Dual champion’s ’55’ secrets to claiming Supercoach glory

G’day Supercoaches,

People have often asked me what my secret was to being able to win BBL Supercoach twice?

The fact is that my secret was to expand and add my own flavours to an old recipe that a previous BBL Fantasy winner shared with me.

A certain chicken franchise claims its success on eleven secret herbs and spices. 

Whilst those of us old enough to have read Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” series of books when we were younger, know that “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.”

SUBSCRIBE! Gain access to stacks of additional premium articles each week, major unlimited group prize money, our Whatsapp community featuring QnAs with our team of contributors, late mail, and plenty of other bonus features. SUBSCRIBE HERE!

However, if you add those two numbers together you will get to 53, which will leave you short if you want to win BBL supercoach.

Before I go any further, I need to define what I mean when I use the term “score involvement” which people will often hear me refer to, particularly when I talk about trying to maximise score involvements over a season.

Every round, our total Supercoach score is made up of a combination of score involvements. 

If our 11 on field scoring players who make up our total score each round all play one game in the round, we will have a total of 12 score involvements. That is one game score for each player plus another score for our captain bonus.

If our 11 on field scoring players each play two games in the round, we will have 24 score involvements for the round. That is two game scores for each player plus another two scores for our captain bonus.

Embed from Getty Images

However, every round changes and isn’t that simple.  So, we might have five players playing two games and six players playing one game, which will give us 18 score involvements for the round if we assume that our captain is one of the players playing two games. (5 x 2 + 6 x 1 + 1 x 2 = 18)

The winning coach of the BBL|05 Fantasy competition once shared that he averaged around 55 PSI (points per score involvement) for the year when his team “Flying Horses” won the competition. 

He also had a theory that most years any coach who could get around that 55 figure would be ranked amongst the very top few coaches for the season.

As someone who likes to learn from others whilst also working out ways to improve, I decided that an average of 55 PSI would become my aim. 

Do you ever feel uneasy with how much you’re gambling with? You’re not alone, sport fans love a punt, but sometimes it can get a bit out of control. There’s help available with Gareth Wyatt and the team at CECAL. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, so make the call and get in contact here: https://bit.ly/3L2yG1W

However, I would also try and use the fixture to maximise the number of score involvements that I have over the season. 

My theory was that if there were only a few coaches averaging around that 55 PSI figure, then I would have an advantage over the other coaches if I was one of them and had more score involvements.

When BBL Fantasy switched over to Supercoach a few years later, I noticed that the 55 PSI figure was still standing up despite the slight change in scoring. Therefore, I still use this as a figure to aim for each year and will do so again this season.

When I won BBL|11 Supercoach two years ago, I scored 12,687 points and had 231 score involvements for the season. 

A quick bit of maths shows that I had an average PSI of 54.92. I won that season by 23 points, so if the person in second had the same number of score involvements as me and had averaged 55 PSI, they would have beaten me by 18 points!

Embed from Getty Images

Early on in that season the leader was having less score involvements than me but was picking all of the right players and was averaging well over 70 PSI.

The way the scoring was going that year I thought that there was definitely going to be a new bar set, however, by season’s end it all levelled out, and the magic 55 number stood strong yet again.

Last year I ended up scoring 12,457 from 226 score involvements, which gave me an average of 55.12 PSI. 

I finished 90 points ahead of second, so that coach would have had to have had two more score involvements over the season to beat me if they averaged the 55 PSI target. 

Alternatively, the less score involvements they had, the more they would have had to average over 55 PSI.

Embed from Getty Images

We could have had a maximum of 241 score involvements last year, so I certainly left an opportunity for other coaches to have more than me. 

However, despite me feeling like I was leaving opportunity, I noticed that a lot of coaches around me didn’t seem to be planning for the fixture as much as me, so I was comfortable knowing that they were going to need to average much greater than 55 PSI if I could once again reach that figure.

As with the previous season, the early season leader was averaging almost 70 PSI after a couple of rounds whilst I was lagging back at 50 PSI.

However, after what happened the previous season, I wasn’t worried about being over 700 points behind after two rounds and continued to focus on just getting my average back to 55 whilst also trying to maximise my score involvements between then and season end.

With the BBL|13 season being a shortened nine round season, the secret 55 PSI figure for success is certainly going to get a real test because we won’t have the time for the inevitable early season flyers to fall back to the field.

Over the next 12 months an estimated 60% of all fixed rate mortgages are going to expire. Patty and George from Mortgage Choice SCW can get you the best rate possible. It’s a super easy process, so flick them a message. Save $129 by mentioning SC Playbook for a FREE CONSULT!

After nine rounds last year I was averaging 54.8 PSI and was sitting in 13^th position. So, I still feel that even if the shorter season means that the magic 55 doesn’t quite stand up for ultimate success this year, any coach who reaches it will certainly still be in the thick of things!

Now that you have the answer, how are you going to approach BBL Supercoach year? 

Are you going to aim for 55 whilst trying to maximise score involvements, or, are you going to focus more on players than fixture and hope to increase the pressure on the proven 55 PSI ceiling?

There is room for improvement either way, so feel free to tweak the old recipe to your liking.