The midfield is full of talent and you really don’t know where to start so I’ve decided to just concentrate on 5 players and will post more thoughts throughout the comments and discussion. We will also leave the rookies for the next article as there are loads of those.

One thing a lot of people have been contemplating this season is to run a 4-5 rookie midfield due to all the talented rookies that appear to be available this year. One thing to keep in mind if going for this strategy is to ensure you have a quality captain to lock in each week. In other words you would really need to run Ablett, Swan or Pendlebury alongside your rookies to ensue you get those extra 120+ points each and not playing  russian roulette with captain choices.  <!--more-->

Gary Ablett - $689K – After a slowish start to 2011 little Gazza turned home after Gold Coasts 2nd bye and went bang. From Round 8 to Round 22 (taking out 19 point game where he injured his knee) he averaged incredible 144. If you take out his injury effected game for entire season his average jumps up from 127 to 133. So in essence you are getting him relatively cheap. Ablett has a relatively good draw leading into GC round 13 bye, playing North Melbourne twice, GWS, Port Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle (at Metricon), Adelaide, Bulldogs The play top 8 sides StKilda (twice), Essendon &amp; Collingwood. We all know what to expect from Gazza, he is the ultimate supercoacher and one the only true perma captains in the competition!

Dane Swan - $661K – Swan started 2011 relatively slowly, due mainly to few small injuries. This saw Collingwood send him off to Arizona to get some high altitude training around their midseason bye. Once arriving back home he averaged 127 in his final 11 games of 2011, which was up on his 115 average leading into the bye. Dane Swan has already hinted that he wants to go back to Arizona midyear again so you must keep that in mind when selecting him. Its not a matter that he’ll go over during their bye, they did that last year. To get best out of altitude training you need to go for certain amount of days (can’t remember how many). This means he will have to miss at least 1 week, possibly 2 as per last year.

Joel Selwood - $604K – Take out Selwood’s opening game 24 where he was knocked unconscious and his average jumps from 111 to 117. That would see him become the 6th best midfielder in 2011. This also sees his starting price for 2012 about $40K cheaper then what he probably deserves, making him bit of a bargain. He offers enormous value &amp; if his performance on weekend is anything to go by he is set for big year and the captaincy will take his game to next level.

Bryce Gibbs - $558K

Season Ave - 104
First 10 Rounds - 94
Final 12 Rounds - 110.6

So that’s an increase in back half of season of a massive 16 points... In those final 12 weeks only 2 scores below 100 (72 &amp; 84) and 7 scores above 115. Priced at only $558K reckon he is set for massive year. Consider this, if he wasnt a M/D last year and he put up those numbers every man &amp; his dog would be jumping on him for that breakout year.

Lenny Hayes - $422K – Got through his first serious hitout since injuring his knee last year on weekend. Only got handful of touches. Ive posted this in forum while back so will just copy it into here as Lenny is one biggest talking points amongst supercoachers.

Lenny is very cheap for his standards, BUT its important to remember he will be 32 by time season starts, is coming off his second serious knee injury and before 2011 his averages were slowly in decline. Only once in past 5 years has Lenny averaged over 104, that being 2009 when the Saints lost 2 matches for the season. Even if he gets his average back up to 100 the fact is he wouldn’t even be ranked in the top 30 midfielders, you would still need to upgrade him.

Personally think he will be rested throughout the season to ensure he is in tip top shape for finals. He will also find himself playing in forward line as a way to “rest” him. Other negatives are the rise of Jack Steven and David Armitage. These kids are the future midfielders of the Saints and there’s no way Scott Watters will want to drop their midfield time back. During 2007-2010 Lenny Hayes only played 75% game time, even with new sub rule I can’t seriously see that changing. He def wont be getting anymore time coming off his knee injury.

Overall I think Lenny will be average 85-90 points this season. For the same price you can get a Michael Barlow or Kieran Jack who are both undervalued by about 20 points due to injuries in 2011 and both have much more upside in their game.

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Obviously there are about 100 other midfield options I could have written about, but this should mean we can get wide range of opinions in the comments. So who have you got in mind for your starting midfield, which have you put a line through already?