Round 7 either started nicely or horribly if you were a Rowan Marshall owner, let alone a Marshall VCer, but it got better from there, leading to some monster scores in AFL Fantasy and SuperCoach.
St Kilda v Port
Freak: Marshall (159)
Flop: Rozee (84)
Rookie Roulette: Williams (67), Phillipou (31), Lord (29)
This is a tough article to write. The writing was on the wall for RoMar against Teaks (60) and the tale of the round is whether you VC’d him or not. My finger hovered over the button right before the bounce and instead I fired off a text “Nah, in Connor I Trust”. You’re welcome if you went with RoMar. If not, it’s my fault and I’m sorry.
Butters (82) was a let down again and JHF (98) was the one to cash in. Steele (128) is back and I have him, Sinclair (119) and Houston (117) on the watchlist. Old mate Phillipou (31) has topped out now.
Brisbane v Freo
Freak: Ashcroft (115)
Flop: Ryan (73)
Rookie Roulette: Wilmot (65), Johnson (63), Sturt (29)
What is actually going on down at Freo? They are favourites for most disappointing team of the year in a very competitive field. At least they’re having the decency to put up a couple of fantasy scores, so their priorities are in order.
If you were sweating on Laird and had Wilmot or Johnson as cover you breathed a sigh of relief and had the freedom to trade around Lairdy as you wished. I still think you can trade Wilmot if you need to, but it can’t be to Johnson, who has been rubbed out. Neale (119) and Dunks (115) finally came through but I’m not counting on it sticking as the Disappointing Dockers just keep getting smashed at the stoppage. There’s nothing quite as sweet a rookie tonning up and Ashcroft topped it off with the GOTY. Brayshaw (113) shook off injury and form worries. Whipping boy Hayden Young (112) repaid the faith.
Sydney v GWS
Freak: Green (136)
Flop: Mills (81)
Rookie Roulette: Angwin (45), Cadman (32), Rowston (25), Sheldrick (18), Sheather (9)
In a week where everyone was enjoying a reprieve from last week’s pain, I rolled the dice, held Laird and took the opportunity to ‘upgrade’ Callaghan (98) to Day, which netted me a sweet sweet 2 points. Put me in the absolute bin. It was against Sydney at the SCG, he had no right! Green (136) absolutely rewarded holders, as did Gulden (116). Jelly (104) and Cogs (101) ticked the boxes while Whitfield (88) maintained his status quo of being only alright.
Millsy actually had CBAs in this game. Not lots of them, but crikey that makes that 81 pretty bad. Surely, surely he comes good at some stage at a juicy price but we still can’t trade him in. We thought Sheldrick might have been a downgrade option, but it seems not.
Bulldogs v Hawthorn
Freak: Daniel (118)
Flop: Bont (90)
Rookie roulette: Weddle (55), Jones (50), Mitchell (44), Ramsden (28), Greene (18)
Doggie CBA watch: Bont (89%), Treloar (78%), Macrae (48%), Daniel (44%), Smith (41%)
Alright, that’s it, Bevo, you have Bevo’d one too many times. He’s making Ma-craezy. No Libba, no problem, right?! Macrae (91) to have CBAs in the seventies, rack up against the lowly hawks and return a 130+. Right?! Nope! Instead Daniel got the bump, top scored and now that none of us have him, Bailey Smith (90) chimed in with a few and was only beaten by Macrae by a solitary point.
Day (100) got off to a terrible start but came through, and surprisingly this wasn’t at the expense of Worps (103). JJ (86) was good and probably the only one who benefitted from Daniel’s move to the mids.
My boy English’s (99) ton run came to an end and put up a lacklustre captain performance for me but I cannot stay mad at him. He’s still leading my B&F. My only concern is he looked a little distracted by a leg issue. He never went off and had reasonable TOG so I might be inventing things but he just seemed not 100% to me. Sicily (96) was only ok. Seems like he performs better at UTAS, maybe he should consider nominating for a trade to the new Tassie team.
We’re going to have rookie problems again this week. We might be battling with more red dots for Fergie and Seamus.
Melbourne v North
Freak: Petracca (142)
Flop: Gawn (86)
Rookie Roulette: McVee (51), JVR (40), Comben (6)
Aaron Hall (136) is running around stealing points from our favourites, except that wunderkind Sheez (126) barely noticed him. The same can’t be said for Ziebell (88), but he escapes the Flop out of sheer resilience. An injury concern had us worried but he peeled himself off the canvas and put up a respectable score. Oliver (125) continues to be an absolute pain and Petracca was superb. Holders of Chandler (106) must be feeling extremely smug.
Brayshaw (95) was good this week and, sorry to be aggravating, he’s low key on the watchlist. I just don’t see him averaging this poorly for the rest of the season. I find myself perplexed by the Gawn/Grundy (100) situation, you’d be miffed if you traded Grundy but I don’t think he’ll be serving that up every week.
West Coast v Carlton
Freak: Newman (164)
Flop: West Coast
Rookie Roulette: Cincotta (77), Hollands (66), #Ginbae (50)
What an absolutely putrid display. It’s a shame Newman is no longer fantasy relevant. Carlton had six players above 120 and none of them were even Crippa (116). Walshy (128) did it again and I want him in my side, he laid 10 tackles despite Carlton being ridiculously dominant. Although, I have some minor concerns about his lack of CBAs.
TK (108) continues to carry the Eagles on his back, with significant help from apparent pick of the year Hunt (93). Cincotta answered our rookie prayers but, as much as it pains me to say it, it may be time for Ginbae to go.
Essendon v Geelong
Freak: Parish (121)
Flop: Setterfield (54)
Rookie Roulette: Knevitt (47)
It should tell you something about Setters’ performance here that he’s the Flop in this very very competitive field. He beat out Merrett (82) who went missing from the CBAs and most certainly did not repay the faith, Frequent Flopper McGrath (66), another shocker from Duncan (66) and Redman (57). Oh, and Bowesy (10) got injured immediately. Any of these guys might’ve stunted your otherwise high-scoring weekend, but Setters is a trade-out candidate. He’s had a small role change with the introduction of Hobbs (83) at the stoppage, in combination with Stringer (125). He still got 68% CBAs but they are trending down.
Richmond v Gold Coast
Freak: Anderson (134)
Flop: Baker (60)
Rookie Roulette: Ryan (73), Young (42), Humphrey (0)
Anderson and Fiorini (112) picked up Miller’s points and, sorrynotsorry, I am on BOARD for Fiorini SZN. Taranto (126) did it for the umpteenth time. He’s the fourth ranked player in the game. Two weeks in a row now, Short (123) has taken all of Baker’s points. At least he didn’t end up with donuts like Humphrey.
Adelaide v Collingwood
Freak: Laird (110)
Flop: De Goey (53)
Rookie Roulette: Pedlar (75), Michalanney (52), Kelly (34)
What a top-notch high octane rollercoaster Lairdy delivered. He went from injury cloud, to needs to pass the Captain’s run, to ‘sweet’, to Matt Crouch being held over from the SANFL, to ‘lets hope he gets through the warm up’, to playing, to scoring like a man with an unbreakable calf, to subbed, to not subbed, to 110. What a virtuoso performance. He would have been covered by Phillipou’s 31 for me so I tip my hat and forgive all of his early season wobbles. Star.
Dawson (112) also delivered, as did bounce back man Jones (90), while Nicky D impressed with a 99, fighting through injury and attention. This rookie crisis is no good, and has me thinking about Kelly. Angwin remains the answer if you don’t have him, but the pickings, they are slim.
Bring them in: Houston, Fiorini, Anderson
Cop it on the chin: Rozee, Bont, Merrett
Put them in the bin: Ginbae, Phillipou, Setterfield
