SuperCoach 2016: Best trade, captain picks for Round 12 and the byes

IF YOU haven’t been paying attention, you might get a shock looking at your SuperCoach team. Bye rules, best trades, captain picks and latest podcast. Plus exclusive Champion Data match-ups.

Daniel Wells could provide a SuperCoach spark to cover for missing stars.

IF YOU haven’t been paying attention, you might get a shock when you click on your SuperCoach team today.

The string of blue dots across your team are the SuperCoach version of the plague.

All those players are missing due to the bye — that’s anyone who plays for Richmond, Adelaide, Gold Coast, St Kilda, Collingwood and Carlton. No Ablett. No Dusty. No Pendles. Even reliable rookie Sam Kerridge is out.

Next week Port Adelaide, Western Bulldogs, West Coast, Sydney, Essendon and Melbourne have the week off, and in Round 15 no players from North Melbourne, GWS, Brisbane Lions, Fremantle, Geelong or Hawthorn will be available.

This spells potential SuperCoach disaster, but there are some modified rules to help us through this challenging time.

Only our top 18 scoring players count towards our teams’ totals over the next three weeks, so we can afford to have a few outs. The 18 scorers must be on the field and your captain must be in your top 18 scoring players or you miss out on double points.

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All the unavailable players remain live across the weekend, as if they are playing in the last game of the round. This means everyone should have a crack at the vice-captain loophole — nominate someone who plays early in the round as your VC and if they produce a massive score, put the ‘C’ on a bye player and you’ll get double your VC’s score. If they don’t fire, pick a captain as normal later in the round. See our best VC and C picks below.

We also have three trades per week to help navigate the bye rounds, up from the usual two. This can be a blessing or a curse.

Swapping players in and out to find fit bodies each week can help keep your score respectable but it can quickly drain the trade bank — remember you’ll need some later in the year when SuperCoach finals roll around.

But trading smart over the next three weeks can avoid a bye disaster and improve your team.

If you’re unlucky enough to have injured stars Nic Naitanui, Kurt Tippett or Luke Dahlhaus, they have to be traded as usual for the best available replacement (in the ruck it’s hard to go past Max Gawn or Todd Goldstein).

For everyone else, the smart play is to use this week to trade out rookies that have gone up in value who will be missing this week and bring in cheap players to help cover some Round 13 holes, and in the process bank cash to recruit a couple of superstars next week (think players coming off the bye like Brett Deledio, Leigh Montagna, Scott Pendlebury and Rory Laird).

Players on the trade block this week include Josh Smith, Ben Crocker, Connor Menadue, Wayne Milera, Ryan Davis and Jade Gresham.

Josh Smith has hit the wall as a SuperCoach rookie. Picture: David Crosling

There are a number of rookies ‘on the bubble’ who will make ideal replacements, with Demon Jack Trengove ($156,500, break-even -47) the clear standout.

The former Demons skipper scored 60 in his comeback game and followed that up with 81 on Queen’s Birthday. He is projected to jump in value by $52,000 after his third game this weekend.

Port Adelaide defender Logan Austin ($123,900, break-even -49) and Sydney forward James Rose ($155,400, break-even -43) look like solid choices and open the door for some overdue downgrades at both ends of the ground.

Hawk Kade Stewart ($102,400 mid, break-even -98) has the lowest break-even of the week thanks to his bargain basement price tag and scores of 90 and 70 in his first two games. But tread carefully with any Hawthorn cheapies — as Kaiden Brand owners will tell you, they can disappear as soon as they arrive, and the imminent return of key Hawks Sam Mitchell, Taylor Duryea and Luke Hodge has alarm bells ringing.

Brisbane’s Jarrad Jansen ($123,900 mid) looked like a great option after scoring 98 on debut but after a 35 in game two his job security is suddenly very shaky. Teammate Rhys Mathieson ($117,300 mid) is waiting in the wings and is also ready for a price rise after his next game.

James Rose warms up at Sydney training.

Jack Trengove is finally injury-free.

CHAMPION DATA MATCH-UPS

If you’re an owner of Josh J Kennedy – get excited! He comes up against the hapless Lions this round, a side that has given up 99.4 points to opposition key forwards – 16.7 more points than any other team.

Kennedy is known for his ability to dominate lower opposition, averaging 128 points against bottom 10 sides this season – ranked second in the competition. When he last came up against the Lions in Round 1, he booted eight goals on his way to 180 points.

At the opposing end, Geelong (ranked No.1) and Western Bulldogs (ranked fourth) face each other on Saturday night. Both sides rank in the top four from a defensive point of view for conceding points to opposing key forwards. Cats spearhead Tom Hawkins returns from suspension and will have his work cut out, especially after scoring 100-plus points just once from nine career games against the Dogs.

Exclusive @championdata match-ups - points conceded by every club by position. Good news if you have JJ Kennedy pic.twitter.com/cHYFGsBvAb

— SuperCoach AFL (@Supercoach) June 16, 2016

CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Daniel Wells

Nominating a VC on Friday night always makes the game more fun to watch, and Wells has earned a shot on the back of a 122-point average over his past three games. He doesn’t mind playing Hawthorn, scoring 125 in his last outing against them back in 2013. Roos ruckman Todd Goldstein is always capable of going big but his record against the Hawks is modest by his standards, with scores of 92 and 95 in his past two games.

Sam Mitchell

The Hawks champ has been off the boil after dominating for the opening month but after a week’s rest is this the week he bounces back in style? He averages 110 in his past three against the Kangaroos.

Matt Priddis

Expect the Eagles to feast on the struggling Lions and Priddis is likely to be first in the feeding queue after scoring 159 against Brisbane in Round 1. But that was before Mitch Robinson was given stopping jobs — he kept Lachie Neale to just 51 points last weekend.

Tom Rockliff

The Brisbane skipper can score big, but he has a love-hate relationship with West Coast, posting a 57 and a 153 in his past three games against them. Could pay off as a VC loophole candidate but make sure you’ve got a good Plan B.

Robbie Gray

Put a score in the 120s in the bank for Gray this week. In his past three against Freo he has returned 122, 121 and 126.

Patrick Dangerfield

The new “perma-captain” on the back of his 133-point average (ranked No.1) and his insane 229 against North Melbourne last week. His past three average against the Dogs is 111 and he has never scored more than 120 against them, but don’t let that deter you.

Patrick Dangerfield is in red-hot form. Picture: Peter Ristevski

Dan Hannebery

The No.3 ranked player in SuperCoach this year scored under 100 for the first time this season last week. He should bounce back but Melbourne has historically contained him — his past three average against the Dees is 105 with two sub-100 scores. Lance Franklin goes even worse against the Dees, scoring 62 and 31 in his past two games against Paul Roos’ men. Luke Parker is in a hole but he did score 119 last time against the Dees.

Heath Shaw

The Giants finish the round against the struggling Bombers and Shaw could end the weekend with a bang. He has a season average of 117 (ranked fourth in the comp), averages 134 in his past five games and 126 in his past three against Essendon. Last week Josh Gibson racked up 25 touches at 96 per cent efficiency against the Bombers and Shaw is more than capable of repeating the dose.

Note: Perfect 9 takes a break during the bye rounds but will be back in Round 16 with a huge $85,000 jackpot.

CHAMPION DATA ROOKIE WATCH

The forgotten Jack Trengove becomes SuperCoach relevant this week as he prepares to face Sydney in what will be his third game of the season. He was one of Melbourne’s more important players last week against Collingwood, scoring one goal and applying plenty of defensive pressure, recording an equal team-high nine tackles on his way to 81 points. Despite costing slightly more than a basement priced rookie, he’s the perfect target this round.

Another player who returned from the wilderness last round was Giant Sam J. Reid. He scored 46 points against Sydney, finishing with 12 disposals, seven handball-receives, four tackles, one goal and five score involvements. In what will be his second game of the season, the added bonus of dual-position eligibility adds to Reid’s appeal.

At the selection table a further three debutants have been named, with Corey Wagner, Matthew Kennedy and Eric Hipwood all playing their first game this week. Kennedy is the pick of that trio after averaging 26 disposals, five tackles, four clearances and 114 points in the NEAFL.

Elsewhere, Sam Naismith has also been named on Sydney’s extended interchange bench and is chance to partner Callum Sinclair in the ruck, while Michael Hartley and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti return from injury and a rest respectively.

Originally published as SuperCoach 2016: Best trade, captain picks for Round 12 and the byes