Interested to hear people's thoughts.
In order:
- Simpkin
- Anderson
- Wells
- Other in similar price range
And
- Libba
- Crouch
- JOM
- Other in similar price range
I'm quite bullish on Wells. He's clearly risky in an injury sense, but he's very cheap, and essentially I see him as a dear rookie with excellent JS, high scoring history, and a great early draw. I will almost certainly start him unless he's unfit. After that I think it's daylight. I currently have Simpkin, but that's largely based on other people's views, and I don't like those picks as a general rule. He is a strong chance to be cut if I need cash or if he shows any signs of injury, role uncertainty, etc. No interest in anyone else at around this price. As Ben said, most players in this price range are there for a reason, although I am not averse to sifting a fair bit to find the potential gold nuggets.
Libba is a lock for me. I think he's a viable M8, and even if he underperforms that, he should help make a fast start and facilitate an upgrade. Ridiculous value in my view. A bit like Sandi a few years ago - to me he's a premium with a huge discount, not a speculative mid-pricer. The other two are not premiums, although obviously both have a lot of potential. I think both are clearly stepping stones, at least for the purposes of my planning. I favour JOM largely because he is more durable and he has outperformed Crouch in both years they have played. To me the ordering of those two is clear if they are similarly fit, so I've been watching the ups and downs of that to determine my final call. I wouldn't mind having JOM as a POD vs Crouch assuming they both start fit, albeit that I'll happily replace JOM with Crouch if the former doesn't get up. The only other one around this price that has had serious consideration from me is Leuey, and a bit has changed there recently for the worse.