Bandit’s skippers: Round 15 captain’s to target and avoid

Last week was a pretty stress-free one on the captaincy front, with many of our popular players posting big scores to help coaches breeze through the third of the bye rounds.

Marcus Bontempelli (169) did as he pleased against North Melbourne collecting 32 touches and three goals, Lachie Neale (144) and Josh Dunkley (139) ran rampant against Sydney and Tim Taranto (128) continued his good form. Tim English bounced back with a 133 as well.

This week is a little trickier with the likes of Bont, English, Taranto, Butters, Rozee and Libba all having a spell, but there’s still a huge range of players to pick from to give the armband to in Round 15.

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Tom Stewart

Stewart was nullified to an extent against Port Adelaide last week, but still managed to punch out a 91 even after a slow-ish start. Gets back to GMHBA Stadium in Geelong this week where he averages bang on 100 points per game and could be reasonable POD VC this week.

Last 3 v MELB: 104, 18, 120

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Christian Petracca

Should be fresh and ready to go coming off his bye week break. The Cats don’t mind applying the odd tag but fingers crossed he avoids that, particularly with Oliver missing again this week.

Last 3 v GEEL: 91, 85, 146

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Lachie Neale

Was back to somewhere near his best last week against the Swans who just couldn’t go with him over the course of the game. Do the Saints send Windhager to him? He’s done a job on Neale in the past and it wouldn’t surprise me if we see them running together.

Last 3 v STK: 76, 123, 118

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Josh Dunkley

Dunkley is almost a permanent captain at this point with a five-round average in the high 130s. Very rarely does he deliver a bad game and he should score well again this week against St Kilda.

Last 3 v STK: 80, 131, 127

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Errol Gulden

A bit of a left-field choice this week but given Sydney play West Coast I’m sure you can understand the appeal. There are some safer options playing before him this week, but you could roll him as VC into one of the Saturday night or Sunday players as captain.

Last 2 v WC: 84, 90

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Zach Merrett

Those who traded Merrett in for Oliver (one of the few moves I’ve got right this year) would be feeling pretty comfortable with their choice given Merrett’s run of form. Hasn’t put a foot wrong in 2023 with just one score below 91 and Fremantle do tend to leak points to midfielders (see last week v GWS). Safe play.

Last 3 v FREM: 64, 111, 121

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Nick Daicos

Copped a Ben Keays tag last time these two sides met and his output was hampered as a result. I probably wouldn’t captain him this week purely for that reason, but it’s hard to ignore that game where he scored 163 against them last year.

Last 3 v ADEL: 72, 163, 53

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Rory Laird

In the week where Bontempelli is having a spell, Laird looks like the most obvious captain to my eye. He’s averaged 120 since that horror score in Round 1 and his record against Collingwood is excellent, albeit the last three matches have all been in Adelaide and this week they travel to Melbourne.

Last 3 v COLL: 100, 154, 144

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Jordan Dawson

Would have to take Dawson on confidence this week because his last five weeks have been pretty vanilla – he’s averaging just over 100 points per game for his last five. He did drop a 150 in the fixture against Collingwood earlier in the year though.

Last 3 v COLL: 150, 92, 99

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SC BANDIT RECOMMENDS

VC: Neale / Dunkley / Merrett

C: Merrett / Laird