Hi Rowsus,
Love your work, I read your thread almost every day!
A couple of questions for you:
1. I've got room in my team for either Wines or Griffin. I see them both increasing their averages on last year but I can't decide between them. Who do you think will have the higher average of the two? Will either of them be top 10 / keepers or are they eventual m9s?
2. Josh Gibson looks the goods, with Lake and Frawley able to take the key forwards he seems set to roam and intercept/rebound. Can you see him being a top 6 def this year or is it just a NAB cup trick?
3. Harley Bennel & Dane Swan - Love them both but I feel like I'm setting myself up for disappointment with these two. Is taking both too risky? Which one do you see as the "safer" option?
Thanks!
Hi JJ,
I'm glad you're enjoying reading my sometimes rambling responses.
1) I'm going to fence sit here. Griffen to beat Wines on average, but Wines to play more games, and beat Griffen on aggregates. I think they will be just outside the top 10 on averages, and Griffen might be a bit further behind on aggregates. They should still average enough to be useful on field contributors, but I doubt you can carry a player that expensive through to be M9 at the end of the year anyway. You have to raise a ridiculous amount of cash to carry a $500k player through the season to sit on your bench.
2) Here is what I wrote about Gibson at post #3395 on the 20/2/2015. Nothing has changed my mind since then.
I think he's possibly worth taking the risk on, as long as you are prepared for up and down scoring, and missed games. There's no doubt he can pump out some good scores, but he pumps out sub 60's too. A lot of his good scores are in big wins, which is sort of ok, because Hawthorn have plenty of those. My biggest problem with him is, in the last 9 seasons he has had only 3 seasons with more than 19 games, and 2 seasons with an average over 80! Still, I'm pretty sure there might be 2 or 3 Defs that fill the top 8, that have records that might say they were a risk as well.
3) I've toyed with both, and had both in and out of my team. Neither are in there right now. I think it is ok to run with either, or both, but have an exit plan! Bennell is a Classic Flat Track Bully. If he doesn't beat up on some of the easy teams he plays early, then bail out. Swan can be easy to decide about too. If he's not covering ground, getting into packs, and just spending too much time up forward, I'd jump off him, too. They're both risky, but Bennell is the bigger risk, partly because of his history, and partly because his price is higher. I wouldn't show patience with Bennell. You should know after 2 games, because they play Melb and StK in their first 2, if you are going to keep him. I'd want around 250 points from those 2 games to keep him, 220 becomes a tough decision, and anything less should ring alarm bells!
I hope it helps.