That's typically been my approach too. I changed my mind a bit after looking at the durability tables
@Couch Coach posted. Dunkley's as bad or worse than Buddy, Greene, Wingard, Heeney, Stringer, Treloar and the rest of the noted injury risks. Unlike say Treloar who was very durable before succumbing to repeated soft tissue injuries, Dunkley just finds ways to gets injured and miss games. I wouldn't really blame his style of play either, he's hardly an extreme outlier like Mitch Robinson (who, incidentally, rarely gets injured). It's more like Fyfe's last few seasons, they just seem to attract lengthy injuries somehow.
Most of the forwards are in that category. It's funny that a lot of the most durable guys are actually the hardest guys but then there are that group who just seem to manufacture injuries. Sadly Heeney and Butters are both very firm members of the group at this point also.
Honestly though, the whole group has pretty terrible durability and, perhaps ironically, the better durability guys on the list are all the guys carrying preseason injuries in!
My current approach is to pick 2 and load up on 200k-ish types because the group's so volatile and as you say strong cases can be made against all the candidates. Not sure if that's the smart play or a bit gun shy. Of course that's assuming the 200k-ish types do the job, but at least Curnow or Coniglio getting injured again is easier to take than someone I've invested a significant amount in.
You know what, it's actually a really strong option. As much as I love the value of the forwards and am underwhelmed by the value down back, once you take a step back and think about it, the reason there is value in the forwards is because they're all train wrecks and the reason there isn't in the backs is because they all basically played 22 games!
The top 15 forwards had 5 guys above 20 games last year and in a hilarious twice they're basically 4 of the 5 least picked players and then Taranto. 7 of them played less than 18 games.
10 of the top 15 played more than 20 games, Docherty the only one under 18 games.
The mids are even better.
It's not like there is a lack of options. I think cases can be made for all of Rayner, Curnow, McGovern, Coleman, Coniglio, Gresham, Crowden, Brodie, West and Ralphsmith without really even stretching it. I don't think the group is as strong as last year but they can do the job to varying degrees.
Will all depend on the rookies though!
Isn't Treloar behind Macrae, Bont, Libba, and sharing with Dunkley and not as good a forward as Butters?
I think people are romanticising Treloars good football but if you go back through game day posts you'll find plenty of annoyed members ranting about how he could turn a 130 into a 100 game. At his peak and a first priority mid he was a 110 player. He is neither of those things now.
On the flipside, he'll get a lot less attention now and can get some easier outside ball that might allow him to make easier kicks as well as having elite kickers to handball to instead of kicking in the first place. He wont most likely do either of those things but you can argue it.
Also 110 would be a must have but 100 would be a winning pick barring seriously explosive scoring way outside any reasonable projection from other forwards.
To be fair, not in my side and hasn't been yet, will probably take him in RDT where he's stronger.
Dusty has entered a few teams today but I don't think he's been a must have for 4 years now. Handy, yes, but not a must have. He's not blowing away non owners. Preseason form shouldn't be used for choosing premiums.
The difference is if his role has changed then the numbers change. He's a genuine 110 guy as a midfielder, if he's not rotting away as the world's most overqualified forward pocket he's a much better player, especially for fantasy purposes.
I can say he's a guy who I haven't started since his Brownlow season and it's been the right call each season but this year he's already discounted, even with the crappy role although I do think some regression is reasonable to previous scoring in that role but if his role has changed, so must the expectations. Not dissimilar to Boak as a pick a couple of years back where he'd fallen back to 88 after a few years playing as a half forward but had clearly shifted back to his midfield role which has seen him go back to 105+ scoring. Now I'm not 100% confident he's making that shift, would love to see some kind of quote confirming it from leaders at the club, but if he is then it's a game changer.
If his role backs up, especially if they play a full strength team and look to use real rotations, then I'll pick him. The other factor with Martin is he's so popular, and will only get more so on the back of that game, that he could destroy your season if he does go back to 115+ or even 110+ and you don't have him. He's not like a Sidebottom or Wingard where you're behind 1% of people.