Discussion 2023: Round 1 Teams & In Game Discussion - See page 1 for Teams and Final Subs

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Tigers vs Blues

General - Started pretty poor, stayed pretty poor and then it was close in the last so it got exciting as the two teams actually started to attack the man and the ball and we got a game of footy. Wasn't actually a lot to take away, the umpires were as bad as ever but the extra wasn't any kind of reason for that, the sub struck on day one and crushed a kid's dream (yay sub, it's awesome). Footy's back team!

Tigers - This felt like a Tigers game, ugly, scrappy, chaotic, low skill, tight with some exciting moments, which kind of makes it surprising that they really should have lost it at the end against a side that doesn't think choking is how you get the 4 points.

Taranto - He was actually pretty good, he's Taranto, he's not going to think before kicking or handballing, we all know this and anyone who didn't obviously hasn't watched him. I genuinely enjoyed the commentators at half time talking about his disposal like they were surprised, I think the Victorian media genuinely hasn't watched him play! I thought his role was perfect and this was a great scramble from him. Textbook for him, he'll have games like this and this is hopefully the average, he'll have some where even more of his kicks are clangers and he'll have games where they find chests and he scores great. He's picked to average 105 and he starts right on the path.

Nankervis - If he get's to play backups every week without a 2nd ruck, he could end up the top ruck in the game :LOL: He was excellent, picking TDK was a solid factor in the Blues losing this one, letting the Tigers have a dominant first hand and advantage at stoppages somehow didn't cost them the game entirely!

Rioli - He looked sensational off HB with Short primarily on a wing (to my eye) and Vlastuin in a lock down role he was the main guy and he took advantage. I think this will be on the higher end of his scores but he looks primed to have a big year, really growing in confidence to demand the pill off others and take it on. Close to best on for mine.

Bolton - It's a shame the footy gods had to put so much talent inside such an absolute flog of a human but god he's good at football! Took an exceptional mark, created another goal with a brilliant little tap to himself to steal Saad's lunch money and then cost them with a couple of terrible shots at goal trying to be a show pony instead of just kicking them, the one that went out on the full especially bad. Scored right on his starting price and his role looks pretty similar to last year, might improve a bit but not sure he can compete with midfielders in that role.

Short - Played mostly wing to my eye, will wait for the starting locations, was a defensive sweeping role and he really ran out of steam in the second half. Ran out the game though and that's all you could really ask.

Riewoldt - Turned back the clock in this one, was right up the ground and dangerous, especially early.

Martin - Role as expected, pretty deep forward for the most part, can't see him being relevant in it, the umpires even turned on him after giving him a free pass on the first couple of blatant FA that he had which was the real surprise! What he did was really good though, actually surprised how bad his ratio was.

Hopper - Yeah... Last quarter was actually great and he's salvaged a saveable score for round 1, just needs a 110 over the next couple and he's back on low end par for him but it's more how he played, the only good sign is Q4 where when the contest appeared he actually stepped into it but he spent the first 3 quarters pretending to be an outside midfielder. When all you really do well is coalface stuff, that's a weird decision. Definitely on the cutting block early, can see plenty of R2 rage trades here, especially if one of the Worpel, Sheed, Bruhn, Fyfe, Ziebell or Setterfield crew checks in.

Lynch - Saved an otherwise pretty ordinary game with the game tying goal, also showed zero IQ on the play by wasting time, no idea why he did that, if you miss, you've cost yourself the game and if you kick it you've effectively given up a chance to win.

Baker - Played HB, didn't do much but role was solid and will have some good games in that role.

Cotchin - Played forward mostly as expected, did go on the ball late with game on the line though.

Vlastuin - Got stuck playing as a lock down defender with the Blues having multiple talls which really hurt his scoring chances.

Mansell - Played forward, not sure why, didn't appear to be tagging, didn't really appear to have any craft for it. Weird selection imo.
 
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Blues - Just Blues things, might have set the record for the longest time to go in a game for going into "play not to lose" with a solid 8 minutes of actual game time and a 7 point lead. They were good when they played short and maintained possession, also great for fantasy when they do this, but they spent most of the game just hack kicking to a contest. They're that team who has good marking targets that thinks that means the opponent doesn't have the ability to spoil them and they looked lost strategically for most of the game, when they did compose, slow down and pick passes they looked fantastic and the Tigers had very few answers. Need to be better moving it up the field deliberately and going that long kick to the I50 region where they can setup to defend behind it instead of continually creating the chaos ball on the wing, especially given they're no good at the chaos ball and even more so when playing Richmond. Their defense held up exceptionally well under repeat pressure though.

Docherty - Interesting game for him, it's funny, if you did a video of his and Taranto's kicks tonight I reckon they'd look just about identical but somehow Doch lands it on a teammates chest 75% of the time and Taranto like 10%. His goal was insane, genuine 60m drop punt after the umpire had a howler and let the Tiger cheat a good 4m over the mark, Doch just said I got this and nailed it. Sadly did nothing in the last 7 minutes and lost a half dozen as a result. Pure HB tonight and was solid.

Hewett - His ratio is brutal, it's funny, statistically he's better than Cripps in all but MG and yet Cripps massacred him in SC, will be all the hidden stats but it felt harsh, he did very little wrong and was very good I thought.

Weitering - Huge game from him but it weirdly didn't feel like he actually played that well, mostly just comes down to the amount of times the Tigers kicked to him on his own for easy SC points, Lynch beat him pretty consistently in their contests.

McGovern - He was solid but similar to Weitering, his SC is flattering imo. He had a couple of really bad moments that hurt them, the first goal probably the standout but in general he was good, typical going to average 90 the first 6 this year after bombing me last year!

Cerra - Was solid but nowhere near enough pill. He's such a tease of a player, he should be so much more but just fades out of games way too often.

Kennedy - Stock standard from him, bull, hard at it, faded.

Cripps - He was really good and his ratio is probably not far off, 2nd half especially was great. Was a great game where the first half he kept it ticking over despite not doing much and then really put the foot down when he was hot. Looks good.

TDK - He scored really well but he was very lucky, cost them a couple of goals and was a Newman fingernail from another but I just don't know why a team with that midfield is sacrificing it to play him as the #1 when they've got Pittonet. Surely if you want to play TDK you do it as a 2nd ruck where he actually has an advantage over most and can contribute plenty as a forward. It's weird, it's basically like if Melbourne had chosen to ruck Jackson and drop Gawn in my mind, obviously it's the wish.com versions but... God he's fun to watch though, I mean I'd hate coaching him and not sure I'd want him on my side but as a neutral it's like watching a Frankenstein monster of skills meets a baby giraffe trying to learn to walk explosion.

Young - Had one of the great all or nothing games. He had about 5 contests where it was his turn to go and didn't go and basically all of them resulted in goals and yet he was otherwise brilliant and played very well. Life of a KPD I guess, you can win most of your contests by a mile and ultimately it's those 4 times you didn't fly that will pop up in the film review! Really like him.

McKay - Probably should have been the hero and then should have been the villian, missed two shots he should kick, dropped a sitter of a mark that would have finished it off after clumsily falling and was so good around the ground as a target for them. His kicking was so bad though.

Acres - Embraced being a Blue in his first game by mastering the art of choking when he dropped an absolute sitter in 15m of space, then fumbled it and then hospitaled his teammate to end the game, should have strolled in for the winning point. It's even funnier as a neutral that he's been clutch in his past and the second he becomes a Blue, choke artist. Shame as he played a solid game for them as well!

Saad - Monster ratio, he perfected his SC craft, his two biggest mistakes, both costing goals, literally don't go on the stat sheet and yet they're probably two of the biggest clangers of the entire match, ah the intricacies of the system! Anyone who started him would be delighted, he's always been an absurd ratio guy but tonight was enormous. Like Young, it feels harsh to point out the two howlers when he was otherwise excellent but that's being a defender in a side that dropped 2 points tonight!

Curnow - Was pretty well held overall. Tough matchup with both Vlastuin and Grimes being good matches for him.

Hollands - He did some excellent things, unfortunately 80% of those things were the kind that get zero credit in fantasy! Gut running, decoy leads, stretch leads, defensive positioning to save teammates. One of those games where I imagine the coaches actually very happy with it but the fantasy coaches want to barf. Ultimately 56 is only about 5 off the pace he needs and still way better than Hoppers 67 if you fielded it. Lot of positives here. The negative is LOB actually played really well after coming on.

Motlop - Seems such a harsh score, thought he played well.

Cowan - Huge Q2, almost nothing either side of it and then subbed. Did some good things, hopefully just a bit of fatigue/cramp but hamstring was getting attention before he was subbed out. Like Hollands, 38 isn't really that far off his target line and better to do it in round 1 than round 3! Hopefully he's ok and gets another game, he played really well and showed maturity well beyond his years while out there. Like Hollands, probably 2 of his 3 best plays for the day scored zero for fantasy but would have delighted Vossy. His best play where he smashed Bolton as he ducked to try and win a free kick and got him for holding the ball instead on the other hand was delicious to watch!
 
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Accidentally faded Hopper after having him in every draft of my team up until the mad scramble 15 minutes out from lockout.

Not sure how I feel about that right now...

Currently sitting on 2/211, Cowan and Hollands on bench.
 

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Shai Bolton kicked 1.1 for the game off 3x shots with his first shot a goal in the 2nd quarter.

His 2nd shot he put out on the full from a hard angle from 40m out in the last qtr where he switched up from a straight set on goal to a checkside in the last few steps of his action. Bizarre.

His registered point was a set shot banana from basically straight in front, 35m out, where he hit the belly of the ball and just floated through a behind. Easy set shot goal for any forward going hips & shoulders square to goal.

He kicks 2x drop punts & Richmond win. I know it’s round 1, but he should be held accountable & the media coverage are analysing everything else, most noticeably the Carlton bloke’s dropped mark late, bar Bolton’s basic set shots.
Didn’t occur in the last few minutes thus had no bearing on the game seems to be the common media view and hard to take it seriously. Far too much time and effort would be consumed to review the game again for a considered response thus lazy analysis is wheeled out instead such as iffy or unpaid free kicks in the dying stages, dropped marks, etc the key reason for a win/loss/draw.

S Bolton= Equal third most behinds last season (G=43 B=41) . Lowest goal accuracy from the 43 players that kicked 30 or more goals last season of 44.3% (43/97 shots at goal).
 
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Shai Bolton kicked 1.1 for the game off 3x shots with his first shot a goal in the 2nd quarter.

His 2nd shot he put out on the full from a hard angle from 40m out in the last qtr where he switched up from a straight set on goal to a checkside in the last few steps of his action. Bizarre.

His registered point was a set shot banana from basically straight in front, 35m out, where he hit the belly of the ball and just floated through a behind. Easy set shot goal for any forward going hips & shoulders square to goal.

He kicks 2x drop punts & Richmond win. I know it’s round 1, but he should be held accountable & the media coverage are analysing everything else, most noticeably the Carlton bloke’s dropped mark late, bar Bolton’s basic set shots.
Alas I don't get paid to comment on footy but I definitely did not give him a pass :)
 

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Cripps awkward VC but think I’ll take it
I think round 1 you take anything 120+
This.

Are you prepared to lose anywhere from 1-120 points for the sake of say an extra 20-40 points (140-160)?
Are you extremely confident in your C option scoring at least 15-20+ points more than Cripps to make the switch worthwhile?

If you are electing not to run a donut for the opening few rounds/month, then I would consider taking it on.
 
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Do you have any info on Pedler? Not sure if I have heard of him.
From 2021
Luke Pedlar $162,300 MID
SC Average (SANFL U18 2020): 128

The bolter of last year’s draft class, swooped on by the Crows after attracting late interest, Pedlar is a big-bodied midfielder who wins contested ball and has a booming left boot. His draft year was curtailed by injury but he began his SANFL U18 season like a house on fire with scores of 155, 140 and 148 across his first four matches. Pedlar was among those to impress in their intraclub, holding his own against Adelaide’s first-choice midfield group. . However, he was selected in the Crows’ seconds side in both their practice matches against Port Adelaide.

SC verdict: Appears to be a fair way back at this stage but is one who could have an impact from a SuperCoach perspective when given the chance.

2023
Luke Pedlar

Adelaide (Fwd $173,400)
Practice match SC score: 56
SC Ave 2022: 45 (AFL – 1 game)


*Round 1 spot confirmed*

Pedlar, pick 11 in the 2022 national draft, added just one game to his two debut-season matches last year, dropped after an error-ridden, 45-point performance against the Pies in Round 2. But the tough 20-year-old found his groove late in the SANFL season, booting seven goals in the Crows’ final three games, playing a high-half-forward role. A week after tallying 16 disposals, 10 score involvements and 115 SuperCoach points against Port, he finished with three goals, eight tackles and 88 points in the club’s qualifying final win over Norwood. He's hit the track running this summer and Pedlar’s explosiveness and penetrating left-foot could add another layer to Adelaide’s forward-half early in 2023. Monitor closely.

Dan Batten’s verdict: CONSIDER. I still have a few expensive forward rookies ahead, but his job security looks strong. Doesn't look like he will be getting midfield time, though.

The Phantom's verdict: BUY. Had 10 disposals and 56 points in just 55 per cent game-time against the Eagles and he’s likely to be given every opportunity to make his mark this year – Adelaide needs his speed and power.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/...w/news-story/316aa97cc70dd9dafabb6a5c35e6016d
 
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