Just a dumb question about selecting a team in the AFL Dream Team competition, which I've never done before ...

You have $6.94 million to spread among 30 players. That's $231,333 per player.

Given that points awarded place a high value on possessions, goals and tackles, it seems to me to bias towards midfielders and forwards. Backs score zero for their main task, which is spoils, and negatively for frees against, which they'd give away a lot of. Rucks can score for possessions, but only get 1 point for a hitout (e.g. a moderately priced ruck like Jamar probably wouldn't score very heavily).

If you spent your cap evenly through the four areas (backs, forwards, midfield, rucks) you'd spread your cap as follows:

9 backs x $231,333 = $2,082,000

9 forwards x $231,333 = $2,082,000

8 centres x $231,333 = $1,850,664

4 rucks x $231,333 = $925,332

However, if most of your point-scoring possessions are going to come from forwards and midfielders, shouldn't you spend more than average on them and less than average on backs ... say $1.6 million for backs and $2.2 million for midfielders?

However, if most of your point-scoring possessions are going to come from forwards and midfielders, shouldn't you spend more than average on them and less than average on backs ... say $1.6 million for backs and $2.2 million for midfielders?

Pretty much.

Even though a player such as Glass is a very good full-back, he isn't much value in your Dream Team because he doesn't get as many possessions as someone like Bowden.

Players who are listed was both forwards and backs are good to pick up because even though you might have them in the back pocket for your team, in reality they might be playing up forward and kicking goals.

Last year in my dream team debut I made the mistake of choosing too many players who, while extremely valuable to their side, don't score very big on the dream team because they're not huge winners of the ball. Like Clint Bizkit said -- players like Glass are vital to their side in the real world, but pretty much useless in the Dream Team situation.

My salary cap this year is very biased towards the midfield.

my team is very melb biased i like to do that, mainly eagles, dees, bulldogs in there

Last year in my dream team debut I made the mistake of choosing too many players who, while extremely valuable to their side, don't score very big on the dream team because they're not huge winners of the ball. Like Clint Bizkit said -- players like Glass are vital to their side in the real world, but pretty much useless in the Dream Team situation.

My salary cap this year is very biased towards the midfield.

So far I've biased it towards the midfield. I've got Judd, West, Bruce and McLean because of their possession winning capability, with West as captain because of double points. My highest-priced back is Joel Bowden, and while I'm trying not to bias myself towards too many Melbourne players, I've got Chris Johnson and Daniel Bell, because they're reasonably priced but with the potential to get possessions and spend some time further up the ground. I thought 'running' backs would be better in this regard than 'tall spoilers'. Adam Hunter (WCE) is a good price as a nominated back who can go forward and kick goals, similarly Koschitzke, provided he gets on the field enough.

Some of my reserves are some new draftees like Hawkins and Selwood (Geelong), Gibbs (Carlton) and Davey (Essendon) that I thought might step up and play early but were cheap. I'm wondering whether to leave them in or draft them later if they start playing well. Of course, if they do, their value goes up and I might miss the boat. Is picking players like them early a sound strategy? Bit of as punt I know.

And what do you reckon about rucks? Worth having the best ones (e.g. Cox and Lade), or again, would you "draw down" in favour of midfielders or forwards?

Definately get the cheap 90,000 draftees on your bench..... find the ones that will get a gig in their teams 22 like Alwyn Davey, Selwood (cats) Krakouer (Port) Ellis (hawks)... whack them on your bench and if you cop an injury they can fill in and score a handy 50 points which is better than trading off a gun player if he gets injured or suspended for 1-2 weeks....

My only worry is my last starting back in Ellis, Jesse Smith or Tim Boyle... i am pretty sure 1 or 2 of them will play round 1 and hopefully if i can get 50 points from them each week i will be happy.. not every player can get you 80-100 every week...

MY STARTING TEAM

BACKS : C.CORNES, SINCLAIR, MCMAHON

WALKER , RAINED, CHRIS JOHNSON (DEES), X. ELLIS

CENTRES: MITCHELL, HODGE, BLACK, SHERMAN, M. MUPRHY, N. LAPPIN

RUCKS: D. COX, A. SANDILANDS

FORWARDS: B.JOHNSON, M.PAVLICH, B. HALL

G. ABLETT, K. PETTIFER, L. FRANKLIN, ALWYN DAVEY

BENCH BACKS: JESSE SMITH, TIM BOYLE

BENCH CENTRES: JOEL SELWOOD (CATS) B. MUSTON (HAWKS)

BENCH RUCKS: GRIFFIN (ADELAIDE) RENOUF (HAWKS)

BENCH FORWARDS: NATHAN KRAKOUR (PORT) AARON EDWARDS (NORTH)

AS you can see i went pretty strong in the middle without blowing the budget on judd or goodes... also went strong in the ruck.. risk is my backups arent great but could be ok if as predicted they play....

So far I've biased it towards the midfield. I've got Judd, West, Bruce and McLean because of their possession winning capability, with West as captain because of double points. My highest-priced back is Joel Bowden, and while I'm trying not to bias myself towards too many Melbourne players, I've got Chris Johnson and Daniel Bell, because they're reasonably priced but with the potential to get possessions and spend some time further up the ground. I thought 'running' backs would be better in this regard than 'tall spoilers'. Adam Hunter (WCE) is a good price as a nominated back who can go forward and kick goals, similarly Koschitzke, provided he gets on the field enough.

Some of my reserves are some new draftees like Hawkins and Selwood (Geelong), Gibbs (Carlton) and Davey (Essendon) that I thought might step up and play early but were cheap. I'm wondering whether to leave them in or draft them later if they start playing well. Of course, if they do, their value goes up and I might miss the boat. Is picking players like them early a sound strategy? Bit of as punt I know.

And what do you reckon about rucks? Worth having the best ones (e.g. Cox and Lade), or again, would you "draw down" in favour of midfielders or forwards?

Yep, I have West as my captain too for exactly the same reason. I've also got C.Johnson, Bell, Selwood, Gibbs and Alwyn Davey. It looks like we're coming from the same school of thought Maurie. Good spoilers are great in the real world, useless in Dream Team.

I skimped on rucks. They can earn you a lot of points, but for me spending big in the middle was the bigger priority. I bought Sandilands, but after that all my rucks are either second rucks or new draftees. If Sandilands goes down or doesn't get a kick I'm boned in the ruck department, but I'm hoping my busy midfield will make up for it.

I definitely think that drafting new draftees is a good idea, especially the very early picks. All they need to do is play and not be completely hopeless and their worth will skyrocket. Even if they're in your reserve and not earning you any points, you can always either select them the next week, or trade them because their worth will have gone up. Hawkins was a bargain, as he was taken later in the draft thanks to F/S, he cost less than Gibbs and the other top 10 picks.

I also bought Clint Bizzell @ $127,000. He easily represented the best value-for-money back at that price. Best outcome there is he gets back to his best and scores heaps. Worst case scenario is he spends the year at Sandy and I haven't lost much at all.

My 2 cents...

1. Always pick running/forward backs, this is the most important one for mine

2. Pack the bench with youngsters that will get a game, more for moneytary reasons so when they go up trade them for another rookie and one of your mid-range players for an elite one.

3. Dont pick tap ruckman, for the ruck pick players who also go forward, or forwards who can pinch hit when required

4. Pick a consistant player over a higher scoring player for captain, one reason, i had hall as captain for most of last year and one game he scored 4 which doubled to 8, fair to say i changed the captancy to West after that game.

5. Find your own method and stick with, the best part of the game is that there are so many ways to play it.

Isnt it funny that we're all picking Chris Johnson as a starting back line player. For all we know, he wont get a game until Round 10. Unlikely but possible!

Isnt it funny that we're all picking Chris Johnson as a starting back line player. For all we know, he wont get a game until Round 10. Unlikely but possible!

I pick my team purely on value. Pick players that are underpriced. If the players increase in value then your team is doing well.

Make the maximum amount of changes for the first 3 rounds (untill the values are ajusted). Bring in performing players and dump those who aren't.

Exactly, Territory. We all chose Chris Johnson because he's very cheap in relation to his potential output.

Isnt it funny that we're all picking Chris Johnson as a starting back line player. For all we know, he wont get a game until Round 10. Unlikely but possible!

UMMMM HELLO

C Johnson is playin Tonight