Final Word: Trades, tactics, weather, RD 8

• SPY TALK: Key tactics, trades, skippers in Round 8
• POD HUNTER: Unique players to find an edge on rivals

After several weeks of rises, the Cooma Stallions took a tumble with what was a mixed round of SuperCoach scoring.

Plenty of big guns went large early in the round, before several faltered later on in the piece.

I scored a miserly 413 points to drop 600 places to 2,246^th overall.

I’d like to acknowledge early that I played Aaron Hardie (1) over AJ Tye (127) last round, I also brought in Daniel Sams and captained him only to be concussed and not bowl his overs, condolences are welcome…

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It was a nasty drop, but the nature of SuperCoach BBL is that it’s near impossible to go well every week.

The scoring fluctuates so heavily and the difference between a duck and quick half century is immense, so it’s not worth sulking about.

Let’s look ahead to Round 8 and try to reverse this minor slide, with the Sydney Thunder and Brisbane Heat on the double.

There’s wet weather around, so it’s strongly advised to leave trades until as late as possible, in particular Heat players who entirely lose their appeal if tonight’s game on the Gold Coast is rain affected.

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WEATHER WATCH

All weather is courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology as of Thursday, 12PM. All times are in AEDT. Forecasts are subject to change.

THURSDAY

6:10PM: Hurricanes v Thunder, Optus Stadium, Perth

Forecast: Very hot and sunny, 38 degrees, 0% chance of rain.

9:20PM: Heat v Stars, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Forecast: Showers, 27 degrees, 80% chance of rain.

FRIDAY

6:10PM: Strikers v Renegades, Adelaide Oval

Forecast: Sunny, 32 degrees, 0% chance of rain.

SATURDAY

7:15PM: Scorchers v Thunder, Optus Stadium, Perth

Forecast: Partly cloudy, 35 degrees, 10% chance of rain.

SUNDAY

7:15PM: Sixers v Heat, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Forecast: Possible shower, 27 degrees, 40% chance of 0-2mm of rain.

LOOKING AHEAD

As mentioned above, the Heat and Thunder are on the double in Round 8, however wet weather could impact the Heat, so watch the Gold Coast rain radar this afternoon.

Round 9 sees no team on the double game, which gives us six trades to prepare for Round 10 which has the Scorchers and Stars playing twice each.

As such, it’s advised not to trade out players from these sides, while guys like Stoinis and Maxwell should be coming into consideration as soon as this week.

The Stars game in Round 8 could be impacted by rain though, so again, keep a close eye on the weather before locking in trades with their players.

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SUPER PODS

Each week one of our contributors will provide a full analysis on the point of difference (POD) players to consider.

In the Final Word, we’ll look at the super POD options, the players at under 5% ownership (or around about) that could send you soaring (or falling) up the overall ranks.

They come with big risk, but the reward is immense if it comes off.

In last round’s article, Sam Billings went solid with 47 points, while Jason Behrendorff struggled with just 25 points.

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Nicholas Pooran

The West Indian power-hitter showed us his ability in his second game of the tournament, hitting 65 off 26 balls with eight sixes!

He did this batting at number six in the order.

Incredibly his ownership failed to jump after that, still at just 4.5%.

He hasn’t been able to emulate that feat since, but surely there’s another big outing around the corner.

There are issues with the purchase, firstly that he’s batting at five behind a high quality top order for the Stars, however he doesn’t need many balls to make his mark.

The other is obviously the weather forecast for tonight’s game.

However, that’s why he’s still at low-ownership and therefore in super POD territory.

Jason Roy

Four games, 62.5 point SuperCoach average, upcoming double game week, 4.7% ownership, opening bat, boom!

The Englishman is in form early in his BBL stint and ticks plenty of boxes to warrant serious consideration.

Across a whopping 222 career T20 games he averages 27.58 runs at a huge strike-rate of 142.89.

If you’re well set up with double game week players already, or the rain looks likely to hit the Gold Coast tonight, it brings the Round 10 DGW players right into early consideration.

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TRADES

As tends to be the case as I write this each week, I’m still unsure of what I’ll end up with exactly come the first ball of game one.

This week it’s particularly hard as I’m leaving trades as late as possible due to looming rain for the Stars v Heat clash.

If it looks to be wet come late afternoon I’ll likely be avoiding Heat players in my trades.

Here’s my current thinking for Round 8.

I really want Lewis Gregory, he’s bowling plenty of overs, taking wickets, and batting at 5/6 in the order and looking explosive in the process.

Pending rain, he’s a big chance to come in.

If this falls through, Tanveer Sangha is the likely man to come in instead.

I brought in Sams last week, and following his concussion he won’t play in the Thunder’s first or second game of the round, ouch!

Despite being a season-long keeper, that’s too much cash to be sitting on my bench not playing, so he’s out.

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You’ll want him in your team later on, so is it worth burning through two trades?

Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja are also in line to join the Stallions. I don’t particularly like Burns, but at $86,500 he frees up vital cash to spend elsewhere and with a breakeven of 5 he should make some decent money, so it looks a safe enough bet.

Again, if the radar if is wet tonight I’ll bypass him.

Khawaja has made several starts without going on with a knock. I think he’s due to go big and at $112k he looks a nice price.

If you’re in a position to do so, Marcus Stoinis looks a great buy this week with a breakeven of 19, a looming double game week, and the chance of him bowling again after appearing to roll the arm over in the nets during the week.

Again, WATCH THE WEATHER!!!!