New defenders Mitchell, mcveigh, bartel, hodge. Dual position. 100+ points average.
Does everyone agree they are locks to be top 10 defenders for the year? If these blokes are really set n forget why am I not seeing more love for them across this site? Yes they are expensive in your initial squad but you are saving an upgrade trade later on. I rate a trade to be worth $200,000 during the season. So if you apply this discount they are all under $380 k and dead set locks.
They can be afforded by having a midfield of two captain choices, two injury/ value picks & six rookies. When we look at players like Atley, C Pearce, Broadbent, D Swallow etc we are hoping they might by chance(1 in ____) become an Sam Mitchell. If you pick S Mitchell it's 1 in 1 100% A sure
thing!
Please share your thoughts
I think you might have answered your own question. Not everyone thinks they are locks for top 10 Defender positions. Maybe the better question is, why don't people think they are locks for top 10 Defender positions?
In general, high priced Defenders have a terrible record of justifying their price. There are 3 ways to compare players performances: average/game, total points and PIT score/average. If you've read any of my threads, you know I favour the PIT system, where a players missed games are replaced by a Rookie score to determine their season total/average. For Def Rookies I use 65 points. In 2013 only 4 of the 10 most expensive Defenders made the season ending top 10 PIT list. Goddard was most expensive, and top PIT scorer. Gibbs was 3rd most expensive, and 9th best PIT score. Shaw H was 5th most expensive, and 8th best PIT score. Enright was 8th most expensive, and 7th best PIT score. The other 6 players that started the season in the 10 most expensive Defenders were: Scotland, Hartlett, Waters, Birchall, Duffield and Reilly.
Let's look at the players you think they aren't getting the love they deserve.
Mitchell - priced at 104.2, I think he will be quite popular when push comes to shove, and people have to lock a team in. I think he will be in the top 8 - 10 most popular Defs, when we get to see the "ownership" numbers.
Bartel - priced at 106.1, prior to 2013 was on a very steady decline - 126, 116, 109, 102, 101, 99 then last season bounced back to 106. If his scoring is a trend, he is more likely to average 98 this season, than 108. While 98 will be good enough for a top10 Def finish, no one wants to pay 106 for 98 point player, especially given most high priced players drop by 8% in their first price change.
McVeigh - priced at 106.1, he has had 6 seasons in a row over 90/game, but the 106 looks like a jump. I think people are avoiding him because he is a 96/game player, based on his history, that's priced at 106. It's a little bit like Deledio in 2012. He was 105/game player, that jumped to 116/game. sure enough, he returned to being a 105/game in 2013. Similar to Jimmy, people are hesitant to pay top dollar, for a player they really aren't confident will score at the same level again. They's rather wait for that inevitable price change. Once again, 96/game will probably see him make the top 10 Def list.
Hodge - priced at 96.7, and everyone is pretty sure he will miss games for one reason or another. I'm pretty sure he will get "managed" for 2 or 3 games in 2014, on top of some likely injury misses. Paying high prices for players that you are pretty sure will miss games is not generally a good idea. While he
might play 19 or 20 games, everyone is a bit gun shy that he might play 15. It's just considered to high of a risk to pay the 96.7 for him, given the likelihood of missed games. There will be plenty of Coaches willing to leave him out of the expected top 10 Defenders list.
You wonder why Atley, Pearce, Broadbent and Swallow are appearing in teams. To be honest I wonder about why Atley and Pearce do, but I can understand Broadbent and Swallow do. Everyone is just trying to find 2014's Hibberd, Murphy R, Thompson SD, Hanley, Taylor and Adcock, who weren't in the 10 most expensive Defenders in round 1, but all of them finished in the top 10 PIT Defenders by the end of the season. 4 of them weren't even in the top 15 most expensive Defenders.