The mid-season bye rounds are finally here, and Round 12 has a lot of our favourite premiums on the bye. So who is left to rely on as your AFL Fantasy captain this week?
With it being best 18 for the next few rounds, nailing your Captain each week is the easiest way to separate yourself from the pack with everyone’s scores likely to be a lot closer than in a best 22 week.
The thing in our favour is we can use a bye player to loop our VC up until the opening bounce of the last game of the round, meaning you can select a VC from 6 out of the 7 games this week, as long as you have a player in a later game you can trust as a fallback Captaincy option. So let’s take a look at who you should have your eye on!
Vice-Captains
As I said, you can select nearly anyone as a VC this week, but if you are looking for someone in an early game over the weekend to get your weekend started the right way, there are some good options.
I don’t think Butters or Walsh are the best options this week when they face off against each other on Thursday night, but they have to be mentioned on a week where we have regular captaincy options missing due to the bye. It is a tough match-up for both players, especially Walsh, with Port as tough as it gets in terms of Fantasy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if both of these guys got some attention from the opposition throughout the match.
I do like Nick Daicos on Friday night. He now has a 3 round rolling average of 126, and 3 of his last 4 scores have been 122 or higher. Well and truly back in form, and I don’t expect him to get any attention from the Dogs. He scored 112 against them last year, and he has a career average of 108 at Marvel Stadium. The perfect VC option this week.
In the same game, I also like Jack Crisp as an option if you happen to own him and don’t have Daicos. He has scored 3 tons in a row for an average of 117 in that time, and with all the injuries the Pies have, he will be staying in the midfield and keeping that scoring up for a while yet. A riskier option, but as I said, if you don’t own Daicos, he can be seriously considered.
If you want to save your VC for later in the week or end up needing a fallback Captaincy option, I have listed the top 5 for round 12 below.
Captains
- Rowan Marshall
After crashing back down to Earth last week in a game where he was well and truly beaten by Gawn, we shouldn’t forget the form he was in prior to that. 171, 164 and 117 were his three scores before last rounds blip on the radar, and this week he comes up against West Coast who he scored 130 against last year. 7 scores of 110+ so far this year and a season average of 113, Marshall is the safest option, and also has the most upside, this week in my opinion.
- Jack Steele
The right hand man to the guy above him on the list, Steele is another top captaincy option this week. 8 tons from 11 games this year, including 6 of them over 120, he has to be considered in a week that doesn’t have a lot of risk free options. Has the West Coast match up as well, in a game where the Saints simply have to win with how poorly their season is going, I expect Steele to stand up and lead from the front on his way to another 120+ score this week.
- Jordan Dawson
The Adelaide skipper is having a season that probably isn’t being appreciated enough by his non owners. He has only scored below 100 twice for the season, has a 3 round rolling average of 119, and has shown he still has his ceiling with a monster 155 against Essendon in round 6. The only reason he doesn’t sit higher on the list this week is the threat of Nash putting some time into him potentially limiting his ceiling, but I expect him to produce a respectable score even if he cops the attention, but if he is allowed to run free, he could be in for another monster.
- Sam Flanders
Assuming he returns from the illness that kept him out of last weeks match, Flanders is a quality captaincy option this week. A low score of 87 for the year before he moved into his juicy half back role, where he has a low score of 98 and 4 scores of 110+ out of his 7 games in the role. Is potentially at risk of copping some attention from Guelfi, but if he does I can see him moving back into the midfield to get away from him and getting his hands on the footy in there anyway. Great option who may not be high on a lot of peoples radars this week.
- Caleb Serong
He has to make the list this week simply for the fact that he is a guy that just gets it done every single week. 2 scores under 100 for the year and one of those was a 92, and has shown a ceiling of 161 and 141 already this year. The reason he sits down at number 5 is only 1 of his last 8 games have been over 110. He will score a ton like every other week, but so many of those tons are on the lower end that the guys who hit a ceiling more consistently sit above him this week. With that said, he wont cop a tag from Melbourne and he could be the highest scorer for the round this week if everything goes his way.
