Hey Guys, Obviously there has been a fair bit of talk around Gold Coast this preseason and I for one have been struggling with who to pick! Matera or Prestia or Dixon? Swallow or Bennell or Harris? Toy or Tape or Stanley? So hopefully the below may help, if only slightly! As we all know there hasn't been NAB challenge SC score released yet (hopefully they're coming this week) but NAB Cup game scores can be found at; http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pre_season_supercoach?s=A So what I've done is take match reports from all the GC's preseason games, 5 in total and created a tally for how many times players were named in the best and who is leading GC's goal kicking. Best Swallow 4 Fraser 3 Bennell 2 Dixon 2 Harris 2 Jolly 2 Matera 2 Prestia 2 Tape 2 Brown 1 Coad 1 Harbrow 1 Hunt 1 Krakouer 1 McKenzie 1 Patrick 1 Rischitelli 1 Stanley 1 Goals Dixon 4 Matera 4 Magin 4 Bennell 3 Patrick 3 Harris 2 Fraser 1 Jolly 1 Harbrow 1 Krakouer 1 Flanagan 1 May 1 Russell 1 Like I said, not sure how helpful this will be, but I found it interesting.
nice work NTS, im trying to pick 1 of the following for def. tape toy coad i may as well put them all in a hat and go the lucky dip i think
I am also trying to pick Gold Coast defenders. I want 2 from Danny Stanley, Toy, Tape & Coad. There is much debate as to which of these, & how many will be named for Round 2. Toy was an early frontrunner, but seems to have fallen off the radar a bit. Not sure if Tape will get the nod ahead of Coad, although Tape seems to have been playing better. Danny Stanley has also been great in pre-season games, but I think he has been playing up the field. It IS possible that all 4 will be named but probably more likely that at least one will miss out. But which one??? I think I might put the names in a hat too! That Gold Coast team list for round 2 is going to make or break a lot of us coaches. Might have a bench full of Suns that aren't even playing!
Coad might get a longer run being 27. He and Stanley I would have thought would be given more than just a 12-15 game season if their body holds together. In fact I'd say Hunt, Coad, Stanley would be fairly likely to all get a lot of game time.
Toy has been given huge wraps, and for good reason. He has scored relatively similar to Stanley, but at the moment Stanley is a bee's dick in front of Toy, for a few reasons. One, because he has a bigger body, two because he has played at this level before and three because if you read into McKenna's comments, he alludes to the fact, as Lucas points out, that the youngsters will be rotated a lot, while depending on form, older players would play out the season. But we all know the benefits of a mature body going into an afl season. To me they will score similarly, but with Stanley pushing up the ground a bit and his age giving him stronger JS, then he just wins out. Its a bloody tough call though. Looks like my defensive bench could be completely MAR.
Like everyone else I've spent heaps of time trying to get a handle on the Gold Coast value players. I agree that a few of the older bodies will need to play most of the year to help the kids e.g Coad, Harris, D.Stanley so have those 3 plus Swallow (who doesn't?) and Matera as a bench cash cow. (Stanley listed as def but will play mid/fwd.) However I haven't seen any reports on why Brennan or Zac S haven't been seen. Also Iles who won their B&F last year so should be a lock. Can anyone enlighten me?
Nice idea to create the list and it does show a couple of things. However, also need to consider how many games each player on the list received and to be really niggley, how much TOG. Add to that some of the ones who should have been there were not. If the team is to be built around Ablett (which they will deny), it is very hard to see at this point who is the better fit.
<blockquote>Quote from TerryinBangkok on March 15, 2011, 19:01 Nice idea to create the list and it does show a couple of things. However, also need to consider how many games each player on the list received and to be really niggley, how much TOG. Add to that some of the ones who should have been there were not. If the team is to be built around Ablett (which they will deny), it is very hard to see at this point who is the better fit. </blockquote> Yeah, couldn't agree more. I couldn't find stats on NAB challenge though, to figure out who played and TOG. Although out of interest Swallow has played 4 of 5 games, meaning he has been named in the best in every game hes played this preseason...
One point of interest. In a post on the forum some time back someone offered an observation on Hunt. The gist of it was as the Rugby League convert, the AFL (and GC being in the heart of RL territory) could not afford to see him fail. Add to this how much they are paying for the experiment, including the investment in PR and it seems likely Hunt will be a weekly starter. Not likely to be a big scorer, but he will be there.
TBH I think so far Hunt has been given fairly tough jobs and done ok. He won't be your classic rebound defender yet but I can see him being like Harry O before too long. I like having him as a slow burn cow. A bit like your Gumbleton or Mitch Brown of past seasons. Not completely sold on him but he is on the short list.
Ok how about Z Smith pre NAB cup he was all the talk saying no other rookie in the league has the job security he has. Now we hardly hear anything I know he had a slight injury concern any update on that? Surely Gorringe can't be ahead of him?
In going with this theme, do we now go with the 'cookie-cutter-suns' based solely on job security rather than talent and/or scoring ability ? Hunt/Stanley/Coad....who actually stinks imo....go into our sides over the more talented Seb Tape, Josh Toy because we safely know they will be playing r2 ?
I think its more the point that they won't be rotated out of the side as much, not necessarily their round 2 selection.
hi guys - a couple key points for me: 1) Stanley is a nerd and a hack and for so many reasons really shouldn't be picked, no matter how big he is. I need to maintain integrity in my team - a no-nerd policy, regardless of points. I've gotta sleep. With that in mind, Toy is the opposite. He's all class, all gun. 2) The cash cow kids will prob get 6-8 games, enough time to sell em before Guy Mac wraps em up in cotton. 3) Hunt will play but he's a handball patsy so will average 54pts per week. Don't demoralise yourself.
What about their injuries? Has anyone heard anything about any particular player? I read a general comment that Gold Coast suffered a few minor injuries in the game against Brisbane. The club injury list that was released yesterday only had Ablett & Daye on it. Given how many other clubs have substantial injury lists, I would think that The Suns would've copped a few more. A number of the guys played a full VFL season last year, & have done a full pre-season...injuries are bound to be lurking around their list somewhere...And what's going on with Matera's 'injury'?
I liked the look of Jolly in the preseason games and am tempted to slot him in (with Harris & Swallow) in the mids. Does anyone have any info/thoughts on this bloke?
The uncertainty of the GC team definately a problem. I am thinking that I may not run any Suns in DEF. And I am only really liking the job security of Swallow, Harris, Matera, Hunt and Dixon (he is a massive unit - they will need him in their forward line). Hunt probably wont score well enough but Dixon could be similar too. Although a few goals might help!! Really worried about Z.Smith. You have to be concerned about a guy with such huge raps on him not being sighted in the preseason.
@ FSB - I think D Stanley has pretty good JS, don't you? And Toy would have as good JS as you'd get from a first year player, after Swallow and Matera?