Ablett v. North Melbourne



Rd 12 2012: 188 SC points, 42 disposals

Rd 12 2011: 139 SC points, 38 disposals

Rd 14 2010: 106 SC points, 33 disposals

Rd 21 2008: 83 SC points, 27 disposals

Rd 11 2008: 180 SC points, 39 disposals

QF 2007: 171 SC points, 32 disposals

Rd 20 2007: 153 SC points, 31 disposals

Rd 5 2007: 68 SC points, 16 disposals

Rd 17 2006: 9 SC points, 5 disposals

Rd 2 2006: 126 SC points, 17 disposals



Average is 122 SC points with 28 disposals.



Note: Fantastic record against North Melbourne. One poor game in Rd 17 2006 when he injured his shoulder in the first quarter. Taking that score out, his average jumps to 135 SC points. Most recently tagged by Greenwood last year but played head to head against Swallow in 2011. Four scores over 150. Scored 126 last week which had followed scores of 149, 152, 137 and 160 (average of 140).



Cox v. St Kilda



Rd 8 2012: 139 SC points, 15 disposals, 22 hitouts

Rd 17 2011: 137 SC points, 22 disposals, 36 hitouts

Rd 9 2010: 107 SC points, 21 disposals, 34 hitouts

Rd 15 2009: 62 SC points, 11 disposals, 14 hitouts

Rd 3 2009: 112 SC points, 24 disposals, 27 hitouts

Rd 17 2008: 85 SC points, 18 disposals, 27 hitouts

Rd 21 2007: 112 SC points, 23 disposals, 33 hitouts

Rd 12 2007: 125 SC points, 22 disposals, 25 hitouts

Rd 1 2006: 177 SC points, 26 disposals, 24 hitouts

Rd 8 2005: 132 SC points, 14 disposals, 26 hitouts



Average is 119 SC points with 20 disposals and 27 hitouts.



Note: Fantastic average against St Kilda. Poor score in Rd 15 2009 when he was well beaten by Michael Gardiner and then rested in the fourth quarter. His other sub-100 score was in 2008 when he started cramping up in second half. He is struggling at the moment with scores of 91, 108, 84 and 96 (average of 95).



Swan v. Melbourne



Rd 11 2012: 160 SC points, 42 disposals

Rd 12 2010: 173 SC points, 38 disposals

Rd 2 2010: 93 SC points, 21 disposals

Rd 11 2009: 139 SC points, 32 disposals

Rd 2 2009: 121 SC points, 33 disposals

Rd 11 2008: 76 SC points, 18 disposals

Rd 20 2007: 99 SC points, 24 disposals

Rd 11 2007: 86 SC points, 23 disposals



Average is 118 SC points with 29 disposals.



Note: Great recent record against Melbourne averaging 137 SC points in his past five games against them since 2009. Played head to head against Grimes in 2012 and was tagged by Jones in Round 12 2010. Returned to form last week with 131 which had followed a very lean stretch of 67, 84 and 94.



Kennedy v. Adelaide



QF 2012: 147 SC points, 35 disposals

Rd 6 2012: 118 SC points, 26 disposals

Rd 15 2011: 74 SC points, 15 disposals

Rd 2 2010: 72 SC points, 19 disposals



Average is 103 SC points with 24 disposals.



Note: Great recent record against Adelaide averaging 133 in the two games against them last year. Returned to form last week with 126 against Essendon after being beaten by Macaffer the week before. Had scored 151 and 143 prior to that Collingwood game (averaging 119 in his past four games this season).



Pendlebury v. Melbourne



Rd 12 2011: 129 SC points, 23 disposals

Rd 12 2010: 123 SC points, 27 disposals

Rd 2 2010: 122 SC points, 23 disposals

Rd 11 2009: 108 SC points, 39 disposals

Rd 2 2009: 86 SC points, 26 disposals

Rd 20 2007: 40 SC points, 15 disposals

Rd 11 2007: 72 SC points, 19 disposals



Average is 97 SC points with 25 disposals.



Note: Poor overall average but a solid recent average against Melbourne averaging 121 in his past four games against them. Solid (but no big) scores of 119, 119, 118 and 96 most recently (average of 113).



Watson v. Carlton



Rd 21 2012: 87 SC points, 29 disposals

Rd 4 2012: 104 SC points, 31 disposals

QF 2011: 67 SC points, 21 disposals

Rd 4 2011: 116 SC points, 30 disposals

Rd 19 2010: 101 SC points, 20 disposals

Rd 3 2010: 119 SC points, 26 disposals

Rd 13 2009: 64 SC points, 13 disposals

Rd 3 2009: 123 SC points, 20 disposals

Rd 13 2008: 81 SC points, 27 disposals

Rd 3 2008: 38 SC points, 16 disposals

Rd 3 2007: 84 SC points, 19 disposals

Rd 16 2006: 85 SC points, 21 disposals

Rd 7 2006: 107 SC points, 32 disposals



Average is 90 SC points with 24 disposals.



Note: Terrible record against Carlton. Tagged by Carrazzo in Round 21 last year (limited to 87) and was tagged by Curnow in the Round 4 game. Tagged by Carrazzo in the Qualifying Final in 2011 and was limited to 67. Has also scored a terrible 38 SC points back in 2008 when he just had a shocker of a game and spent time at full forward as a result. Carrazzo is still injured and won't play this weekend however. Poor last week with only 73 which had followed scores of 166, 144 and 123 (average of 144).



My opinion: North Melbourne play a much improved Gold Coast side this week at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night. As indicated above, North Melbourne players scored big against St Kilda last week. I don't think that there will be a repeat of huge scores against the Suns who are a strong chance to win in front of their home crowd.



Greater Western Sydney play host to Geelong on Saturday afternoon at 1:40 pm. That game will be finished before the Gold Coast game commences at 7:40 pm and therefore provides an opportunity to try to exploit the captain's loophole with one of the many Geelong players who will probably score big.



Geelong has only played the Giants once - Round 10 last year at Simonds Stadium. Geelong won the game by 65 points and they were led by Steve Johnson with 156, Chapman with 148, Kelly with 137 and Bartel with 118. Selwood managed 104. Eight Geelong players cracked the ton.



There seem to be many options this week. Ablett can be used as our fallback” position if we exploit the loophole and pick a Geelong player playing against Greater Western Sydney. A Collingwood player against Melbourne would also be a very safe option.



This week, I am picking Ablett as I find it hard to ignore his overall average for the season and his recent record against North Melbourne. Following him, I would pick Steve Johnson, then Swan and then Pendlebury as they should both pick up lots of touches against a struggling Melbourne team.



Good luck all!