Good to be back! I'm liking the look of this set up at the moment
BACKS : I'm tipping
Sicily and
Doch to be the top 2 defenders this year. I think
Sinclair will get a bit more attention and will be able to pick him up cheaper.
Bailey Dale is consistent and durable. There's not too much variance between his best and worst scores, set and forget type.
Vlaustin is slightly underpriced with an injury affected game, averaged 103.3 taking that game out. He's capable of the odd monster score and am bullish on him as a pod to get an early kick start.
MIDS : Starting
Dunkley in the mids. I've got DPP options up forward in Fyfe, Windhager and McLean to make some earlier jumps to uber mid premos that have price drops. The Tom's (
Mitchell and
Green) I am tipping both to go 110+ this year with more mid minutes and new team, both priced around 90, there's excellent value there for mine.
Macrae I want, but am concerned about limited captain options early having the
Bont in there as well. So it's possible Macrae becomes
Touk Miller or
A Brayshaw.
RUCK : I hope I can hold firm on
Darcy. He's my pick for #1 ruck this year. I am picking
Jackson forward so I can bring him over to the Ruck line if Darcy were to get injured, then Jackson becomes #1 ruck for Freo. Jackson has shown enough for me to suggest he can be a decent F6 as a secondary ruckman / young forward with natural improvement. I'm going to take a punt on
Draper, love the way he goes about it, very talented player. He just needs to get more of the ball. Last year when he was under 10 disposals he averaged 54 (from 11 games) and over 10 touches his average jumped to 91 (11 games). The bombers had an external review where one point raised was lack of fitness so that has been a focus this pre-season and reports I've seen on Draper have been very positive. Added fitness, 4th year with natural improvement, priced at 72 avg, I'll back him in. If it fails I've got enough trades to observe the standout best ruck and trade up.
FORWARD : Personally don't see the love for
Taranto in SC format
. Fyfe would be nice if he can be a D6 and stay fit, but more so I am planning for some early cash gen and use for early upgrades, same as
Windhager and
McLean. I don't think not starting
Coniglio is going to hurt me too much and there really isn't any forwards I feel I need to have in my team at least early on so I'm prepared to go lighter on this line.
Rookies as always will change around.