Note: Don’t forget to check out Toby’s Round 7 Weekend Wrap-Up.

After spending the past few weeks looking at players on the decline, I think it’s time I looked at some players well and truly on the up. With a couple of injuries in the forward line this week and the maxing out of players such as Barry Hall, plenty of coaches will be looking at this position to make an upgrade. And fortunately, there are a couple of clear-cut options who look well and truly on the way up: Matthew Pavlich and Ryan O’Keefe.

Matthew Pavlich:

AFL Rd 4 - Saints v Dockers

The Pav is currently the second highest scoring forward in the competition, and what has made things much better for his output is the fact he is now the star in a winning team, rather than just being a star in a team that can’t get the ball to him. It has been a fast turnaround for the Dockers from where they finished last year – they are sitting second on the ladder and have only lost the one game – a close match against the Saints. Pavlich has been a star in each game and has only dropped below 85 points once!

Pav as a player is an interesting one: most players  improve their point-scoring potential by moving to the midfield, but strangely enough, Pav’s move to the centre in 2009 brought home less than ideal numbers – despite still averaging 92 points for the year, this was eight points down on the previous two years in which he played in the forward line. This year Pav has moved back to being a semi-permanent forward and it has seen his average jump back up to 99 points per game. His role sees him playing a CHF role, which includes several brief stints in the midfield each game. And whilst the scores from last year suggest that midfield is not his preferred position, I belive that these occasional runs help to stimulate him and keep him in the game.

We saw his best game for the season on the weekend against an undermanned Brisbane defence and he looked dangerous every time the Dockers went forward. He is clearly the most used option in their forays forward, and now with the likes of Hill, Duffield and Mundy delivering him the ball, it is more often than not kicked well to his advantage. Also, unlike many other forwards this year, Pav’s accuracy on goal seems to be quite reasonable – so far this year he has kicked 24:10 – this high rate means he is more likely to convert you the 6-pointers than a whole collection of ones.

Personally I see Pavlich as the best option in the forward line leading into Round 8 – he seems to be in great form and is at a reasonable price for what he offers. He hasn’t quite had any scores yet that will blow you away, however I think the form he is in suggests he can consistently deliver a high score – much better than what plenty of the other forwards seem to be offering this year. Also, the only forward averaging higher than him is Paul Chapman, whose hamstrings simply cannot be trusted.

Key Stats 2010:

Kick : handball ratio – 1.6 : 1

Average Marks per game: 5.3

Average Goals per game: 4

Average Disposals per game: 18.8

Breakeven: 46

Average Dream Team Points: 104

Price: $422,000

Ryan O’Keefe:

After asking for a trade at the end of the 2008 season and then looking out of form for the first several rounds of 2009, it seemed like O’Keefe’s career was headed in a downward spiral. But fortunately, this was not so – in round 6 last year he was moved into the midfield, and in turn taking his game to a new level. He became the 2nd highest disposal winner at the Swans and in the top 10 of the AFL from round 10 onwards. He also went through a mid-season purple patch in which he top scored with a whopping 173 DT points! Ball-winning ability is one thing, and skills another – and O’Keefe has both! He finally proved himself to be an elite dream teamer in 2009, showing consistency in his game, that was paralleled with his move to the midfield.

Now in 2010, he is still being played through the midfield and fortunately he has been able to provide us with some very similar numbers to last year. One of the impressive things about his game is his consistency – last year he rarely dropped below 80 after round six and scored over 100 nine times, whilst this year he has only scored below 90 points on one occasion (this week against Geelong).

Typically, Sydney players have always been ones to avoid in dream team, however with a new attacking game-plan in place, their DT value have all gone skyward and fortunately, O’Keefe’s midfield position has been a real winner points-wise because of it. It is also always nice to be able to pick up a true midfielder in a DT forward position and O’Keefe is exactly that – he is a very hard working mid and thanks to the likes of McVeigh and Kennelly, he is rarely the first choice to be tagged.

I believe that O’keefe is a great choice in the forward line as he seems to present as being one of the most consistent dream team performers. As he has shown both last year and this year, he rarely has a poor game, and also has the potential to pull a blinder out of his hat. I think the choice between him and Pavlich is very hard – you are competing between one of the harder working forwards in the game and one of the harder working mids in the game… very tricky!

Key Stats 2010:

Kick : handball ratio – 1.77 : 1

Average Marks per game: 5.4

Average Goals per game: 1

Average Disposals per game: 24.5

Breakeven: 144

Average Dream Team Points: 101.71

Price: $407,400