Five Fundamentals You Need To Know To Build Your Round 1 Squad For SuperCoach BBL
In case you missed it, SuperCoach BBL opened earlier this week. There’s been plenty of coaches indulging in the novelty of mocking up your first, second, third and 500th squad already this week. Why not!?
But given the long lapse between seasons, we felt it was important to lay down five fundamentals for SuperCoach BBL, however novice or expert you are.
Be aware of international windows
OK, this is probably the most commonly asked question come Round 1. So we’ve made it easy, for now, with a basic spreadsheet of the international fixtures on the horizon during BBL and a bit of a rundown via this link.
The critical parts of that are the Australian Ashes Test squad will not be available for any BBL until mid-to-late January. That includes the fringe players, who will not be released for ad-hoc games given the tight protocols within the squad, based on last year. Among this cohort of likely unavailable players includes popular early picks Travis Head, Michael Neser, and Alex Carey. And yes Marnus Labuschagne (owned by 9% of coaches) will be in the Test squad!
Secondly, there is an Australia A game against the England Lions on December 9-12 (BBL starts on December 5). That will exclude a heap of quality BBL options for Rounds 1 and 2, as well as imports Tom Abell and Saqib Mahmood who’ve been picked in the Lions squad announced on Thursday. Make sure you’re monitoring those selections closer to the season.
Be aware of double game weeks (DGWs) and byes
We’ve seen a lot of early squads shared in Facebook groups who haven’t stocked up on Brisbane Heat and Sydney Sixers players. Why do we raise that? Because the Heat and the Sixers both have double games in Round 1, thus their players have two bites of the cherry and effectively should score twice as much. Capitalising on DGWs is crucial to getting ahead in SC BBL.
On the flipside, sometimes teams have byes, like the Heat in Round 2, so when you plan for Round 1, have that in mind. For example, you don’t want to pick six Heat players for their DGW in Round 1 and then be able to only trade out three (you only get three trades per round) when they’ve got the bye in Round 2, meaning you’ll effectively cop three scores of zero (donuts), unless you’re benching them.
Likewise the Adelaide Strikers have a DGW in Round 2, then a bye in Round 3. With three trades in your pocket each round, this is very manageable with good planning.
SuperCoach BBL is over before BBL Finals this year
This is the most significant rule change this year, which will impact those who play for rankings. Previously, the SuperCoach BBL rounds extended into the BBL Finals, where eventually there was one game per round. Salary caps became totally irrelevant as you only had 22 players to pick from (plus X-factors if you’re brave!) and effectively most coaches had the same XIs. It was a totally different game in itself and made a bit of a mockery of it all, to be honest. If you didn’t have James Vince during last year’s finals, you’ll understand.
It’s a good change and it shouldn’t effect your planning too much, but it’s worth being aware of.
There’s no point scoring system changes
Last year, SuperCoach HQ made some tweaks to the points scoring system, namely how many runs where required to gain strike rate bonus points (20 or more). Whether you liked that or loathed it, the system is unchanged, so you know what to expect. It’s wise to plan for players who exploit the system, rather than moan about it.
There’s more signings to come
It goes without saying but BBL squads are not finished yet. Across the board, there’s still 10 imports to be confirmed by clubs. So there will be more good options to select from but predicted XIs for clubs’ line-ups will also change too, so don’t get too set in your plans. For example, Joel Paris might be looking good for Hobart’s all-rounder role at number seven but they may still sign an import for that same purpose, bumping him out of the XI.
The Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades both still have all three visa spots to fill and the Perth Scorchers have two to go, so watch this space.
Also BBL clubs will load up on ‘replacement players’ closer to the start of the BBL season. These players are additional to their contracted 18-man squads and are added for injured players but also players unavailable on national duty (like the Ashes squad and Australia A crew), so expect an influx in late November. Generally they’re cheap and often they play early, so you can plan for some playing $42k or $62k options to be available for Round 1.
Stay tuned for updates via our Twitter and website. Check out all the updated squads and ins/outs.