Who does everyone think the Top 8 is from here? I'm thinking...
Oliver
Macrae
Bont
Lyons
Fyfe
Walsh
Steele
Neale?
I only have 3 of those guys currently
Walsh losing a little steam and will be getting attention moving forward, especially after how Cousins shut him down on the weekend in the 2nd half.
For mine...
1. Macrae - Stud who just keeps scoring and going under the radar with enough star teammates to avoid defensive attention.
2. Oliver - Ditto, teams just seem more focused on stopping a lot of other things and happy for him to run wild.
3. Lyons - Same mould really, attention will go to Zorko, Clug and Neale, he'll just keep waxing.
4. Parish - There's a trend here but Merrett is getting all the attention and Parish has been the one hunting cheap touches late in the last few games while Merrett just enjoys a rest. I think he can continue. He's gone way past Shiel et al at this point even if they do return.
5. Bont - Expecting some (any?) defensive attention to come, Saints went with the "leave him completely alone" approach and got torched. I'm genuinely shocked he isn't getting hard tags every week given his very poor history handling tags.
6. Duncan - Just a sloot.
7. Petracca - Oliver should get the attention the next few weeks, his last few games have felt "on the edge" so expecting a big score or two from him very soon. He's too good for his ratio to stay this bad and his raw stats are strong.
8. Fyfe - I expect he misses another game or two or he'd be higher. Also hard to read his role with Taberner possibly out and Brayshaw and Cerra just missing games meaning midfield role hard to fully establish.
Expect Clug to get attention and struggle the first few times as most do, especially the slightly more outside types. Guthrie the shoulder is a genuine concern, if he's fine he's right up there but he looked very limited after coming back on. Steele I just don't trust St Kilda right now but he's the perfect buy low candidate. Mitchell is hard to trust. Zerrett will keep getting tagged because he's not handling it and he's also lost his junker badge and has the CD hate factor. Libba is a genuine candidate, playing inspired footy right now. Touk is a strong option also but the bad team part hurts. Boak I think his 5 round average is about right.
Neale the wild card but given he misses a couple more then it's hard to put him up there. Will most likely be a luxury trade candidate for those swinging at fences. Jelly just isn't doing enough in the 4th quarters (after only doing things in the 4th quarter early in the season) and is getting some pretty harsh CD treatment but he's capable. Taranto if he keeps going the bomb it long or handball approach he took on the weekend (and plays 4 quarters) could get there but both are long shots.
My big positive is I have exactly 1 of that group I've highlighted so at least I'm not wanting for targets
I brought him in RD7, suspension was annoying but has been great. I’m not as well placed as yourself though, I did it for the fun of it.
Love Touk, been durable, does a bit of everything on the field which makes him hard to stop scoring in some way (good floor) and has some whorish traits to push his ceiling as well.
If I'm going before that bye for a player in it, I'd pick Touk. Duncan cheaper with more explosive scoring would probably be my pick if going after the bye. Other factor with that bye is it's the perfect target for avoiding bye rounds and getting the extra scores and Touk is a great target coming out of it still.