If I also may, one has to remember that there is a difference in purpose for both series. Select is more about being a pure collector’s series, where as Teamcoach’s main focus has always been about the online and getting the kids into the AFL. It’s like Supercoach or Dreamteam, only you’re limited to the silver cards you own. If anything, you can potentially have an even better Teamcoach team because there’s no salary cap to deal with. Course, you had a full team pre-2010.
If anything, I’d say Teamcoach did well for innovation last year. Footy Pointers is actually a cool innovation in my opinion, it’s a flip motion card showing a player demonstrate the key tools of his trade. On the opposite is the photo that inspired the card with a 'how-to' of the skill. That’s cool right there, not to mention it does teach more about the game's skill. I also saw that these were very popular last year. The stickers might not have been as popular, but you can see that the idea had some good intentions behind it.
Sig cards don’t really work for Teamcoach for two major reasons: One is the target audience. What does a limited number sig mean to them? I think they’ll have more value in the card if they were able to get the card signed by the player (Especially at Auskick) themselves as opposed to being signed beforehand. You may have noted the Magic Wildcards, those actually glow in the dark (actually quite well, I must add. Teamzone did do Glowzone products as well). That feature would be far more appealing to them than a sig card. The other reason would be ‘The fun and collectible' factor. Sig cards would expensive as all heck, and let's be honest, most people would be interested in getting their own team at the sig level. Star and Magic wildcards look fun. You've got a bogan looking Walker, a very happy Hartlett and a freaky looking Bruest for Magics. The sculpture wildcards do a great job in detailing and they look appealing from any way you look at them (How many of you noticed the guernsey is the right way around no matter which way you look at the card?) Those wildcards make me want to collect the others. Sig cards only make me want to collect the Collingwood ones... if I can afford it (Yes, cost is an isolating factor.)
Can Teamcoach innovate more with the types of cards? They certainly can. Do they need sigs or other very rare cards? No. That’s not the focus. The focus is the fun, and Teamcoach do a great job in bringing the fun. Teamcoach always had fantastic action shots, you see the players in their natural environment, on the field (Though I’m not a fan of fading the background for 2013). With Select’s cards, they have the same style of photo from the commons to the rarer cards. There’s no variety in them. There's no... well, fun.
Of course, to each their own. There's just different contexts about Select and Teamcoach. Teamcoach is meant to be about the fun, Select has a more serious edge about it, closer to Basketball cards. Yes, they keep the same staples for Teamcoach, but the difference between Select and Teamcoach? There's more than just the card in Teamcoach, you see the players get involved, put into different lights (That Buckley 2003 Common, or any big forward taking a mark for their gold... awesome!). I just hope 2014 commons look similar to previous years. (On that note, give me the Teamcoach gold of the winning premiership team than the Select Premiership redemption any day of the week. That's not to say there are some Select cards that look awesome as well. It's just I like Teamcoach a lot more.)
Also, Lance Franklin in a Sydney guernsey, anyone? Get it when Teamcoach 2014 comes out!