Expert Panel: Who are the AFL Fantasy locks, traps, bargains, breakouts & rooks for 2021?
AFL Fantasy and SuperCoach have their unique idiosyncrasies but those perennial burning questions are universal across both formats.
So Honeyball assembled four of last year’s top 30 in AFL Fantasy, including 2020 winner Trent Sutcliffe, to help you tackle those key pre-season dilemmas.
Alongside Trent, we’ve got Jai Rosevaar (16th in 2020), Thomas Lichtendonk (26th in 2020) and Matty Finch (29th in 2020).
Who are the must-haves?
Trent: The top two must-haves are those with the most scoring upside based on evidence compared to others on their line. One of them needs to be a captain choice. My two must-haves are Rory Laird and Brodie Grundy.
Laird is locked into the Crows midfield group and his previous role is taken by Lachlan Sholl. Laird is as full-proof 100 as you can get in defence and that’s without improving his midfield game.
Grundy is well priced against Max Gawn, with Gawn having a breakout statistical year which would be hard to replicate due to his massive boost in time on ground percentages. Grundy dropped from 122, 120 to 113 and did so by both a slight reduction in minutes and a drop in possessions. With no corona hub, and a return to full fitness, Grundy should narrow the gap to Gawn and maintain a 5-10-point margin to Reilly O’Brien.
Thomas: Yep agree on Grundy and I’ll also say Zach Merrett. Both helped me loads last year, a lot of value in both of them, will both go over 100. Grundy you need because he’s the genuine best ruck in the comp and is a pig against whoever. Merrett has a solid role and I can’t seeing him scoring less than 100 many times.
Matty: Jake Lloyd, he would have to be one of the most consistent players over the past three years and had a ‘before-coronavirus’ (BCV) score of over 100 in every game except three last year and in seven games went over 125 BCV and a high score of 150 BCV. He’ll enjoy the added game time and more kick outs this year.
Also Lachie Neale. This man is a beast if you take out his only two bad games for the season last year he averaged over 100 and that during the 2020 season the man averaged 127 BCV. Plus we hear that he wants to kick the ball more than ever, so not sure if I need to say more to be honest!
Jai: Grundy too. He’s the Fantasy pig who’s output was down last year. Wasn’t a fan of hub life. Rarely do we get a top two in their position that is also value. At least 10 points unders and the perfect captain especially in a year where salary cap limits our ability to pick high end captain options.
Matthew Rowell. Second year player who will have the luxury of developing solely in the Suns midfield, undervalued due to an injury that hasn’t affected his fitness. Doesn’t even need a second year breakout to be a worthy pick.
