KFC SuperCoach 2022: How to pick a winning team (part one)

KFC SuperCoach can be the best fun you’ll have this footy season, but which players should you pick? Follow this free expert advice to start building your winning 2022 squad.

Welcome to KFC SuperCoach 101, we are Barron Von Crow and Clarky from the Jock Reynolds SuperCoach community here to provide some insight on how to get started picking your team.

In SuperCoach Classic you are given a $10 million salary cap to spend on your team. Once you’ve selected your appropriate pun-based team name it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the hundreds of names across all the positions.

During the season you are given a limited number of trades with two available each round and three available during bye rounds (Rounds 12-14) – unless you use a new trade boost which can add a trade in up to five rounds this season. Given this, when choosing players it’s important to select players with job security, scoring potential and not letting your personal bias impact your player selection.

It’s important to remember that before Round 1, you can make as many changes to your team as you wish.

SELECTION STRATEGY

There are many different strategies coaches use when selecting their team. So you should use the pre-season to experiment with different players or ways of putting a team together.

The most common strategy is known as Guns and Rookies. The key to this strategy is to pick as many premium-priced players as you can in your team and then fill the rest of your side out with cheap, rookie-priced players. Pretty simple!

With this strategy you’ll need to balance your spending across each field position, while taking a few chances on cheaper players you think have the potential to really increase their scoring from last year.

Max Gawn has proven his scoring power over many seasons in KFC SuperCoach.

WHO DO I PICK?

In our collective experience, it’s more fun to start with the top-priced players.

When we select a premium we are looking for someone we think will be in the top rankings of their position all season. You select these guys to keep them all year, unless they are struck down with injury.

The ruck position is easily where a large amount of money can be spent to get two elite players on field. Max Gawn and Sean Darcy are the two most expensive picks in KFC SuperCoach this year but both provide consistent safe scoring.

Gawn averaged 120 points per game in 2021 and Darcy averaged 118, which is a great thing to have. However, selecting these two will cost you $1.3 million, 13 per cent of your total salary.

If you’re concerned about spending too much on two players you can consider cheaper ruck options like Tim English, Marc Pittonet or Reilly O’Brien. These players are cheaper, but that’s because they may not score as well.

Sam Walsh’s scoring has improved every year since he was drafted. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Rolling into the midfield we recommend selecting four premium players priced at $550k or more. It’s hard to go past guys like Clayton Oliver, Jack Steele, Sam Walsh or Jack Macrae. Shopping the mids is tricky business, but it is usually safe to consider anyone in the top 20 midfielders.

The defender and forward positions can be difficult as scoring is a lot more volatile. We recommend two or three premium players in both positions for your starting squad.

In defence you should consider players who find lots of the ball like Jake Lloyd, Tom Stewart or Daniel Rich. Disposals efficiency is also a key part of the KFC SuperCoach scoring formula and players like this are known for hitting targets coming out of the backline. If they take behind kick-outs, that’s another bonus.

The volatile nature of scoring as a defender means that you may want to consider more risky options that could improve from last year. These are referred to as “breakout” players. Consider things like their role as a defender, for example a lockdown defender may not score well because their job does not rely on accumulating statistics.

Daniel Rich is one of the topscoring defenders in KFC SuperCoach. Picture: Michael Klein

Forwards have the same problem as defenders. Scoring will always be a rollercoaster for key-position players.

Some of the best options in the forward line in recent years have been dual-position players who can be selected in either the midfield or forward line – picking them here effectively opens up a midfield spot for another top-scoring player.

Josh Dunkley, Dustin Martin and Mitch Duncan all fit this category, and during the season you can also rotate them in the midfield to open up more trading options.

As with defenders, you want to consider what type of forward role they play. We want these guys up the ground finding the ball for at least some of the game not stuck all day in the forward pocket!

ROOKIES AND THE PINE

So we’ve had fun and now it’s time to figure out how we’re going to make money.

From round 3, players’ values will go up or down depending on how they are scoring. Players have a calculated “break even” score based on their price, which if exceeded regularly can increase their value. Coaches with SuperCoach Plus subscriptions will be able to see every player’s break even each week. The key when choosing the cheaper players in your team is to select players who will increase in value.

Once we’ve got our premiums locked in, we need to fill out the rest of the field as well as the bench spots. The easiest way to do this is with the new emerging rookies who may play games early in the season, or select slightly more expensive players who may improve after a form slump.

From your bench spots you will be able to select four emergency players. If for any reason a player on your field does not score, that score will be replaced with your emergency score. This is something to consider when selecting your bench spots.

Collingwood’s father-son gun Nick Daicos is a strong chance to get early games. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The great poet Sir Walter Scott was known as “The Great Unknown” and in KFC SuperCoach your rookies are exactly the same, especially this early in the pre-season. When it comes to picking your team at this time of the year it’s almost imopssible to know which rookies will be good selections when the season begins. Don’t stress, though! Just choose players that fit into your price structure and wait for the round 1 teams to be announced before finalising your selections. The most important thing is to make sure that you don’t end up with a non-playing player when round 1 begins.

That wraps up the first instalment of Supercoach 101. Damo and Azza from the Jock Reynolds team will be back soon here to teach the next lesson and go into some more in-depth tips and strategies for you to consider in 2022.