Footy Tragic

Friday:

Richmond vs Western Bulldogs: 

Unfortunately, Richmond was unable to win Terry Wallace’s last game, even though drawing even with the Doggies at half time. Whilst several Tigers plugged at it, none too many had a sizeable effect on the game – and it’s first year player, Liam Picken that the Doggies have to thank for this! His defensive efforts firstly nullified Richmond star, Brett Deledio, before he moved onto Nathan Foley for parts of the game too. So on behalf of all Dream Teamers out there, I say “Liam Picken – WE HATE YOU!!! Piss off! Please stop tagging our players and costing us vital points!!!” I just count myself lucky that Lids wasn’t my Captain this week!! Anyway, in other news, Higgins continued on his great form, scoffing at the suggestions of a fortnight ago that he was injured! Also, one player who I would like to give special mention to is Callan Ward – whilst he is still young and averaging ok scores, he looks like a brilliant prospect for future years – he has been great to watch and has some skills that could see him become a very early bloomer!

Get on:  Adam Cooney – He is still cheap and really starting to come into form. Whilst he is more of a Supercoach player, he is an ideal price to be brought in as your 5^th or 6^th midfielder.

Get off: Jordan McMahon – He played some nice passages, but was largely absent from the game – His rival for the role is Jake King – someone who has been playing great VFL footy and is a favourite of new coach Rawlings – watch out!

Injury: None from this game! 

Saturday:

St.Kilda vs North Melbourne: 

Dean Laidley blamed this loss on injuries – but Dean, one good quarter does not make a win! The Roos got off to a flier, but their unnecessary focus on unsociable football and their want to lock the game down served fuel to the Saints fire! The Saints midfield is in dominant form at the moment, with Hayes and Montagna still leading the way. It was also good to see DalSanto breaking a hard tag – something that has rarely happened in the past. In the end, it was Justin Koschitzke who was the difference, booting six magnificent goals, most from spectacular marks! He is still very underpriced and worth a spot in your team, whether as a forward or Ruck! For the Roos, they didn’t only come out of the match with a loss, but also a lot of injuries – some major, some minor. Ben Warran was the worst of the lot with a broken cheekbone.

Get on: Lenny Hayes – The Saints spiritual leader just keeps battling on each week. Didn’t score as well because of Gardiner’s absence, but he will be back this week!

Get off: Raph Clarke – I think he had eight clangers, yet only ten disposals – not good enough to hold his spot in such a dominant team.

Injury: Ben Warren – about a month with a broken cheek bone. Sam Power, Adam Simpson, Daniel Pratt and Daniel Wells should all be ok this week, and Sam Wright will need scans on his injured knee to determine the damage. Also, Steven King looks to be suspended for up to a month due to his clash with Sam Power. 

Brisbane vs Carlton: 

This was a match of the big forwards, with both Jono Brown and Fevola firing – however, it was Fev’s accuracy that won him (and his team) the battle. Whilst these two power forwards led the way on the scoreboard, it was another Brisbane forward that got me excited – and that is Jarred Brennan. This probably isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned him in my wrap due to his uncanny abilities on the field, but just as he excites one week, he lets you down the next. Although, he is looking much more consistent this year, and could be that smokey to turn your team around! Before this match, there was a very exciting looking battle between two young stars – Mitch Clark and Matt Kruezer – it was great to watch them go at it, with Mitch Clark ending with the honours – he is a great player (and that isn’t to say Kruezer isn’t) and it will be interesting to see what Brisbane do with him in the coming weeks as Leuenberger and Charman come back from injury.

Get on: Jared Brennan – he is a very left-field choice and not a lot of teams have him! He is a great player, and whist Brissie are playing well, he will see a lot of the ball! For the same price you could do much worse!

Get off: Andrew Carrazzo – He was a dream team superstar in previous years, but is being used as a tagger! Stay away until his role changes!

Injury: Josh Drummond has injured his calf, and thankfully scored us a donut! Anything more and his price would’ve dropped significantly! He should only miss 1 – 2 weeks. 

Port Adelaide vs Fremantle: 

Definitely the most hyped game in Victoria this week showed two perennial underperformers battle it out under the lights of AAMI stadium, with Port Adelaide taking home the honours. Whilst the game itself was pretty unexciting, Dream Teamers will typically keep a close eye on Freo this year, due to their amazing amount of debutants! Tonight we saw two more players put on their colours for the first time – Clancee Pearce and Michael Walters. Both played quite reasonably for their first game, and were happy to get their hands dirty to get their hands on the pill! Of the two, Pearce looks more likely to play more games due to his body size and Freo’s growing number of injuries to defenders. Walters played well, but another small forward, Hayden Ballantyne should be lining up this week after being a late withdrawal before the match. For Port, it was Kane Cornes (the tougher and less sooky of the two Cornes boys) who led the way, helping himself to 34 disposals – it is really good to see him back into some DT form! The only downside of their win was the injury to Travis Boak, which looks to have him on the sidelines for a month!

Get on: Kane Cornes – for many years, Kane has been one of the top few DT players each year, but has hit a form slump since his injury a few weeks ago. He now looks to be back in form and has truly bottomed out.

Get off: Chris Tarrant – whilst he has been a revelation in defence this year, his points have plummeted! For those interested in him after his brief move to the forward line last week, hold off! He was back to the other end of the ground today!

Injury: Travis Boak hurt his knee and will be gone for a month. 

Sunday:

Essendon vs Adelaide: 

May I start by making reference to my weekly wrap last week; “Get off: Kurt Tippett – firstly, he is not looking the goods, secondly, last time I put the mozz on him, he scored a ton the next week!” Well… a seven-goal haul was enough to keep me happy! He may just stay in my team after all! He wasn’t the only star of the show, with Chris Knights continuing to prove his worth as a midfielder-cum-forward, and Tyson Edwards turned it on for his 300^th game, yet strangely Andrew McLeod didn’t seem to care about the milestone… For Essendon, Watson and Stanton continued on their form, but it was Scott Lucas who bucked the trend when he played a half-decent game. It seemed like a different role for him – Knights had him roaming the field, rather than stuck leading in the forward line. I wouldn’t get too excited just yet though until we know this form is for real!

Get on: Scott Thompson – If telling you to get on him for the past 2 weeks wasn’t enough, I am doing it again today! Get on the bugger! His price is going up and will continue to for a while!

Get off: Andy Otten – He’s been great all year, but he may well have peaked! Trade him for an underpriced premium such as… Scotty Thompson!!

Injury: Captain Simon Goodwin injured his knee and will need a scan to determine the extent of the damage. 

Hawthorn vs Sydney: 

This match started with what sounded like an absolute carnage of the Hawthorn Football Club – first, Cyril Rioli hobbled off with a torn Hamstring, before Brent Renouf followed with what looked like a replica of Cyril’s injury. Then, Luke Hodge went down with an ankle injury… I cursed and cursed and cursed… and then he came back on and slotted straight back into the action! Fortunately for Hawthorn, Renouf’s injury wasn’t as bad as it looked and he was able to play out the match. Worth noting out of this game was the way Buddy played – he looked a lot more confident, and tried much harder to win the ball – especially as he was playing on Craig Bolton – a man who is arguably the All Australian CHB so far this year. Could this be the game that signals that Lance is back in form!? For Sydney, they continue to buck their old habits with certain stars treating themselves to a few more disposals than in years gone by, which is great for Dream Team! Most notably is ROK and Goodes – both have been in very good form lately and continue to be quite consistent!

Get on: Buddy Franklin – Dare I say it!? He did look very good, and has made me re-consider whether to put him in my team – hopefully this could be the turning point in his season!

Get off: Barry Hall – He really seems past it, and with his latest indiscretion may see himself on the outer.

Injury: Cyril Rioli – Did his hamstring, and as it is for the first time, they will want to make sure he is 100% before returning as they do not want it reoccurring. This could see him rested for at least a month! 

Geelong vs West Coast: 

I sat down to this game expecting Geelong to give West Coast an absolute hiding, however I was happily proven very wrong! It made for a very exciting contest, although littered with so many turnovers! For Geelong, Gary Ablett was the standout (although he wasn’t fantastic), and for West Coast, Matt Priddis really impressed me with his in-and-under work. He was also being tagged by Ling, proving that his score of 88 was worked very hard for! Jimmy Bartel hasn’t been too impressive lately, and has really relied on junk-time stats of kick-to-kick to boost his scores – I am not telling you to trade him, but just be wary that he is not entirely in form before you trade him in! Also disappointing for Geelong (and us DTers) was Stevie J’s efforts – he was heavily tagged by Stenglein, causing his upsettingly low score – hopefully teams in the future don’t apply this tactic to him as it really worked! As a quick final note, it was really satisfying to see Cox bounce back after all the talk during the week that he would be a late withdrawal! He didn’t just play, but played well, scoring a whopping 131! Now THAT’S the Cox we know and love!

Get on: Gary Ablett Jnr – Of course you have to have him – it seems he has hit his bottom price and will still continue to rise! Get him now before you lose a final because you don’t have him!

Get off: Jamie McNamara – Somehow I feel he may get dropped this week after his fantastic clearance THE WRONG WAY, where he burst out of the middle, kicking to the opposition goal-square where Mooney simply gathered and goaled… couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor kid!

Injury: Andrew Embley – injured his ankle thanks to Josh Kennedy and sat out the game, despite trying to come back on. Will need to be assessed! 

Monday:

Melbourne vs Collingwood: 

The game that focussed so much around just one boy’s debut didn’t allow us to see too much of him! The boy is Jack Watts and he had eight touches and one behind! It must be said though that he worked hard all day and continued to present, despite his lack of opportunities – he is not DT material yet though! The winning team however was Collingwood, led by Scott Pendlebury, and a back-in-form Alan Didak. Didak is the one which we should all take a look at – after two low scoring games (both due to injury), Dids has dropped significantly in price and is there for the taking! He is a massive scorer on his day and loves to kick like an Irishman! For Melbourne, Sylvia continued to back up his earlier performances with another strong outing, ironically pushing him towards favouritism for the club best and fairest! However, my favourite player of the day was a little man called Brad Dick – for the third week in a row he lit up the forward line and kicked five goals! He looks very exciting, and as a bonus, is freeing up Leon Davis to move further up field.

Get on: Alan Didak – a strong DT performer and horribly underpriced! Get on!

Get off: Dale Thomas – So many people are keeping him, hoping he will turn good – but I don’t think he will! He just doesn’t work hard enough for long enough…

Injury: Nathan Brown – injured his knee early and will need scans.

Expert: Dan
Team: Hank Scorpio EDT
Round 11 Score:  1,712
Overall Ranking: 6,559
Trades Remaining: 8
Remaining Salary Cap: $66,300
Team Changes This Week:
In: Nick Riewoldt, Beau Muston
Out: Jack Ziebell, Mitch Robinson 

Expert: Toby
Team: Fiora’s Hardnuts
Round 11 Score: 2,018
Overall Ranking: 758
Trades Remaining: 7
Remaining Salary Cap: $110,500
Team Changes This Week:
In: Beau Muston, Paul Duffield
Out: Hamish Hartlett, Chad Cornes 

Expert: Ben
Team: The Redbacks
Round 11 Score: 1,941
Overall Ranking: 3,690
Trades Remaining: 6
Remaining Salary Cap: $92,000
Team Changes This Week:
In: Beau Muston, Paul Duffield
Out: Chad Cornes, Adam Cockie

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.

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.

View The Feltchers’ Team
Round 10 Score: 2,079
Current Overall Ranking: 6,934
Trades Left: 11
Remaining Salary Cap: $177,200

Dear The Feltchers, 

Thank you for submitting your team. 

As with 88,000 other dreamteams, your major concern this week is the injury to Chad Cornes. Unfortunately, Cornes is out for 4 – 6 weeks due to injuries to his calf & knee. It’s the knee injury which concerns me the most, because it is the same knee that cut his season short in 2008. 

My other concern with your team is the dead wood you are carrying on the bench. Travis Tuck, Mark Coughlan, Andrew Raines & Jared Petrenko are wasting valuable cash by sitting on the sidelines. 

At this stage, I encourage you to retain Travis Tuck. He was named in the best players for Box Hill against Port Melbourne on the weekend & is knocking on the door for a recall into the Hawthorn side. Mark Coughlan was a surprising omission from the Richmond side last week, but after a rare win from the Tigers against Fremantle, I’m not expecting too many changes to last week’s side. Andrew Raines needs to come out of your side also, because he is eating up $190,500 that could be best used elsewhere. As for Jared Petrenko, my advice is to keep him, because he is only priced at $139,800. Petrenko could be a handy emergency down back later in the season if he can force his way back into the Crows lineup. 

PROPOSED ACTION THIS WEEK: 

OUT: Chad Cornes ($347,400) & Mark Coughlan ($276,500); 

IN: Paul Duffield ($375,800) & Beau Muston ($86,600).  

Paul Duffield has slipped under the radar very nicely in 2009. While Duffield is far from a household name in the Eastern states, he is very highly rated by the Dockers. Duffield has been used by Mark Harvey as an attacking half back, pushing forward through the midfield. This style of play is perfect for dreamteam, which is why Duffield is averaging 94 points per game. What’s more, he scored 135 points last week! 

My reason for selecting Beau Muston is obvious & I spoke about him last week in this column. The man is averaging 116 points per game & is priced at $86,600, get onboard! 

IMPORTANT DREAMTEAM NEWS: 

1 – For the 13,000 teams that have kept Liam Anthony since Round 1 (myself included), finally some good news. He played for North Ballarat in the VFL reserves on the weekend & was named in the best players. I’m expecting Anthony to be playing VFL seniors this weekend. 

2 – The good oil coming from Fremantle is that Hayden Ballantyne is a very strong chance to make his debut in Round 11 after booting 5 goals for Peel Thunder in the WAFL last week! Ballantyne is a 21 year old small forward who won the 2008 Sandover Medal after booting 75 goals in the WAFL! 

3 – The number 2 pick from the 2008 National Draft Nick Naitanui is also a strong chance to debut this week for West Coast after a very solid performance for Swan Districts in the WAFL last weekend. 

Let’s hope all three players are unleashed into the big time so they can start scoring us all valuable dreamteam points! 

Good luck!