Position 2022: Midfield Discussion

Which premium mids are you currently starting?


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A few thoughts on how the Dogs’ midfield might operate.

Macrae - probably the safest of the picks, given he’s pretty-much set to continue on from his 2021. There’s not really much more to add, though any hint of a role change would have me rule him out quite quickly.

Bont - if you’re not concerned about durability, then you can ignore his last few games, but if it’s a factor then it needs to be considered. He hurt his shoulder against West Coast and was sort of eased through a few games, particularly the Adelaide one. Scoring was a bit iffy as well throughout the season, with a few hundreds that were probably closer to 70s, and some 140s that really could have been scored at 180+. He’s probably an 80% starting chance for me at the moment, but I’m not sure how much of that is because I love watching him play.

Libba - you’d be brave to pick him. Probably our most likely to go 200+, but also prone to very low scores.

Dunkley - maybe the only thing between him and going 130+ is the man listed above. Given it’s a contract year for him I’d expect a very solid season, and is locked away at F1 at the moment.

Treloar - he’s an enigma at the moment. His Grand Final was excellent and I just get the feeling he’s going to end up as a solid pick as a forward. There are a lot of chefs at the moment though, but he’s probably first in line if something happens to any of the above.

Hunter and Smith - not a lot of interest to be honest, if I had to pick one it would be Smith, particularly if he gets more time at the contest rather than on a wing.
 
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Carlton
Must. Not. Look. At. Cripps. Price.
Ollie Wines, broken down injured hack in 2019, averaged 88.

2021, fit as a fiddle, wins brownlow and averages 113.

They are similiar types and Cripps simply couldn't play the way he wanted to. Also not sure what happened with Teague, but Pickering certainly fired a few shots at Cripps when Teague was sacked.
 
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Sydney

9/11 post bye matches with 5 or more tackles.
13/28 with 5 or more tackles between 2020 and pre bye 2021.
Career Avg of: 5.7 (only three seasons below 5- rookie season and the past two).
This one says that his shoulder got right at that point, his role quite clearly became more inside. He's as pure a SC pig as there is in that role so if it's to continue then he's an incredible starting pick, imo.
 
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Collingwood
so you are saying Neale at M1 won't work ? ;)

Neale, Berry, Constable , Horne-Franics, Daicos, Ward, Stephens (Sydney) , Hobbs + 3
@Shannon

Neale @ M1 might be stretching it too much , but quite possibly @ M3 could get more popular.

Need to follow the rookies to determine starting teams/structures.

Didn't even have Eramus factored in.

Think Gibcus & Rachele were the only D & F rookies that were in the Fox Footy predicted Round 1 teams.

Lots of water to flow under the bridge though.
 
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West Coast
@Shannon

Neale @ M1 might be stretching it too much , but quite possibly @ M3 could get more popular.

Need to follow the rookies to determine starting teams/structures.

Think Gibcus & Rachele were the only D & F rookies that were in the Fox Footy predicted Round 1 teams.

Lots of water to flow under the bridge though.
Neale at M4 :-

Screen Shot 2022-02-03 at 12.17.56 pm.png
 
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@Shannon

Neale @ M1 might be stretching it too much , but quite possibly @ M3 could get more popular.

Need to follow the rookies to determine starting teams/structures.

Didn't even have Eramus factored in.

Think Gibcus & Rachele were the only D & F rookies that were in the Fox Footy predicted Round 1 teams.

Lots of water to flow under the bridge though.
I am almost certain Elijah Hollands will play round 1, 123K fwd/mid
 
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My only beef with Neale at M3 and rookies down from there is that there's so much cash left it's hard to spend. Don't want to fill forwards or defs because of possible DPP additions (and historically DEF rookies tend to show up late and outperform expectations so it's rare you want to go too deep there anyway). Almost forces you to start two premo rucks. Which might work but I don't like.
 
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Collingwood
M3 is where I keep ending up. There's always value in the rookie mids, just need to wait for them to reveal themselves.
I have had him at M3 & M4.

Just hard to get enough $$$ to upgrade to 5 X $ 600+ premiums.

Would need all of JHF , Daicos , Ward , Stephens , Eramus , Hobbs etc all going at least 80+ to get close to $ 350-400k each before upgrading (doubt they are all reaching those heights)

Would need to nail every bench rookie starting to get enough $
 
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Most of my tinkers so far have had Neale M5 in a heavy midfield, but I'm starting to come around to the idea of just 4 premiums in the middle with the amount of rookies we seem to have on offer.

The concern being the difficulty i'll have trying to trade into the 650k+ midfielder I'm removing come mid-season. In my experience it's near impossible.
 
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