Another week of knowing all teams’ 22s before the bounce of the first game on Friday night. Take advantage by preparing a rock solid VC/C plan, with Jimmy Crawford bringing you his top SuperCoach tips.
Follow him on Twitter @Pig_Mentality for more SuperCoach VC/C chat, statistics, opinions and insights.
Vice-Captains
1. James Sicily
Scores of 128, 63, 134 and 134 in his last four games highlight the ceiling and the floor of Sicily. In a recent interview, he stated that he has been freed up to play a more attacking role and it has been reflected in his last two games. He now comes up against St Kilda, who have forced opposition defenders to chip the ball around, leading to them giving up the third most points to defenders over the season. A SicDog VC looks like a very profitable way to start your Saturday.
2. Caleb Serong
Caleb started the year hot and has been overshadowed by Brayshaw’s rise in the last few weeks. This is despite Serong still having a three-round average over 120. He now plays against the Naarm Football Club who have given up the second most points to midfielders this season, which includes Butters (184), Rozee (140), Newcombe (117) and Anderson (189) in recent weeks.
3. Errol Gulden
Errol has a three-round average of 136, buoyed by two weeks of 156. Last week he copped a heavy Bailey Scott tag and still managed to score 96. Carlton may have tried tagging Gulden with Ed Curnow, but now that Curnow has been omitted, you can VC Errol with confidence.
Captains
1. Zak Butters
Zak just put up one of the highest scores of the year; a huge 184 to lead the Yartapuulti Football Club to a memorable win over Naarm. This game wasn’t a fluke when you consider his last three games are now all over 125. This week he matches up against the Tigers, who give up the fifth most points to midfielders, including Merrett (162), Atkins (113) and Sheed (115) all easily outscoring their season average recently. Expect Butters to continue his elite form.
2. Zach Merrett
Zach led the way for Essendon in Round 10, scoring an inspirational Captain’s 162. He will be a common Captain option against the depleted West Coast this week and he should reward owners again. Scores of 111, 119 and 125 in his last three matchups with the Eagles. Many owners were wary when Will Day (74) was tagged to a poor score by Xavier O’Neill, and are now very excited that O’Neill has been dropped. But remember, it was Reuben Ginbey who tagged Anderson (88) two weeks ago. I just wanted to make note that the tag could still come to Merrett, even with O’Neill out, but I expect him to break through it and put up another great score.
3. Tom Liberatore
Tom has had an incredibly consistent year and has somehow continues to fly under the radar despite averaging over 119 points per game. Owned by less than 6% of teams, Liberatore will look to continue his midfield dominance against the Suns in Darwin. I am expecting this to be a humid, dewy game with lots of stoppages for Libba to do his best work. This could be one of those outings that give owners a big ranking jump.
4. Marcus Bontempelli
Marcus has a poor track record at Mars Stadium and still managed 112 last week, which showcases the great form he is in. He has never played at TIO Stadium before, which is the main flag here because we do not have any data. How will Bontempelli go from playing in 12°C in Ballarat last week, to 31°C in Darwin this week? I will back him in for a good score against the Suns who give up plenty of points to midfielders. The Bont has scores of 130, 93 and 133 in their last three matchups.
5. Tom Stewart
Tom had a poor week last week, but that was expected. No opposition defender has been able to score 100 points against Fremantle since Lachie Weller did it in Round 5. This week he plays the Giants, who have given up big points to premium defenders in recent weeks, including Sinclair (160) and Daicos (125) in the last fortnight.
POD Captain?
1. Jarrod Witts
Owned by about 16% of teams, Witts is a sneaky POD Captain option this week because not many owners will look to captain him against Tim English, with Tim considered the best ruckman in the competition. What they won’t be taking into account is the fact that that the Bulldogs ruck combo only win the hit-outs 38% of the time this season. This will leave plenty of points on the board for The Wittler, as it did for Reilly O’Brien (99), Marc Pittonet (102), Ned Reeves (110) and Sean Darcy (137), who have all outscored their season average in their game against English during the last five weeks.
My moves
I scored 2,440 last week which had me dropping to rank 1,019th for the season.
Last week I chose Oliver as Vice-Captain (120) into a Bontempelli Captain (112). I took Oliver’s score as Captain.
This week I will have the Vice-Captain on Sicily followed by Merrett as my Captain.
For those interested in my recommendations, I started this article in Round 2, and since then the stats look like this:
Average VC recommendation score: 121
Average C recommendation score: 118
Average POD C recommendation score: 104
*excluding injured or subbed games
