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AFL Fantasy MIDFIELDERS | #PODPOD image

AFL Fantasy MIDFIELDERS | #PODPOD

E31 ยท The PODPOD - AFL Fantasy Podcast
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108 Plays3 years ago
The Statesman, Lewy and Dos reveal three AFL Fantasy midfielders they either like or dislike for season 2022. Some big names include Tom Mitchell, Andrew Brayshaw, Josh Kelly, Elliot Yeo, Lachie Neale and more! Become a silver or gold member of The Keeper League to gain weekly in-season access to the PODPOD! Members also gain access to advanced CBA analysis, state league fantasy scores, draftee analysis for your rookie research and much, much more. Join the in-season PODPOD family: keeperleaguepod.com.au/keeper-league-membership/
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Transcript

Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts

00:00:00
Speaker
G'day and welcome to another episode of the Point of Difference AFL fantasy podcast. A different look at AFL fantasy classic brought to you by the Kepa League pod. This episode we're talking all things midfielders and of course a couple of cheeky pods. Well, after all, it is the pod pod.
00:00:32
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of the Pod Pod, it's Dossie here and I'm with, as always, this season we've got Stato, the Statesman, mighty Statesman, how are you mate? I'm very very well as you can imagine, working bloody hard at the moment so it's nice to have a bit of relief. Thanks mate, good to have you on board as always and good to have on board as well the other mighty man in the room and that is Louis, Lou Dog, good to have you back mate.
00:00:57
Speaker
Yeah thanks Dossie, always good to be recording the Purd Purd on a Monday, so uhh, yeah keen to get stuck into it.
00:01:04
Speaker
Love it, mate. And don't forget, you can get all this content in season if you sign up to be a member of the Keep League Pod.

Midfielders Spotlight: Brayshaw, Kelly, and Mitchell

00:01:11
Speaker
Silver and Gold members are going to get all the in-season content, but let's get straight into it. We're talking Midfielders today, and the structure of this is going to be three players each. It's going to be anyone we want to talk about. That's how we've been doing it. We've done the Defenders last week, and we just want to talk about three players. It can be your like them, your dislike them, anything like that. We're just not going to be talking about
00:01:32
Speaker
because we will be talking about them in an upcoming pod dedicated purely to them. And then we'll follow it up with another three requests from the Twitter community. You can follow us there at HKDOSS, at LouisAF, and at Statesman33. But we're gonna go one by one, round table style, and as the veteran in the room, the mighty elder Statesman, I've said mighty a bit too many times tonight, but that is the great man. It's the Statesman. Kick us off with the first midfielder you're gonna look at in 2022.
00:02:02
Speaker
Thanks, Dossie boy. Well, I'm going to concentrate on that beautiful model. I talk about three, five, one and three. So I'm actually going to talk about people fitting in that category for me. And I'm always looking for values as someone that can be a premium scorer, but I'm not paying top dollar that ensures that I get as
00:02:24
Speaker
There are as many top-end players starting on my field, and the first one is Andrew Brayshaw. Now entering his fifth season, and Chara departed, of course, five years injured at the moment, and Mundi ageing. Mundi could be playing for another 15 years, we're unsure, but at the moment, it looks like this might be his last one. It looks like he's finally stepping in to the main role in the Fremantle midfield.
00:02:53
Speaker
He has shown us a ceiling, but consistency of roll and time on ground have been an issue previously. During this time, he is still yet to crack the 80% time on ground barrier, but has still been able to give us a 104 average last season.
00:03:13
Speaker
His history of time on ground has been a slow progression upwards. So in 2018, he had 67% with an average of 66.8. 2019, 71% time on ground with an average of 69.5.
00:03:32
Speaker
2020, as we understand that it was shortened quarters, 75% with an average of 76.4 or you can adjust that to 95.5. So we only had 75% time on ground during 16 and a half minute quarters. So just remember that. In 2021, you had 79% with an average of 104.3.
00:04:02
Speaker
So this year, barring injury, but that's the same case with any player we're talking about, we will see his time on ground go over 80%. So I'm expecting him, natural development, increased role, increased time on ground, the main man in there, to be around or potentially above the 1-10 mark, which puts him in a top 10 player range. So I am hot.
00:04:51
Speaker
It's worth paying up for a guy that is gonna be top 10 and clearly you've identified that role. He's already put up some big numbers and you can see the time on ground increasing alongside his natural progression. So a little bit different, a point of difference for the listeners.
00:04:56
Speaker
on Andrew Breschel.
00:05:05
Speaker
Absolutely. And I know everyone's going to be hot on Sarong, but they see his ceiling. But what you're going to see with Sarong is still that reduced time on ground. So yes, he's going to increase his scoring, but we're not going to see his maximum true ceiling. This year we'll see it from Andrew Brashaw, barring injury, of course. All of a sudden, he's going to be at max rat power.
00:05:30
Speaker
And that's the exact type player that we want on our ground and staying there for the whole season. Love it, man. What's your first play you've got to talk about for us today, Louis?
00:05:41
Speaker
Mine's Josh Kelly. So, sort of piggybacking off the back of Stado there in a starting team that consists of blokes that are basically value that you're going to get some improvement out of. Josh Kelly comes in priced at 103. So, previous years we've seen him go 112, 108, 115.
00:06:02
Speaker
and the knock on Josh Kelly it's always been his body unfortunately. I mean he's never really put together a full season of football not for over five years now but we did see a slight turn in that last year. He played the 21 games and of those available 22, one of those was just because the turnaround for GWS was just so short that Leon actually came out and said well it was a few days longer Josh Kelly would have played unfortunately he didn't but
00:06:31
Speaker
Going on to why Josh Kelly is priced at 103 is because he actually played in the absence of Lockie Whitfield. He actually played a forward roll and in that forward roll even though he was scoring relatively okay it wasn't until the final 15 rounds of the season when he had that midfield roll that he really started to dominate. So in that 15 game stretch he went at 111
00:06:57
Speaker
So you're looking at a full eight points above what he's coming in priced at in that same role He went under a hundred just three times for a floor of 86 then the other two were 96 and 97 In that time he went over a hundred twelve times and above 110 seven times. So I know we're
00:07:17
Speaker
never going to question the ability for Josh Kelly to score in fantasy. It's always going to be whether or not he can stay on the park but that's why I think he's such a good starting pick is because he comes in at value and if you are worried about his body then he's the perfect player to start because those worries they're never going to go away and potentially you're looking at
00:07:38
Speaker
Josh Kelly going at 115 come round 12, 13, 14 up until the buy and you're looking at maybe upgrading him, but then potentially you're actually spending two trades if you do think that his body will eventually give up. So for me, Josh Kelly is someone who I'm pretty keen on in 2022.
00:07:57
Speaker
I love it man and again yeah looking at the centre bounces you can get them on keeperleaguepod.com.au CBA analysis I've just seen like you're saying up until round seven he did not crack 40% centre bounces up until that point and he had three games without even attending one so he was playing that forward roll early
00:08:16
Speaker
the average definitely not indicative of his a full season in the gust. Do you reckon he's gonna get that permanent role in the midfield? He's obviously a co-captain at the club now and do you think they're gonna want him in there especially with the fact that you've got a few you know potentially Canelio going back in there? Do you think he'll get in there? Is that gonna affect your thinking at all? But obviously you're pretty keen so no.
00:08:35
Speaker
Um, no, not really. I mean, perhaps if Lockie Whitfield's not in that side, then I would look at, um, going the other way a little bit. But the way Josh Kelly scores is, uh, he, he kind of cops a bad rap for being soft, I guess, probably not the word to say, but, uh, he's actually one of the best tacklers in the competition.
00:08:53
Speaker
So he runs both ways. He gets the contested bowl, he gets it on the outside as well. I just think he can score just about anywhere and he did up in that forward roll. It just wasn't the Josh Kelly that we sort of have come to know. I don't think he's going to play that roll again.
00:09:10
Speaker
I think they've got other players that are capable of doing that. Especially they just drafted Finn Callahan who should fit into that role as well if he gets a debut. So look I just think Josh Kelly priced at 103. There's always going to be upside for me.
00:09:26
Speaker
My first player is Tom Mitchell, pretty obvious, a staple of the fantasy community, but I just want to talk about why I'm keen to pick him despite the huge price tag of 969k, if it's not obvious enough for the listeners.
00:09:42
Speaker
There are, I guess, some questions around the role and stuff, but we've seen time and time again, wherever Titch plays he's going to score. And even last season, he actually had, from what I know his history to be in the center bounces, it was his lowest that I've seen for a few years. So he only attended for him only.
00:10:00
Speaker
But he attended 70% of center bounces across the season. That's actually low for Tom Mitchell's career history. I know we don't have a lot of numbers in CBAs in the past, but he used to be in there every single center bounce. It was kind of like the Locky Neal style, 88 to 90%. So that's actually pretty low for his career standards in the last few years at least. Tom Mitchell still pumped out 115, going at 130 or something in the last three rounds of the year.
00:10:26
Speaker
It just feels to me like the safest pick. 30% owned says that a lot of people are agreeing with me. I don't want to spend too much time on Titch, but what I wanted to talk about, and I might ask you statesman, do you think there's anyone else that is a safer pick in that bracket of, you know, 900 to a million bucks that you're paying, which is you only want to really spend that money on one, maybe two people, right?

Injury Concerns and Value Plays: Yeoh and Gaff

00:10:49
Speaker
I think Steel is as safe. I just don't think he's as good a value.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And Titch has obviously gone above 115 multiple times in his career as well. So, just love the Titch, starting with him. Pretty boring pick from Dossi, but don't worry, things will get better from here. Now, Stado, who's your second midfield pick?
00:11:11
Speaker
Elliot Yeoh. So Yeoh falls into the discounted premium category. The reason he is discounted is also the reason he's a strong watch. So although in my draft squad, I want to see what unfolds from the preseason and preseason games.
00:11:29
Speaker
If he has had a solid and full pre-season, he needs to be on everyone's radar. But any signs of those injuries are lingering means we just all move on. He is discounted by about 20 points, and for someone that can potentially be a top 15 mid, this is worthwhile looking at.
00:11:51
Speaker
In 2018 he averaged 106.8 and 2019 102.7 and he is priced at 83. This is around the Sorong area, price area. So the buys are an issue with Sorong. So he has the same buy as Tom Mitchell, Andrew Brayshaw, Taylor Adams, Pat Lipinski, Lachie Neill.
00:12:16
Speaker
So where Yo has a slight advantage is the round 13 buy. So making him a pretty good balance for your buys. So I try to ensure that in every line when I'm talking about how many premiums I have, I try to separate to ensure I've got a premium from each of the buys. So you're not mix matching your premiums or side swapping your premiums during the buy rounds because you want to finish off your team.
00:12:47
Speaker
The other key thing that he's good at, which might be advantage this year, is he is a tackling machine. He is indeed. You're not concerned about, Louis and I were talking pre-show and I'll just say we aren't concerned because we think it's just management, general management, but there's been some talk that he's not doing full training right now. Would that scare you at all as a potential guy that's coming off, you know, a history of OP?
00:13:11
Speaker
Yeah, obviously he's always going to be a watch during pre-season. I'm not too worried about them managing the loads now. It's actually how he performs in the pre-season games. The key thing here, even though they're managing him, he's actually at the moment still in training and that's the key thing with him. But I will say the values there, he's a watch.
00:13:34
Speaker
He is a watch. And just to reiterate that, he was the leading center-bouncer 10-D for West Coast, despite coming into the team halfway through the season, coming off OP, still finished as their top 10-D. And he's a guy that actually was going 90% for the last few weeks, 90, 83, 95, 80, 82. He's going to be in the center-bouncers. So I don't mind that pick, Stado. That's definitely a watch for me as well. Louis, who's your second player you want to talk about, another West Coast player by the looks of your little notes here?
00:14:04
Speaker
Yeah, so it's his teammate Andrew Gaff and I'm kind of sitting on the fence on whether or not I like him or not. I just grabbed some sort of raw numbers here and I'll bounce it off of you two gurus, but in 2021 he averaged the 97.2 and that's after averaging over a ton the four years prior. So, you know, in the last three of those he didn't actually fall below 108 average, so
00:14:33
Speaker
We're talking an 11 point recession here which is quite a bit for a player who's only 29 years old. He's really pretty much at the back end peak of his fantasy powers. But just looking into his 21 season he still had that ceiling of 154. Quite often in the past we've seen Andrew Gaps able to put up big big scores. Unfortunately though in the same year he had a floor of 60.
00:14:59
Speaker
which is quite disappointing for a player of that calibre, especially with the way that he plays too. Obviously a lot of kicks, a lot of marks. In that time he also went over 110 seven times, but only toned up nine times. So sort of when he was in form he was in form, but the other games just wasn't getting close enough near it to
00:15:22
Speaker
to give us something that sort of warrants starting him anyway. Just diving into his disposal count as well. It was well down on previous years. It was actually the last time it was lower was 2014 which was just his fourth year of football. He averaged 93 that year so obviously 97 this year, not too far off there. Still had the same sort of time on ground though, 88%.
00:15:49
Speaker
I was really unsure how to read into this and so I went back into previous years ladders where the Eagles have finished and I was quite surprised to see that in his best years the Eagles were actually coming top three top
00:16:05
Speaker
4 on the ladder. Whereas his worst years they were number 6 and number 8 on the ladder. So being an outside player I'm not sure if that directly correlates. You being a West Coast fan you might be able to help out here Dossie. But I'm just wondering why Andrew Gaff who for years and years and years was a 108 averaging midfielder
00:16:26
Speaker
we suddenly find it 97 and people are almost hesitant to jump back on even though he's potentially 11 points under priced.

Player Analysis: Fiorini and Listener Requests

00:16:36
Speaker
I think last year was quite telling because West Coast finished, I was just checking now, West Coast was 16th for disposals, but first for marks per game. I saw that, yeah. And I think that just shows, people were talking about it in the fantasy community early last year that happened to pick Gaff. It was almost like they're trying to go that more direct passage to goal and avoid using him on the outlet as much as they have in the past.
00:17:02
Speaker
And I think it picked up as the year went on because Gaff's just too good to ignore him on the outside. And like you sort of mentioned at the start of last year, coaches adjust to the new rules and figure out ways to sort of get around it. I don't know, man, like you make a really good point. I'll just be skeptical picking. I'm very scared on all the Eagles. As an Eagles man, I'm very skeptical that we're going to be any good this year, to be honest with you. And for that reason, what you said about the latter position as well, that probably scares me even more off Gaff.
00:17:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's thrown me. I think there's a lot of mystery surrounding it. Going on those disposals that you mentioned, Dossie, throughout his sort of period of his best scoring, which I think from memory was 2017 to 2019. So three seasons of football. The Eagles actually averaged out to be the 15th worst disposal side as well. So they've never been a high disposal team.
00:17:54
Speaker
But obviously in that time Andrew Gaff was able to find plenty of the peels. So I just wonder about if there's a game style change that we haven't quite picked up on enough to realise. But he's someone who I will still be keeping an eye on. Potentially he's an upgrade target later on if he shows something because we all know what he can do.
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah I just think after last year I'm almost avoiding majority of wings apart from the absolute best of the best like we just didn't see too many score well last year and you know Gaff's been an anomaly in that fact but he wasn't last year so yeah it's a good interesting one though because of his history being really
00:18:33
Speaker
My next player, Braden Feorini, you know it, you love it, you knew it was coming, I had to talk about him. Coming off that last amazing year, 105 average, he only had 73% time on ground and obviously only playing about 9 games. So he played 1, his first game he only got 70.
00:18:53
Speaker
in 66% tog then it was ton after ton after ton after ton until his final game where he dropped down below 70 at 70 sorry so 105 average for the season only 24 years of age Hugh Greenwood's out the door which is why he kind of got the go in the first place
00:19:12
Speaker
Already heard some news from Stewie G that, you know, they're talking about the midfield mix this preseason. He mentioned the likes of Miller, you know, Anderson route. And obviously he did mention Feoreni threw that name in there, which gave me a sense of relief. I'm going to throw it out there. Unfortunately, even though I'm his hugest fan,
00:19:30
Speaker
I'm so I wouldn't pick him to start with I'm gonna say I wouldn't be picking him to start with I just want to mention his name everyone knows I'm a Braden fair any truther I'll be having him in every single draft league in classic the risk is just there and I'm following statesman's rules he could be a guy that I have to trade out
00:19:48
Speaker
And the risk is there, which is going to, you know, make me not want to start with him. But boy, he could be such a great upside pick if he gets the role. It's just the fact that I just don't trust you. I do. I trust very many. I don't trust you. And that's why I think he summed up stewie juice thoughts there as well. Just not sure whether or not he's going to start him in the side. Round one.
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think he'll be there and I think he's going to be, like I said, great value in draft, um, keepers, all that sort of stuff. I still think he's going to get the role, but in classic, the risk is there. He's got upside of look, look at his, if he got the time on ground and the CBAs, he'd be a Tom Mitchell type talent out there. That's, that's the problem is his disposal though, too. I mean, a boy can get the ball 30 times, but if he burns it, you know, nine times out of 10, uh, when he's gone over 72% in the last two seasons.
00:20:39
Speaker
Okay. Sorry to interrupt, but that's a lot of time talking about a draft player on a classic show. So I'll move on to the next player, Matt Rao. So I'm currently debating on whether I'm taking on Matt Rao because he is going to be highly owned.
00:20:57
Speaker
So just have a listen why boys. He's only actually played 17 games a footie over two seasons. He's been injured three times. His average was 70.8 the first season, that's before the adjustment of course. So it was a good start for his four games and of course as we know he was injured early in his fifth game. So after that blinding start everyone just had the expectation that this guy is automatically 110 sort of type of guy.
00:21:26
Speaker
Well, last year, he interrupted a game with injury, but got to play 12 games, but he averaged 55. He was injured again and he was very slow on his return. Although we all hope he's a bargain, four games is a very small sample size.
00:21:49
Speaker
It's tough, isn't it? It's a very tough pick, but the price that what he's priced, I'm going to just get your straight away, your thoughts here, Louis, because I'm in a similar boat to Stado, but are you in the same camp as well?
00:22:00
Speaker
No, I'm quite bullish on Matt Rao. He came back late last season, didn't look as usual self, but this is a 20 year old bloke who didn't have a full pre-season, didn't get to get into the thick of things until late in the year. Just finding his way. I just think he's far too good of a footballer, especially in his junior days and what we saw in what, four rounds.
00:22:24
Speaker
of his debut year to not be relevant. The way I look at it is at his ownership, which I'm not sure what it is, Dossie, but I'm sure it's on 50% or something. All of a sudden, I think to myself, okay, well, this is a guy who I think is going to outperform 55, right?
00:22:45
Speaker
Oh yeah. So you're winning on that front but then again he could also go 100 plus in which case you're losing out on 50% of the competition because you were worried this guy isn't all that he was hyped up to be early. He probably won't be but I still see him going 80 plus 85 plus and when that's 30 points upside I'm just not going to overthink that one at all and he was one of the first selected in my side.
00:23:10
Speaker
All right, lock and load, throw away the key, 44% owned, Louis. And yeah, that's a good point on ownership anyway, to not go against the crowd sometimes. Your next player, Lou Dog, your last one here for us.
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah look my last one is Sammy Walsh. He's someone I'm quite bullish on. Look his career speaks for itself. Going into his fourth year now he's already averaged 92 and adjusted 97 and 2021 a huge 109. So we're looking at sort of the climb of a Clayton Oliver. I think he also averaged the 109 in his third season. Still only 21 years old so
00:23:46
Speaker
I'm banking that there's going to be more fantasy trajectory. Just watching him as well. He's such a superb footballer. He looks like he's built for fantasy. We've seen what he's capable of and I'm just backing him in to go from there basically. The only real concern I've got is that I think the scale is going to tip a little bit in that Sam Walsh starts to cop the tag more often than not.
00:24:11
Speaker
Um, Patty Cripps has shown that he's not the same player he was. I'm not sure he's the same game breaking player. Um, not just from form, but from a game style change at Carlton too. There's a lot of different players in that side that weren't there in 2018 or whenever Patrick Cripps went at that 110 fantasy average. So, um.
00:24:33
Speaker
Regarding that tag with Walsh it was tagged to a 55 by Matt De Boer in round 14. Round 19 tagged to a 72 and then he managed to break it versus the Saints for a 108 in round 20. I'm not sure how tight that one was but
00:24:49
Speaker
uh just going off of those numbers he's certainly got the potential to burn you when he comes in priced at 109 but at the same time he's got the potential to to pump those numbers up again and go 115 plus and if we go by the last two years the
00:25:06
Speaker
Premiership contenders really haven't tagged. I mean we're looking at the Bulldogs, we're looking at Melbourne. They've refused to run a tagger and they've probably been the two best teams in the comp. So being a copycat league, perhaps that happens, but it's just something to flag. Apart from that, Sam Walsh is a gun.
00:25:24
Speaker
and I've got another one that is just a gun and don't need to talk about it too much as well but Locky Neil is my final pick so I've gone pretty stale staple picks for my ones which is unusual for Dossi but don't worry about that we've got a couple of pods to come but he hasn't gone under a hundred until last year for six straight seasons over a ton and
00:25:44
Speaker
The only reason he did was injury affected game. So for me, I think that's immediately, you know, six points upside his price at his 94 average of last year. You've at least got around six points of upside to start with in your side. Just easy money from the get go. Plus, you know, looking fresh, full pre-season back in the midfield. Apparently Zorko might be moving out of there. There's there's word he's going to be playing a little bit more half back. That's great news for Lucky Neil to just keep his center bounce numbers up.
00:26:14
Speaker
He's just a gun of the competition, you don't need to say too much more about it. I know Stado's been a big fan for a long time at Locky New and is he straight away on your starting side as well, Stado? No, another one of these round 14 premium midfielders. There's way too many of them. So he's been in there a few times. I've started to fiddle around way too much. So no for me at this stage, but a very close eye.
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. I just think, yeah, way too sort of under priced from his previous performances and who knows, he might even get back to that Brown low ridiculous form he did in the COVID season. All right, we're going to get to three from the listeners here. And here we go. It's the first one is Joy Caldwell. So he's around the same price as your Matt Rowell.
00:27:03
Speaker
Coming in at in that 400 K bracket. I'll just get exactly the number right now. So four hundred and eighty eight K So he's a little bit more expensive than Matt Rao coming into his second year at the Bombers Obviously a lot of promise in that first year, but only managed the two games Did come back for their finals appearance, but I mean I had some thoughts on Caldwell I think he's a great option in in draft keeper leagues in in particular gonna be
00:27:27
Speaker
sort of that long-term fit for the Bombers. I think he will get centre-bounce attendances this year and even play that high, half-forward role that gets in the contest regardless. But who wants to talk about Jocko? Well, I've sort of had my opinion on the Kebelig podcast if you want to hear there, but maybe one of you guys for Classic. I don't think he's an option in Classic, but stay there.
00:27:47
Speaker
I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but 130 grand cheaper, I'll be all over him. He's just way too awkward priced and not going to be in the top 10, top 15 criteria. Just not there.
00:28:01
Speaker
Yeah, our next player, it's a tough one, it's a nice option, you might be bold enough to go there, as probably a point of difference going against Matt Rowell, if you're really strong that Matt Rowell's not going to be there. Jai Simkin, another Jai, is our next player to talk about, and coming in from North Melbourne, he's going to be pretty expensive, but also has that incredible upside that he showed late in the season.
00:28:24
Speaker
I'm just a bit scared of North Melbourne's midfield mix and who they're going to really roll through there with all the young kids coming up. He obviously had a mint roll last year. Louis, do you have any thoughts on Jai Simpkin as a premium option for us this year, given his price is in that premium bracket now of $801,000?
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah well you nailed it there Dossie it seems like North Melbourne half their team are inside midfielders so building off of that I do think that he's going to be one that the Roos do start to build around I think he's 23 so he's still really young he's shown plenty he had a little bit of a mini breakout the year previous going at 95
00:29:05
Speaker
Sorry, the year previous and then going into 2021 had the average of 95. He showed a bit of ceiling in that. I don't really doubt that he will improve on his average. My concern is just about how much. This guy's coming in priced at 801K. I want to see at least 10 points of upside there. And when I look at players priced around him, I think there's other guys that I'd be
00:29:31
Speaker
slightly more confident in even some guys who are a little bit cheaper that could go pretty close as well so for me it's just someone I'm not going to take the risk on but look I could look back a year from now and and see Jai Simpkin going at 110 quite comfortably it just depends on that role.
00:29:51
Speaker
Mate, you're on fire, so you might as well take us away with Callum Mills as well. I know you've had some words on the coaches panel about about Mills, but what do you think on him as a starting option as well? He's priced pretty considerably, had an amazing year last year, even with a few injury affected kind of time out there with his Achilles soreness. But how do you like Callum Mills as a starting option?
00:30:12
Speaker
As a starting option is the key word there, DOS. It comes in price at $110, and I don't think he's going to fall much below that. At the same time, I'm not sure he's going to go too far above that. I think he's a guy who showed a very consistent ceiling in 2021. He had a couple of big, big games, but more often than not, hobbit around that $110 to $115 mark.
00:30:37
Speaker
We also know he's very versatile if he needs to swing back at any point, which he did at times in 2021. Some people thought he was a pure midfielder. There were certainly some games, some periods of time where he did have to go back and plug a hole there. Unfortunately though, as a starting option at his price tag, you need to be confident that you can stick the C on Callum Mills.
00:30:59
Speaker
And if you arm an R or you think oh I'm not sure, well you're actually paying the price tag of a guy that you need to be confident on sticking a C on. And for me it's just not Callum Mills' starting option. I think he's a superb upgrade target.
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah, I'm probably in the same boat. It would be scary putting the sea on him, even though, you know, I think his lowest score last year was an 84 or something ridiculous. He had such a high floor and high ceiling. So he is one of those players that you could could benefit from, but who knows?
00:31:30
Speaker
Just a note, everyone as well, for people putting in their requests for players. If we don't get to yours, because obviously we only do a few from the listeners each week, we're going to have an entire podcast dedicated to listener requests as well.

Unique Picks and Episode Conclusion

00:31:43
Speaker
So don't worry, we will probably get to your player eventually. We'll try and smash through as many as we can on that episode as well.
00:31:48
Speaker
Quickly going to get through my dossies pods. We don't have much time left But um, these are the players that i'll be picking from i've got a couple each week from every team So i've got two more teams to get through it's essen and freemanal Today and i've gotten a couple of pods from h and I have been going under 10. Um, so just to mention gykold Well as one of those pods he's at 12 ownership. So doesn't quite meet the pod pod pod criteria, but um
00:32:13
Speaker
I'm going to talk about a couple of players quickly. Sam Draper at 481K. Look, he is a pot option because he's going to be the number one ruck at Essendon. Undoubtedly, he's going to have that role. Do we think he has the ceiling? He went 121 in the elimination final for Essendon. He's got a ceiling, but that was against a very easy opponent in the basically no ruck Western Bulldogs lineup.
00:32:37
Speaker
Don't love it as a starting option, but if you're looking for that point of difference in your rock, you know, he has a ceiling. Darcy Parrish is the other one who's incredibly highly priced due to his amazing run last year. A lot of midfielders coming back into the mix. Sheil, Caldwell, the like.
00:32:54
Speaker
Just, it was his first year in that role, so could have the tapering off been just due to fatigue as the season went along? That's what I want to know, because his center bounces actually remained fairly high when they had a full team back. He was still the main man in there. Stado, either of these pods, firstly, just really quickly, either of these pods interest you, and Darcy Parrish, could he go higher this season? No and no.
00:33:19
Speaker
Alright that's fair, that's stern from the stato, that's pretty clear cut. On the Fremantle side of things, I really like this option and he's been in and out of my teams. Everyone went on him last year, now he's a mid only, everyone's not touching him. Geordie Clark, 592k.
00:33:38
Speaker
He will have defensive DPP by round six. I think he's a chance to get some kick-ins. I think he's a genuine chance to be that 85, 90 kind of defender that's going to be coming in cheaply priced at 592K. You can swing him back into defense, get a rookie in that's doing well by round six. Stata, you've already got your hand up. I think you think too much.
00:34:00
Speaker
You think too much. You said about four times. I think, I think way too expensive for a mid only that's not going to play in the mid and not going to be able to give you the scores you need. If you select anyone with the expectation they're going to get a DPP at round six, you are kidding yourself. If they get it after six rounds, you pick them up heading into round seven.
00:34:27
Speaker
All right, you're going to be apologizing soon enough for the Geordie Clark. I'm surprised he didn't put Young in there. He's only at 6% there, Dossie. Is he there? Oh, OK. Yeah, I figured he was going to be. I should be putting my chips in that one over Jordan Clark. Yeah, no, I'm all about Clark. Sorry, sorry, Hayden Young, but it is a good pick. I've seen it out there too many times. I thought he must have been high owned. The other one I'm going with, though, Darcy Tucker, honor the tuck.
00:34:51
Speaker
We said it last year, honor the tuck. He only played as a defender last year though, hence the defender eligibility from round one. 514,000, that's a lot cheaper than Jordy Clark there. Defender eligible, gonna be playing in the midfield according to his own words.
00:35:07
Speaker
When he was talking about a draft day, he's like how the, you know, Erasmus going in the midfield, he's like, yeah, look, obviously as a midfielder myself, he can tell, he's like, I can tell these guys are good as a midfielder. Um, so that's what Darcy Tucker said himself. He's going back into the guts. Um, I really like him as an option down back 514 K. I think you guys are on board as well. Cause Louie, you sort of revealed to me, he might've snuck into your squad this week.
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah he snuck in in a moment of weakness. I read that pre-season article and I do like Darcy Tucker as a player. I remember a six game stretch to start the fantasy season a couple of years ago where he was really going like 90 plus each week. He might have been forward eligible at the time as well.
00:35:55
Speaker
based off of just remembering that pretty much purely and simply. If I see something in the pre-season as in it looks like he's very much a part of that pre-mental mid-build group then he's someone that I'll certainly be interested in because I think that that sort of position on field you're talking your D3, your D4
00:36:17
Speaker
is quite difficult to fill and there's a few guys priced around that that have a lot of question marks and probably four or five and I think if you nail the right one you'll be laughing and I'm hoping that maybe Darcy Tucker can be it.
00:36:32
Speaker
He's actually my D5 at the moment, so finding value and buying value, yeah. But that position, it may not be him that loses it, but maybe one of those defender positions get lost if I can find the right second premium ruck, because I can't at the moment.
00:36:52
Speaker
Well, thanks for joining us, everyone, on another episode of the Pod Pod. Glad to be with you yet again. Now, just remember as well, Silver or Gold members gives you weekly access to our in-season Pod Pod, but also a stack of premium resources on the Cape League website, including advance, centre-bounce, attendance numbers, state league fantasy scores, drafty analysis guides, kick-ins, projections, and more. Become a Silver or Gold member and get all that plus the Pod Pod weekly in-season episodes.
00:37:22
Speaker
Looking forward to seeing you next week, lads, as we talk some rocks and some stats that we like to use as well. That's what we're going to be doing next week. We'll see you there.