Old school Friday to Sunday football has returned, meaning you probably want to get a VC out of the way nice and early, however with most people likely to be carrying a few red dots this week, a smart play might be holding out until late Saturday.
Here are my top 5 options for round 7!
Vice Captains
1. Tim English
- Yet to drop below 111 this year, with a ceiling of 145.
- Last 3 average of 132.3.
2. Rowan Marshall
- West Coast’s Bailey Williams scored 101 against Teakle last week.
- 5 tons in a row.
- Averages 122.5 against Port and 93.14 at Marvel. Not bad for someone who has played a large portion of their career as a key forward.
3. Connor Rozee
- Fresh off a 133 last week.
- 4 Carlton mids scored 126+ against the saints last week.
4. Caleb Serong
- 5 tons in a row at an average of 117.4. Of those 5 tons, 4 of them are 114 or more.
- Coniglio (135) and Kelly (125) did as they pleased against Brisbane last week.
5. Lachie Neale
- Last week Bont (148) and Treloar (112) both racked up against Fremantles mids.
- Back at the Gabba where he has a career average of 107.9.
Captains
If you don’t get the score you’re hoping for from one of the legends above, there are plenty of safe names to run with on Saturday night/Sunday. My top Captain options for this week, in order, are:
1.Sam Walsh
Walsh has taken no time at all to find top form since his return from injury, with an impressive 131 last week. Lining up against a horribly undermanned West Coast outfit who allowed Rozee (133) and Drew (123) to rack up the points last week, there’s no reason why Walsh shouldn’t pump out another massive score this week. If you traded him in this week as a POD, maybe for a Touk, you can have confidence in putting the C on him on debut for your side.
2. Clayton Oliver
The set and forget number 1 man has been knocked down a position this week off the back of a couple of lower end tons! However, if you own Oliver and not Walsh, he is your man again this week. Career average of 111.3 against North. 6 tons in a row to start the season, with a high score of 149. North haven’t used a tagger in the midfield this year, and that wont change any time soon. Oliver is as safe as houses.
3. Tim Taranto
How wrong were the people in pre-season who said that this guy couldn’t average much more than 200 because of the Richmond system? He’s blown that completely out of the water, which was always going to happen with this full time midfield role we have seen from him. Averaging 117.2 for the year, a low score of 108 and a ceiling score of 138 last week from just 74% TOG, when he played 90% the week before… Starting to really find some form, comes up against Gold Coast, who he had 126 on last year. The consecutive tons will not stop this week.
4. Nick Daicos
Adelaide have basically confirmed they will tag him… It does not matter. Last year against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, he had 147… When he played at Adelaide oval 2 weeks ago for Gather Round, he scored 136… He has 1 score below 114 for the season, which was a flat 100. He has a three round rolling average of 134, which consists of scores of 126, 136 and 140. The kid is too good.
5. Noah Anderson
With Touk going down, someone is going to have to step up and lead this young midfield. Enter Noah Anderson. If you still haven’t decided who to bring in for Touk this week, and he really helped your bye structure, then Anderson is your man. He is also a man who is going to give you instant reward. 3 tons ins a row resulting in a 3 round rolling average of 122.7, which includes a monster 159. For a young player in just his 4th season, yet to average over 100 for a full year, Anderson averages 101.9 at Marvel Stadium. He also scored 141 against Richmond last year. Viney, Petracca and Oliver all scored 100+ against Richmond last week. I don’t see Anderson scoring below 110 this week.
