Feeling like a goose

Sack Thomas Broich, I said. The German import must have read that line and decided to stick it to me, as did the match officials.

As a few of you let me know on social media and via the comments section of the website I paid the price for my lack of faith in the Roar and especially Thomas Broich, but it didn-t stop there.

Oh no, the pain, as it turned out was just beginning. If Friday night wasn-t bad enough for your Scout, the rest of the weekend was an unmitigated disaster.

First Archie was struck down by an inconvenient bout of gastro, then Pat Zwaanswijk got himself sent off and was followed by Marcos Flores, sending me to the alcohol cabinet and back to the drawing board in search for answers.

And while staring down the neck of that Grey Goose I found out two things: Firstly, I am still standing, albeit unsteadily. I-m shaken but like James Bond, I remain undaunted, and secondly I have got to stop doubting the Wanderers.

Tony Popovic-s men are simply relentless. They defend, they defend and then they defend some more.

Last week I genuinely thought they were going to cop a pasting in Perth, as such I stacked the team with Glory players. The idea failed. The Wanderers proved me wrong and have been doing so for much of the season.

They may not score a lot of goals and having the likes of Mark Bridge or Dino Kresinger in your team won-t do a lot for you as a Fantasy coach, but players in their defence and midfield are straight up value.

Ante Covic is ranked equal first of all goalkeepers, Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Michael Beauchamp are both top 15 defender and relatively cheap at $166k and Aaron Mooy and Jerome Polentz are both ranked inside the top 20 midfielders.

The Wanderers are workmanlike and seem incapable of getting hammered. It might just be time to me to turn my attentions to backing teams who play their cross-town rivals, the hapless and seemingly defenceless Sky Blues.

With the exception of one Alessandro Del Piero they are struggling as much as your average punter the day after a work Christmas bash.

To emphasise that point, the Sky Blues only have five players inside the top 100 in the game. They are Del Piero (19), Brett Emerton (54), Yairo Yau (71), Ali Abbas (81) and Rhyan Grant (90). In short they aren-t performing and teams who play them rake in the points.

To illustrate that point, three Roar players made the Team of the Week from round seven, dominating the midfield were Broich, Ben Halloran and Erik Paartalu.

This week fantasy guns such as Marcelo Carrusca, Dario Vidosic and Iain Ramsay will be running at them and as such if you don-t have a couple of Reds in your side, you may be made to look the fool.

BuyPaul Ifill: It-s possible the Phoenix have turned the corner on the back of their win over Newcastle and while playing in the ‘distance derby- won-t be a lot of help to them this week, they appear to be a side on the up. Also on the up is Ifill, whose influence is getting better as his fitness does. He looked in the mood last week and you can expect that will continue. Buy him now for $187k and bag a bargain!

SellMark Bridge: I may have previously banged on about the virtues of the Wanderers- defenders but I did say Bridge rarely scores. Given he has netted twice this year already, I-d say his scoring isn-t done yet, but he might have peaked on his price. At close to 200k and with 50k in the bank if you had him from the start now is the time to sell.

Team of the Week: Note the Team of the Week is the cheapest, highest-scoring team in a valid formation (It may not be possible to select this team). Formation 3-4-3: Total Points 270.

Mark Paston (WP 16), Iacopo la Roca (26 WSW), Mark Milligan (MV 18), Andrew Durante (WP 14), Ben Halloran (BR 18), Jeremy Brockie (C) (WP 68), Thomas Broich (BR 26), Erik Paartalu (BR 18), Daniel McBreen (CCM 24), Paul Ifill (WP 22), Alessandro Del Piero (SFC 20)

Lastly a big congratulations to our Round Six topscorer Evan, who manages DRGNBRD and will receive a $100 VISA Moneycard. Evan reaped the benefits of stacking his side with Phoenix players, during their 3-0 demolition of the Jets and scored a total of 196 points.