Andrew Langley, coach of Diabolical Angle, rolled the dice in Round 13 last January and came up a $25,000 SuperCoach BBL winner, rising from 11th with one round to go to win by 23 points.
The Taggerty-based local government worker, 51, took some almighty gambles, bringing in lesser-known Gades Josh Lalor and Cameron Boyce and fading Sixers superstars Josh Philippe and Sean Abbott on doubles.
Andrew modestly says it was a 10 per cent chance of paying off, but it did and he’d got himself in 11th spot to take that punt. It paid off!
The thing is this wasn’t Andrew’s first time in the top 100. In fact, he’s been up there numerous times, always having a punt on the final round, chasing that elusive top spot.
So Honeyball sat down with him to discuss the SuperCoach philosophy that has continually served him so well, with some top insights on breaking the season into blocks, how many players is too many in any one game, planning for doubles and more.
To read the full Q&A, buy the HB SC BBL|12 magazine for $9.95 here
HB: Firstly, congrats Andrew! OK, it’s pre-season what are you looking for in your squad?
Andrew: First thing I’m looking for is the fixture. We’ve got three teams on the double this year, so to me it’s a no-brainer to try have almost an entire team of starters on the double. We’ve got an unusual situation where the Thunder are playing two doubles back-to-back which is a bit of a spanner in the works as I don’t usually like too many players from one team. I can see myself running with six or seven of them.
HB: So why a maximum of seven players in a game?
Andrew: Often when there’s a couple of teams on the double you can see whether they play each other. If they do play each other, I might have four from one team and three from the other. If they don’t play each other, I might have five from each team, knowing whoever they’re playing, I might only have one player. It’s partly because there’s only so many points to go around in a match.
There’s usually three-four players per team that might get above 50 points, so I figure the more players you have in the game, the more chance you’re going to hit those really low scores, no matter who they are, which is the risk this year with Thunder, as they play both the other two teams on the double. You run the risk of having 10-11 players in the one match. Odds are a couple of those players aren’t going to score very much.
HB: Very interesting. You’ve talked about doubles but how about byes. There’s talk of coaches carrying Scorchers on the Round 1 bye for their Round 2 double?
Andrew: I’m probably going to lean towards making that decision after the first game of Round 1. I’ll probably try and punt on a couple of cheaper players on the bench as loops and see what happens. If it looks like I’ll want to bring in their score, then I’ll be ready to move to Scorchers as a non-playing player.
Someone like a Beau Webster with Glenn Maxwell out may get a better role. He might bat that top four and get in a couple of overs. He might be worth a punt on the bench.
“I think where people get undone is they get too focused on the double and they don’t look at the players who are scoring. It’s not just about the number of players, it’s about the number of quality players.”
SC BBL|11 winner Andrew Langley
HB: You’ve talked about a sweet spot of around 61 DGR players in BBL|11. Can you explain that with a view to BBL|12?
Andrew: This year, for example, in Rounds 1-5 – discounting the trade boosts that people will use differently – there’s a maximum of 36 players we can have, you cannot get more than that. It’s impossible with how the draw is. To get that eight Thunder players, so I can’t imagine I’ll do that. I’ll probably be aiming for 33 over those first five rounds.
If you go to Rounds 8-9, we’ve got a heap of teams on the double again, the maximum you can have is 19 DGR players over those two rounds, doesn’t matter what teams they’re from. The same in the last two rounds.
I’m always building up my team leading up to those little groups to try to get close to maximizing that. I don’t try to hit 19 DGR players as that’s the maximum but I might want 17-18 to know I’m a good chance. I think where people get undone is they get too focused on the double and they don’t look at the players who are scoring. It’s not just about the number of players, it’s about the number of quality players.
To read the full Q&A, buy the HB SC BBL|12 magazine for $9.95 here
