That is until you realise there's something like 50,000 people across the country still doing it better.

From a Gavernators point of view, round seven proved to be lucky seven with a 2138 total, despite carrying one defender who scored an egg - Andrew Raines or Matt Maguire - only one of whom was covered by an emergency.

Elsewhere, Tom Scully proved a handy sub for the injured Sam Mitchell, scoring 134 points. If only Lance Franklin hadn't been a late withdrawal ...

As good as all this is (by gee it's hard not to enter smug mode) there is still plenty to learn. The best place to learn is from the best in the business.

A quick scan of Australia's top dream teams - Team Read, Gazza, OviJudd, West End Riot, lawls and Spaceballs, what a collection of funny names that is - provides as good an insight as any into where to start with any makeover.

Not surprisingly, those teams have plenty in common with one another.

Gary Ablett as captain. Well who saw that one coming?

Elsewhere, though, there are six other players who are in every one of those dream teams: Luke Hodge, Brendon Goddard, Beau Waters, Aaron Sandilands, Matthew Pavlich, and James Podsiadly. Any team with most or all of this combination would be looking strong.

There are three players in all but one of the top six dream team squads: Corey Enright, David Hille, and Ryan O'Keefe, while Michael Barlow, Heath Shaw, Shaun Higgins, Adam Goodes and Scott Gumbleton also make regular appearances.

With the limited trades available, it is not possible to completely overhaul a struggling dream team by simply imitating the best. Nor would it be desirable to buy the likes of Waters or Gumbleton at "today's prices'' because the better teams bought those players when they were

a good deal cheaper.

Still, it is smart to see how the top operators are thinking and then adopt similar strategies.