A stitch in time saves nine, however fools rush in where

angels fear to tread.

Wise sayings all, except for one tiny detail. They contradict one another completely and are therefore utterly useless.

Truth is, there is only one type of perfect wisdom. It is

called ‘‘wisdom after the fact’’.

You can adopt all the brilliant strategies you like but, in any game based on probability and chance — such as AFL dream team (and real life) — you cannot predict all outcomes. Play often enough and eventually you will lose, it’s a statistical fact.

Victory is about reducing that probability of defeat not

eliminating it entirely, and having contingencies for when probability kicks you a mongrel punt or a floater instead of the end-over-end drop punt you’d planned on.

Or when a team mate steps over the interchange line

when you’re in the action of kicking it — just ask Cyril

Rioli.

The best dream teams do that. Mediocre ones like The

Gavernators try to.

After round 17, dream team coaches would want to

have their ‘‘best team’’ in place, with just a few trades

left to cover injury and sudden drop in form.

Then along comes a week when your high priced assets

are quiet, your mid-priced players fail, and your cheapies (sadly) perform to expectation. If that has happened to you, then remember, it happens to the best coaches too.

Of the top 30 sides this year in the entire AFL dream team competition of 319,891 teams, six scored 2050 points or less last weekend. Mike’s Magic, the 28th best team in all of dream teamdom, scored 1992.

Meanwhile, the 72,789th best team scored 2368.

It is the business end of the season, with finals places up for grabs. Weaknesses in a dream team need to be

fixed urgently to avoid missing the September (or in dream team’s case, August) action.

A one-off, is a one-off, though. A poor score in a vital match does not mean it’s all over. It doesn’t mean

hacking previously reliable players from your team in a