G'day Aussie community.
We kick off our Season 51 campaign tomorrow night with a match against Saudi Arabia. Quite a few Aussie managers may have seen their players added and then removed from the National roster in preparation for this. Up until today's enthusiasm reset I've been scouting fairly broadly and making a skills data resource to help manage this season. For those who are unaware, before the enthusiasm reset at the start of the season scouting players comes with basically no penalty, however once players start getting dropped from the National side it hurts the team's enthusiasm and generally speaking causes them to not play together as well. This is why at this stage the only players on the roster are the ones I'm confident will feature in the team from the start. I'll be adding four more in the next 12 hours or so, likely three guards and a big, and am open to feedback from managers around that.
To be clear, feedback of the nature of "Put my player in the team, bro, what's wrong with you?" isn't that helpful. Feedback like, "You might have missed Jones, he might only have 16 rebounding, but he has 20 ID and good secondaries, should he be in the mix?" actually gives me something to think about.
The initial side at this stage is not what I thought it would be, largely due to a handful of players with good skills in important areas being in average game shape for the first round. If those players step that up in the next week or so I'm leaving room in the roster to bring them in. I'll only be starting the season with 12 players on the roster to allow that flexibility of a young player whose skills increase nicely or an out of shape player coming good being able to be added without having to drop someone and hurt the team enthusiasm.
For what it's worth, here is how the side looks like it might start for tomorrow night, though I'm still weighing up the bench guards and have yet to decide on the two reserves.
PG: Hongjing, Matus
SG: Sage,Nayyar
SF: Grunter, Unzi
PF: McFlynn, Omu
C: Dawes, Bill
I know there are Aussie players out there with skill sets to put pressure on spots in this team. One thing I'm looking for this season is a side with reasonable passing because of the boost it gives every players' offense, and good defense overall. But if a player is playing 90+ minutes every week for their club they are not likely to consistently be in the sort of game shape they need to be to play NT Games.
For those who haven't had a player on the NT before it is handy. Their experience improves more quickly, which helps your team in tight games, and you get a boost to your merchandise sales, which effectively cuts down on their high salary for you.
My goal is to communicate as much as I can with the community, help out where I can and get more players interested in the National Team. If you like how my approach sounds, feel free to approve it via the NT page option to do so. If you don't like how the plan sounds, feel free to disapprove of me - but do me a favour and let me know what you think I could be doing better. I'm keen to learn and while I won't promise to meet every demand sent to me I will at the very least listen to every opinion and add it to my thinking.
Let's win some games and try to push the Aussie NT squad up the rankings.
Coach Deano