So we've got a player who is 26 years old, has averaged 120+ for 3 consecutive years and has missed only 3 games in 4 years (and been thrown around from wing to forward to the middle during that time to boot).
That's Scott "Dependlebury" territory, who at 26 put up his 4th 120+ season and had missed only 5 games in 4 years. His next two seasons aged 27 and 28 went at 22/116 and 22/118.
I see lots of comments like "can't trust any Dogs mids", but even with the inclusion of another strong player into the side, how could Jack Macrae be anything other than a good pick? Are we genuinely lured away by Fyfe and Jelly types as alternatives, who never even play out a full season?
I do think the concerns are somewhat justified, his scoring when playing on the wing is not as strong as he basically stops tackling and loses the CP to an extent and his coach is a complete lunatic who likes to do unpredictable things for the sake of it. Macrae is the one in that midfield group who makes the most sense on the wing as he's actually good at it. Treloar can run but he can't kick and he makes more sense inside as a result. Dunkley is likely to be placated for staying with midfield minutes. Bont has to play there after last year (Bevo aside) and Smith has the potential to be the best of the lot and should be getting a prime role. Libba is inside only.
Ultimately with Macrae I think the downside potential is higher than the upside potential, realistically I don't think he's going to cost you more later in the season than he does now and I think there are enough decent reasons to think he'll be cheaper. His durability also makes him a really strong upgrade target.
He's also one of the guys whose ratio doesn't quite stack up for mine and I think he was a benefactor of the scaling irregularities to an extent, not massively but I think he's gained a 4 or 5 points on his average. I think we already saw a bit of impact from Smith increasing his role and then particularly Bont towards the end of the season when Macrae did fall away.
Still think he's a safe top 15 scorer type though, you shouldn't need a trade on him as a starting pick which is valuable in and of itself and I do think that the couple of guys who do have more upside potential than him also have more downside risks (durability, unproven, etc).