Scott Thompson was my best pre season pick last year. I liked that at the start he was mildly unique, as far as premiums go anyway and that he returned a 99 average. I’m equally happy that I didn’t go for him again, because he started the season slowly and as it stands right now he’s $77K down from his starting price.

His recent form and Adelaide’s run home make him a pretty attractive proposition. For the immediate future he’s coming up against Essendon this week, who he has managed 4 tons in 7 games against, including a 137 and 112 last year.

Scotty t Admittedly after that he has North Melbourne (who he performs only OK against) and Sydney (who he has struggled against). However, his break even is very low this week, so a monster score against Essendon would see him sky rocket in price. After that, I like his history against most of the rest of the teams he meets this season.

Even though he’s only had two tons this year, he’s had four scores in the 90′s, so he has been thereabouts. A couple of stinker scores have really driven his average and his price down. I suppose you have to be prepared for the odd 60 with Thommo. He can frustrate in that way, but he makes up for it with the odd 130.

Traditionally the knock on him as a DT’er is that he takes too many frees against, but I don’t think the stats really back this up. This year he’s only had 11 FA’s in 9 games. Last year it was 28 in 22. I mean, he’s above average in the category, but once again where he hurts he can make up for it. He takes a few FA’s because he tackles hard and if his desperation at the contest costs you a -3 now and then, just think of the +4′s that he gets you.

What I haven’t liked about his game this year is that he’s very much in the middle of Adelaide’s handball happy game plan. C’mon Thommo! +3 is better than +2 so get that ball on your shoe a bit more often, please. It’s a bit of a bummer, because you generally like your DT’ers to have a high kick:handball ratio, but his recent form minus the Brisbane game (who he struggled against last year too) suggests to me that even if he stays on the hands a bit too much he can still average 100 on the way home.

He’s ridiculously underpriced for a guy of his upside. At the end of the day he wasn’t one of the most expensive players at the start of the year for no reason. He’s only in about 7000 teams, so he’s pretty unique, but given that his price is about to soar I expect him to be a fair bit more popular by Friday night at 7:40pm.