NAB Cup – Round 3
So, just the two seen games this week, but I’ll try to post anything I find on the challenge games
Though I hear that the Collingwood/Richmond game was essentially a seconds mate. Ball cleaned up though- as he should have.
Tonight, the Doggies snuck over the line against Port.
It was great to finally get a look-in at Gray. And man, slow down mate! You don’t need everyone to jump on board!
The biggest stories would have had to have been BBBBBH (The extra B is for BBB) and Higgins though.
Baz is looking freaking great with that Doggies midfield delivering to him. I can see him fighting for a spot in my squad with Murphy as the bargain-priced forward who’s expected to go down throughout the year.
And Higgins. 62 points in a half of football. Not a bad return!
What do we think about Banner, Hitchcock and Moles? Any other them do enough to cement a spot in your squad?
Banner still has a lot of chips left from his last two performances for mine.
Ah well, bring on the Dockers! Let’s see what Barlow can pull out against an awesome Saints outfit. Or if Morabito can do anything to redeem himself!
Oh, and just quickly, I’m currently bringing in the last guy for the $20 league. But there will be a big post this weekend about the leagues. Happy news. 
The disparity last season with Gram was because his kicking efficiency went down from around 72% in 08 to 58% in 09 due to him being played more in the midfield.
I’d say that Malceski could average the same as Gram if not more if played across the half back line again this season. If Rhyce Shaw is moved into the middle in place of the injured Bird, Malceski could take up the 07 role he had that allowed him to score at will.
Little surprised at the lack of love for Goodwin, I can only put it down to being his age. He’s a proven scorer, has only missed 5 games in the last 5 years. Adelaide also have a pretty good draw early too, although I dont think, with the role he plays, really makes a difference who Adelaide play, scoring wise (i think back to his 160 in a loss against Cats last year)
really want to watch goddard carefully this weekend, different role may effect his scoring, noticed his last game that his dt points exceeded his sc points by a fair margin. goodwin looks ready to go, has played well pre season, crows nice draw as well to start.
course if goddard roles out and scores 120 this week its a no brainer I guess.
Yes the Crows have the softest draw possible at the start of the year but I am going to stay away from Goodwin. Yet another player who is too old and runs the risk of breaking down. Yes he may have missed only 5 games in the last 5 years but the law of averages says that it could come back to haunt him at some stage.
Hurn could have 10 touches less than Goodwin and still score more points as he uses the ball far more effectively from a Supercoach perspective.
I’m having trouble deciding on Forwards Locks. Obviously Reiwoldt is a lock but after that it gets a bit iffy. Just wondering if money was no issue who some here would consider to be the next best 2 or 3 forward locks.
At Pav’s price I can’t think of any logical reason for him not to be the lockiest of locks, however there is something in my gut that tells me he’s not going to dominate this year…
Exactly my point. There seems to be question marks on all the forwad locks. They main reason I am scared about Pav is once Freo are out of the finals race I see Pav getting dropped again., It’s happened the last 2 seasons and burnt me both times. Goodes I saw as a lock too until it was found out that he will be playing forward this year and his Pre season has not been good. Didak and Davis have form/tag issues and Chapman has fossil/injury issues. ROK seems to start slow as well and a bit unsure of Brown with Fev now in the team. Buddy was a lock until all these injuries Hawks players are getting and starting to feel it will be 2009 all over again for him not to mention he is missing round one so he’s now out of my side as well. Overall my forward line is strong but it is lacking absolute locks.
Yeah apart from Riewoldt there isn’t much. I’ve gone with Pav because I’m not sold on the rest.
Harvey is probably not too bad of an option but I’m not taking him either.
i absolutely agree that forward locks are volt + ????. I was saying that weeks ago and I still think it’s true.
Riewoldt, Pav then daylight, the forward lines are bereft of any decent premiums this season. Franklin would have been an absolute lock if he was available for round 1. Deledio being made a mid only option has really left a hole at that F3 spot as there doesn’t seem to be a logical replacement. Higgins and Gray so far seem to be the best sub $500k potential premium options.
Arn’t you guys worried that Pav will get dropped by about round 18-19 if Freo are out of the finals race.
It’s a concern of course but i’m more worried about missing his 105+ points per game from round 1 to 18. Hopefully Freo are still gonna be thereabouts by round 18 this season.
@Richard – the same could happen to Riewoldt if St Kilda are in the finals, like last year. Or the way he plays he could do a knee again. Can’t predict the future. You have trades to deal with these things.
Goodes is value IMO. He has scored well when forward, and Roos intentions on playing 3 forward talls can only make things easier for him. He rarely scores big in the NAB. Similarly I suspect that Fev might be good for Brown, but won’t start with him. Not sure on Pav as the Freo midfield is not great (then again, when has it been).
Re Goodwin – I don’t have him either, but its more to do with his price than his age. He doesn’t get tagged at half back like he did in the midfield as the opposition defensive forward always goes to Mcleod. He should score well and is very fit this year by all accounts.
Is Brown that big of a risk, there has always been strong forwards for Brisbane in the goal square (bradshaw and Lynch) which allows him to play a little higher than, say volt and get a little more ball. It is possible having Fev there may just free him up.
Whichever other ‘lock’, you have to stick with him through the highs and lows and realise trades are just very, very valuable. There will be games which you hate your forwards and games in which you love them, good luck.
The thing about Goodes and O’Keefe is that both of them are likely to drop down at some stage and you’ll be able to upgrade one of your mid priced players to them. If you’re really not sold on any of the others then by all means feel free to start with one of them. I’ve gone with cheaper ones.
There’s no reason to not have them other than having the option of trading into them and saving $$ come the end of it.
I am thinking that J Brown is actually a pretty good option. He was struggling with some injury in the past but played through and still did well. He had a really good last year in terms of keeping his body right and having someone like Fev could possibly free him up a bit. I’ve seen Brown triple teamed and he still makes a contest out of it. Teams would want to get men back to help out whoever takes Fev so Brown may be freed up a bit considering he plays further up the ground.
Does not the JBrown factor make the Fevolacoater a little more tempting?
1)Hasnt missed a game since 07.
2)Finished last year off with 131, 113, 24?, 123, 133, 144, 117, 74 = av 107.
3)Keen bean to impress at new club.
4)Should get 2nd tier defender, now in lieu of always the 1st.
jb – reckon that if you are going to have a rollercoaster, there is only room for one in the forwardline.
So it comes back to either Fev or Buddy, not both.
Personally, right now, probably neither for me (Buddy might end up out for Higgins or Gray)
@Jb,
I would have thought Fev would still demand the #1 defender if he is playing at FF? I do see what you’re getting at though, opposition teams won’t be able to put every single defender on him and have closed down the forward line, they’ll need to pay attention to brown as well.
Midfielders fellas – anyone know much on griffen from the doggies? Has scored 113,93,95 so far in his 3 matches. Normal season normalisation and he’d be looking at 129,106,108/109 (though i do accept you cant simply take that for granted). Is priced on his average last year of 88.63. Is there room for improvement from him? He’s turning 24 this year and has improved his average steadily over the past handful of years – could be getting close to entering his prime?
I don’t know much about him to be honest, but looks like a bit of a smokie pick perhaps for those who have gone off cooney? I was initially worried that with cooney,boyd, cross and higgins competing in the mid that he might not see enough of it, but he has scored consistently strongly while some of the above mentioned names have also scored well.
Firstly great site guys.
Couple of points. I glad someone brought up Brown. Dont see much love for him around the traps, and cant work out why.
I’m assuming there is trepidation about not being able to see 1st hand how he’ll work with Fevola, and secondly the theory that he is a notoriously slow starter. Thought at 520k it’s worth the risk though.
As others of mentioned the forward line is a nightmare for locks. Chapman hamstring, Davis 1 year wonder?, Didak cant handle tag?, ROK, slow starter?, Goodes slow preseason + question mark about scoring potential up forward. After that comes the KPP’s who we’re are supposed to wait for the inevitable down game for a price drop and then upgrade which basically just leaves Roo…..
The difficulity I’m finding (from a 2nd year noob point of view) is that the best performed forwards during preseason seem to be in the 400-500k range (Gia, Higgins, Gray, Tipp,) added to of course the every popular 275k’s to 375k’s (Danger, JZ, Medurst, Murphy, Mayne, BBB) which poses the question how many of these guys can you take in starting line up when ideally at the end you want to have a line of premiums? Do you lock in a ROK, Goodes etc and save an upgrade trade or do you back in the likes of Gia and Gray to step it up ala Didak, Davis and ROK last year?
…and just on a couple of players mentioned Griffin will tease, and then let you down. Has the talent to take the game to the next level, and will probably one day will, but I’m not going to try and predict it.
Finally on Gram I had him last year and frustrated me to the max. As someone mentioned about his DT/SC ratio changing in ‘09 a lot would have to do with his kicking effeciency, but my theory was that he was reguarly a victim of the 3300 points share.
Even in games where his effeciency was high, and clanger count low (I realise there are a stack of other factors), once tons +’s had been given out to Roo, NDS, Hayes, Fisher, Montagna, Gilbert and occasionally Ray he would left with around 60-90. Also on the end of a lot of handball receives which dont score as well as getting your own pill.
Having said that his preseason has looked good and he’s in my mix (FWIW) for my pseudo keeper 400-475 D4 spot. Currently have Harbrow in this spot, so looking forward to the NAB final showdown.
Spud, IMO Griffen is a great unique choice; he is a classy player with a great disposal. I think a lot of people will overlook him because Cooney is only a little bit more expensive, but I see Griffen out scoring Cooney this year. He has been in and out of my team a few times. The only thing against him is he can’t handle a tag very well. It’s no coincidence that when Cooney didn’t play Griffen’s scores dropped considerably, due mostly to the fact that Griffen got Cooney’s tag. Having said that; Cooney is fit and will get tagged, plus guys like Higgin’s and gia could be in contention for the 2nd tag leaving Griffen to run free…at least that’s what I hope!
Oh….I forget to mention that boyd and cross are the usual candidates for the 2nd tag.
Just on Benuto mentioning a couple of Bulldogs – what do people think of Boyd and Cross. Often very consistent but are they worth the money …. not looking at them personally but just interested in the mood of the meeting as it were.
Both Boyd and Cross are great additions to a team. Griffen could be fantastic. Cooney will get one of the tags not sure who’d get the other one just yet.
I like that harbrow was mentioned. I’ve thought about him but sadly there’s no spot for him in my team. Not sure that he’ll do that great at supercoach either, but I do love his kicking and his ability to use it well out of the back half now.