An overall peaceful and uneventful round for most coaches in contrast to last weekends horror show… So therefore, your trades this week should be rather luxurious and team strengthening, rather than forced.
The obvious Trade Outs are all fat cash cows, so budget should not be an issue for all coaches as our teams really start to take shape! Below, I have a combination of the priority Trade OUTS you should be using to help target some of these juicy Trade INS!
Dayne Zorko – $566k (MID/FWD) – 9%
I know this guy is becoming quite a regular on this article as I’ve been preaching Zorko ever since he was in just 3% of teams, yet he still finds himself in only 9% weeks later! I just think this is the perfect week to get him as the breakeven of 45 makes him a now or never selection. The price isn’t exactly cheap, although he’s still definitely in that range I look for when upgrading and it won’t break the bank. If the average of 109 on the season isn’t enough to convince you, he gets the Tigers, Hawthorn, Dogs and Saints in the next 4 games.
These teams rank 17th, 8th 2nd and 15th for points given up to defenders this year, including some MONSTER scores given up. Who doesn’t love immediate return on investment? He’s got the junk seagull role and he even took the most kickouts for Brisbane on the weekend which he previously hadn’t been doing. I previously flagged last week that Wilmot should be the one to push up to the wing and this eventuated over the weekend, which is yet another tick.
The obvious flags are his age, body and how his role can change, but the consistent scoring you’ll get before this could happen I think is worth chasing now. He clearly has established himself as a Top 3 forward this year and it’s a position most are struggling to fill. I think it’s as simple as he’s your man this week. #1 TARGET.
Lachlan Sullivan – $102k (MID) – 9%
Honestly the game on the weekend makes all Collingwood rookies quite cloudy and overall pretty hard to give advice on. It was almost embarrassing the effort the Eagles put in in that first half and every Collingwood player and his dog scored SuperCoach points… The Pies are also on the verge of having an injury crisis and that continued in this game, which again, makes Sullivans spot in the side quite hard to gauge.
He looks to be playing the old Taylor Adams role which is mostly half forward and looks like the 4th or 5th CBA midfielder to rotate in, which has led to back-to-back solid 75’s. Collingwood’s injury report on Tuesday will give us a much better gauge on this pick, but for now I’m happy for him to be the cash cow of choice. It comes with obvious caution as we need 4 or so more games out of him and we may also look to target his teammate Richards next week as well which could get dicey. DECENT.
Bruce Reville – $102k (MID/FWD) – 8%
Another rookie who has forced his way into a side who is having an injury crisis of their own, which off the bat doesn’t look promising. The price and DPP is obviously very handy and his name and his looks also give him cult hero status vibes. Although, that’s about as far as the ticks on this pick goes.
His role is average at best, he was seen behind the ball on occasion, but the half forward time was too much for me. Not to mention his time on ground… Its disgusting! It was 60% in his first game followed up by an even worse 53% in his second… At the time of writing this, he is the 3rd most Traded IN player for the round. This is absurd to me. NO THANKS.
Isak Rankine – $527k (FWD) – 5%
Man, this guy is electric. What a player. In terms of a SuperCoach pick though? One big tease. He has always shown glimpses of being a Top 6 forward and he’s in a purple patch of form where we are considering him as one, once again. On the year Isak is averaging 98.7 but in his last 5 games he has upped this to 110.8. The role is the obvious concern, it can be prone to a stinker or two, but I’ve actually been quite impressed with Rankine in this regard as he only has one score below 80 so far.
This could largely be due to his extra midfield minutes he’s been getting. Its important to know what you’re buying… In Rounds 4 and 5, Rankine had 61% and 76% of CBA’s, these heights haven’t even closely been reached for any other games. I think we have a big enough baseline to safely say he’s a 25-35% CBA guy which is still promising! The nature of the role means if you want a 100-120 form him, he’s going to need to bag a fair few goals, but I think these midfield minutes secure his score floor enough at around the 80 mark most weeks. His next 4 games are TASTY. He gets the Pies, Eagles, Hawks and Richmond who all leak to his role. I think he’s a genuine alternative to Zorko if you want an even bigger POD. WATCH CLOSELY.
Christian Petracca – 555k (MID) – 18%
The man crush we should all have on this guy is absurd. What a player. I haven’t seen someone put his team on his back the way Petracca did on the weekend in a LONG time. This can be looked at two ways. You can say he’s in a purple patch of form, or the way I look at is, he played that role to the absolute max capacity he possibly could’ve while kicking 5 goals and yet he still only scored 134… He was probably my best pick all last year, so I definitely have a soft spot for him, but the logical side of me says there’s red flags galore here.
His previous 3 games he averaged just 82 and he has been receiving more attention from the opposition than he usually does this year. His time on ground average this year is also down on what we usually have seen from him, so I’m not sure if there’s something we are missing here but that’s alarming. With Clarry back in the side, there is no doubt his role this year is nowhere near as good as it was for the majority of last year. He played 70% of the game as a forward on the weekend which is crazy numbers.
Your ears probably pricked up to that and said ‘oooooo forward DPP status’ to yourself, but Petracca needs to average 79% forward time per game from here to the deadline in order to get this. That’s just extremely unlikely. Usually this would be a pick where you just give him another 2 weeks or so before buying and that’s the smart safe play… But the issue? He has the Eagles and the Saints in his next two… ON THE FENCE.
Harley Reid – $443k (MID/FWD) – 77%
To me this is one of the easiest sells. His breakeven is 134 and he has actually only had 3 out of 8 good scores for the year… His one monster score was due to all his work being done in the first half when the game was on the line prior to a blowout win. So, he probably got an extra 20-30 points here than you’d usually expect. This has risen his price all the way up to $443k which is a huge win. You definitely should just take this money on his head and run. Sure, its Harley Reid, he will have a spike score every now and then, but I think his price has overperformed the selection and you can get him up to a Zorko or Rankine for very little extra cash on top… SELL.
Matt Roberts – $388k (DEF/MID) – 54%
Matty Roberts is in a very similar position to Reid. Although, this one just hurts so much more. If he stayed across half back, he was a 450k rookie who we could leave on field to the very last upgrade or even use as a D7/M9 bench swing… Enter Horse Longmire. He has been absolutely shafted to a wing. The role is dead, and he looks absolutely lost playing it. If he stays in this role, he could plummet to 300k or worse, so I don’t think it’s worth holding him and just waiting for Longmire to give his old position back. Take his money and buy yourself something nice! TRADE.
