Footy Tragic

Friday:

Essendon vs Melbourne: 

Whilst this was a game between two sides who do not have too much current dream team currency, it was a fantastic look at some players who will be in our teams for years to come! Liam Jurrah made his debut for Melbourne, and it was one of the more exciting first games in a long time – he came in being touted with high levels of talent and definitely delivered. Like most other indigenous players, he was very fast, had great ball skills and kicked a super goal! He played very high up the ground too, which was a very good sign as far as DT points are concerned! For those needing a cheap forward to stay on their bench, Jurrah could be the answer! His score of 65 looks to be one he should be able to back up most weeks. Another young Dee to impress for future years was Stefan Martin – I thought this was one of his better games for Melbourne and did some special things in the second half! This was also the second game for number one pick, Jack Watts. Please do yourself a favour and DO NOT trade him into your team! He looks to have some nice skills for the future and will continue to dominate against opposition his own size, but the AFL is a totally different level, causing him to often lose his feet or get out-positioned very easily. Give him a year or two and he will be a great pick-up, but not yet! There were not too many standout players in this game as far as more mature players go, however, Brent Prismall was probably one of the other great stories of the night – coming back for his second game since a knee reconstruction, he was tagged yet still had a great effect on the game – he is a bit too expensive for my liking, however could be a great smoky pickup for those who want someone a bit different to everyone else.

Get on: Liam Jurrah – Definitely the most exciting prospect from this game – looks physically able to play at AFL level and has the skills to go with it!

Get off: Brad Miller – I struggled to find someone to pick, but Miller is always a safe bet! He is willing the Dees into tanking mode, trying his hardest to miss two set shots in the goal square. Very inconsistent performer!

Injury: None 

Saturday:

Sydney vs Collingwood:

The best part about Sydney being on a decline in form is that they are no longer being able to limit the opposition to the dreadfully low DT scores like years gone by! Whilst only two Collingwood players scored over 100, they made sure they went well and truly past the mark, with Swan scoring 127 and Didak 141. Both played good games, but it was Didak who was the star – 29 kicks and 5 handballs! Talk about a great Dream Team game! Dids was meant to be bottoming out after a couple of injury riddled games, however it seems to have already been and gone with him coming into a rich vein of form – he is playing brilliantly and could well see himself ranked as one of the top three forwards this year (judged on average score). As you can see from his kick to handball ratio, he is a player made for Dream Team, especially now that he is playing more as a midfielder than a forward! Surprisingly, Didak wasn’t the highest score on the ground – that honour went to Ryan O’Keefe who played another brilliant game in his new role through the midfield, scoring a whopping 149! If you are in need of a forward, these two players should be at the top of your list – they play the DT game well, and are hard to match up on, plus play through the midfield! The other big story to come from this game was the injury to Scott Pendlebury who has injured his knee, re-igniting the debate of what should be done with players who score a Donut!

Get on: Alan Didak – he is only $375,000 so gets the nod above ROK – as stated above, he is a DT star and will kick the ball at every chance! Even a 25 disposal game would probably score him a ton!

Get off: Michael O’Loughlin – had a game to forget – he looked like Scott Lucus II.

Injury: Scott Pendlebury – Injured his knee and looks like missing 2 – 3 weeks. 

Sunday:

Geelong vs Fremantle 

No Crowley? Ablett Captain… Simple? It seems not! Ablett continued on his poor form against the Dockers, notching a season low 76 points, disappointing thousands of Dream Team coaches who consider him a Captain ‘lock.’ However, Coaches may have forgiven him due to the performance of his just-as-popular teammates. Personally, I had eight players in this game, so had been looking forward to it all week! And I was not let down – From Fremantle, I owned their three most damaging players – Pavlich, Duffield and Broughton. Of the three of them, Broughton was the biggest surprise – he played a brilliant game running off half back, whilst also manning the dangerous Steve Johnson. Whilst Stevie J still fired, he didn’t seem to impact the game as much as his DT score suggests. For the Cats, Chappy, Corey, Bartel and Stevie J were the big scorers. The best story was to see Bartel back into some form – he wasn’t just getting cheap possessions like in the past few weeks – he played head-to-head with Pavlich and it was a fantastic dual! Bartel has bottomed out now, so any of those interested in him should jump on now (or give it one more week as his price shouldn’t increase too much more next week). However, for the Cats it was Shannon Byrnes who was the big surprise – clearly playing for his place in the team, it was he who finished off the defiant Dockers. Every time he ran into the forward line to kick one of his five goals, I found myself screaming, “Piss off Byrnes! No one has you!!!” However, it didn’t work… Lastly, I wanted to comment on the game of Freo’s DeBoer – I have been criticising him all season, but thought he played a fantastic game – he totally shut down Selwood, whilst setting up some key plays himself.

Get on: Paul Duffield – played a great link-role, setting up most of the key plays for the Dockers. He is consistent and a great kick. I really enjoy watching him play!

Get off: Mark Blake – Big Mummy has his measure and he will be surely dropped in the next couple of weeks when Ottens comes back in. He rarely wins one-on-ones and is constantly fumbling.

Injury: Clancee Pearce – Played no part in the second half after injuring his calf – sounded minor, so keep your ear to the ground to find out how long, if at all, he will be out.

It’s a weird time to be writing an article in the middle of lockout. I suppose writing on Didak is a little reactive and this easily could have been last weeks article. At the same time, the third most popular DT forward (Ziebell) didn’t have a broken leg back then, so I imagine there’s a few people looking to trade in the forwards once we get out of this lockout.

Didak had an interrupted start to the year, playing the first four games, but getting hurt against Brisbane. His 2-3 week injury stretched out to five, much to the agony of his owners, but he’s back now and looking good. This week he’s set to go up in price with a break even around the 60 mark, though mind you he is playing Sydney who aren’t the DT force field they once were, but you still never know if they bust out their old ways and completely negate someone like Dids.

If he does score high, then he’ll go up in price but you can rest assured that he’s back, baby! If he doesn’t score so well then he sticks close to his bottom out price (which is now) and you can justify his low score with the Sydney factor. It’s pretty much a win-win situation unless you’re worried that he may not find his form.

In 2008 he really had a break out DT year. I really do feel for those that took the punt on him this year after he burnt so many people so badly last year with his club suspension, but one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. His injury kept his score low and this has had a flow on effect in his price to the point where he has dropped $70K.

Granted, his two big scores this season have both been against Melbourne, you can feel confident enough that he’s good for an average around 95 if he stays on the park. His other scores have been a respectable 88, a 72 against Geelong (tough to score against them), then a 46 when he got injured and a 79 first game back from injury. These scores have all driven his price right down, but I don’t consider it a concern over his scoring potential, because all of those sub 80 scores have a logical explanation.

You can look at his numbers this year and easily point the other way. You could logically argue that maybe he’s not quite got it this year. That he’s only scored well against Melbourne, but I see that as a very pessimistic argument. For me, the glass is half full and circumstances have prevented Dids from going bang so far this year. The planets are aligning though…

View Nige’s Blue Boys’ Team
Round 11 Score: 1,969
Current Overall Ranking: 22,694
Trades Left: 9
Remaining Salary Cap: $3,000

Dear Nige’s Blue Boys,

Thank you for submitting your team.

As we are in the middle of the split round & in lock out mode, my recommendations to your team will have to be made next week. Please also note that player prices will change after the completion of Round 12.

I very much like the look of your midfield, with 5 dreamteam stars in Gary Ablett, Leigh Montagna, Marc Murphy, Matty Boyd & Sam Mitchell all averaging over 98 points per game. Furthermore, Daniel Rich is a very handy 6^th midfielder! My concern here is Mark Coughlan, who is very pricey to hold as a reserve ($294,000).

Interim coach Jade Rawlings has made a statement down at Punt Road. He has shown the footy world that he is not afraid of making the tough decisions, as shown when he dumped Joel Bowden, Troy Simmonds, Jordan McMahon, Kayne Pettifer & your man Mark Coughlan. This concerns me greatly from a dreamteam perspective, because there is absolutely no guarantee that Coughlan will be returning any time soon. Unfortunately for Nige’s Blue Boys, Jade Rawlings is not impressed with the fact Coughlan is averaging 84 points per game! Coughlan needs to be offloaded to free up cash.

My recommendation to replace Coughlan is Tom Swift from West Coast. While the 18 year old Swift has now played 3 games & will rise in price from $86,600 to approximately $120,000 at the completion of this round, he is your man. Swift is a 191cm midfielder who was taken by the Eagles at pick 20 in the 2008 National Draft. Swift would have went much higher if not for missing the majority of the 2007 & 2008 seasons with knee injuries. Swift was also touted by Michael Voss as the best 16 year old in the county 3 years ago!

West Coast coach John Worsfold has gone on record saying that he would prefer to play a youngster such as Tom Swift in 2009, rather than a veteran like Chad Fletcher for the long term benefit of the club. On top of this, West Coast would be well advised to not win more than 4 games this year to qualify for a priority draft selection, which will most likely be pick number 2 overall in the 2009 National Draft. This is great news for owners of Tom Swift, because it means he should get plenty of opportunities in 2009.

While it is clear you have loaded up your midfield, we need to strengthen both your backline & forward line. With Jack Ziebell out of action for the next 6 – 10 weeks with a broken leg, I’m going to focus on your forward line.

My recommendation is to bring in Stevie Johnson. The reasons are simple, SJ is averaging 106 points per game & not only is he a great scorer of dreamteam points, he is a genuinely good player!

* PROPSED ACTION (next week)

OUT: Mark Coughlan & Jack Ziebell

IN: Tom Swift & Steve Johnson

* Please note that I have not included player prices here because prices will change at the completion of the split round. However, you can afford to make these changes, unless Stevie Johnson has an absolute blinder this week against Fremantle.

Also, keep an eye on Liam Jurrah from Melbourne who is a chance to debut this Friday night against Essendon. Jurrah has booted 11 goals for the Casey Scorpions in the last 3 weeks & is a very handy forward line option at only $126,600.

Good luck!