Blues v Saints – Scratch Match Fantasy Notes – DT TALK

On an overcast day and a half in February, a part of ikon built saw a return to pre-season football and sketchier construction workers than my unfortunate stint in a villager cover band.
The Blues were great, then terrible, then great again and finally sort of OK as they pulled off a 7-point victory over Saints in the same way. Although a Saints team is somewhat lacking in fantasy-relevant midfielders and or over-hyped mid-priced and floozy-traded. The vaunted midfield pairing of Cerra and Hewett was good, Cripps was a lot like the fleet of scooters hitting the downtown streets, suddenly electric and looking dangerous, and Steele was every bit as solid and predictable as a Lygon cafe. st (although just like a Lygon cafe st it took its time getting up).

Rapid Fire Relevance

The past year has taught me that some of you don’t like humor, memes, and awesomeness in general. That’s why we have this section, we have CBAs and tweets (which may contain some bad jokes now I think of it, well) that provide insight into all the shenanigans that went down. Get it in India.
Lordy Boys also did a good article on “The Fantasy Community” discord if anyone is looking for another #Plug

Unavailable :Harry McKay, Tom DeKoningLiam Stocker, Sam Docherty, Sam Walch, Jack Martin, Caleb Marchbank, Lewis Young, Ed Curnow

Paddy Cripps (MID $686k)

Forget Cerra, for me it was the story of the day. The big man was racking up 18 CBAs everywhere and I imagine at least 78 touches (no one was keeping stats), impacting play, taking grapples, tackling and looking buffed. Without Sam Walsh, paddy might just pick the #1 Mid role again, and at 686K he’s a bargain and looks great for your midfield (I just started Crouch and put Cripps on), the only real problem is the possibility of it being tagged again. Or could they tag Cerra instead? ……. ( probably not )

Adam Cerra (MID $732K)

One of the big questions today was how Carlton’s brilliant and massively fantastic new admission was going to pan out and was he everything we were promised? The answer is probably yes, while he wasn’t Paddy Cripps he received a lot of CBAs (15), got a lot of balls, made his fair share of tackles and even scored 2 goals in a 3rd quarter -explosive time. Looks good for a potential M4-M5 position and should definitely be in your mix in the last two weeks of pre-season.

George Hewett (MID $573K)

It was touted as the perfect prize and the perfect role for your defence, that remains to be seen, but today’s results are encouraging and certainly point in that direction. He spent a lot of time in midfield, got CBAs (14), one ball around the ground and took out fierce tackles at times. It looks like Vossy is keen to play a solid role in midfield with Hewett and he should be good at least until Sam Walsh returns.

Charlie Curnow (AVD $347,000)

I’ve seen him pop up on people teams recently and be mentioned on podcasts. He was no good. Admittedly, H.Mckay wasn’t playing, but he was playing a role in knocking the ball down to the little ones and didn’t have many touches, and when he did he hit them, an attractively priced striker that he may have been, but his fancy acting seems trash. Stay away.

Other mentions

• Z.Williams ( 600k DEF ): Realistically you couldn’t do it, but he looked pretty good and could play a better role this year than he did last. Could be a sneaky late pickup in the draft
• N. Newman ( 725K DEF ): Another who looked solid and picked up his share of the ball in the back half. Both could potentially be down to crappy St Kilda starters more than anything else
• J. Silvani: (533K FWD): Unlikely to be relevant in classic, or even draft, but had a pretty solid game and seems to do the job.
• Mr. Kennedy: (720K MID) : Without his forward tag from last year, he seems confined to the fantastic junk heap, but he was pretty good today and could potentially have some draft relevance.

A half-built ICON park didn’t stop Paddy Cripps from being a fully armed and operational battle station.

Unavailable : Nick Coffield, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Dan Hannebery, Jarryn Geary, Paddy Ryder, Rowan Marshall, Dougal Howard

Jack Steele (ME $1.02M)

Started rusty but warmed up in the game and had a really good second half. Comp guns aren’t often difficult in pre-season, so we never really expected too much from Jack. He didn’t give us any reason not to pick it, nor did he really do anything huge to justify that massive price tag. Nothing that happened today will change the opinion you have. One thing it showed though, is that there aren’t a whole bunch of machine guns around him stealing his bullet.

Caveat: Steele aside, from a fantasy perspective, there wasn’t really much to report, but I’ll get a feel for some that might be potentially interesting.

Seb Ross (ME $669K)

Although he didn’t return to his 2018 form (Ave 107.33), he looked capable and certainly played a good midfield role as he racked up 13 CBAs. Probably overpriced given the uncertainty, but maybe later in the season if the role was to be real or draft.

Zak Jones (MID $743K)

11 CBA and what seemed like a pretty solid MID role. He played a good game but didn’t set the world on fire and I wouldn’t touch him at that price. Maybe some project relevance though.

Jade Gresham (MID/AV $509,000)

I see its name becoming a POD, but nothing we’ve seen today suggests it’s worth it. He only got 2 CBAs and while he had the ball a bit, nothing in that role justifies picking him, really even in the draft.

Jack Hayes (TBD)

SPP’s new signing arrived in the third quarter and got a few touches, appeared to move between attacker and defense in the final and even took a few ruck shots on Pittonet. Couldn’t find his price on the site, probably he’s in the basement, and he might get a first round run if he continues to impress, he might do worse.

Other mentions

• Tim Membery (FWD $647,000) : Floated all the way around the floor and clunked a decent number of marks, will never be classic relevant, but if you want a front bench option late in the draft, he might be fine.
• Brad Hill (DEF $597,000) : He’s on most people’s lists for a reason. But his new half-back role looks interesting and when he’s good he looks pretty good.
• Josh Battle (AVD $517,000) : Played mostly defense and dominated Curnow, I doubt he scored that well, but maybe keep an eye on him.
• Hunter Clark (DEF/MID $609K): A few people on Twitter were very keen to get to know Hunter Clark, God knows why, the Guardian is probably backing off. He was there, got 6 CBAs (mostly in the first half I guess), but didn’t do much, maybe rested late.

Just like Newcastle in the 80s, are you willing to bet your future on Steele’s overinflated price tag?

AFL stats weren’t taken but here’s the fantastic scorecard as calculated by things I thought probably happened take it to the bank (a really sketchy bank that doesn’t cash in its checks for a while..)