I drafted Cerra in a SC draft hoping for a 105 average. Saw nothing on the weekend to dent that hope. Role was very good and he's a classy player. Going to be up and down with a young group that will probably share the load a bit but he's a solid choice. He's got more class than the other guys which helps.
Was interesting with Sinclair to be honest but it makes the team a lot better to not have two non-rucks picked to ruck and only stick to one, sure helps when the other team doesn't have a ruck either! Still played McLean who didn't do much.
Coniglio tagged Steele in the first half and then didn't seem to in the 2nd when Steele stopped trying it seemed. Was a weird one, when they were on each other both got the ball and when they weren't neither did.
Still don't like Horse but I have to give him credit for the team selections. He actually dropped Hayward finally after a couple of years of gifting games, didn't play Sinclair and Hickey, played the kids in the right positions, pushed Florent out of the guts where he's looked completely lost. Mills in the midfield finally. Only real gripe was Heeney still stuck at FF. The game itself was rubbish, Brisbane just didn't show up at all and Sydney weren't much better, love to see the pressure gauge but if either team got to even below average at any point I'd be surprised. As fun as it was winning was a really ugly game to watch, like watching flag football.
This is actually the perfect type for the new rules I think. Extract maximum value at the stoppages that exist and then run and spread. McGrath looked great.
Unless you want someone from the first 3 games, which seems like it would be Sloane or Walsh only at a quick glance I think it's at least worth seeing what Gulden does as a loophole (or Berry if you're locked into starting Gulden). If they score 90+ the captain loophole (Neale for example) and that would make holding worthwhile, get an extra week of information and then make the trade. Worst case you avoid a dud rookie score, best case you might get a massive double win.
Stick those two together. Firstly I think McLean goes out for Buddy, Reid was the 2nd ruck anyway and McLean hasn't shown as much as McDonald did in his first 15 minutes in 3 seasons.
McDonald will benefit and be hurt. Buddy draws the ball, that's the negative. McDonald was great until Andrews shut him down in the 2nd half though and with Buddy he's not going to get the Andrews type unless he's already torn the game apart and put the runs on the board. If the Swans lower their eyes and with Dawson, Campbell, Gulden and Mills all there to use it they probably will now then McDonald should overall benefit for mine.
Second what Ben said, other teams are going to tackle and pressure unlike Brisbane who were utterly pathetic in those areas, so he's not going to play uncontested training drill type games that make it easy on a leading forward. He's a damn good one though, already his leading patterns are absurd, most players never reach that level and the ones that do generally take years, just the timing, reading, delaying and re-routing he does on leads is special to watch, I don't know if I've ever seen someone his age do it and I've only seen maybe a dozen guys do it at the level he did against Brisbane. The challenge will be when there's a bit more film and defenders start to take it away and when there is pressure up field which means you have to be more perfect in the execution. Ultimately he's a KPF, I think he's the most advanced we've seen in years but the Swans wont be that good most weeks (again, pressure non-existent) and a young KPF in a bad team is not a good fantasy mix. I think he's capable of 65 but that's probably the higher end of where I'd pick him, think if he reached 75 as an average it would be pretty shocking.