Final Say: Round 19, trade plans + tactics

There’s only really one place I can begin this week’s Final Say and that’s with Rory. Freakin. Laird. 

Forget goals, or contested marks, or intercept possessions or even disposal efficiency – the most satisfying stat your SuperCoach player can get is a tackle. Gain points AND stop another player from getting points? Magical. Sweet, sweet Rory had twenty of ‘em. It doesn’t get any better than that ladies and gentlemen. How is he still only in 17% of teams?!

Watching the little garden gnome cuddle his way to 154 SC points on a dreary Adelaide afternoon was almost enough to make up for the visceral pain of watching Nick Daicos rack up another 3 Brownlow votes and further rub in my stupidity for trading him a month ago. In that time he’s now averaging 124 and is showing absolutely 0 signs of slowing down.

Overall, a decent week. Eddie’s Eagles managed 2,429 with Oliver sitting on the bench, pushing me back 30 spots to 484 overall. Top 250 still isn’t out of the question but it’s starting to look a bit dicey.

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Seeing Bailey Dale at full-flight for the first time, after an excruciating tag from Ryan Clarke the week prior, was awesome – desperately need him to out-perform Jayden Short over these last five weeks to justify my Short -> Hall -> Dale debacle. How has it taken me this long to mention Marcus Bontempelli’s 181 as my VC on Friday night? We won’t talk about Tim English or Patrick Cripps.

Callum Mills and Jack Sinclair continue to be a delight to own, but unfortunately the same can’t be said of Luke Parker and Will Brodie, with both starting to cause some serious forward-line headaches.

The SuperCoach rubber is really starting to hit the road, with injury niggles, sickness scares, depleted trades and tough-decisions coming out the whazoo. This is why we love the game!! 

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Trades

Darcy Cameron -> Rowan Marshall

Remaining Salary: $76,000

Trades Left: 3 (0 boosts)

Sometimes trades feel so good, so right, that it makes you wonder what you’re missing. Where’s the catch? This is one of those. 

Cameron has been insanely handy at R2 this year. He has one sub-90 score since Round 7 and has averaged 104 in that stretch. There are just two problems – he’s averaging 89 in his last three, AND Brodie Grundy returns this week. Neither of those factors are ideal.

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Conversely, Marshall is averaging just 87 this season and consequently is priced at just $460,000. Paddy Ryder, however, is out for six weeks. Here’s what Marshall’s with/without Ryder splits look like:

2022 with Ryder: 75.8 SC

2022 without: 112.8 SC

2021 with Ryder: 89.4 SC

2021 without: 109.3 SC

Ooft. So not only are you upgrading an 88 averaging player (likely less with Grundy back) to a 110+ averaging player, you’ve $55k to go along with it. It makes way too much sense… (Can’t wait for this to come back to bite me).

I also considered downgrading one of Ben Hobbs or Cooper Stephens to Josh Carmichael, just to ensure enough cash for the run home, but ultimately decided it could wait another week given Jai Culley will be on the bubble after this weekend. Carmichael has been handy in his first two games, but the Pies bat deep and he could easily lose his spot over the next month.

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Eddie’s Captains

Marcus Bontempelli was an extremely popular VC option last weekend, and after he rewarded those who took a punt on him with a 181, he should be another popular option this week against the Dees who he has 105, 136, and 125 against in his last three.

Rory Laird was the standout captain option last week against the pies, and he delivered in spades with a 154 so congrats if you had him. It’s hard to go against him this week against the Swans, but Ryan Clarke is rearing his ugly head so proceed with slight caution. 

I REALLY like my boi Zach Merrett against Collingwood, a team who he’s wiped the floor with in his last three games: 123, 120, and 116. He’s also in some ripping form without Darcy Parish stealing the footy off him: 140, 147, 136 in his last three.

Andrew Brayshaw against the Tigers is extremely tempting, purely because of his 190 the last time he played them. Prior to that, he had just a 63 and a 36, but I reckon you can wipe those off the board. My point is, midfielders love playing against Richmond, and Andy Brayshaw is going to have a massive one. 

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Vice Captains

1. Andrew Brayshaw
2. Callum Mills
3. Luke Davies-Uniacke

Captains

1. Marcus Bontempelli/Jack Macrae
2. Zach Merrett
3. Rory Laird

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TOPSPORT Bet of the Week

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Andrew Brayshaw 30+ touches @1.86

Marcus Bontempelli 30+ touches @3.40

Collingwood 1-39 @2.30

Multi @14.54