Seems that Gary Ablett is out!

So last minute panicing is the modus operandi.

It’s not so much what to do trading wise I wanted to discuss, but a topic that I haven’t thought about in a while. Non Ablett Captaincy.

One of the first things I do is go to the TooSerious Live Scores pages. Click on the Pre game options. This is one of the little used features of TS, but was very handy before Gaz took the world by storm.

Using it, I can see that the following should make excellent captaincy options. (In no apparent order)
Goddard, Franklin, Hodge, O’Keefe, Chapman, Bartel, Judd, Pendlebury, Swan, Simpson, Pavlich

Sure, there’s not much time to go, but hopefully the page helps you a little bit!

In the absence of anything up for the weekend, here’s as good a spot as any for celebrations and commiserations.

Should be an interesting game tonight – and it shapes as a huge game which can determine the entire matchup with clutch in/out of form players such as Nick Dal Santo, Bryce Gibbs, Brendan Fevola and Justin Koschitzke on the park.

Hope your teams go well, and may the comments begin.

Oh yeah for Captains, how about that Ablett fellow.

If you don’t have him simply pick your best average player for this week.  It’s as good a tip as any I can give.

This is not going to be a very long post, only a quick discussion on Captain selections for Round 10.   I’m assuming the discussion and comments below will prove handy for those without Ablett.

So – here’s some of the options:

1) Gary Ablett Jr.  If you have him, put him in.  Simple as that, he should rack ‘em up against the Dons.   Everyone who doesn’t have him will be praying for a sub-100 game so they can buy him next week and never have another week to worry about captain selections.

2) Leon Davis.  Should get a free run as you’d think Kane Cornes will do the run-with role with someone he can keep up with

3) One of the St Kilda midfield trimvirate – Dal Santo/Montagna/Hayes – should do more than OK against the Demons.   How much of the Pie can they each eat up.

4) Nick Riewoldt – while on the Saints, you could do worse than loading up on Roo against the Demons.

5) Brendon Goddard – and another Saints wonderful scorer.   I would probably steer clear of Fisher but heck I’ve given five options…

6) Chris Judd – fired up and against his old rivals in West Coast.  Expect a massive game from the skipper tonight.

7) Matthew Pavlich – against Richmond you must be some sort of chance of a 150.

Joel Corey – rarely disappoints and surprisingly doing better than Selwood and Bartel this year in SC average-wise.

9) Aaron Sandilands – a smoky but at home vs Richmond…you could do worse.

10) Adam Goodes – hitting form and could be a shootout against the Doggies.

Steer clear – Sewell vs Adelaide, Pendlebury vs Port Adelaide – just think the stoppers will be out in force.

With Gary Ablett still on the sidelines, we once again actually have to think about our captain choices. My top picks are:

1. Nick Riewoldt vs Essendon. 142, 129, 157, 146 are his last 4 scores, and he loves the Bombers scoring 168 points in his last game against them. Get on.
2. Brendon Goddard vs Essendon. Another performing well, with 154 last year.
3. Nick Dal Santo vs Essendon. You get the picture? Pick a Saint!
4. Jimmy Bartel vs North Melbourne. 144 last year against North, and in wet conditions, without Gazza, should do well. Beware the curse of Rawlings though.
5. Joel Bowden vs PA. Bit of a smokey, but he got 223 last time so….
6. Chris Judd vs Collingwood. Inside mids do well against the Pies, and Judd is the best of the Blues.
7. Joel Corey vs North Melbourne. See Brownlow Bartel. 133 against North last year.
8. Scott Pendlebury vs Carlton. Form midfielder of the competition.
9. Paul Chapman vs North Melbourne. Kicked 4 last year in a 130 point performance. Hopefully his teammates will mistake him for Gazza and give him lots of kicks.
10. Leigh Montagna vs Essendon. Another in form Saint.

Also look at: Lenny Hayes, Joel Selwood, Marc Murphy, Sam Fisher, Matthew Pavlich.

I don’t have time this week to do research for you all, but I can say that Johnno Brown is as tempting as a threesome with Lara Bingle and Jen Hawkins. Others that look to score big are Pavlich and Brent Harvey after a poor first week. If you do have Ablett, well you should not have even read this far. Bartel, Corey, Selwood also should be strongly considered against a weak Richmond outfit.

For all your captain reasearch click here.

With Ablett likely to be out for another big game against the Hawks, punters looking for value as their skipper this week have a few likely choices (and a few unlikely ones too). With ROK hitting some top form again, Pav, Pratt and Petrie scoring ridiculously highly, and Big Cox proving that he’s the best ruckman in the league despite carrying a right foot that’s as broken as buggery. I reckon there’s some games this weekend that will lend themsleves to unaccountable, high possession football – which is a fantasy footy coach’s dream. The Dogs and the Blues usually have pretty high scoring shootouts, the Cats and the Hawks should put on one hell of a show tomorrow night, and the Anzac Day rematch should be one to look out for too.

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Co

Shock horror – actually having to think about a captain this week adds a little bit of spice to Round 16. With a fair few top 8 teams playing each other, most of the games you’d assume would be pretty tight affairs – making captain selection pivotal this week.

So for the first time in 08 – barring Ablett – here’s a run down of your likely options:

Adam Goodes

Against the Blues this week and likely to get some attention from..whoever their main taggers are – Gibbs, Bentick and co perhaps.. Goodes has been a model of consistency this year, having a plethora of games in the 100+ region. A good bet this week as your skipper however something to bear in mind is that traditionally Goodes hasn’t been all that impressive in recent years despite the Blues’ struggles. Averaging just under 80 against the Blues with a 90 last time they played, he’ll cop a fair bit of attention but hey, in the SC form he’s in – I’d happily put him as captain if I had him.

Luke Hodge

Taking on the Saints midfield, Hodge has been good in the last few weeks, sidling up to be in the top 5 midfielders-SC-price-wise. With his last 7 games played all seeing him get 100+, I reckon he’s due for a big one, Ablett-esque. With a good record against the Saints, despite some of their matches being dour, hard-fought contests, Hodge is as good as any option this week. Averaging just around 100 with 112 and 87 in their last two meetings, its not a bad option.

Adam Cooney

Disappointing SC wise in the last few games – dropping off a bit but still in the top 5 average wise for SC mids – you can’t really complain.  However with the last two games failing to crack the ton – you’d be looking elsewhere – especially with the tight tussle anticipated against the Cats. Still, with Ling out and Ablett missing, Cooney may have more free reign to roam, meaning better SC scores. Cats have had it over the Dogs in recent times, including an absolute smashing last time they met late ‘07. With a shocking 18 (that’s right) last time they played but 109 before that – CoonDog’s a risk in my view.

Jimmy Bartel

Back in a little bit of SC form after dropping in value significantly over 08. Having said that, his actual stats have not been that far down from his 07 Charlie year, so make of that what you will.  Boyd may go to him to go a tagging job considering there is no Ablett, so Jimmy may have a bit of a tough time, but tagging really doesn’t seem to slow down the Geelong mids these days. With scores of 146 and 96 against the Dogs recently, straight swapping from one premium Geelong mid to another isn’t that shabby an idea

Roo Riewoldt

Back in top gear after a bit of a downturn due to injury and poor team form, Riewoldt has come back into calculations as a premium forward captaincy option, especially considering the injury cloud that is over J Brown, and the indifferent and inconsistent scores from Pav and Buddy that have burned this year. Doing well against the Hawks backs, and an average of well over 100 against the Hawks, with a top score of 122 (last year), there are worse places to put your ‘C’.

Can you believe its Round 15 already?? For some, the SC season is over, and the reconnaissance for 2009 begins. For others, the season is just winding up and the finals and bragging rights are well and truly up for grabs. Captains come into your scores in a big way, highlighted in brutal details when this blogger copped his first loss for the year, purely due to an unnecessarily risky and poor captain choice – nevertheless, we’ll gear up again for this week and try and give you a good guide for who to think about.

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This is seriously my best ever Last Minute Check, an interesting read before hitting those T and C buttons at around 7pm tonight.

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Untaggable, unstoppable and un-selectable as captain – Gary Ablett. Scored 160’s in consecutive weeks and is without peer in Supercoach stats. If you have him, you’d probably have stopped reading by now. For those that don’t, or are feeling a little speculative – trying to get the upper hand on the rest of their leagues when (if) Gaz does drop off I’ll run through some other options to think about.

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