Blessed with captaincy options this week, there are two clear top picks for the VC again in AFL Fantasy this week on Thursday night, and a sneaky option on the Friday.

Vice-Captains

With the news Tom Hickey is out, Tim English seems to be the clear VC pick for Round 18. He has been a bit quieter since the bye, only posting scores of 108 and 94, but the week before the bye he had 134 and 158 2 weeks before that. The ceiling is there, the match up is there and English is the top VC option this week.

If you don’t own English, you can feel very comfortable backing in Errol Gulden again this week. A 3 round rolling average of 133, consisting of scores of 126, 128 and 145. His season average is up to 110, and he has scored a ton in 9 of his last 10 games. Genuine, reliable option, week in, week out.

If you are looking for a POD VC this week, Lachie Neale is back into captaincy option territory. Three-round rolling average of 116, back-to-back scores of 127, a low score of 94 in the last 8 weeks. Coming up against a Melbourne midfield that is still missing Clayton Oliver and having Petracca spend higher amounts of time as a forward, Neale could get off the chain again this week. We haven’t seen that massive ceiling from him yet this year, but we know he is capable of it and this could be the week if you want to go against English or Gulden.  

Captains

If your VC doesn’t hit 120+ this week, take it on. There are some fantastic captaincy options later in the round, including my top pick on Sunday afternoon…  

• Tim Taranto 2 scores under 100 since his bye, yet he is still averaging 120 for the year. 29 touches last week from 93% TOG, Timmy hasn’t had a role change and he is going to bounce back massively this week. Coming up against the Eagles in the last game of the round, who he had 117 against earlier in the year, don’t forget before the bye Taranto had a low score of 120 in his last 6 games. Will be huge, and is as safe a captain option this week as you’ll ever get, whether he has been down on form since the bye or not.  

• James Sicily Those that are chasing him on his return this week are going to be rewarded. So much so that I would seriously consider putting the captaincy on him. Sunday afternoon, under the roof, Sic Dog comes up against North Melbourne, who he has already scored 132 against this year. Not to mention his last 3 games played, he was freed up down back to rack up his marks, resulting in scores of 125, 165 and 130 for an average of 140 in that time. There isn’t going to be much better form for a captaincy option than that. Will be a POD captain option this week, but one that could reward you like no other.  

• Nick Daicos This move into the midfield is the beginning of a Gary Ablett Jnr type captaincy option, every week, for his entire career. Averaging 127.3 in his last three, including a score of 150, this future pig has even started tackling since his move into the engine room. Doesn’t matter who or where he plays, the kid will get it done, and he will again this week against Fremantle. 30+ disposals, 2 goals and 3 Brownlow votes on the way again this week.  

• Jordan Dawson The Giants have been tough to score against of late, but it doesn’t matter for someone like Dawson. After all, he is averaging 145 in his last 3 games… 145… he has had 5 scores of 128 or higher in his last 6 games, including a 172, and is doing his best to chase down two of the guys named above him in this list for the Brownlow. Safe as houses, will be 120+ again this week.  

• Zach Merrett It’s just not right to leave a guy who is doing what Zach is doing out of the top 5. 3 scores of 150+ since round 10. A low score of 97 in that time, in a game where he was tagged. In fact, there has only been 3 games Merrett has played in this year that he hasn’t scored a ton. That’s only 1 more game than Taranto. Remarkable consistency. Back him in for another reliable captaincy score this week, with the potential that is becomes another monster ceiling game. Its starting to seem like he just pops them out whenever he feels like it.

Read In The Wings to see who’s pushing for an AFL game via the VFL, WAFL & SANFL

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