Morning Creeker,
I'm not sure I would force a M/D link into your selections. You have plenty of playing Fwds, and the Shenton link if you need cover. I think I'd concentrate on just getting as many points for your dollars as you can.
There's generally 2 ways to approach this. Get the best player you think you can, and then see what the leftover money will buy, or just try and split it.
If you are going the split method, then the draw is probably even more important. It would seem that WC (Melb, GC) and Adelaide (Nth, StK) have the best finishing draws.
Shuey $523,700 leaves $578,800
Crouch $526,100 leaves $576,400
The options then become:
Watson (injury risk), Greene (in good form, definite chance), Ellis/Deledio/Cotchin (facing Syd last game), Boak/Gray (Freo last game), Crouch/Shuey.
Under this strategy I would be taking Shuey, with either Crouch or Greene, probably Greene, but both are ball magnets!
If you are going the "Gun and Loose Change" method:
Rockliff (Fre, Geel) - $691,900 leaves $410,600 - Boyd (struggling a bit after injury, but GWS Rnd 23), JJK (Melb, GC) can beat up on the weaker teams, and has the draw to do it! 118 & 136 his last 2 against Melb, 100+ his last 3 against GC!
Priddis (Melb, GC) - $632,000 leaves $470,500 - Swan, Bastinac/Gibson (Ade, Melb), Stokes, Douglas (Nth, StK), Hannebery (wildcard POD feeling a million dollars and facing WB, Rich), Dal Santo (poor form)
Lewis (Geel, Coll) - $615,900 leaves $486,600 - Miles, Neale (no Fyfe, last 4 games Fyfe missed, Neale was 83, 55, DNP, DNP, but he might be more important now), O'Meara, Christensen, Cunnington/Greenwood
Sidey (GW, Haw) - $601,900 leaves $500,600 - Bennell, Hodge, Gaff, Prestia, Mundy, Duncan, Hill S, Wines.
The Rockliff option Closes a POD against you, and JJK doesn't look hopeless.
The Priddis/Hannebery combo looks lethal. Hanne was averaging 124 for the 7 games leading to the injury game. He's had 2 games back, and said in an interview he's feeling a million dollars.
I'm not keen on Lewis, and he's got a tough draw.
Sidey gets to go without Beams. Was also missing in Rnd 13, when Beams didn't play. His average was roughly the same before and after Beams came back last season, so we have no lead, but I'm guessing it won't hurt him, especially if Pendles is back. I'd be looking at Bennell or Prestia to match with him.
Narrowing down the choices:
Rockliff/JJK
Priddis/Hannebery
Sidey/Prestia
Shuey/Greene
With so many people around you facing genuine carnage, Rockliff might be an important door to close. Look at it this way, you might have your opposition/teams just in front of you worried about donuts, but then Rocky rips out a 150 with C on him, and you've lost half your advantage over them, because your replacement scored 100. Taking Rocky really makes their donuts count, leave that door open, and they potentially limit the damage their donuts creates.
If Hannebery can even approach the form he had pre-injury, then combining him with Priddis and WC's easy draw makes sense.
These are my 2 preferred options of the 4 above.
Given there are so many people facing potential donuts, and they will pinning their Captain hopes on Rocky bringing home the bacon again, I think I'd go Rocky/JJK! Close their only "weapon" against you, and creates a POD in your Fwd line. It's high risk, but could be big reward. If you can't stomach JJK, go Priddis/Hannebery.
Good luck!
