Coaches reveal top tactics to save their SuperCoach seasons

Is your SuperCoach season not going to plan? Don't despair. You're not alone, and there is plenty of time to turn your season around. We’ve asked 12 coaches how they plan to get back in the game. HOW TO SAVE YOUR SEASON

Most coaches are looking for a way to upgrade Jack Petruccelle. Picture: Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images.

You can spend hours planning the perfect SuperCoach team, poring over JLT Series statistics and pre-season injury news, only for disaster to strike weeks later.

If, like me, you find yourself outside the top 25,000 coaches, it’s easy to despair.

However, a quick check of the rankings shows how swiftly our seasons could be salvaged.

🎙️ | It's time to go premium shopping! @al_superfooty, @danbegala, @ben_higgins84 & @tim_michell discuss the top trade options & how to get them in this week's SuperCoaches Box. https://t.co/7x7kuRJE74 #SuperCoach

— SuperCoach AFL (@Supercoach) May 1, 2019

The gap between the top 1000 and 5000th is just 171 points, while 5000 to 10,000th are only separated by 101 points.

That’s the equivalent of getting a captain’s pick right when others don’t or turning a rookie into a premium a few weeks before the coaches ahead of you in the pack do.

If you’re desperate to turn your season around and stay in the race for league or rankings glory, there are several ways to start climbing.

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You can aggressively trade, bringing in premium options quickly but risking disaster late in the year if injuries strike.

Alternatively, you can back in those you started with to discover their best form, banking trades to making a surge during the byes or when others run out.

Here’s three tactics I plan to use, and the strategies of 12 other coaches who have battled through the first six rounds.

MY TEAM

Name: Stocker Exchange

Current rank: 50,844

Best overall season rank: Top 2000-3000

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Prioritise consistency: I can’t afford to be up and down every two weeks if I’m going to rise from outside the top 50,000. It’s why I’m targeting Caleb Daniel, who hasn’t scored below 93, this week.

— Get forward rookies off field: This year’s crop of forward rookies have been too inconsistent — bar Willem Drew and Gryan Miers — to be on our fields much longer.

— POD vice-captains: The captain loophole gives you two cracks at the perfect double score and you can gain an edge if you pick right with a player most other coaches don’t have.

Matt Parker is one of the top upgrade options in the forward line for most coaches. Picture: Michael Klein.

YOUR STRATEGIES

First name: Josh

Team Name: Ham & Cheese Rioli

Current Rank: 37,267

Best season rank: inside the top 1000 (years ago)

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Ship out underperforming forwards such as Matt Parker and Jack Petrucelle.

— Get Jake Lloyd in before the bye rounds.

— Bring Tim Kelly in this week.

First name: Dan

Team name: Batten Above Avg

Current rank: 33,760

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Trade in rolled-gold premiums

— My mistakes from the outset were trading in pseudo-premium players like James Worpel and Tom Liberatore and starting Jack Steele. From now, I’ll be asking myself, “will this player be a top eight in their position at the end of the year?” before I make my move. Value options in this category — Lachie Whitfield and Tim Kelly — will come.

— Nailing vice-captain and captain choices. I didn’t place as much importance on this in the early rounds, getting sucked into players that had their games early in the round. Over the past three weeks choosing Grundy (160, and Gawn (126 and 145) has seen me rise up the rankings.

First name: Sam

Team name: ScottishKings

Current rank: 42,889

Best season rank: 8,898 (2015)

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Analyse the top-10 in each position and identify who is a must have! My ‘must-haves’ are players ranked first and second. Four or five of the top-ranked teams have Max Gawn, Brodie Grundy, Lachie Neale, Patrick Cripps and Travis Boak. Every week that players I don’t have score 120+ is another week I’m leaving points on the table and falling behind. Outside of hopefully attaining as many of those names quickly, I’ll look at lower ownership players to improve my ranking.

— Focus on my team structure for the bye rounds, by having 18 (possibly 20) scoring players each round.

— Identify AFL teams with a good draw coming up, such as GWS until Round 12.

Tim Kelly is a top upgrade target up forward after falling to his base price. Picture: Alison Wynd.

First name: James

Team name: JimmyD

Current rank: 34,974

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Using the VC/C and non-playing loophole.

— Trading rookies in before their price rises to generate maximum money for upgrades.

— Fielding rookies with a higher-scoring average. (For example if the last playing position is between two rookies, field the rookie with a higher avg. Not chase previous weeks score. An example was last weekend when I weighed up Michael Gibbons v Charlie Constable. Gibbons scored 100+ in previous round where as Constable was returning from a rest. I trusted Constable due to his superior average.

First name: Tim

Team name: Wooly’s Winners

Current rank: 46,704

Best season rank: 1,485

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Aggressive trade from here until the byes, potentially using most of my trades and saving only a couple for injuries. Try to complete my team quicker than normal.

— Hold trades. No sideways trades for current underperforming premiums (such as Jack Darling).

— Alternatively, you could keep upgrading as normal and hope team comes good. However, it is risky and could leave a lot of work to do late.

First name: Lekdog

Team name: Lekdog’s Puppies

Current rank: 41,617

Best season rank: 2656

1. POD’s got me into this mess and PODs will get me out of it! I’ll target players who are performing well but are in less than 10% of teams!

2. Maximise rookie profit! I’ve actually traded well in terms of rookie management (although no Sam Walsh killed me) so I’ll continue to get the most out of these guys and only jump off them when the perfect fallen premo or juicy rook is ready to be pounced on.

3. Do a better job with my VC! I need to do some creative VC work to catch up with the pack but not be greedy in the process. Most people go Grundy VC/Gawn C but I need to be better! Does my POD VC average 110 against Geelong? Does my POD VC dominate in the wet? Is my POD VC untouchable in Perth? These are the questions I need to consider!

First name: Darrell

Team name: Picken From Behind

Current rank: 25,291

Best season rank: About1900

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Maximise the rookies and wait for the fallen premiums to reduce the cash I need.

— Picking that point of differences will be the key to the rise. I’m looking at you Daniel Rich.

— Not wasting trades will be a huge factor come later in the year, when coaches start choosing to rest their stars.

Name: Josh

Team name: Oraziooooooo

Current rank: 52,365

Best rank this year: 31,133

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Make a call on rookies who are starting to hit their ceiling. Use the cash to upgrade some of my midfield to get high-performing premiums.

— Start using the bench loophole more effectively. Too many times I’ve had a good score from a player that I can’t get on the ground.

— Avoid sideways trades. Back your players (unless they sustain a long-term injury) to prevent burning too many trades unnecessarily.

Caleb Daniel is a point of difference option who has scored consistently. Picture: Michael Klein.

Name: Lochie

Team Name: SharpShooting

Current Rank: 35,268

Best Season Rank: 6,409 (2017)

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Prepare for the bye rounds, because it’s a great time to jump unprepared players.

— Take risks by adding one or two points of difference.

— Maximise points through loopholes as much as possible, such as emergency and vice-captain, to avoid losing easy points.

Name: Damien

Team name: Soul Star

Current rank: 32,661

Best tactic to climb rankings:

— Log the top 10 players in each position, looking at the point of difference players and upgrade my mid pricers to get them in at their bottom price. Fyfe comes in this week and Tim Kelly soon, taking byes into account. I’m also considering points of difference Tom Stewart, Zak Jones and Caleb Daniel.

First name: Liam

Team name: The Tough Bretts

Current rank: 36,656

Best season rank: About 8000

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Trading aggressively to get players like Jack Petruccelle off field, even if they still have money to make.

— Upgrading to points of difference where sensible to try to make ground up on the competition when popular players have a down week.

— Not overpaying for top premiums such as Travis Boak, Lachie Whitfield and Jake Lloyd, so I can stretch my upgrade budget further. I’ll be going Jack Scrimshaw to Daniel Rich this week so it leaves enough cash to move Tom Atkins to James Sicily.

First name: Sam

Team name: Bragsy’s Dons

Current rank: 46,918

Best overall rank: 2609 (2016)

Three tactics to climb rankings:

— Use the bye rounds to your advantage. A fair amount of people start to drop off then and that’s when you can climb the rankings by planning ahead.

— Never trade your premos. You have put them in your team for a reason so stick by them!

— Hold your cash cows as long as you can to generate every cent you can get your hands on, which can then be used to upgrade to premium players.