How Mark Brumley’s plan to dodge Round 13 bye players paid off with SuperCoach success

With Patrick Cripps and Ben Cunnington on the bench and 13 hundreds in his score, the Round 13 SuperCoach winner’s tactics to target the dreaded bye weekend paid handsome dividends.

Zach Merrett scored 138 SuperCoach points as captain for this week’s winning team. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

First-time SuperCoach Mark Brumley devised a plan in pre-season.

The relief dairy farmer from Wooreen, about two hours southeast of Melbourne, avoided players with the Round 13 bye when he picked his initial SuperCoach team.

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It meant overlooking some of the most popular players in the game and several premium scorers, including Patrick Dangerfield, Lachie Neale, Tim Kelly, Brodie Grundy and Max Gawn.

It was a bold strategy which Brumley knew would cost him any chance of overall glory.

But it paid handsome dividends on Sunday when the 23-year-old’s team — saintsforever — scored 2454 points to finish 36 points clear as the Round 13 winner and claim the $1000 weekly prize.

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“We didn’t take any of the superstars like Dangerfield, Grundy or any of the players that everybody knew it would be sensible to have,” he said.

“Our tactic was to aggressively trade, so we got the team to $13 million in salary cap. We reckoned that was going to give us an advantage against anybody who just submitted a team for the round.”

Zach Merrett scored 138 SuperCoach points as captain for this week’s winning team. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

Brumley’s round could not have started better when Reilly O’Brien monstered Richmond’s rookie ruckmen on Thursday, amassing 181 points.

O’Brien was the first of an incredible 13 hundreds in his 18 bye-round players, with his lowest score from James Sicily (87).

While many coaches scraped by with 15 or 16 players in Round 13, Brumley had 25 available.

It meant popular captaincy pick Patrick Cripps (78), Brodie Smith (74), Heath Shaw (69), Bachar Houli (68) and Ben Cunnington (59) were non-scoring players.

“I had superstars across all lines and a couple of emergencies I was waiting to see how they went,” he said.

“One of them was Reilly O’Brien. Everything just came together.”

The top #supercoach team this weekend is ranked 62,697 overall and scored 2454.

13 scores 114+ and 8 130+.

Bonkers.

— Tim Michell (@tim_michell) June 16, 2019

Opting for Zac Merrett (138) as captain was a masterstroke, but the St Kilda supporter’s decisive call came two weeks ago when he resisted calls from his brother-in-laws Keegan and Grady to trade Jack Billings.

Not trading Jack Billings helped Mark Brumley win this week’s SuperCoach prize. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

Billings scored 169 points against Gold Coast after racking up 33 disposals, 11 marks and booting two goals.

Brumley, whose team is ranked 62,697th overall, knows his success will be short-lived.

He has only three trades left with 10 rounds remaining and at least 14 players missing this week.

“The team is going to go downhill really quickly now. But it paid off,” he said.

He plans to split the prize with Keegan and Grady, who helped hone his bye-round winning strategy.

MARK’S WINNING ROUND 13 TEAM

DEFENDERS

James Sicily 87

Zac Williams 143

Rory Laird 121

Luke Ryan 88

MIDFIELDERS

Matt Crouch 91

Brad Crouch 129

Zach Merrett C 276

Stephen Coniglio 130

Jack Macrae 150

Nat Fyfe 129

RUCKS

Reilly O’Brien 181

Todd Goldstein 97

FORWARDS

James Worpel 97

Jack Billings 169

Caleb Daniel 114

Travis Boak 121

Michael Walters 158

Josh Dunkley 173

BENCH

Patrick Cripps 78

Brodie Smith 74

Heath Shaw 69

Bachar Houli 68

Will Setterfield 62

Ben Cunnington 59

Ryan Gardner 22