This may not be a new suggestion to many of you, but I have begun to rethink the way I approach selecting a vice-captain. Up until now, I have assumed that my captain should be the player that I project to score the most in my team that week. And then I chased a high-upside fluky player with my vice-captain.
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What this has led to has been many occasions where that vice-captain has scored a safe 115-125 and I have taken that score despite my “favourite captain” not having played. In many cases, the player I would have captained went on to score more.
Don’t get me wrong, locking in a 115-125 VC score is great. But the issue is that I wasn’t even giving myself the chance to get a look at the player I projected to score the most for my team. I am now leaning towards having the vice-captain on the highest projected player and finding a safe 120ish fall-back captain option that plays after them.
I trialled this last week. I projected Neale to be my highest scorer.
In my previous mentality, I would have captained Neale and taken a VC flier on Bontempelli. Last week Bontempelli scored 123. I would have locked this in and not even given myself a chance to look at Neale’s score, which ended up being a 142.
In my trial, I vice-captained Neale and found a safe fallback captain option (Merrett). This allowed me to have a crack at the player that I projected to be my highest scorer of the week.
It paid off last week. I will keep trialling it for the rest of the year.
I posted these thoughts on Twitter and many people agreed that the vice-captain should be your best player, and they had been playing that way for years. Hopefully this discussion helps you if you are like me and mistakenly thought your captain should be your best player.
Anyway, on to my top VC/C suggestions this round for SuperCoach:
Vice Captains
1. Tim English
Tim has quietly returned to elite form after a slight slump before the byes. He has a five-round average of 129 and has only dropped below 127 once in that period. This week he plays against Sydney, who give up the fourth most points to opposition ruckmen this season. 97, 152, 126 and 145 in their last four meetings. Only two premium ruckmen have played against Sydney at the SCG this year; Marshall (119) and Darcy (151). This matchup has given me even more confidence now that Tom Hickey has been dropped and Sydney will be going in with Hayden McLean having to take the ruck duties. McLean wins the Hit Out in 38% of his ruck contests in 2023. *I project English to be my highest scoring player this week and therefore he becomes be my Vice-Captain (as discussed in the above dialogue). It just so happens that he plays the first game of the week, to make that a very easy decision.
2. Errol Gulden
Errol has the highest three-round average in the league of players that have played the last three weeks (aka excluding Sicily). This includes 164 and 124 in his last two games at the SCG. This week he plays the Bulldogs at the SCG on Thursday night. This presents a great opportunity for a Vice-Captain shot in the first round of the game, given his high upside. Gulden’s highest score against the Bulldogs is 81, but I expect that to change this week.
3. Marcus Bontempelli
Marcus has only scored over 125 in one of his last 8 matches. Despite this, all of those scores have been 112+. He is an ultra-safe option, with the upside to score a 160 on any given day. That is the reason he keeps making this list despite scoring par Captain scores. His last three games against Sydney have all been between 101 and 114. His last three scores at the SCG are 101, 166 and 92, highlighting his ceiling and floor. You can certainly take a flier on The Bont as a VC, but I prefer the two options above.
Captains
1. Nick Daicos
Nick has scores of 132, 149 and 139 in his last three games. An interesting statistic here is that Fremantle are one of the easiest matchups for opposition midfielders, but one of the hardest matchups for opposition defenders. So which position will Daicos play this week? 86% centre bounce attendances last week suggest it could be midfield. Wherever he lines up, I think this could be another big Daicos score at the MCG, where he averages 121 this year. This pick looks even safer now that Fremantle have been decimated with injuries and suspensions this week.
2. Tim Taranto
After a hot first 14 rounds of the season, Tim has been limited to 72 and 84 points in his last two games. Some people have noted that this coincides with the return of Jacob Hopper, but I am not as confident in this thought process, as Taranto was great when Hopper played at the start of the year. This week he gets a matchup against the easiest team in the competition, West Coast, who have recently given up huge scores to their inside midfield opponents; Ashcroft (148), Neale (142), Crouch (134), Rowbottom (150) and Parker (134). A great Captain choice to end the round.
3. Zach Merrett
Zach just keeps getting it done, as shown by his three-round average of 144. This week he heads down the highway to play Geelong at GMHBA Stadium, which is considered a tough matchup for visiting teams. However, recent premium midfielders to play Geelong at GMHBA indicated that it can still be a productive ground for the right players; Luke Davies-Uniacke (134), Christian Petracca (121), Tom Green (95), Stephen Coniglio (87), Jordan Dawson (122) and Rory Laird (102) have had varying levels of success at that venue. I am expecting a safe Captain 120-130 from Zach here, rather than a big ceiling game.
4. Lachie Neale
Lachie averages 118 over his entire career against Melbourne (13 matches). His last three meetings with the Demons have all been low tonnes, but this year Melbourne give up the fourth most points to opposition midfielders. Neale will need to lead the Lion’s engine room again this week without Josh Dunkley. He has only played at the MCG once this year, for a 102. He is in such great form at the moment that a VC option here is a smart move, and you could use the C on him if you are a believer.
5. Tom Stewart
Tom has a reputation for scoring big at GMHBA and average elsewhere. This year he has averaged 117 points at his home ground and 121 away from it (excluding the injury affected Round 1). The reason for suggesting him this week is the matchup. Essendon give up the second-most points to opposition defenders this year, trailing only St Kilda. In the last fortnight Dawson (127), Hinge (98), Worrell (86), Houston (156), Farrell (131), Williams (110) and Burton (91) have all outperformed their season average when facing Essendon. Stewart scored 123 on the Bombers in their early meeting this year.
POD Captain?
1. Shai Bolton
Shai grew up in Western Australia and he loves playing against West Coast. He has a 109 average from their six meetings. His next favourite team is Fremantle (95.4 average). He averages 115 points per game at Optus Stadium. Owned by only 6% of teams, Shai has the ultimate mix of playing his favourite team, at his favourite venue, with the bonus that the Eagles are a mess this year. I don’t need to repeat some of the scores that have been recorded against them recently, but I expect Shai to go close to matching the 152 put up against them in Round 8.
My moves
I scored 2,613 last week which had me climbing up to rank 406th for the season.
Last week I chose Neale as Vice-Captain (142) into a Merrett Captain (136). I took Neale’s score as Captain.
This week I will have the Vice-Captain on English followed by Daicos as my Captain.
Read In The Wings to see who’s pushing for an AFL game via the VFL, WAFL & SANFL
