Position 2022: Midfield Discussion

Which premium mids are you currently starting?


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Not every community thinks that. Certainly not every member of every community. I don't think that. In fact I think it's a pervasive myth that works as an obstacle to many people playing the game successfully.

We're all playing the same hand so maximising value is and always will be the key to going well.

And I think the statement that the guns go up every year needs some scrutiny. The top echelon of mids went up this year because so many did so well last season, but there's no particular reason to think that's part of a trend that will sustain.
That’s good to know so which mids be certain to be better start than upgrades
 
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That’s good to know so which mids be certain to be better start than upgrades
No such thing as certain in a predictive game but Neale and T Mitchell are two players likely to be in the top echelon of scorers and also have upside, meaning they are less likely to be available significantly cheaper. I would have Petracca one run below in terms of likelihood, but with the same qualities.
 
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That’s good to know so which mids be certain to be better start than upgrades
Mids that are less volatile are generally harder to get in during the season as they'll be able to maintain a very high price throughout the year. Additionally, you want to get value when it presents itself so there's little point in leaving out a Lachie Neale type.

For me, there's only 6 midfielders worth starting unless you know what you're doing and are confident in your judgement.

Jack Macrae, Jack Steele, Touk Miller, Clayton Oliver, Tom Mitchell and Lachie Neale. Sam Walsh would have been one too.

Neale is almost certainly locked in, so most will be picking between 2-4 of the rest and a structure like that gives a good base to begin with.
 
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No such thing as certain in a predictive game but Neale and T Mitchell are two players likely to be in the top echelon of scorers and also have upside, meaning they are less likely to be available significantly cheaper. I would have Petracca one run below in terms of likelihood, but with the same qualities.
The early season rookie cash grab also means that almost none of the premium midfielders will be more expensive by round 10 than they are to start. Basically they've got to improve about 15 points on their starting average before they'll generate cash. It's simply a function of a fixed size pie that the massively underpriced guys at the bottom eat a disproportionate amount of that means the guys at the top are actually "overpriced" to start with.

Think it's very much a symptom of the immediate gratification society that people struggle to trade in those players. They want it now when the reality is that getting a Macrae into your side is generally going to take 2 weeks of trade plans.

The big change this year is of course the trade boost which I think is going to put a lot of those players much more within reach of a single weeks trades. The simply fact is the one up, one down is built around 500k targets, if you want a 650k target, add an extra down in there :)

Of course value is one thing but points on the field, captaincy and not needing corrective trades are also extremely valuable and that's what guys like Macrae or Oliver offer to you historically. There is a reason that guns and rookies is historically successful at a way higher level even if logically pure value would make more sense. The problem is that most of the time that a player is "value" it's because of something sinister underlying it, be that durability, unproven roles or the like.
 
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The early season rookie cash grab also means that almost none of the premium midfielders will be more expensive by round 10 than they are to start. Basically they've got to improve about 15 points on their starting average before they'll generate cash. It's simply a function of a fixed size pie that the massively underpriced guys at the bottom eat a disproportionate amount of that means the guys at the top are actually "overpriced" to start with.

Think it's very much a symptom of the immediate gratification society that people struggle to trade in those players. They want it now when the reality is that getting a Macrae into your side is generally going to take 2 weeks of trade plans.

The big change this year is of course the trade boost which I think is going to put a lot of those players much more within reach of a single weeks trades. The simply fact is the one up, one down is built around 500k targets, if you want a 650k target, add an extra down in there :)

Of course value is one thing but points on the field, captaincy and not needing corrective trades are also extremely valuable and that's what guys like Macrae or Oliver offer to you historically. There is a reason that guns and rookies is historically successful at a way higher level even if logically pure value would make more sense. The problem is that most of the time that a player is "value" it's because of something sinister underlying it, be that durability, unproven roles or the like.
I don't think we've ever seen a guns and rookies team win supercoach. Always at least a few value selections.
 
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Do you think Rayner and Bailey are going to get near enough mid rotations to be worth it for their respective price tags?

Rayner probably needs to average 80-85 with the odd spike game and Bailey a solid 95+ to be worth it.
Rayner did average 24 touches a game in the juniors running through the guts with a very poor endurance base, dont think finding the footy will be a problem if the role is there myself, big pre season watch though.
 
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I don't think we've ever seen a guns and rookies team win supercoach. Always at least a few value selections.
Maybe not pure but last year's winner was pretty much GnR, only mid price guys she had in the starting team were Walsh (debatable), Taranto and Butters (debatable).

You don't get much more GnR than that, there's always the Butters/Walsh type value play (see Neale, Sicily, Whitfield and half the forward plays). Taranto was the only real midprice play at the end of the day.

Basically the starting side can end it all but barring a miracle, it wont be winning it. Timing trades and nailing value in season will always be the big factor, well outside the pure luck of your guys staying on the park and getting injured at the right time if they're going to.

Rookies perhaps the most important thing to have right at round 3.

The funniest part looking at her team, you wouldn't even really say she did that well. Danger, Butters and Dunkley all failed. Merrett, Ridley, Short and Taranto were all underwhelming. It's funny how "not perfect" that starting side was really.
 
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Interesting indeed

Neale , Lipinski , Rowell , Berry + the popular 7 gives :-

Lloyd , Hall , Ridley , Whitfield , Sicily , Kiddy/Milera

Darcy , Big O

Dunkley , Duncan , Dusty , Heeney , Cogs , Curnow

Still not much better off though

10 premiums (keepers)

Sicily & Heeney , 6 mid pricers , 4 onfield rookies

Does the bench make enough $$$ to enable 7 premium mid upgrades + 3 others (probably not) ?
@freowho

This was my play around Neale @ M1 side.

I guess if you lost Lipinski , Rowell , Berry for 3 mid rookies as well you could upgrade 2 of Kiddy/Milera , Cogs & Curnow.

Are your 10 mid rookies (+ remaining 5 bench players) scoring significantly enough to make enough $$$ to get you 7 premium mid upgrades though ?

Could get you 14+1+7 starting side
 
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@freowho

This was my play around Neale @ M1 side.

I guess if you lost Lipinski , Rowell , Berry for 3 mid rookies as well you could upgrade 2 of Kiddy/Milera , Cogs & Curnow.

Are your 10 mid rookies (+ remaining 5 bench players) scoring significantly enough to make enough $$$ to get you 7 premium mid upgrades though ?

Could get you 14+1+7
I think Dimmawit started with a full forward line or completed it very early the year he won it. Although Cloke to Stevie J was a great move.
 
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Maybe not pure but last year's winner was pretty much GnR, only mid price guys she had in the starting team were Walsh (debatable), Taranto and Butters (debatable).

You don't get much more GnR than that, there's always the Butters/Walsh type value play (see Neale, Sicily, Whitfield and half the forward plays). Taranto was the only real midprice play at the end of the day.

Basically the starting side can end it all but barring a miracle, it wont be winning it. Timing trades and nailing value in season will always be the big factor, well outside the pure luck of your guys staying on the park and getting injured at the right time if they're going to.

Rookies perhaps the most important thing to have right at round 3.

The funniest part looking at her team, you wouldn't even really say she did that well. Danger, Butters and Dunkley all failed. Merrett, Ridley, Short and Taranto were all underwhelming. It's funny how "not perfect" that starting side was really.
I really like your posts Wogitalia but sometimes you're on a different planet.
Dunkley made $74k and added 129 points a week.
Merrett played 22 games at 115.
Short had the 6th best aggregate, and Ridley had the 8th best aggregate, of all defenders and didn't need to be traded.
Those 4 players helped her win.
 
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Do you think Rayner and Bailey are going to get near enough mid rotations to be worth it for their respective price tags?

Rayner probably needs to average 80-85 with the odd spike game and Bailey a solid 95+ to be worth it.
Bailey might get the CBAs, but I'm not sure about the average.

Rayner might get the average, but I suspect it'd be off impact plays rather than CBA attendance.
 
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I really like your posts Wogitalia but sometimes you're on a different planet.
Dunkley made $74k and added 129 points a week.
Merrett played 22 games at 115.
Short had the 6th best aggregate, and Ridley had the 8th best aggregate, of all defenders and didn't need to be traded.
Those 4 players helped her win.
Dunkley failed because he got hurt, 74k is nice but that's a poor cash cow and a trade you have to find from somewhere. He's gone as well as a failure can but ultimately when you're trading a premium out at round 6 that's a failure in my book.

Merrett wasn't terrible but there were plenty of better picks available that were very much options that I'd personally just expect would be in the winning side over him.

Short and Ridley were fine but again there were better picks available. Like you could very easily have started a Rich/Crisp pairing there instead and been well ahead of them and I know when I think of a winning team I definitely would expect those types of names to be there over two guys who would get a passing grade but weren't near the top of the class!

They epitomise "not perfect" as picks. I had all 4 and I know I wasn't happy with the outcome of any of them. They weren't bad picks but I'd certainly not call them perfect. They were definitely among the most frustrating picks to have as they just consistently leaked points to their peers but, hey, at least they were playing :)

I think it serves as a good reminder that you don't need to make perfect picks as much as probably avoiding the really bad ones. As you said, none of the last 3 hurt her from winning, if she'd slipped on a Kelly or Cripps banana peel on the other hand :LOL:

Also probably a pretty good reminder of the power of durability as we all go chasing underpriced trainwrecks! Ridley and Short were really hard to stomach as they kept putting up sub-par scoring and yet, as you said, they were 6th and 8th on aggregate and given the constant issues with defender rookies last year, solid chance that players missing often didn't get replaced by anything or forced trades so those aggregates mean more than normal.
 
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I think Dimmawit started with a full forward line or completed it very early the year he won it. Although Cloke to Stevie J was a great move.
Lots of options , new DPP's make it even more interesting.

Basically just shuffling pieces around now , looking at different things but fairly meaningless until we get Round 1 rookies confirmed.
 
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Bailey might get the CBAs, but I'm not sure about the average.

Rayner might get the average, but I suspect it'd be off impact plays rather than CBA attendance.
Just read an article in AFL app and fagan said he going to give Rayner and Bailey a lot of opportunities to play full time midfield. He also said Lyons will play a lot more time forward and Neale will play forward/wing. His spoke to them about there new role changes. Does this make Neale a must have anymore?
 
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Just read an article in AFL app and ***an said he going to give Rayner and Bailey a lot of opportunities to play full time midfield. He also said Lyons will play a lot more time forward and Neale will play forward/wing. His spoke to them about there new role changes. Does this make Neale a must have anymore?
He might give them more opportunities, but if they don't perform to the level that Neale/Lyons can then those mid minutes will dry up, particularly if they lose a few games.
 
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He might give them more opportunities, but if they don't perform to the level that Neale/Lyons can then those mid minutes will dry up, particularly if they lose a few games.
What happens if they do really well? By the sounds of it he will at least start the year in that role. Is it worth waiting on him, even if he plays 50% wing/fwd it will affect his scoring dramatically.
 
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How many of the winning teams even realistically have all 8 mids averaging 115+ though ?
My Guess would be Zero. Its a Illusion, very similar to selecting (8) rookies that give you 150K return by round 9.

If you could select a (2) MIDS for Under 600K for RD1, that would end up as your M7/M8 at the end of the season, and give you close to 2300Pts, would you start them at M3/M4.?
 
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