As was the theory last week, I am this week going to be comparing two very important midfielders from top-eight sides. Both started the season a little shaky, but have since well and truly hit their straps. Furthermore, both are certainly underpriced for what they offer. Each could be locked in for captaincy across the entire season and both are well-known DT heroes from season’s past as well as this one. Give up? I’m looking at my main man Lenny Hayes and DT stud, Dane Swan.

Dane Swan:

If you are a dream team coach and you are not completely in love with Dane Swan, there is something clearly wrong with you! This is a man who over the past four years has dominated the dream team competition, averaging a remarkably high and consistent 106.5 across his past four years, including a whopping average of 119 points last year! But Dane goes about his footy a little bit differently to a lot of the other DT studs – whilst there is no denying his ability as a footballer, you would be stupid to suggest he is as good as someone like Gary Ablett, let alone better than him in his Brownlow year of 2009 – but if you go by stats alone (and that is all we are concerned about in DT), Dane was the best player in the competition in 2009, a season in which he became the first player in AFL/VFL history to top 700 disposals in a season – that’s a monstrous average of 32 a game!!

So that’s enough gushing about his stats – clearly he is a man capable of fulfilling a huge role in your team – hell, you could lock the “C” onto him every week and be pretty confident he will deliver. There are several very good facts that surround Swan that make him an even more appealing addition to your team – he plays for Collingwood, a team who are sitting a game clear on top of the ladder and play a great style of high-possession footy; as far as the opposition is concerned, Swan is not the greatest player on the team – therefore taggers are likely to assume roles on teammates such as Pendlebury, Didak and Thomas; also, Swan has a great ability to win his own ball and a tank that allows him to run all day, clocking up dozens of handball-receives, all the way to the final siren.

This year has been a bit of a slower start for Swan – after scoring 143 points in round one, over his next four rounds he averaged just under 100 (99.5). Whilst if these scores came out of 95% of the competition, I’d say most coaches would be very pleased, but the fact he started the year priced at a lofty $523,500, it’s fair to say it was a hard pill to swallow for some coaches who had him locked in before the start of the season. But his past three weeks have seen him return to the Swan we know and the Swan we paid the big bucks for – he has averaged 131 points over the past three weeks and his price looks to be as low as it is going to get for the season (barring an early injury).

With Swan’s amazing DT history, and the fact he has now got the runs on the board for season 2010, he looks like an obvious choice in any midfield. He is a player capable of running all day and burns off an opponent when he does find himself with one. He has averaged five tackles and 30 disposals a game this year, showing he is right on the pace to claim a spot in the top five DTers for the year (again…).  The only question is whether you can afford him – he is the third most expensive player in the competition, but with an average of 117 points, it seems almost impossible to avoid wanting him for your team.

Key Stats 2010:

Kick : handball ratio – 1.3 : 1

Average Marks per game: 5.3

Average Tackles per game: 5

Average Disposals per game: 29.6

Breakeven: 93

Average Dream Team Points: 116.88

Price: $484,300 (-$39,200)

Lenny Hayes:

AFL Rd 7 - Saints v Blues

Like Swan, Lenny has been a DT jet for a few years now, however in 2009 he took his game up another notch, averaging 109 points for the season. Although not quite as big a scorer as Swan, Lenny is massively consistent and comes $50,000 cheaper – and despite his scores not being as high as Swan’s, they are still big enough and consistent enough to lock him as Captain each and every week.

The interesting thing with Lenny this season is how he started it – in fact, it is exactly the same way he started his stellar 2009 – he came into the season with a calf complaint which saw him eased into the action for the first four rounds where he averaged 90 points and around 65% game time. Obviously, as his time on ground increased, so did his scoring. Since recovering from his injury and returning to his usual 85% TOG, his scoring has increased respectively – he have averaged 115 points in the four games since.

As a player, Lenny is a star and plays the sort of game that attracts Brownlow votes as he plays a very uncompromising inside brand of football – however he is also more than capable of spreading from a contest and providing an option. As a huge Lenny fan, his ability to work his way around a man and avoid tackles is a highlight – a talent he has worked hard on due to his average level of pace. Like Swan he can run all day and proves very hard to tag – whilst he has high-quality teammates in DalSanto, Montagna and Goddard, all of whom are more likely to attract a tag, Hayes still finds himself with a defensive player on him due to his ability to will his team across the line – not unlike Chirs Judd. But, he has proven that he is able to work off his opponents through hard running and an uncompromising attack on the ball and the ball carrier.

This is where Lenny’s game differs to players like Swan – whilst Swan makes 80% of his scoring through marks, kicks and handballs alone, Lenny uses tackling as a large part of his point scoring. This year, just over 25% of Lenny’s scoring has been from tackling – a whopping 208 points worth. This is not to say he is not a ball winner – in 2009 he averaged 28 disposals, whilst this year he is already averaging 27 per game, however his huge average of 6.5 tackles (he has averaged 8 per game for the last four rounds) it what really gives his score a nice buffer.

At this stage of the game, Lenny looks to be only getting better – he is pushing 30, but is still showing continued class and longevity at his age, despite the hard-hitting way in which he plays his football. Even though the Saints appear below par, the midfield is still getting more of the ball – it is just their forward line (or backline on Sunday night) that is dysfunctional. I have even expected Hayes to step up his workload (if that is possible) whilst Riewoldt is out and now that he is skipper – until recently I was always of the opinion that Hayes was a better leader than Roo. He may average around 5 – 10 points less that Swan, but he is $50k cheaper and also presents himself as a much more unique pick (Hayes = 5.8% of teams vs Swan = 28%) – essentially, Hayes is a hugely consistent player, and just watching him you will see that he never gives up, no matter what the score-line.

Key Stats 2010:

Kick : handball ratio – 1 : 1

Average Marks per game: 3

Average Tackles per game: 6.5

Average Disposals per game: 27

Breakeven: 92

Average Dream Team Points: 102.5

Price: $443,500 (-$35,000)