Footy Tragic

Carlton vs West Coast Eagles: 

We started off the weekend with an easy win to the Blues, putting their season back on track. West Coast continued to stake their claim as the best team to have your Dream Team stars play against, conceding the leakiest amount of points so far this season! Fevola finally got back in form, kicking six goals, and whilst a good effort, we must remember the opposition! The real star of the show was Carlton’s midfield, led by Marc Murphy, who recovered from a pre-game punch from the soon to be suspended Daniel Kerr. If they can stay consistent, the Carlton midfield is building (like Geelong’s) to have fantastic fantasy point scoring ability – something to remember for future weeks and years! For West Coast, it was quite a poor game, with Dean Cox leading the way with 98 points, although he didn’t play fantastically – in fact, he looks almost to be carrying an injury. So if you have Cox, I strongly advise you to put an emergency for him on your bench if possible, in case he gets a case of the dreaded “late withdrawal.” Also worth noting was the debut of Tom Swift – we at Footy Tragic have been eagerly awaiting his debut as he was such a good ball winner in his junior days, but his game tonight was terrible – almost every possession was a clanger or put his teammate in danger. I still think he will be good in the future, but maybe not this year!

Get on: Marc Murphy – he was always going to be a great player, and it’s terrific to see he has continued to improve every year. He works hard to break tags, and they want it in his hands. A great midfield option.

Get off: Ryan Houlihan – if his stint in the ressies wasn’t enough to make you trade him, he is now on top dollar. I would get rid off him before he is dropped again in a couple of weeks.

Injury: Nothing Major 

Saturday:

Western Bulldogs vs Sydney: 

Seriously, who said Higgins was injured? And even more importantly, who traded him out? If you did, you would be greatly disappointed with his classy performance on the weekend, scoring 110! It was also terrific to see a great game from Gia! Could this be the game that plays him into some good form? He is a great fantasy player, and at the moment at a terrific price, and if you are seeking a forward trade, he could be your man! The team around him is starting to build and be consistent, which is very important in DT land – good teams score the best! For Sydney, Ryan O’Keefe played a great DT game on the wing – a new position for him over the past few weeks, hence his price gain! If you were one of the lucky few who snapped him up when he bottomed out, well done to you! Whilst we did see some good scores this game, we also saw the usual shockers that come out of a Sydney game with Griffen, Gilbee and Aker scoring way below what is expected of them!

Get on: Daniel Giansiracusa – He is a consistent Dream Teamer when in form, and finally looks to be hitting his straps! He will build parallel with the doggies!

Get off: Nick Malceski – has gone from a player bordering on elite to a GOP – trade him whilst he still has some value!

Injury: Luke Ablett – injured his shoulder. What is it with Ablett’s hurting themselves lately!? 

North Melbourne vs Brisbane: 

The stars of this game were three different kids – Daniel Rich played his best game of his career to date, sending out a gift to all those who kept him (if Coughlan wasn’t dropped this week, I would’ve traded him!). Ben Warren has also continued his progressive form, kicking a goal in every quarter, often at vital times! The third player isn’t necessarily a “kid,” but is definitely having a break-out season now he is finally over his injuries, and that is Mitch Clark. He played another brilliant game in the ruck, and is still worth his price-tag! Even though he has gone up tremendously in price, don’t feel silly picking him up, as he is still a brilliant choice! There are also two other players worth mentioning – Jed Adcock and Andrew Swallow – Adcock has now had two fantastic games in a row, playing around half-back – he is a great option, but he is still a player to regularly dish out 30′s. Swallow’s game is hard not to mention, as it is not too often that a player racks up 14 tackles in a game! That’s 56 points worth of tackling! At around $300,000, Swallow is still a worthy option for your 6^th midfield spot!

Get on: Mitch Clark – He is one of only a couple of rucks firing at the moment – if you are in need of one, highly consider him!

Get off: Joel Macdonald – Still a very good player, but Vossy is making him much more accountable than he was last year. This means plenty of low scores unfortunately…

Injury: There were plenty of sore players, but Michael Rischitelli and Gavin Urquhart looked the worse – Rischitelli was holding his shoulder for half the match, whilst Urquhart went off with a sore knee. Both players played out the games but will be assessed during the week. 

St.Kilda vs Melbourne:

Melbourne really took it to the Saints, allowing for a pretty scrappy battle between first place and last. Whilst Saints were clearly the better team, they were dictated to in the first half before failing to capitalise in the second. They were led by Leigh Montagna and Lenny Hayes – Hayes again racked up the disposals, whilst Monty came home with 13 tackles! Goddard was also fantastic, starting the game at full forward, booting two quick goals, and roaming – just as he does best – for the rest of the game. For the Dees, there was no particular standout – although no-one really played that poorly, it just felt like a team effort, rather than individual performances (as corny as that sounds!). There was also a couple of injury scares – James McDonald looked to have hyperextended his knee, and Gilbert injured his ankle – although both returned, be wary of them this week. Gilbo was seen at the airport on crutches, showing the ladder-leaders are definitely going to play it safe.

Get on: Leigh Montagna – he has continued on from last year in fine form – with Hayes, DalSanto and Goddard around him, he is rarely tagged. And even when he is, he is learning to beat it!

Get off: Raph Clarke – a terrible, terrible game from the Saints most improved player in 2008. Many more games like that won’t just see him lose his place in the 22, but also may see him lose his spot on the list come end of the year!

Injury: As noted above, Gilbert and McDonald had scares, but will need to be monitered through the week. 

Fremantle vs Richmond: 

Who’d have thought that these two teams could produce the best game of the round!? In what turned out to be a hard fought match, Richmond came out victors for just the second time this season! Unfortunately though, it was not all good news – there were many players who went down with injury, including Stephen Hill, Des Headland, Luke McPharlin and Matt White, as well as a few others who had to struggle on. In better news, it was again Duffield who was Freo’s best, closely followed by a dominant Sandilands. Duffield is still looking great (I’ve been harping on about him for some time now), and definitely consider him as a backline option! Now at about $370,000, he has plenty of upside left in him! It was also good to see David Mundy up and performing again after playing sore for the past two weeks. Greg Broughton played his third game, and was great (as a DTer) – he’s an absolute ball magnet and uses it well! I’m so glad I picked him up! Just hope to god that Harvey doesn’t drop him again for no reason! For Richmond, Deledio was the star – he is really imposing himself on games, which is great to see! Wallace gave him free reign in the last quarter, and he really helped get them over the line! The other to really impress was Nahas – did some stuff which was amazing! However, his price is now too high to be jumping on board now.

Get on: David Mundy – fantastic start to the season, until injury saw him fall away over the past two weeks. He is back in form and dirt cheap! You can get him now for a little over $300,000!

Get off: Nick Suban – Freo were three men down, so his TOG was high, yet he failed to influence. He will get better, but I feel his price may have hit it’s peak.

Injury: Hill should be right this week, but the other three didn’t look too good. Headland and White did their hammys, so will probably miss 2 – 3. McPharlin will need scans. 

Sunday:

Hawthorn vs Adelaide: 

There are four players whom I liked a little bit more after coming out of this game – in no particular order, they are Sewell, Muston, Rioli and Thompson. Strangely, three were from the losing team! Again, Sewell racked up the disposals and tackles at the centre bounces, totally justifying his current price. He has really worked out the right balance between tagging and attacking football, and that is showing in his consistently high scoring! Muston played a fantastic second game, easily backing up his debut the week before! If you have plenty of trades left and you don’t get this boy into your team, you are foolish! As long as he doesn’t get injured, he looks like he will be able to back this up week in, week out! Cyril seemed not to have an opponent, carving it up in the middle and kicking 4 goals – I felt he was Hawthorn’s best player! He is going to be an absolute star in years to come! For Adelaide, it was Scotty Thompson who led them to victory – he had 38 disposals (but is still handballing too much!) and really looks to be back in some great DT form!

Get on: Scott Thompson – if you look at his history, the next few matches are ones he typically eats up! He is dirt cheap and you want him in your side!

Get off: Kurt Tippett – I write him off for two reasons; firstly, he had a shocking game, and there are so many better options out there. Secondly, the last time I wrote him off, he got 112 the next week (and he’s in my team!)!

Injury: Hawthorn lists Brown with a corked thigh, but Bateman was also seen icing his groin late in the fourth. Hopefully both should be ok for next week. 

Essendon vs Geelong: 

No disrespect to Essendon, but it was nice to see Geelong have a thrashing again (although the Dons did fight back late) because as we know – a winning team will always score you more points! Especially in Geelong’s case! It was great to see the usual suspects (and Shannon Byrnes) up and firing, with Stevie J once again the star with 6 goals. Joel Selwood has shaken off a slow start to the season, now with five tons in a row, and Ablett has come back seemingly unaffected by his groin – although he did hurt his ankle late in the fourth quarter… For Essendon, there wasn’t too much to report – Skipworth and McVeigh both returned, and both weren’t very high scorers – Skippy looked to be playing in defence a bit, and McVeigh was eased back into it. Worth noting too was the debut for Geelong forward Nathan Djerrkura – I was actually quite impressed by him – he seemed strong bodied for an indigenous player and really looked like he was fitting in. If it weren’t for his job security I would recommend jumping on board, but alas, it is something that needs to be taken into account.

Get on: Joel Selwood – he is a star – not that I need to tell you that – and is only $430,000 – cheap for a Geelong midfielder!

Get off: Tom Hawkins – If you thrash a team, but your full-forward doesn’t kick a goal you need to worry. He has now kicked 1 goal in his past three games… a worry.

Injury: Joel Corey was a late withdrawal with a foot injury and will miss at least two, just like skipper Tom Harley, who went down with a Hammy in the first quarter. Also keep an eye on Ablett – Geelong are playing it down, but there is no chance they will play him if he is one bit sore! 

Collingwood vs Port Adelaide: 

You know a player’s going well when the crowd are cheering every time he gets a possession late in the last quarter (and I don’t mean the cheering that Travis Cloke gets in the last quarter after his second touch for the day!). This was the case as the Collingwood crowd willed Dane Swan onto possession 50… unfortunately, he finished on a mediocre 48! And for the second week in a row was in the top 2 players of the round! Other that Swan and Dom Cassissi (one of only a few hard workers for Port), there were few to score too big, however, many still impressed; Brad Dick looked fantastic in the third quarter, with uncountable goal assists (plus a couple of his own!) – with Davis mainly playing in the midfield, his job security is very good, although his price is now nearly $200,000. It was also great to see Didak back, and as expected, his TOG was limited and he mainly played up forward. But keep an eye on his price over the next couple of weeks as it shoots down and the pounce! If you can get him at a good price, you will be laughing all the way to the finals!

Get on: Dane Swan – Although you may have missed out on his bottomed out price, he hasn’t reached top dollar yet! If you have the funds, get him and make him captain!

Get off: Nathan Krakouer – played ok, but if you wait much longer he will be back at his starting price… he doesn’t look like going back up unless Port start winning some games again.

Injury: Chad Cornes looked terrible all match before succumbing to the bench with what turns out to be some sort of calf injury. Port will most likely rest him until the break… Although, I do know of another Cornes who recently came back the next week after a three week injury…

Expert: Dan
Team: Hank Scorpio EDT
Round 10 Score: 2,189
Overall Ranking: 3,834
Trades Remaining: 10
Remaining Salary Cap: $96,400
Team Changes This Week:
In: Peter Burgoyne, Hayden Ballantyne
Out: Nathan Krakouer, Andrew Raines

Expert: Toby
Team: Fiora’s Hardnuts
Round 10 Score: 2,189
Overall Ranking: 948
Trades Remaining: 9
Remaining Salary Cap: $12,800
Team Changes This Week:
In: Dane Swan, Greg Broughton
Out: Mark Coughlan, Nick Suban

Expert: Ben
Team: The Redbacks
Round 10 Score: 2,256
Overall Ranking: 3,746
Trades Remaining: 8
Remaining Salary Cap: 70,800
Team Changes This Week:
In: Scott Thompson, Hayden Ballantyne
Out: Dayne Beams, Shaun Higgins

For those of you lucky enough not to have started with Lance Franklin this year…well more specifically for those of you who haven’t traded him in yet, now is a great time to look at the superstar forward.

Buddy has had a pretty average start to the season. His average of 80.2 is about 20 points per week lower than what I was hoping for from him when I put him in my starting line-up. As always, someone’s trash can become someone elses treasure. That average has seen him drop $112,300 (he had gone down a little more, but marginally went up in price after a 94 last week).

His first half looked like he was on track for an absolute monster, but he faded out, which suggests the queries over his conditioning are still relevant. At the end of the day, you can cop second half fade outs if he’s scoring 60′s in the first half. It might be a bit frustrating, but at least he’ll put up decent scores with that sort of start.

Hawthorn have a pretty sweet run coming up. OK, so it looks like Bock will be back to take him on this week and if we’re to look at their history (granted, it was just one incredible game from Bock) you’d have to say the Chicken Man has Buddy’s measure.

While this week could potentially be a danger match-up for Buddy, consider this: I’m going to assume that most teams have Higgins, and that most of them have Higgins as a forward. This is the reason why I am writing about an underpriced forward for the second week in a row – you’d have to worry about the articles during the week about Higgins. Even if he does keep playing you’d think he’d be carefully managed and this could affect his scoring. I was hoping for him to be a keeper, but he might have to be a trade out now.

Consider that Buddy is a decent chance to outscore Higgins this week.  Consider that Buddy actually costs less than Higgins (at least for now!) and consider that Buddy is staring at Sydney, Brisbane, West Coast and the Bulldogs in his draw. He scored 5 tons in 7 games against those sides last year (incl. finals). Both non-tons came against West Coast.

If you already have Buddy, but you’re looking at trading out Higgins or maybe even Krakouer then consider Ryan O’Keefe (see last weeks article and this is absolutely the last chance to jump on his bandwagon) or Daniel Giansiracusa (who may pick up a few points left behind by Higgins).

View Wise Guys’ Team
Round 9 Score: 1,536
Current Overall Ranking: 80,535
Trades Left: 9
Remaining Salary Cap: $42,000

Dear Wise Guys 

Thank you for submitting your team. 

The only thing worse in dreamteam than the dreaded “donut” is “multiple donuts”! Unfortunately, this week you had 3! 

My main aim this week will be helping to plug the gaps in your side & help you avoid the dreaded “donut” this week. 

The expected returns from injury of Lewis Roberts – Thomson & Dale Thomas should help your cause. In addition, Roger Hayden’s fractured fibula may also allow Greg Broughton to slot back into the Fremantle line up, which would be a massive boost to your side! 

While Shaun Higgins remains in doubt with a nagging groin injury, you have cover for him in Mitch Robinson. It’s also worth noting that Liam Anthony is an outside chance to return to VFL footy this week! 

I would describe your ruck line up as “unusual”. The preferred method when selecting rucks is to load up with two gun ruckman & then save cash with your 3^rd & 4^th rucks. Justin Koschitzke is surplus to your needs & should be downgraded to free up much needed cash in other areas. 

It’s much the same story with Scott Lucas. While the Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo is a beautiful country ground, unfortunately, Lucas doesn’t score dreamteam points for kicking goals down there. 

PROPOSED ACTION THIS WEEK: 

OUT: Scott Lucas $264,900 & Justin Koschitzke $268,900 

IN: Leon Davis $447,700 & Mike Pyke $75,300 

My reason for recommending Leon Davis is simple. “Neon Leon” leads all comers in the forward line with an average of 110 points per game. Furthermore, he’ll slot in very nicely alongside Steve Johnson & Nick Riewoldt! 

PROPOSED ACTION FOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK: 

Check the official team selection prior to Round 11. If both Kyle Cheney & Jared Petrenko are still on the sidelines, dump one of them & upgrade to a premium defender, using your cash gained from the trade I have proposed below. 

I’m very concerned about Shaun Higgins, along with over 112,000 other dreamteams who have him in their side (NOTE: you should have chosen Higgins as a forward, rather than a midfielder). Whenever a player has a nagging groin injury, the best bet is to offload them. Fortunately, you have an ideal replacement for Higgins in Beau Muston from Hawthorn at the bargain price of $86,600. 

It was a privilege to be at the MCG on Sunday to watch Beau Muston finally make his debut in his 4^th season at the Hawks. Many seasoned recruiters expected Muston to be drafted in the top 6 picks of the 2005 National Draft, before he did his knee prior to the draft. Hawthorn swooped on Muston with pick 22, which was considered by many to be a steal, despite Muston’s suspect knee. Muston took to AFL footy like a duck to water on Sunday, collecting 127 points along the way. It was refreshing to see a boy from Shepparton United, who has kept the faith & never doubted his ability to rise above his injuries, being the feel good story of the year thus far. Let’s all hope Muston remains injury free, for the benefit of himself, Hawthorn & dreamteamers! 

Good luck!