Last week was disappointing and overall was a tough round to find a diamond in the rough. I’m feeling confident with these selections this week, kicking off with Big Maxy on Thursday night and Friday night double header!
ROUND 8 VICE CAPTAINS
Max Gawn
Big Maxy let us down a little last week but came home strong in the second half to post something that was respectable in the end. Delving in to his previous 2 matchups against the Blues, Maxy has not been at his best but if you go back further into his history he posted some healthy scores of 129, 117 and 184 back in 2020 where he was matched up against Pittonet. Both teams need this win and Maxy always seems to be the guy that drags the Dees across the line. Ill be on Maxy this week!
Zak Butters
Butters has a decent history against the Cats, where he has a 4 round average of 115 against them. GMHBA stadium is the venue that Butters has his best career average of 127.5 with a high score of 147 SuperCoach points. Six of Butters’ scores have been above 117 this season and I expect him to be getting plenty of contested footy on the small oval and scoring well.
Tom Stewart
Tom enjoys this matchup against the Power where he averages 119.25 over his last 4 matchups against the Port. He just seems to play GMHBA Stadium well, he reads the play so well and with Port being the most inaccurate team this season you can expect baulk kick-ins for Tommy. Don’t mind him this week.
Luke Ryan
Now I’m not expecting Sydney to allow Fremantle to play their unpressured switch, kick around in the defence game as easy as Richmond did but you just can’t ignore his form. For me he doesn’t seem a player that teams would worry about tagging because his disposals are not impactful on the game, of his 39 disposals last week only 1 kick went inside 50. He had 9 kick-ins and played on from all of them. Five of his scores have ranged between 127 and 197, he seems like a very safe pick.
ROUND 8 CAPTAINS OPTIONS
Matt Rowell
He has been a little quiet of late with Dunkley doing a job on his last week. In saying this, he absolutely loves playing North Melbourne where he has a career average of 110.2 and pair that up with North being ranked 17th for SuperCoach mids he just seems a solid pick against the struggling Kangaroos.
Marcus Bontempelli
Here is my pick of the round. Bevo just cant afford to play their clearance beast in the forward line with the pressure they are all under. I feel we are all a little scared of the ‘Bevo affect’, but this year Richmond are even worse than North Melbourne in the midfield ranked teams. Bontempelli’s history reflects this with Richmond being his favourite team to play where over 10 matches he averages 127.6 and his last 3 he has an average of 137 SuperCoach points. Bont is my absolute pick of the round!
Nick Daicos
He’s back with a 3 round average of 137! Nick’s best career average is against the Eagles of 127 SuperCoach points. The Eagles are are ranked 15th for points scored for SuperCoach defenders this year. I expect Daicos to absolute run rampant against Eagles this week!
ROUND 8 P.O.D CAPTAIN
Josh Dunkley
This is someone that has returned to form. He was back to his best on the weekend scoring 163 SuperCoach points and has a 5 round average of 125. I was looking at him for my last midfield upgrade but with Clarry so cheap, I just have to take that value. Dunks is only 4.2% which is absolutely crazy with how good he has been to us in previous seasons. His last 3 games against the Crows he has gone 146, 62 and 142. Picking Dunks, might be a chance for a leg up on the competition.
*Special mention to Clarry who could be a smokey on Thursday night where over 9 matches he has an average of 122.8 SuperCoach points. Do you have the guts?!
CASEY’S CAPTAIN CONFIDENCE RATING:
Vice Captains:
- Gawn
- Ryan
- Butters
Captains:
- Bont
- Daicos
- Rowell
