For those of you not in the know about Dreamteam and Supercoach AFL/NRL players score points based on their match stats each week. You have a salary cap and trades and the idea is to pick a side to score the highest combined points.
I didn’t get off to the best of starts this year in either AFL competition because the first round fell during the Easter weekend (so while I was away at Bluesfest), it is hard to pick players, go to the beach, sleep in and then go to a music festival all at once. Placeholder players earned a spot in my starting side.
Despite this I am well poised to repeat my achievements from last year – a premiership in both leagues and finish close to the top 10%. It’s looking scratchy at the moment but the pieces will be in place in the next 3 weeks.
This year I sit around the top 2000 in NRL Dreamteam despite not being able to pick half of my players in a police line up. Last year I finished in the top 10% and made a prelim final in NRL Supercoach with the same handicap. (That year I could name 7 NRL players, two were on AFL lists that year).
What I do know is that many ‘coaches’ spend hours poring over data doing calculations and generally letting this hobby ruin the rest of their lives. I am managing my teams with 30 minutes for each of the 4 teams on Friday night and checking the how the team went Monday night.
So How Can I play this game so well, despite the relative lack of time invested?
I have often joked that AFL and NRL Supercoach and Dreamteam have more to do with share trading than the actual sports.
The real answer is simple really: One of the easiest ways to get an edge in your business: Knowing your numbers. Not the simple easy ones that your accountant can tell you in business (or that the Supercoach Dreamteam people give you).
I follow the numbers that really matter. A friend from uni who did some advanced stats courses and I sat down and talked through everything that we ‘really’ needed to know in order to succeed at dreamteam and Supercoach – the list is 4 stats for the year. We need a couple of lists at the start of the year with two pieces of data for each player.
Ben and I figured out the key numbers we needed to know in Newsletter Marketing Systems and we track them relentlessly.
We also help our clients to figure out the handful of key numbers they need to know in their own business before we go and help them. Knowing your numbers makes managing your business much easier and much safer.
If you know what you can realistically afford to spend to acquire a lead or a customer, you have a big edge over your competition that have absolutely no clue whatsoever about these critical numbers.