DHF Dream Team Review – Round 7

Monday night football makes it a short turnaround for both the players and us Dream Team coaches as we had to wait until after Monday for the round to finish up. This leaves one less day through the week to talk about players, trades, injuries, captains and whatever else…

Anyway let’s check out the big items of round 7:

With 7 rounds complete, it is only typical of Dream Team that the questions are where are you injury wise? How many goose eggs did you cop or will you have this week? Do you bench your injured, or trade? These are your big worries. The injury lists are up, and if you haven’t been hit yet then you are either VERY lucky, or your team is pure shit.

Some good news to come out was the possibility (however slight) of Gary Ablett returning this week, clearly showing his desire to win a Brownlow…or that he is struggling with lack of captain choice like the rest of us (people who rushed to ditch Gaz last week probably just throw up a little in their mouth).

The late omissions struck coaches like a low blow this week, namely Shaun Higgins, who we didn’t find out about until well after lockout. A shining light up forward Higs had turned into a keeper for many of us, but this week the most popular player in DT left 122,823 coaches looking toward their bench for cover. He is undergoing a groin test this week and remains unclear how much more, if any, time he will miss.

Throw in the fact that Mitchell Brown was a late withdrawal on Friday (thankfully before lockout if you were onto things and not already at the pub getting sloshed) and a throng of coaches were left with another zero in what is now known as the week of the goose egg!

Big Taylor Walker gave some life to his Break Even, heading into this round with an average of just 47 to go with a BE of 65, coaches were staring at the dismal fact that his $167k price tag was about his limit. This was more distressful when looking at possible replacements (especially considering the 100k+ cost of the big name first gamers this weekend in Steele and Yarren). But the big stiff came through, not only did his monstrous 115 help raise his value to $185k, it has practically reset his BE to a beautiful -5 (even Walker’s piss poor rookie running mate Petrenko could probably manage that…we think!). Throw in the fact that I had to start Taylor with Brown and Higgins both scratched and he has solidified himself back into my team and good graces for the next few weeks.

Now back to those big name first gamers, yes finally Steele Sidebottom and Chris Yarran made their debuts. About time some rookie frw’s were injected into the game, ready to provide solid downgrade options. Chris provided a respectable 52 in a tough loss on the Goldcoast to Fremantle (he does have a hefty price tag, 130k), but I’d expect him to provide opportunities for scores closer to the 100 mark as he get’s on. Steele on the other hand did what we had been waiting for (and calling for from MM) all year. As a late inclusion he posted 80 points and has owners the likes of M-Brown licking their chops for a possible downgrade next week.

It’s raining scores! To contrast the number of people copping goose eggs, round 7 also produced a bunch of huge scores to tide coaches over. With 19 players racking up at least 120, including DT favourites such as Stevie J (149), Stanton (147), Gibbsy (142 and a holla at my BOYEE!), Sandi (139), Murphdawg (130), Corey (126), Roo (126), Joel Sellers (124, finally proving his worth), Bowden (123), Kane (120), and Goddard (116).

Simply put, if you aren’t the walking wounded right now, there were definitely big scores to be had during round 7.