The Buzz: What to do with Steele? The best Sicily replacements & premo picks off the bye
Jack Steele’s injury-impacted scores are causing plenty of headaches for SuperCoach owners, while there’s others who are still plotting a way to offload the suspended James Sicily. We’ve discussed both dilemmas in The Buzz.
Is it time for Jack Steele to go
A couple of weeks ago many of us thought that we had a bargain on our hands after Steele had come off a few subpar games in which he was just returning off an injury. Unfortunately for Steele, it seems that he’s carrying a knee injury as well. To be honest, if you manage to catch the Saints games you can clearly see he’s not moving at 100%. Currently, he’s dropped to $468k which makes it very difficult to trade him to a premium you want without spending excess cash.
From Ross Lyons’s press conference, he does hint that Steele is too good to be rested and that any sort of management would be done in-game and we’ve seen that with Steele spending a lot more time on the bench than normal. As well, his ability to cover the ground is very limited with the injury he’s carrying. This makes it very painful to watch as he’s had three scores under 70 as well as 5 scores under 100 as well. A glimmer of hope is that he can score big when healthy and fit though the two 100s he scored have been 126 and 135. But in the short term, he is bleeding cash and other midfielders are overtaking him in points scored.
So where does that leave owners? Well as painful as it sounds the best thing to do is to hold unless he’s ruled out due to this injury. Given many coaches have limited trades at this stage of the season, you are better off trying to get a premium around him rather than sideways trading. If you remember Andrew Brayshaw was also supposedly carrying a nagging injury that was limiting him in the first half of the season but since Round 8 after he declared he was running pain-free he managed to ton up in 5 of the 6 games.
If you are to trade him for a sideways premium you’re only really going to be banking on Callum Mills returning very soon to provide you that value, he’s projected to drop below $450k which should be a similar price to Steele if he plays this week. Patrick Cripps is another premium who’s at a similar price but will have his bye this week.
Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing whether Steele will get over this injury but what is a small glimmer of hope is that he does have the ability to score 110+ on his day. The value picks are there if needed but I would be holding him as he can be a handy M8/9 loophole option come late into the season. Remember upgrading around your injured premiums will be a lot better than sideways trading the underperforming ones.
More Sicily replacements
We’ve got the verdict in and Sicily will unfortunately miss 3 weeks. Now depending on your team structure I would ideally be holding him as he’s currently the number 1 scoring defender in the past 5 weeks. But if you’ve got trades in the bank or want to catch up with as many points as you can, who else can you get? There are plenty of options that I mentioned last week so I won’t bother putting them down again.
Luke Ryan (SC $503k Def)
There are probably not many players out there who score better when their team loses compared to when their team wins. But Luke Ryan is one of these examples. In 7 losses this year, Ryan averages 120 whereas in wins he only averages 94.5 in their wins. Is this a consistent trend that will continue? Potentially, we saw that when Freo stink they really put their backline under pressure but in the same boat that does result in Ryan as that anchoring 3rd tall defender scoring extremely well. If you look at their run home they do have a few winnable games with the Eagles and Hawks in rounds 22 and 24 respectively but in every other game, you could argue that they would go in underdogs or you could make a case for the likes of the Dogs, Swans and Cats that they could get up. Regardless Ryan has dropped nearly 90k from his peak price, could he get back to a 100+ average? He absolutely could but maybe if you’re a Freo fan you might avoid him.
Jordan Dawson (SC $574k Def/Mid)
There’s not much to say but get him if you haven’t already, 2nd highest averaging defender this season with huge scores of 173,152 and 150 this season already. He does have a higher floor with only 5 scores under 100 with 3 of them being 90s. Playing as an inside midfielder as well as taking kick outs means he’s got a variety of ways he can score, just pick him if you haven’t got him.
Jordan Ridley (SC $505k Def)
Since he’s had his concussion, Ridley has returned scoring 4 consecutive tons in a very lucrative role. This comes after an upturn in their form with 4 consecutive wins as well. With the return of Laverde and Kelly, it has meant that Ridley needs to lockdown less and can intercept freely more. Furthermore, Essendon plays a game style that relies on a lot of kicks and marks which suits his play style of accurate kicks. An alternative option could be Mason Redman (SC $532k Def) but he seems to have a much lower floor with 5 scores under 80 so far this season. But still similarly to Ridley, he’s scored 3 tons in the last 4 games. The only downside would be that he’s slightly more expensive than his teammate Ridley.
Elliot Yeo (SC $400k Def)
This one is a tremendous risk given his recent injury history but the upside on Yeo is too good to ignore. After a slow start to the year. Yeo has managed to score back-to-back tons in which he has played 2 distinctively different roles. One where he was playing as a centre-bounce midfielder and the other as a defender. What makes this an intriguing pick however is the fact that he’s got the history behind him to show that he can score well in different roles in 2017 he broke out to average 102.1 as a defender while the next few seasons he was able to continue that 100+ average but as a midfielder this time. The big risk with picking someone like Yeo however is the fact that his body could break down at any point, he’s only managed 32 games in the past 4 seasons so the track record isn’t so good. Maybe this option will suit you if you have spare trades in the bank.
Best options coming off their byes
Six teams are coming off the byes fresh, so which players could we be targeting this week if you want to finish strongly?
Josh Worrell (SC $329k Def)
I don’t blame you for questioning this one but hear me out. Tom Doedee has unfortunately been ruled out for the rest of the year with an ACL injury; thus, the Crows are missing a 3rd tall rebounding defender from their backline. Enter Josh Worrell who’s only played 7 games in his 3 years of footy. So what makes him special though, well in his first 2 games of this year he’s managed to score a 100 and an 82 which is very solid and that’s coming off playing as that 3rd tall in the Adelaide team. So he’ll be expected to take plenty of marks and kick a lot. He did take four kick-ins in the ton he scored but that was when their number one kick-in taker in Brodie Smith was injured. While he may not be a keeper, it may be the stepping stone you need to take you to that fully-fledged premium at the end, especially with how few rookies there are left.
Bailey Williams (SC $439k Ruc)
If you’re looking for a POD ruckman coming off their bye, then Williams may be your go to player, so far this season he’s scored pretty average with only 1 ton in his first 11 games. However, in his last 2 games, he’s improved a lot managing to score back-to-back tons with high possession output. Coming against Sydney this week could be a feeding ground for him given that the Swans leak points to the opposition ruckman. At $439k he could be a steal for the run home especially if you missed the Briggs train. Nic Nat being ruled out of the year means he’s virtually got no competition.
Max Gawn (SC $505k Ruc)
Max Gawn currently sits at 34% DPP status, after coming off a long-term injury. We are yet to see Gawn hit the heights that we’re used to seeing in years go by. But what makes this a lucrative pick is if he can get that ruc/fwd status. If you take out the injury-affected 0, he’d be averaging 102.5 and comparing that to all forwards this year that would put him in the 8th highest averaging. You just would have to pray that Grundy gets used in the ruck a bit more and in a few rounds’ time he could be that magical ruc/fwd pod we need.
Tom Mitchell (SC $556k Mid)
You probably wouldn’t believe it but Tom Mitchell has been flying under the radar all season. Not many players have scored 10 tons in their first 13 games, yet Mitchell would be one of the cheaper ones to do so. That is because his ceiling isn’t super high at the moment with only 3 scores above 120+. While he’s unlikely to hit the heights of a 120+ again, playing in a successful team with not much attention being put on him is a recipe for success. Considering he’s playing his best role of an inside midfielder he’s the main man to extract the footy out to the classy outside runners in the Daicos brother. Furthermore, he’s unlikely to attract a tag given the quality of players around him.
Darcy Parish (SC $568k Mid)
If you were sad about missing out on Zach Merrett then you could get yourself Darcy Parish who’s a natural ball magnet. A calf injury has ruled him out for the last 7 weeks but going off games played he’s one of the most natural ball winners around the contest. I’d expect him to jump straight back into things. If you remember last year he did have a calf injury and came back to score a 120 against the Giants. Furthermore, teams would rather put attention to Zerrett leaving Parish free to roam around more.
Read Wednesday’s team & injury news
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