheap options.

— By selecting so many of the higher scoring rookies, SuperCoaches who adopt this strategy will ensure fast cash generation for their sides.

Jaeger O’Meara was a bust as a mid-price pick last year. Will his fortunes be different this season?

CONS

— Rookies remain dicey propositions even in the midfield with a high chance of being rested at some stage early in the season.

— If you don’t start with the gun midfielders you will have to spend a lot to trade them in during the season. While you might get a star in defence or up forward for a bargain price, midfielders tend to hold their value and you will probably have to cough up more than $600,000 to bring the elite stars into your side.

— There is big gulf between an 80 average from a rookie and a 120 average from a super elite player. If this margin can’t be made up by your forward and defender premiums, then you might struggle early until you can upgrade those rookies.

— If you employ this strategy, make sure you select at least one super elite player in your midfield who can be your captain in the early rounds of the season. Can’t go wrong with Patrick Dangerfield.

SAMPLE TEAM

Full rookie midfield sample SuperCoach team

RUCK RISK

Last year coaches who started with cheap rucks Toby Nankervis and Jarrod Witts gained a huge advantage on the competition.

This year the most popular ruck combo was Max Gawn and Nic Naitanui — until it became clear Nic Nat will battle to play in the early rounds of the season.

Gain is a lock but the R2 spot is wide open. You could gamble by selecting cheap Eagle Scott Lycett ($277,100), freeing up cash to spend elsewhere.

PROS

— Lycett looks set to be the Eagles’ No. 1 ruck option at least for the early rounds with Naitanui and Nathan Vardy battling injuries. A primary ruckman should be good for at least 80 points, which is a great return for his price.

— Lycett is no mug when it comes to SuperCoach himself. He played just one game last year but in 2016 he scored at least 100 points eight times, finishing with an average of 83.

— You don’t need to stick with this strategy all season. If Lycett scores well enough to get you to at least Round 10 you can cash him in by trading to Paddy Ryder, fresh off his bye.

— The extra cash made available by going cheap in the rucks can solve problems in other positions, such as going deeper in the forward line with less reliance on rookies.

CONS

— Naitanui’s status is up in the air. It’s not out of the question he is named for Round 1 or, barring that, returns in the first few rounds. What happens to Lycett’s scoring then? Vardy will also be back at some point.

— You’re making a choice to pass on any of the other more reliable high scoring rucks like Matthew Kreuzer or Stef Martin, or a potential bargain like Todd Goldstein.

— There’s no Plan B if this set up doesn’t work. Lycett is so cheap that if you want to get rid of him it will likely take multiple trades since you won’t be able to afford one of the top rucks mentioned above and trading down to a rookie isn’t really an option either since there aren’t any likely to get games.

SAMPLE TEAM

SuperCoach ruck risk sample team.

* This article is based on analysis by Mick the Mad Irishman from the Jock Reynolds SuperCoach community

Originally published as SuperCoach 2018: Five selection strategies you can use to build a winning team