GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 15: Touk Miller during a Gold Coast Suns training session at Heritage Bank Stadium on January 15, 2024 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images via AFL Photos)
One way to get ahead in AFL Fantasy and SuperCoach is monitoring role changes and midfield time. It’ll help justify trade-ins and trade-outs, so we’ve dug deep to offer some critical insights.
What Ashcroft’s return meant for Lions?
Will Ashcroft’s return from a long-term ACL injury didn’t impact Brisbane’s midfield set-up too much. Ashcroft attended 6 (23%) centre bounces, with Jarrod Berry squeezed down to 35%, his lowest since Round 7.
Oscar McInerney with Lachie Neale (85%), Josh Dunkley (88%) and Hugh McCluggage (46%) remained their preferred midfield combo. When he played last year, Ashcroft averaged 44% CBAs, so you’d imagine he has plenty of room for growth, having scored 85/79 (AF/SC) on his return.
Pies’ mid duo return but Crisp role OK
The return of Jordan De Goey (39%) and Scott Pendlebury (71%) was always going to impact Collingwood’s midfield mix, but that impacted Jack Crisp (74%) only slightly, despite his lower score of 79/68. Crisp had been averaging 81% CBAs across the past seven games with JDG mostly absent, so it’s a slight dip.
Beau McCreery, Steele Sidebottom, Finlay Macrae and Josh Daicos have all had mid-time in recent weeks but were essentially squeezed out of the rotation.
Flanders mid switch moves Touk forward
After being used off half-back since Round 9, Sam Flanders returned to the midfield for Gold Coast with a season-high 87% CBAs.
Flanders scored 104/114 (AF/SC), with his switch forcing Touk Miller out of the preferred set-up, down from 65% to 32% for the game. Miller still scored 100/121 (AF/SC), with 77% of his touches in the offensive half playing a half-forward role. Wil Powell and Alex Sexton had 4 kick-ins each in Flanders’ absence down back.
New midfield role for Stewart
Tom Stewart’s new midfield role was real, attending 24 of the 29 CBs (83%) in Geelong’s win over Essendon and scoring 105/97 (AF/SC). Stewart’s move saw Max Holmes shifted out of the midfield for the first time since Round 9 to half-back, attending only 1 CB for the game. There was no obvious preferred kick-in taker in Stewart’s absence.
Other notes
- Jye Caldwell attended a season-high 90% CBs, scoring a massive 144/127 (AF/SC), coming after his previous season-high 75% CBAs last round. That’s coincided with Jake Stringer being used more forward and Zach Merrett’s CBAs dipping around the mid-60% mark.
- Jordan Ridley had a down night against Geelong but that’s despite leading their kick-ins, taking 4 of their 9, yet still scoring only 48/63. Shocker.
- Hayden Young had a season-low 52% CBAs, coinciding with Nat Fyfe’s rise from 38% up to 76% due to his run-with role on Isaac Heeney. Young scored only 37/62 (AF/SC), appearing to spend a bit more time on the wing.
- For the first time all season, Luke Ryan didn’t have Fremantle’s most kick-ins, instead sharing 7 each with Jordan Clark against Sydney. One to monitor.
- For the second straight week, Trent Rivers enjoyed higher CBAs, attending 69% for the game. Rivers seems to have assumed the role left vacant since Christian Petracca’s season-ending injury. Despite that, Rivers only scored 62/58 (AF/SC) from 22 disposals.
- Jy Simpkin only scored 64/68 (AF/SC) against the Dogs but the role is there with George Wardlaw out, attending a season-high 92% CBs.
