you get 50 selections.

when the player is on the team, the coach can see all the skills. cannot see other positional ratings and cannot see the .XX in skills and cannot see talent.

dropping a player doesn't cost from the 50.

so with the 50 selections. you drop a player so you have 49 on the roster. then call up a player and check his stats. compare him to other players of same position etc. either drop him or another player. repeat for any new player you may see with potential.

last cycle i only used 23 picks to select the whole team. so i used another 20ish picks to basically scout younger players and find one skill wonder chumps etc.

i pm'ed daudy the list yesterday with last cycles findings.

shout out if i didn't make it clear enough.

16/17 skill wise would be minimum for Australia in any off/def position. special teams you might see 14/15 minimum.

Australia and the USA probably have the easiest top 100 to look at. Due to the lack of other nations being active within our regions.

And yes you are 100% right, not as simple as looking at the top 100 list. You gotta dig a little deeper. Top 100 list is only a good place to start.

My list has come from watching player on the transfer market, noting their stats as they can be seen while on the transfer list. Players I scouted 4-6 seasons ago that now have huge improvments. And scouting using the wasted callups I posted about before.

Daudy tends to be more of a digger finding gems in hidden places. Between us and the other managers growing home grown talent. We find and field a pretty good team.

hosh13 wrote: Probably would be nice to have a brief summary on here as to what sort of skills a player would need at the various positions to get any consideration.

Actually, this is a good idea - particularly for players who don't necessarily need to be replaced but could be if there is better out there. I will try give a rough positional run down. That said, show us anyone with good funadmentals (be it physicals, consistency, int, or a mix depending on which position), as it helps keep lists up to date tracking future prospects, bad players that we shouldn't waste a call up on, or potential replacements if someone is getting too old.

Project gives a good ballpark, though I'd say 17-18 is a more accurate average (as of now, it was certainly some way lower in the past).

QB: Green Int (I'd say 19 or 20), green consistency (can be a bit lower than 19-20), green stamina. But actually, it's more so about the combination of both those things. Neither Bandy nor Watt have top top stats in BOTH, but they had top attributes in one, and pretty good levels in the other. I'd say 18-20 passing, agility, vision for me, but maybe I rate agility a bit higher than others. Footwork is also a common attribute to be trained though that's really a secondary/tertiary if at all beneficial. Positioning perhaps also. Also, this position is one where I think you have to have a 5* BPOS.

RB: Excellent physicals required (combined = at least 35 with a preference to strength, but with both generally being green). I think high blocking, agility, and carrying are the main priorities (with carrying probably the least important given less running). Footwork and a bit of stamina is handy as well, and some people train vision. Consistency is a plus. Actual skill level would probably be on the lower end of green (16-17) going by what we currently have, but again, it's more about the combo (though with some preference given to blocking/agility). 4.5* or above BPOS, but one thing to add is that most RBs on the team (and some past selections like Bootsma) are usually dual or triple positioned and flexible (so also have some other skills like catching or something).

TE: TE is probably one of our weaker key positions depth wise, so anything half decent with balanced skills at around the 17 level and good physicals will probably be in contention. Anderson had pretty unconventional physicals but a good skill build and still did a good job, Archie has better physicals but still not top of the line, and Gale has been a perennial squad member with great physicals, good catching, but not much else. Ideally we'd like a blend of both worlds. Grose and Jones are the closest we have to that, but are still a bit behind on the blocking (though again, it is debatable how important this is, though personally I think it does affect match report bpos). It's also the only key position we don't have any 5* BPOS in. I've got an 18/18 4.5* talent Aussie in training and I know project has a few guys on the boil (+ another up and comer on the Kamis), but there's good opportunity for someone right now to come and nail a starting spot (though I doubt they're out there).

WR: (Speed 18-20, strength less important but more the better, high stamina) I personally love a shed tonne of speed on my WR. I think we lack a guy with truly top end speed (though they're all still very fast), but the guys we do have tend to be very strong to go with their decent pace. To get into the NT, I think you have to probably be 5* BPOS or be a truly exceptional 4.5* BPOS. We have a good top order, but there's still opportunity. Skills would have to be around the 18 mark though due to the strength we have in this position (and this rules out some 3.5* talent 4.5* BPOS WRs). Greenham is only a 50/50 chance to be in the final squad due to borderline physicals + 4.5* BPOS, but he's got 18 skills in a lot of things and high consistency.

OL: (Strength 19-20 unlikely to be chosen if anything less unless a great 5* BPOS build, speed is flexible, but higher speed is well looked upon due to the greater positional flexiblity) Skills in blocking, agility, footwork should all be high. Positioning should be up there too, and vision won't harm. At the moment, you may be able to sneak in if your rounded primaries are around 17 with good physicals + other factors like consistency and maybe even intel (the latter being probably non-important). Most of the OLs are a bit higher than that though (or a solid 17 across the board including secondaries/tertiaries). We lack some 5* power here, with our current 5* BPOS guys being some of the weaker ones in terms of all round build.

DL: (Strength + speed probably both 18+, with some preference to strength being higher than that). Honestly, you need to be very, very good to break into this team. We've got guys like Ivan Wall who are 4.5* BPOS with 35 combined physicals and a very good skill set not even considered for the NT at all these last two cycles (and didn't make the cut even before that). I'm going to be dropping two 5* BPOS guys, one with 19 skills, the other with 14/20 physicals and 20 tackling) this cycle, so that gives you an idea of what's going on. Our DLs are good, and this is a position where we really have true depth.

LB: (Physicals combined 34+ with a preference to both strength/speed being roughly balanced - e.g. no slow strength freaks, or super fast weaklings). This is an interesting position, and skill levels will have to be very high (think 18 or higher across a wide variety including tackling, agility, tacticals, and so on). High intel/consistency combination is looked favourably upon due to MLB option, but intel is not a necessity. There's some room for inclusion here, as some of the encumbents either haven't progressed so well skills wise, or have less impressive physicals. Is there an LB out there that will break into the starting lineup? Probably not/slim. But is there a chance they get put in the squad? Yes, definitely.

CB: (Speed 19-20, strength is less important but to break into the team you'd have to have pretty decent strength). We've got pretty good depth here and it'd be hard to break in. One of the criticisms may be a lack of 5* BPOS power, but our guys are still very good. Dyas is a good chance to lose his spot because of his lower speed (though he's been a great long time servant of the NT), whilst Pendlebury only survives wit his physicals due to his high blocking/STCB ability. Skills have to be very high here, with 17-18 across the board probably the minimum. An exception could be made if you had a high BPOS STCB with good physicals and high blocking (to replace Pendlebury), though STCB is really not a priorty.

SF: (Speed high, but strength up there as well). I like a bit of INT in my safeties as well, but to be honest our NT guys have generally had mediocre INT and done pretty well. Skill level would have to be high with 18 across the board generally. However, if you're about 17 across the board, you may be in consideration for the last squad spot (currently held by 5* BPOS with good physicals and hovering around the 16/17 mark in every skill).

K: 20 kicking and/or 20 punting, with the requirement almost practically having both to be considered. Due to roster spots, we'd like guys to be able to do both Field Kicking and Punting at the highest standard if necessary so if one gets injured, the other can fill both spots. High consistency is a big plus, and strength is considered (but not vital) as it's used as a tiebreaker of sorts.

G: 4.5* BPOS or higher, decent physicals, and decent skills (particularly tackling). Not really the most important position, but the skill requirement for this one is as low as around 15 well spread. One idea here would be to ideally find some CBs/LB type players who have full Gunner BPOs also, so they can provide depth to those more important positions for the NT whilst starting as gunner. Training in this way would also enable you to take your gunner's skills/salaries higher than you ordinarily would at your club.

KR: Similar concept to the Gunners, but the skills requirement probably being a bit higher (given a lot of our guys are either longtime leftover veterans or dual BPOS guys who play other positions for their clubs normally).

Lower regions of Central and Atlantic Europe (aka the deepest regions) sometimes have some real gems, but are difficult to find.

As for Abraham, from memory he's a one skilled wonder and not very good. At least... he wasn't 5 cycles ago and I think he's been on bot since.