HERE comes the carnage. A lot of coaches found themselves on the end of poor scores this week as the ton was hard to come by. Stef Martin and Tom Mitchell had no problems while Zach Merrett’s third straight failure spells doom for thousands. A bunch of other relevant Fantasy news came out of the nine games this weekend, so let’s dig in.

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My Team

1907 – The first year the ‘ball drop’ occurred in Times Square on NYE
Shit. Where do I start? Thank god for a few of the big guns in Laird (120) and Titch (146) who saved my score from being worse than it was. The ploy of bringing in Gary Ablett (71) and throwing the C on him backfired considerably. He wasn’t the only one with Luke Parker (71) and Andy Brayshaw (43) well and truly on the chopping block. The rest of the rabble ping-ponged between 60-90, making my score one of my worst in recent times.

Plus 3’s

Jarry Lyons, MID, $717K – 151
FREMANTLE has been particularly stingy this year in allowing big fantasy scores, but that didn’t stop Lyons from going off. Following up his super start to the season, the former Crow went nuts for 150+ with 30 touches and 10 tackles. Severely underrated.

Image from zimbio.com

Stephen Coniglio, MID, $749K – 111
EVEN though it came in a losing side, I was super impressed by Coniglio on the weekend. While a lot of his teammates failed to put up big scores, there were no such issues for Coniglio who topped all midfielders with his third straight score of 110 or more. He is a must have right now.

Stef Martin, RUC, $705K – 177
‘THAT’ is the Stef Martin we all know and love. At his dominant best without a recognised ruckman opposing him, Martin went full beast mode on the Power, romping his way to a career-high score. It’s a great sign for owners, who were almost ready to jump off after a sub 70 score the week before.

Negative 3’s

Elliot Yeo, DEF, $662K – 46
YUK. If it wasn’t for about 25 points in the dying stages, Elliot Yeo was on track to post one of the worst scores of his career. I thought he might have put these miserable performances behind him after a good start. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Image from zimbio.com

Dustin Martin, MID, $774K – 67
OVER 10% of coaches chose Dusty as their skipper for Round 3 and all of them were severely disappointed. Coming off a big 125+ score Martin was lucky to score half of that as he battled his way to 67. He doesn’t need to be traded or anything, but it was a big egg from Martin. He’s on probation.

Rory Sloane, MID, $713K – 67
WITH Matt Crouch out of the side and Bryce Gibbs by your side, you would think Sloane was going to keep up his scoring ways. Nope. Instead, he went backwards, replicating Dustin Martin’s output. Bummer.

Quickfire Trade Thoughts

IN – ALL guys in the +3 section are good targets, but there is still more value to be had. If you are chasing a unique defender for Yeo or Hibberd’s replacement then it could be good to target Shane Savage (DEF, $603K – 114) or Paul Seedsman (DEF/MID, $528K – 107). If you want a cheap option then cash cow of the week Nick Coffield (DEF/MID, $273K – 73) is your guy, and will likely be the most traded in player this week.

NAT Fyfe (MID, $697K – 144) looks back at his brilliant best and could push for the coveted 110 average. And one last thing. I refuse to let the forever underrated Seb Ross (MID, $742K – 132) go unnoticed anymore. He is fast becoming my favourite trade target.

OUT – IF you differed from me and kept Zach Merrett (MID, $643K – 60) and Michael Hibberd (DEF, $569K – 68) for another week, they are the first guys that need to go. After pulling the trigger on them Luke Parker (MID, $701K – 71) could be the next one in line. Hold on to the likes of Patrick Cripps (MID, $713K – 89), Jack Billings (FWD, $648K – 58) and Kade Simpson (DEF, $708K – 83) despite low outputs, they’re better than that.

A handful of cash cows are getting close to topping out in price. Both Andrew Brayshaw (MID, $307K – 43) and Aaron McNaughton (DEF, $288K – 49) are getting close to topping out in price. Their breakevens are creeping closer to their averages and when that happens it will be time to cash in.

Looking Ahead

• THE severity of Liam Ryan’s ankle sprain will dictate what a lot of coaches do this week. No news has yet been released about how bad the injury is. The same can’t be said for Gary Ablett, with Chris Scott claiming Ablett is out for at least a few weeks. With the star Cat set for a stint on the sidelines, he is a must trade. Another premium option who let owners down through injury was Beams, who was a late withdrawal from his 150th match due to food poisoning. Those people who owned Rory Lobb in Draft aren’t happy about his worrisome knee either.

Image from geelongcats.com.au

• DON’T be angry if you aren’t nailing your rookies or you are getting one or two bad scores. Overall this rookie crop is balling and a handful of them will stay in our sides for months. As long as they are going up in price all is well.
• MY trades this week are around Ablett to a premo mid. I am starring hard at the likes of Coniglio or Lyons, but I have the luxury of getting almost anyone. I might have to do some rookie shuffling with Brayshaw to Coffield likely to be a popular move this week for plenty of coaches. Probably myself included.

Peace ✌