Hi guys, long time reader of the site (has helped me plenty through last year) and hoping to become a much more frequent poster this year!
Now this might seem quite left-field but has anybody considered Mark Hutchings? Watched him during the finals last year and looked quite a handy, contested player. I feel he is under-priced (3 green vests/injury-plagued pre-season) and could potentially average between 90-95 if he nails a spot in the senior side IMO. If he ends up achieving this, at 385k, could be a handy F6 keeper which would allow for spending more across the other lines for 'safer' premiums. The mid/fwd eligibility is also a bonus.
I had a look at previous seasons and the only concerns I can see are him being used as a tagger/role player and low game counts. He's played 38 games over three seasons (9 in '13, 16 in '14 and 13 in '15) and will be 25 during the early part of the season. He averaged 89.9 in his first season, 73.3 in his second (second year blues?/sub vests) and 71.5 last year.
Last year, if we take out his vested games in rounds 7 (35 points), 15 (12 points) and 16 (40 points) his average actually pushes up to 89.3ppg from round 17 to the grand final (10 games). In his final 10 games he had returned scores of 84, 60, 106, 89, 121, 58, 110, 110, 96 and 59. The scores of 60 (vs Gold Coast, draw) 58 (vs Adelaide, loss by 57 points) and 59 (vs Hawthorn in the GF, loss by 48) has me a tad worried that if the Eagles struggle so may Hutchings. However, the 106 was a loss to Hawthorn which gives me some hope he could be ok.
I find him to be an interesting prospect even though he does come with some ??? as every other mid-pricer does. He'll be one I watch with interest throughout the NAB Challenge. What does everybody else think?
