SuperCoach preliminary finals are here! And with two weeks left of overall ranking changes, nailing your Captaincy has never been more important. I will do my best to pick some winners for you.
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This week most of the popular red dot rookies play early, so make sure you have your loophole options set!
Vice Captains
1. Luke Davies-Uniacke
LDU has a five-round average of 124 and this week comes up against Richmond, who never tag. LDU has only played Richmond three times in his career, for scores of 110, 119 and 86. I would be very surprised if he doesn’t blow those numbers out of the water in this game. He has 8 games of 122+ this year, from 14 matches, and is in a great run of form since returning from injury. A perfect VC option with a 150+ ceiling at his best.
2. Jack Ziebell
This is a total roll of the dice, but you can do that with your Vice-Captaincy. In Ziebell’s last-ever game, they may look to feed him the ball and boost his stats. Richmond is the second-easiest team for opposition defenders this season. Recent defender scores against the Tigers include; Sinclair (115), Dale (113), Rivers (109) and Sicily (171). Will we see one more huge Ziegull performance before retirement? If you have him, this could be a season defining VC.
3. Rowan Marshall
Rowan has stepped up in recent weeks to now be the fifth-highest SuperCoach scorer for the entire season. He scored 146 last week in a matchup with Nankervis during which he lost the hit-out battle. This week he plays against Geelong, who are without their three experienced ruckmen. His ruck battle will be against Shannon Neale (not Shannon Noll as Selby says). Nollsy Nealsy actually won the hit-out in 60% of his ruck contest last week, which would lead the league. Although that was from a small sample size, it does indicate that the hit-out matchup may not be as juicy as most people are thinking. Marshall should do enough around the ground to get a solid score, and if he wins the hit-out battle it could be a big one.
Captains
1. Tim English
Tim just cannot be stopped. Last week he somehow managed to score 143 points despite only having 10 disposals and a goal. He lost the hit-out battle to Ned Reeves last week, but he did have 13 hit-outs to Advantage, which boosted his score. This week he plays against West Coast and Bailey Williams, who give up the most points to opposition ruckmen this season. Bailey Williams wins the hit-out in 38% of his ruck contests, which should allow English plenty of opportunities to dominate the ruck battle. A five-round average of 145 means don’t overthink this. Just lock him in.
2. Marcus Bontempelli
Marcus has been incredibly consistent all year, not scoring under 100 since Round 3! This week he plays against the easiest midfield in the competition, and he should have a field day. There is a chance he is tagged by Xavier O’Neill, but I don’t think it is a great matchup for Xavier. The Brownlow Medal race is wide open now, and I expect The Bont to be at his dominant best after an averaging showing last week that probably didn’t poll him any votes. 98, 156 and 145 in their last three meetings.
3. Luke Jackson
Luke is coming off scores of 173 and 124 in his last two games, both against easy ruck matchups. This week he gets the easiest matchup of them all; Port Adelaide without Lycett or Teakle. Last week the Power went in with a ruck lineup of Sam Hayes and Jeremy Finlayson, who combined to win the hit-out in 13 out of their 69 ruck contests (19% win rate). They even had Ollie Wines take two ruck contests. Jackson can score well without winning the hit-out battle due to his contested work, but this could be a huge ceiling game for him against this opposition.
4. Rory Laird
For weeks now I have been flagging that Sydney have become an easy matchup for opposition midfielders. Since the bye; Rowell (119), Green (126), Merrett (139), Brayshaw (116), Libba (149), Bont (131), Bolton (158), Martin (131) and Tuohy (126) have all dominated against the Swans’ midfield. This is looking like a prime chance for Rory to build on his five-round average of 122, as he scored 140 against Sydney last season and 121 on them in 2021.
5. Jordan Dawson
Everything that I wrote for Rory Laird, above, also applies for Jordan Dawson. Jordan isn’t in quite as good a form as Laird in recent weeks, but he has more on the line in this game. He is the captain of the Adelaide Crows, who need to win to make finals, and playing at Adelaide Oval should be all the incentive that Dawson needs. But throw in a “revenge game” against his old team, and the motivation should be there for a big score. He has only scored over 127 once in the last fourteen games, which is a flag.
POD Vice-Captain?
1. Dustin Martin
Dustin averages 110 points per game against North Melbourne (from 13 career games). This is his second-most productive matchup. If the Kangaroos chose to tag, you would think they would go after Taranto or Bolton, leaving Martin to roam free. With two of his best mates retiring in the next two games, I think we could see a big fortnight from Dusty to see them off. A very risky pick, so only use it as a VC option, but this could be a vintage performance if everything comes together for the Tigers.
My moves
I scored 2,453 last week which had me climbing up to rank 148th for the season.
Last week I chose Merrett as Vice-Captain (96) into a Jackson Captain (124). I took Jackson’s score as Captain.
I predict English to be my highest scorer of the week, but my last playing loophole is Saturday night. That means I will probably have to take a VC punt on Merrett or Dunkley, but I don’t like either of those options. I expect to be falling back to English as my Captain.
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