Shane D, aka ‘General Soreness’, sat top of the SuperCoach standings heading into the final round last year but sadly his side slipped to fourth.

General is one of the wiser SuperCoach heads having played it for years, sitting 11th in 2015 before finishing 300th, with his 2020 finish of fourth his best yet, so Honeyball tapped into his knowledge, particularly around early season strategy.

To read all of General Soreness’ interview, purchase the Honeyball digital magazine now for the reduced price of $4.95 via this link.

HB: What’s your basic structure and underlying principles?

General: The starting structure, I try to pick 13 guys that I think will be keepers. That might include one or two that are a bit speculative. I won’t get super speculative in those 13, because if you have too many you could find yourself in trade trouble really quickly.

Then it’s building from that. Most of my trades are trying to jump on someone who’ll make me a lot of money or be a keeper. If they don’t fit either of those categories, you have to go past them even if you might want them.

HB: Do you monitor break-evens pretty closely?

General: You’ve always got to be looking for value. Earlier in the season, I pay much more attention to break-evens but only for those that I don’t consider keepers. The ones that are keepers the break-even really doesn’t matter because you’re not trading them or you’re not moving them.

“I do go pretty hard early. I like to correct all my wrongs as early as possible.”

General Soreness

HB: So you trade hard early?

General: I do go pretty hard early. I like to correct all my wrongs as early as possible. In those 13 keepers, if those two speculators go horribly and they’re going to lose a lot of money, but there’s other guys that I don’t have who have really good break-evens at a lesser price, I’ll get rid of them, as the cash generation you’ll get will make up for it.

HB: Thoughts on mid-pricers?
General: I try to steer clear of them, because they have bitten me more times than I care to imagine over the journey. Every now and again there is a player, with a change of team or significant role change, those guys you’ve got to take notice of. I’ll also be less patient with them. If you start filling your team with them you might want to hand over the keys now!

HB: How about PODs?

General: They’re a catch 22. I like early PODs. That’s when I’ll take the risks. Once you start your team, I don’t like picking them for the sake of having one. Because I’ve been playing for a while, I’ve learned not to hang on to these players. I’m pretty ruthless. I try to have a preconceived idea of why I’m picking them, so I know what I expect from them. If it’s not happening, you let them go.

To read all of General Soreness’ interview, purchase the Honeyball digital magazine now for the reduced price of $4.95 via this link.