A Friday night double header provides us with some genuine VC options this week, as does the early Saturday arvo game. Below are my top 5 VC options, in order, with a couple of quick dot points on why.
Vice-Captains
Noah Anderson
- Five-round rolling average of 126.8, with back to back 130+ scores, coinciding with Touk Miller absence.
- West Coast have allowed nine scores of 115 or more in the last two weeks, six of those 125+.
- Five tons in a row.
Tim Taranto
- Eight consecutive tons to start the year, including three of 120+.
- Dawson (116), Laird (107) and Parish (121) have all cracked the ton against Geelong in the last two weeks.
Errol Gulden
- 161 last week with 32 kicks and 13 marks.
- Two games against Fremantle in his career has resulted in scores of 105 and 110.
- Swans seemed to want to control the footy last week, with Gulden benefitting. If that continues, could be huge again.
Tom Stewart
- Last three scores against the Tigers are 106, 105 and 104.
- Richmond allowed Ballard, Macpherson, Powell and Atkins to all score over 100 from the backline TWO weeks ago.
- Had a 157 and 169 last year, so the ceiling is there.
Andrew Brayshaw
- Scores of 157 and 113 in his last two
- GWS had four midfielders score 100+ against the swans 2 weeks ago.
Captains
Plenty of reliable captain options are there to steady the ship if you don’t nail a VC option this week. Read below for who to look to.
- Rory Laird
This year, St Kilda have allowed 13 scores of 120+ against them in 8 games. They absolutely leak points. Enter Rory Laird. Back in form with 4 consecutive tons, Rory is in for a massive week. Liam Shiels laid 9 tackles with 28 disposals against the saints last week for a score of 128. Ziebell took 18 marks to go with 36 touches. However Rory decides to score this week, he will have an easy time doing it. 130+ incoming, and the top option this week.
- Tim English
5 round rolling average of 129.4. 4 scores of 123+ out of his last 5 games. Highest averaging player in the competition. Nothing more needs to be said. Safe as houses, back him in.
- Sam Walsh
Walsh is in some hot form, having scored 4 consecutive tons since returning from injury, including a 131 against St Kilda and a 128 against West Coast. This week, he comes up against a Bulldogs outfit who allowed Tom Green to score 170 against them last week, along with 5 other GWS players scoring over a ton. Hasn’t scored a ton against the bulldogs since his debut season in 2019, but that will change this week. Adam Cerra is also an option for his owners in this soft matchup.
- Clayton Oliver
Still yet to score under 100 for the season, Oliver is back at the MCG this week where he is going for his 21st consecutive ton. 126 on the Hawks last year, 121 and another 126 the year before that. Brayshaw scored 157 against them last week. 4 scores out of 8 this year have been 124+. No reason not to trust Clarry again this week, although there is the threat of a Connor Nash tag, who has been doing some reasonable jobs this year.
- Lachie Neale
Now Neale’s form hasn’t been amazing as of late, with a 5 round rolling average of 89.6. However, he is back at the Gabba this week, where his last 2 scores have been 119 and 116. A ground where he has a career average of 108. And coming up against the Bombers who he has a career average of 116.4 against! His last 3 scores against them have been an ordinary 67, but before that it was back-to-back scores of 145! Parish out this week should mean they don’t have the luxury of using Setterfield as a tagger, and Neale should run free to do what he wants this week against one of his favourite teams. Bounce back week on the way.
