Preliminary Finals are here in AFL Fantasy for those that are still hanging around in their leagues!
Or maybe you are still lurking around the top 100 or top 1000 and are trying to make a late climb up the ranks over the final couple of weeks of the season. Either way, you are going to need to nail your Captains in AFL Fantasy from here out to separate yourself from the pack. So who are the best options for round 23? Let’s take a look.
VC Options
No Thursday night football this week means we kick off the round with a double header on Friday night, with plenty of relevant names running around as early VC options. My preferences are in order as follows.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera gets another run as a genuine VC option this week. Coming up against the Bombers, who have been the third easiest team for inside midfielders to score against over the last 10 weeks and the easiest out of anyone for rebounding defenders. This also makes me give consideration to Jack Sinclair, who racked up last week on his way to 146. Both of these guys should be in for massive days, but it is NWM ahead of Sinclair for me, simply due to the frequency of their ceiling scores so far this season being in favour of Nas.
Josh Dunkley is on a serious heater over the last 5 weeks, averaging 125 in that time, with 3 scores of 130+ and a low score of 111. Fremantle are a mid pack team in terms of match up difficulty for inside mids, but Dunks doesn’t care who he comes up against each week, and he should be great again.
Rowan Marshall makes the list this week, as he comes up against Todd Goldstein who has been the second easiest match up for ruckman over the last 10 weeks and gave up a monster 150 to Brodie Grundy 2 weeks ago. The concern here is the Alex Dodson has been announced to debut, who you will assume will be more of a ruckman than a forward unlike Max Heath has been so far this year. That is enough for me to look at others ahead of him this week, but he did sit as my favourite option before that announcement.
If you have the opportunity and want to wait until later in the round to use your VC, or the one you select early doesn’t hit the mark, I have listed my top 5 fallback Captaincy options, in order, for round 23 below!
Captains – Top 5
- Marcus Bontempelli
Over the Bonts last 8 games, he has 5 scores of 120+, he is averaging 127 over his last 5 including scores of 146 and 166 and he comes up against the Eagles this week. Now, when I say the Bont can absolutely make the most of a soft match up, I mean it. These are some of his scores against the lower ladder sides this season. 119 against St Kilda (71% TOG), 126 against Port Adelaide, 120 against Richmond, 133 against North, 146 against the Bombers and 120 against the Dees last week. West Coast are the 4th easiest team for inside mids to score against this season, and the Bont will cash in on the final game of the round to bring you home with a wet sail this week.
- Nick Daicos
Nick Daicos loves Adeliade Oval. Over his career, he averages 121 at the venue and he also averages 107 against the Crows. When they met earlier in the season, he was held to only 88 points, but prior to the last 2 weeks he was in red hot form with scores of 146 and 162 the two weeks prior, and I expect him to bounce back in a big way this week. It isn’t a dream matchup, but his history suggests he will be great regardless.
- Max Gawn
Gawn averages 116 against the Hawks over his career, and Meek has certainly given up some big scores to opposing rucks at stages this year. Earlier in the year when these two sides met, Gawn scored 113, and I expect that to be around the mark of his floor this week as that is his lowest score in his last 3 games, which also includes 2 scores of 120+. A safe captaincy option this week.
- Matt Rowell
This guy has arrived as a genuine premium fantasy midfielder in the backend of this year. He is averaging 125 over his last 5 games, including scores of 140 and 145, is on a, 11 game ton run which includes a 106 against the Giants, who are this weeks opponents. He sits here on form alone, but the potential for him to produce a ceiling score just makes the pick all the more exciting.
- Harry Sheezel
Sheezel scored 102 on the Tiges earlier this year and averages 110 against them across his career. He also averages 110 in wins this season, has scored a ton in his last 5 games for an average of 110 in that time. In short, I think a safe prediction for him this week would be to score somewhere around 110. All jokes aside, Sheezel has had a more midfield heavy role over the last few weeks, and we know when at his best in that role he is capable of some huge scores and Richmond are comfortably the easiest match up for inside mids to score against over the last 5 rounds and the course of the season as a whole. Sheezel should light it up this week.
