Introduction to AFL Fantasy Podcast
00:00:17
Speaker
G'day and welcome to the Pod Pod, it is ya boi Dossi here talking all things AFL fantasy this Monday night, the 12th of February 2024. We are done with the team previews back into the swing of things.
00:00:33
Speaker
Now, and on this episode, we're going to be building a fantasy team, starting team from scratch, doing a little bit of a draft format style here. Snake draft style. We'll go through all the ins and outs of how the draft's going to work very shortly. But first, I must introduce the entire pod squad.
Impact of AFL Sub Rule Changes on Fantasy
00:00:52
Speaker
We've got the full squad on deck for this one. Firstly, five-time top 100 finisher, the Statesman. Welcome back, mate.
00:01:00
Speaker
Great to be back. I'll see you looking forward to using my vetoes on, no doubt, your wonderful picks. Yep. Gonna be great stuff. Can't wait to see how you use those ones, mate. We'll go through all the ins and outs of the rules very shortly. Holmesy, two time top 10 finisher. We have you as well. And we've been listening to some of your fantastic interviews as well. The Holmes Files, another one dropping last week with Stevie Fizz.
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, mate, they've actually been really enjoyable. So a bit of a spoiler. We've got another one coming up. Hopefully should be out sometime this week. So make sure you check that out. But yeah, it's been really good to deep dive with some of the good fantasy coaches in the community. Yeah, some great takeaways that we're getting. Holmsey, I enjoy listening to those as a fan myself, not being in the room. It's nice to listen back to those ones, get some, get some great insights from people in the fans. You're on next, Dossie. I'm interviewing you next.
00:01:53
Speaker
We'll leave that one out for the fans, I think. But we also have on board OG of the Pod Pod, Louis. Welcome back, mate. Thanks, mate. Keen to get stuck into this episode. It was popular last year. So, yeah, let's do it. Last but not least, John Harvey, two-time top 10 finisher, helping out with this classic build as well. Welcome, mate. Thanks, Tossie boy. Looking forward to it.
00:02:19
Speaker
All right, well, it was discussed because we did do all these team previews. We haven't really touched on some of the hot topics, some of the news that's been happening in the last couple of weeks while we've been getting through all those team previews. So there was some thought to do a few hot, hot topics that we've been missing out over the past couple of weeks. So let's get talking about some of those. And first, Louie.
00:02:45
Speaker
Unfortunately some of the sub rules are changing this year and it's going to affect fantasy coaches.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, big time. So the sub has always been a little bit of a crux for all fantasy coaches ever since it was introduced. All those years ago, it's made a bit of a return in recent years as well, unfortunately. The reason we're talking about it today is that last season, if you guys can remember, the sub was named as part of the emergency bench. So coaches were able to have a look at the team sheets and
00:03:18
Speaker
play a bit of a guessing game on who that sub may be. And in most cases, it was a pretty simple choice to make. And we were able, for the most part, to avoid any carnage there. But as always seems the case, the AFL has decided to make things a whole lot more difficult this season. And now the sub will be named an hour prior to the game. So on the team sheets, there'll be 23 players named. We won't know who the sub will be.
00:03:47
Speaker
until an hour prior to the game. So certainly going to keep fantasy coaches on their toes. I certainly feel sorry for those that play local club sport, have commitments on weekends, weddings, things like that. So it just adds another difficulty to the game, unfortunately. So do we see this having a large impact this year, guys?
Player Injuries and Fantasy Implications
00:04:11
Speaker
I just look at it as a silver lining model. It just means I've got more green dots and better sleep Thursday night.
00:04:21
Speaker
Always looking on the bright side stato, always thriving in adversity in the fantasy circles, but no, yeah, it is a bit annoying, but we'll get through as we always do. We love the game. We'll keep playing as we always have. I guess there's another hot topic here. So many injuries since we last talked. I don't think they, they didn't really affect too many of our team preview podcasts, to be honest. And some of these guys still might be right for round one. There's still a little bit of a way to go, but
00:04:50
Speaker
Since basically we chatted to your last, Will Day, Clayton Oliver, Patty Dow, Tristan Sherry, Zach Fisher, Jack McCray, and most recently, Heath Chapman, of course, injured as well, who was a popular pick. Now, obviously varying degrees of difficulty. Sorry, Clayton Oliver was returning to the track. The other guys were getting themselves
00:05:12
Speaker
injured there to varying degrees, but it's just one of those things we're going to have to keep shuffling the squads around. I guess on the latest news, Holmsey, that's probably the most relevant one, Heath Chapman now, another hamstring injury for him looking like a bit of an injury prone player.
00:05:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it does suck for him and also for my Freo Dockers as well. And I think it's come out recently that it's a medium term and he's going to be definitely not right for round one and it could even be up to 10 weeks. So he's not someone we're going to consider for our starting squads. And to be honest with his injury history now, you'd be a nervous coach trading into him during the season as well, knowing that he could potentially have another injury. So yeah, it sucks. But yeah, we move on.
00:05:56
Speaker
Yes, we've also got some hot topics in terms of how our teams are shaping up in terms of some of the cheaper players burning up the track as they always do, Hami.
Player Updates and Rookie Reliance Concerns
00:06:06
Speaker
But we've had some pretty positive news from some of the more mid-range guys like your Elliott Yeo, Nat Fife.
00:06:14
Speaker
Even an Ollie Wines who was flagged on this podcast and some role changes like a Nick Martin moving on to a halfback flank. Apologise, Ollie. No, not be apologizing, Komesy. I think you copied me and then Elliot Yeo got injured and I dropped him.
00:06:31
Speaker
Look, yeah, I keep an eye on all those track reports. It's actually bloody good seeing who's up and about. And yeah, it's pretty funny, isn't it? One article and you flip a change straight up, don't you? And then you come to your senses an hour later or so. But no, it's been been good to keep an eye on. And yeah, some probably some relevant names that we'll talk through today. Now, last but not least, somebody's put in here. Is there now a rookie crisis? Is that you, Louie?
00:07:00
Speaker
That was me. And look, not so much a rookie crisis, but that was related towards the sub rule changes. So we are going to have to potentially maybe pay up as means to avoid some of those sub rules. It's going to be impossible to do in general, but it's just something in the back of the mind, those 200K guys as tempting as what they are because you can sort of
00:07:25
Speaker
fill up the rest of your upper end of your team, those 200K guys may just stunt their growth in terms of cash generation. You may be finding yourselves with somebody who just doesn't make enough cash and they're gonna be in your side for a long, long time if that's the case.
00:07:43
Speaker
It's all I guess this time of year though, isn't it? Like until we see those rookies doing something in the practice matches and yeah, and the season proper, it's all a bit of a guess. Like you're Joe Clark's, you're Chore Manners and like all these guys, we talk about them, but until we see him out on the field, you just don't know.
Draft Strategy and Bench Selection
00:08:05
Speaker
Well, we're getting into our draft now, Hami, which is going to be
00:08:11
Speaker
start getting a starting team from scratch. So we did it last year. It was a lot of fun. We're basically just building out a team the way that we see it at the moment. There's going to be some interesting picks. It's always great to make a team with the diversity of opinions that we have here. Now I'm going to run through the rules for you. It's going to be a snake draft. So of course the number one pick
00:08:34
Speaker
then has the last pick of the second round and the last pick of the first round has the first pick of the second round and so on. There's no rules on whether we want to start with rookies versus premiums versus mid prices. It's all up to us. Obviously, we're going to be keeping within the salary cap. We're building out the team in the correct format with the
00:08:53
Speaker
remaining salary available. So we've got 22 players to pick because we've filled out the bench just to give an idea of hopefully a more realistic squad. We have filled the bench already and we've gone through and picked some of the more popular picks this pre-season. We've also not gone entirely basement on the bench with 200K. So I'll just run through those players before we get into the draft.
00:09:20
Speaker
Daniel Curtin sitting on our bench up the top in the back in the defense. We've got Toby Pink, who is basement price, but he's a popular pick at the moment, 200K. Clay Hall in the midfield for our bench, the West Coast rookie, burning up the track, one of those players. Matt Roberts as well from Sydney. We like the fact that he's been playing a bit of half back, looked pretty solid last year when he played. Hopefully he gets a run, but we've got him at the moment on our bench.
00:09:49
Speaker
we did cheat a little bit in the ruck line we just went with max heath a 200k basement price placement hold of ruck there which i think sensible unless we're going to go with a see how much salary we have left boys and maybe we can bring in a jordan sweet um or toby conway but wait and see on that one
00:10:07
Speaker
and Shawn Manor up for the very popular mature age rookie pick. We've got him on the bench alongside Darcy Jones, randomly, a 3% ownership there. Stado, talk us through. You were pretty passionate to bring in Darcy Jones for our bench.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, highly talented, highly touted. Unfortunately, injury interrupted his year last year, but he's burning up the track at the moment when you've got Toby Green smiling and excited about what he can provide in their forward line. It's certainly of interest. But yeah, 200k, I'm interested.
00:10:45
Speaker
So it's Toby Green once again influencing the statesman on this pick. TFG. And last but not least in the utility, we currently have Jay Clark, just another player that's not basement just so that we can sort of give that flexibility. And potentially if he plays, obviously this year could be a nice cash generator at $237,000. Last but not least.
00:11:10
Speaker
the final wrinkle of this draft that was very popular last year, the vetoes. We each have, now I think this has increased from one to two. I'm pretty sure we only got one veto last year. We each get two vetoes.
00:11:26
Speaker
have to use them. Just know that you don't have to use them guys. You can choose to cancel out the pick of another player and replace them. And then we've also decided that you can't bring a vetoed player back into the squad once they have been vetoed. So that's a little rule as well that we've got going. All right. Is there an award for the person that gets the most vetoes dos?
Draft Picks and Strategy Insights
00:11:56
Speaker
Well, I think it's a bit unfair. The squads are against me already. But look at this. I'm using a wheel right now for number one pick. And look who's got the number one pick. It is Dossi. Vito! It is. Could you imagine if you could bring back a Vito player and Dossi just stubbornly brings back the same one player six times and only gets to pick one player?
00:12:19
Speaker
Ugh, maybe I should have allowed that in the rules, but Dossie with the number one pick, I'm gonna spin again and see who's got pick two. Just waiting here. It is looking like Hami with pick two. Gonna remove him out there. Get into the second one. What are you looking forward to in this draft, Louis, while I get through the order?
00:12:41
Speaker
Oh to be honest mate, we've kind of already touched on it. I'm looking forward to vetoing some of your picks. I think that's going to be a bit of a trend but I really like this format because it puts all our brains together so to speak and we can kind of pick a really solid starting squad for not only the more sort of
00:13:03
Speaker
uh, Kina coaches, but also the casual fans as well. So I think last year, the team that we put up, I'm not sure how it went, but it did look like it was pretty, uh, pretty solid starting squad, uh, albeit, uh, in February, but no, it's a, it's a great little initiative. What do you think about it, Omsi? I was just going to say this podcast last year does, I don't know why I remember this, but does anyone else remember Stado picking Isaac coming at D2?
00:13:32
Speaker
I can't remember that. So maybe we should be doing the boss this year. Maybe the boss could get a couple of veto this year. All right. Well, I finished the draft. It's Dossi at one, Hami at two, Homsey three, Stado four and Louis at five. Let's get stuck into it. And I'm going to come in. Now last year I was pretty, you know, I was pretty conservative early. I went with the rookies. Um, you know, I went a little bit different. I'm sorry, a bit vanilla early, but
00:14:03
Speaker
Coming out, coming out fire so that I can burn a few vetoes early, I reckon. And I'm going to go with one of my favorite little sort of premium midfielders in the 800 to 900 K bracket. Are we doing defenders first? I'm starting. No, no, wherever. No, it's wherever the squad. I'm going. Joy Newcomb.
00:14:24
Speaker
in with my first pick and obviously the first pick of the draft it's not the most expensive player by the way as well it can be any any player we're going to join you can just like the way he goes about it think it's the breakout year Hawthorn's gonna have to change up that game plan a little bit potentially will day you know we'll see how his health goes early season
00:14:43
Speaker
But I think his tackle numbers have massive upside. Hawthorn didn't apply barely any pressure last year. I think their stoppage has increased. I think Newcomb starts tackling. I think he's got an all-rounded game. I think this is the year. So I'm just going a bit spicy with my first pick. And no doubt he'll get vetoed. But that's the reasoning. Let's get to pick two, Army. Yeah, I'll just leave that for the time being. I don't mind it. Someone I've definitely been looking at.
00:15:08
Speaker
Okay, so at pick two, somebody that I have not doubted the entire preseason, Elliot Yeo in defense, the defender playing in the midfield. Yeah, I love that. I mean,
00:15:24
Speaker
I think there's been some photos out there, him laying some nasty tackles. I think he was on top of Harley Reid the other day. And I'm like, oh boy, this is good signs from Elliot Yeo. And I think it was you, Harmony, that said yourself during some of our team preview pods that we were keen on him last year, priced at 70, and he's priced at 70 again. So yeah, lock and load, mate. Let's get him in the squad. No veto from me. Who's next up? Let's go to you, Holmesy.
00:15:53
Speaker
Hami, how dare you, mate? I'm going to get those receipts up at some stage for what you said about me in the group chat when I picked him. You're an absolute prick. I'm going to go the layup of the preseason so far. I'll chuck in Hayden Young in defense, priced at 90, full-time midfield role. Yeah, I can see him increasing his price this year and hopefully being a top six defender for us. So I'm going to lock that one away.
00:16:17
Speaker
Nice one. We'll go over to you, Stado. Yes, I'm going to lock away Brody Grundy. Rock, just great value. Good ceiling we know, but because of the failed experiment for last year, just comes in at great value.
00:16:33
Speaker
Lovely. And Louis, round out the first round of the draft. Are you going to go vanilla or are you going to throw some spice out there too, mate? No, I'll start with some pretty low hanging fruit. The number one draft pick, Harley Reid, has been rumored to play midfield, half back, power forward. He's a bit of everywhere at the moment, but what I can see is that he will be playing in round one.
00:16:55
Speaker
and have some pretty nice job security. So Harley Reid, easy pick, but I think you'll be owned by majority of the competition this year, especially with forward status. Love it. Back to back pick, so go again, Luke.
00:17:08
Speaker
Okay, uh, call me off guard a little bit, mate, but, uh, let's go with the trend. I'll pick another rookie, uh, Colby McCursher, uh, for similar reason as Harley Reed. I think he's going to be another one that a lot of coaches are going to be picking this year.
00:17:25
Speaker
He's been said to be playing off halfback flank, which we know is a pretty good role at North Melbourne. We've seen a couple of gurus back there, and Jack Siebel, Aaron Hall, and of course, Harry Sheesel last season. So with a couple of piggish junior numbers, hopefully Colby McKersha can follow in their footsteps. And if he can't be a keeper, just make us plenty of money.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yep, lovely. I don't think any vetoes are going to be used yet, including on Newcomb. So we'll move across to Stado now. Really? That's absolutely lovely. Well, I'll follow suit. Let's make some cash and go Riley Sanders as our second midfield rookie.
Player Selection Debates and Veto Usage
00:18:12
Speaker
All righty, moving along here. I'll obviously give a little bit of an update regarding cash as we go along, but not just yet. We've still got plenty in the kitty. So we'll go over to you, Holmes.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yes, I'll stay in the midfield and this is going to be interesting because I know Stado wants to use all of his vetoes on DOS, but I know that he does not like this player. Burned what, three times last year Stado, but LDU priced at 97, number one mid for North Melbourne. Hopefully a 105 plus average and pushing close to the top eight this year for LDU. Beautiful. It's going to be my next pick.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you did it. So he's gonna pause for that Vito and, you know, maybe not throw it out there. No Vito's yet, nearly too incomplete. To be fair, he's in the right price range. He's shown that he has got a ceiling. So he's actually a good pick. Correct. Hami? Oh, look. Let's get this out of the way early. Jack McRae, F1.
00:19:21
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, we've been a bit back and forth, Hami. You've in particular have had a bit of a rocky relationship with McRae. You and I are both owners for the majority of last year, if not all of last year. So you're settling on picking the great man so far. Oh, I'll pick him. I'll just see if anybody else has got a contrary view. Well, I was just going to ask Hami, what's your reasoning for picking Jack McRae, mate?
00:19:51
Speaker
Jackson McRae. Oh, Jackson McRae. Look, what could go, look, you look at the season that he had last year, how could it go any worse for him? One of the games he got concussed, he was playing forward the whole bloody time. You know, like it doesn't take much for things to turn around a bit for Jack McRae. Apart from being injured. Any counterpoints there, boys? You don't look like you're too keen in him, Stato.
00:20:19
Speaker
No, I'm not, but it's hard to knock it back, right? It's thin, he's one of the few in that line that's shown a good ceiling. I'm not convinced to roll. I actually think he's been a bit disappointing with his body over the last couple of years, so he's got that sign of ageing.
00:20:40
Speaker
Um, but seeing, I hate my forward line, it's hard for me to veto and turn around and go, I've got the best replacement for him. So, um, so, uh, yeah, I can't use it here, but yeah, I'm not in raptures and he's certainly not in my team. Wow. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's interesting to know so far. Stay though. I think we're back to the great man, uh, does he hear unless, Oh, how many you've got something else you want to say?
00:21:09
Speaker
No, he's just excited he got one through. Oh, okay. I'm gonna pick, as I said, I really do want to spice things up a little bit. I'm picking players that are genuinely in the frame for me and I've got this guy. I've got one word, it starts with V.
00:21:27
Speaker
This guy's in my team at the moment and you guys are going to hate it and I'm just going to allow this to be vetoed at some point, but I'm going with Jordan Clark in the defensive line at $691,000. Everyone obviously loves Hayden Young. I'm also a fan of Hayden Young.
00:21:45
Speaker
but he's moving out of that defensive line and they need a ball user down back. Jordan Clark for me is that guy that's going to really lift. We saw him come home incredibly strong when Hayden Young did move out of that defense, can share the ball, him and Luke Ryan. I think that's a smash play and I really think the Dockers have a lot of improvement to go on him.
00:22:05
Speaker
He's always had fantasy potential and I think this could be the year that we see Jordan Clark take his game to a new level. Stado. Great pick. Love it. No. Yeah, great pick. Love it. Wow. Okay. Yeah, I think it is a good pick though. I'm immediately concerned now. So up until about five minutes ago, I was okay with it.
00:22:32
Speaker
A little bit edgy. He's pretty speechy. $690,000.
00:22:39
Speaker
It's not that bad. He becomes the major ball mover when Hayden left. In fact, his average was higher when Hayden Young was in the midfielder than Hayden Young time. So yeah, now I'm pretty excited about the pick actually. I don't know if I'll do it myself, but I actually like it.
00:23:05
Speaker
I thought that was going to be, I like it and then that's a Vito. I'm still not sure until we get past Stado's pick. I'm not sure it is going to get Vito, but look, he's still only 23 years old as well. You kind of forget how young he is. A hundred average in his last three and 88 in the last five priced at 77. So that's kind of the rationale there. Can we Vito at any time, Dusty boy?
00:23:32
Speaker
I think it has to be your pick. That's sort of how it works. I think. Is that, is that what we're going with? Yeah. Cause then you got to put your pick in instead. Yeah. All right. Uh, I get back to back picks boys. So even though going lucky for me.
00:23:46
Speaker
I'm going to go another Docker, Andrew Brayshaw in the midfield as our big dog in there. So just similar, similar sort of, you know, I just want a big score in there. I want a potential captain option. Andrew Brayshaw at the moment, I'm liking his potential to get some more outside pill. And he's just got that great mix. I just think he's going to at least repeat what he did last year, potentially get a little bit better, was better in his last, I think, what, 14 games or something like that.
00:24:13
Speaker
performed pretty well and above his starting price. So we'll get on to you, Harmey. You're back up, mate. Good. Well, I'm going to veto that Jordan Clark pick because I don't really like it.
00:24:27
Speaker
And I think that if you're going to spend that much money, you may as well get a premium. And I don't believe he's gonna be the best player, like the best scoring player in that back line is Luke Ryan. And it's gonna be again. Anyway, so Vito, that one for you, Dossie Boy. And I'm gonna put in Tom Stewart. Katz has got a great run. He had an injured game last year. There's potentially a little bit of upside, but he's just got a great roll down back and yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
No early buy, I think he's a good starting option. All right, very devastating scenes for Jordan Clark being our first first veto of the evening. Home Z across to you, mate.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to play it a little bit safer and stay in the midfield again, which means we're probably going to have to start vetoing some midfielders at some stage, but not just yet. I'm going to pick Jack Steele, once again, priced under 100 with proven scoring above 110 plus. I'm not sure he's going to get back to those heights, but anything above 105 to 110 is going to be a win from his price point. So I'm happy to lock away Jack Steele as the number one midfielder for St. Kilda. Yep.
00:25:39
Speaker
Getting on to the next pick, uh, Stado, I reckon we just go with the next pick boys. I don't need to announce your name every time Stado you're up. Uh, yeah, I vetoed Jack Steele only through jealousy because he was my next pick. So not really a veto. Um, uh, I might square away, uh, our ruck line, um, and go max gone.
00:26:02
Speaker
Just free loose again, the number one, he shows his scoring power every time he is the number one ruck. So expect that pretty big improvement and close to Marshall if he stays fully fit and Tim English, if he can put two full seasons together. So there's a chance he could be the number one ruck.
00:26:25
Speaker
After your pick, Louie, I'm going to do a little bit of a recap before we get to our final few picks. Who have you got? No worries. I'll go a little bit spicy. I think this is Team Vanilla at the moment. So one who I think is going to be pretty divisive this preseason will be Jack Billings.
00:26:44
Speaker
coming over from the Saints has obviously been a pretty solid scorer in the past. Injuries have certainly curtailed that and no doubt some form in there as well but goes over to the D's where I think there's some opportunity for him on a wing, high half forward type role. Starts off with the dogs which from memory gave up a few points to defenders and then has the Hawks after that too so
00:27:09
Speaker
Obviously an opening round candidate but he's at that price point where I think coaches wouldn't be afraid to pivot off onto somebody that they perhaps miss and the upside is there if he can pop off early and he might be able to be somebody at an inflated price that we can jump off to once he does get to his buyer.
00:27:32
Speaker
Okay, it'll be interesting to see if he potentially gets the veto. There's only a few spicy players. We've only used one veto as well. Okay, I'm going to run through the current squad with $4.37 million remaining in the bank. We've got three defenders remaining to pick and our current defenders are Tom Stewart, Hayden Young and Elliot Yeo.
00:27:57
Speaker
In the midfield we have Andrew Brayshore, Jack Steele, John Newcomb with Colby McCurcher and Riley Sanders and we've got two midfield spots available. Then we've got Brody Grundy or Max Gorn and Grundy I should say in price order of course.
00:28:16
Speaker
and then we've got three forward spots still people are afraid to go the forwards as we suspected uh Jack McRae, Jack Billings and Harley Reid so like that all right let's um
00:28:31
Speaker
Let's get into our final few picks then. Louis, you are up again. Yeah, back to me. I think we've got to use some of these vetoes. So for me, I'm going to veto Max Gorn and I'm going to replace him with Tristan Cherry. And the reason I'm doing that is to save some coin, but it's also to generate some coins. So I've got no doubt that Max Gorn is going to outperform his price and make a little bit of money.
00:28:57
Speaker
I'm more in the camp where I'd like to pick a Tristan Cherry, back him in, hope for that cash generation to bridge that gap to a Max Gorn and then potentially jump on him post that early round buy. Obviously Brody Grundy and Max Gorn will both have an early round buy, around five and six from memory.
00:29:17
Speaker
If we're not going to have a playing rock at R3, which we don't, we've got Max Heath there sitting there at the moment. I'm going to put Tristan Cherry there and I think coaches that do run a Brody Grundy Tristan Cherry potentially that R3 option could be handcuffed to another North Melbourne player like a Hamish free or a Finbar Mally with that DPP. And if injury does occur, then you do still have some cash generation ticking over.
00:29:45
Speaker
I don't mind it. It's a home to your shake in your head though. Not a fan. Mate, there's every chance that the amount that Cherry goes up in price that Max Gorn does the same. There's every world that Max goes from 92 to 110, which is 18 points. And there's every world that Cherry goes from 66 to 85. So yeah, I don't agree with it, but all of his points around the buy are interesting as well. So I can't discount that too.
00:30:11
Speaker
All right. Uh, moving on to the next pick, which is back to you, homesy state. Oh, isn't it? Are you correct? Yes. Did, uh, Louie do too. Yeah.
00:30:28
Speaker
Yep, I picked Tristan Cherry and Jack Billings. Beautiful. All right, so I'm gonna go back to the midfield. So we've got Still Brayshore, LDU, and Jai Newcomb. And then to Rookie. So I'm looking for value. So I'm gonna go for Cam Guthrie at 762K.
00:30:56
Speaker
discounted because of his injury concerns last year has been flowing in the preseason and see him being their number one man. Yuck. Cam Guthrie.
00:31:14
Speaker
Right. Um, all right. Is it my turn yet? No, I'm up. You know how you said before that you're not going to announce everyone's names before. Well, you're an absolute shit show, mate. Get back in the background by the way, but I'm keeping going.
Finalizing the Draft and Strategic Adjustments
00:31:30
Speaker
All right. I'm going to chuck this player in, not because I expect him to be there at the end of the podcast, but I want to, I want someone to veto it and I want someone to tell me who to put there in their place. So in the forward line, I'm going with Nat five.
00:31:47
Speaker
I like the way that we've got all these vetoes left for the forward line. So we're just going to make this even more difficult than what it already is in picking our forwards, aren't we? Yeah. Look, the rationale is Freo have an easy run or not an easy run, but they've got a pretty good run to start in terms of fantasy scoring. Word out of Freo is that he's back to playing full time mid and it's the first preseason he's done in a very long time. He doesn't have a secondary role. They've done the forward experiment and it doesn't work. So I see a bit of a
00:32:17
Speaker
Joel Seld at the end of his career where it was just full-time mid rotating off the bench and if he can get off to a hot start an average 75 to 80 while these forwards actually emerge then it's not going to be a horrible pick for us knowing full well that his injury history is large. All right.
00:32:36
Speaker
Uh, we're getting on to, um, if my order is now correct. Excellent. Keeping track of that one. Okay. I'm going to spend a few dollars, uh, in the forward line. One of my favorite picks because I've got quite a bit of faith in them having a midfield role this year. And that's, uh, Taylor Adams.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah, it took a while to pick Taylor Adams, very popular pick in the forward line. Thought he might go off the board a little bit earlier, but he does now sit at F2 for us up forward. That forward line looking, I don't know, I don't know if it's vanilla or not. I can't tell what, what, like what would be the vanilla forward line, but Jack McRae, Taylor Adams, Jack Billings, and Matt Five seems a little bit looser than the standard forward lines out there, but
00:33:29
Speaker
I'm gonna jump in for my pick and veto Cam Guthrie. Get him out of the squad. Thank you very much for that. And just for the old time's sakes.
00:33:41
Speaker
We're going to chuck just for this round, Patty Dow is going to sit in our squad just for this round till he gets vetoed. Just for old times sake, somebody else could pick something else there. But for now, Patty Dow is sitting in the squad just for a little bit, just to just to feel it out, boys. And I'll also just round out. I'll just in defense, I'm just going to go with
00:34:03
Speaker
Little bit of a vanilla one and CFE remains in the squad till the end, but Zach Williams is just going to go into the defence as well. $442,000. Does have the round two buy, so interesting to see if he also gets out of the squad, but I keep finding myself try to get rid of him in my starting squad teams and I just end up always slotting him in at some point. So interested to see what you guys think there, but it's back to you, Hami.
00:34:31
Speaker
Oh, thanks, Dos. It's looking a bit too vanilla for my liking, so I think I may remove one of the more vanilla picks. I'll take out, I'll take out LDU. So I'll veto LDU and replace him with somebody who's playing a similar role at a cheaper price. Three sub games last year, Josh Simpkin.
00:35:01
Speaker
Oh, no. What is this? Is that a serious pick? Listeners, don't follow this group. Don't, don't go by this. Is this... Holmesy, can you sort this out with your pick mate? Yeah, I'm going to veto... I'm going to veto Jicepkin straight up. So you're leaving Patty down.
00:35:28
Speaker
Actually, that's a good point. Oh, you've already called it. Hang on. He stays in the squad just for one more round. Yeah. But I'm going to I'm going to make us put a bit of a smile on your face, John Harvey, because it is pretty vanilla at the moment. So I'm going to veto Jai Simkin and we're going to go up a little bit in price, not heaps.
00:35:47
Speaker
And we're going to go Nick Martin with the potential DPP. And this one's interesting, having a look at Jaden Papowski's worthwhile stats. As a mid only, you need him to go 102 to be a worthwhile smash pick. But as a defender, you only need him to go 94. So if the role is real and he's 100% in defense with a guy like his scoring capabilities, 94 is definitely doable.
00:36:13
Speaker
And because I don't exactly know which top end midfielders I want to pick as it is, I think with the luxury of swinging in back and opening up a spot there could be quite valuable. But as always, it's a preseason watch. But I'm liking what I'm hearing out of the Bombers at the moment. And they do score very heavily in defense. Redmond, Ridley, McGrath, Martin. That's a lot of people to share that footy with.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I did a bit of, I did a bit of digging and sorry, the, if you average out the scoring from the top five defenders of each team, Essendon actually have the highest average. So it does show you that they do share it around a little bit, but it does show you that there's a lot of ball back there. And who knows, maybe they want, uh, you know, McGrath locked down a little bit, uh, maybe Ridley plays as a bit more of a second tall at times. So I'm happy with that pick at the moment. Who's going to veto it?
00:37:06
Speaker
Well, the stats back you up too, Homsey. So Essendon were just behind Carlton for the highest scoring defenders last season. And I think the fact that Mason Redman, who's a fantastic player, was able to go 85. I just see Nick Martin as more of a fantasy player than what he is. So potentially that 94 could definitely be on the cards of him, in which case he would be pretty close to a top six defender, provided that he can pick up that status if he stays in the role long enough
00:37:39
Speaker
I love it. I love it. He's, uh, he's been, uh, we're going to have to get into our next pick and I've lost the documents. So who's up next? Stado. Stado. Uh, how much coin have we got in the bank? We currently have 2.6 mil remaining and we've still got two slots in defense, one in the midfield and one forward.
00:38:07
Speaker
So we've got four positions, 2.1 mil, 2.6, 2.6 mil. Correct. So we're going to have to go probably
00:38:25
Speaker
At least we haven't got a rookie yet. We've just got mid prices and a premium in defence. We've got two rookies in the midfield, three potential value players, a primo with potentially a little bit of value.
00:38:52
Speaker
Patty Dow, but I don't know how to rate him. And we've got one Primo, three mid prices and a rookie in the forward line. All right, so the reality is we probably need a value player or another rookie in the midfield.
00:39:22
Speaker
But I think before we do that, I actually want a second premium. I want a serious captain option. We've taken Gorn off the field. I don't want a captain Hayden Young.
Draft Recap and Season Strategies
00:39:36
Speaker
Tom Stewart can be locked down, so I don't want to be risking captaining him. Jack still is an option. Brayshore is an option, but that's where it ends. So we've only got two, so I want that third. So I'm going to veto Paddy Dow.
00:39:52
Speaker
and put in Rory lead. Okay you're high on lead.
00:40:01
Speaker
this year, even with potentially the Matt Crouch edition as well. Matt Crouch actually helps him if that's going to be the case. But back into the year 114, that's where I reckon he'll be. So post by 114, that's what I expect from him. It's got a bit of an upside, but it's just a strong captain option right throughout.
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, our midfield is looking pretty strong now, I think, even though, yeah, no players currently over $1 million in the entire squad. We haven't picked anyone in that high price bracket. I mean, Andrew Brayshaw is the closest at 996. So yeah, that's interesting. We'll get on. Can I just make one point?
00:40:48
Speaker
It's very soft by Harmony and Homsey to leave Dow there. It's like this was fucking rigged, so I had to take action. Are we going? Is it Louie now? I think we're up to Louie. Yeah, Louie's double pick. No worries. Okay, so I've been sprucing this guy since last year. He made a move from St Kilda as well.
00:41:14
Speaker
to the dogs and that was Nick Caufield. So I think he priced at 358K. I think he's someone who potentially we can get a 70 to a 75 out of, in which case he would have about 30 points upside and really get that cash ticking over for us. So I've noticed we've got two premiums in defense. Elliot Yeoh is a bit of a mid-pricer as well as Zach Williams. So yeah, let's get Nick Caufield in there.
00:41:44
Speaker
to round out our defense we've got one more pick but uh but he may end up being one of the cheaper picks that we've got in there don't mind it if he gets a game yeah coffee yeah should be good what's his hint as there being track reports on him i haven't seen too much
00:42:01
Speaker
Uh, I've been seeing some things on X, just, um, you know, how you get the, the people that'll just, um, write down all the track reports for the day and what, what's been said by various different line coaches. And yes, I have seen that Nick Caulfield is apparently well entrenched within that 22. So good to hear.
00:42:21
Speaker
fingers crossed that remains that way and he can pop one in the pre-season game just to give us a little bit of confidence but he's a player that has shown scoring capacity in the past. Another player that has shown plenty of scoring capacity in the past, I'm going to go into the midfield
00:42:40
Speaker
And I'm going to round it out and just see if I can bait some vetoes elsewhere. But one of the popular picks of the pre-season, one of my boys at Port Adelaide, Zach Butters, I think should be able to have some upside this season. And West Coast in round one, potentially Stado may be another captain option that we can consider.
00:43:05
Speaker
How much coin does that Louis dos? 869,000 bucks between a defender and a forward. Obviously that's excluding if we decide to do any reshuffling with vetoes, but you're up stato. Yeah. Well, you all know me well. And I like a whore at 307 K.
00:43:32
Speaker
Obviously we need to confirm that he's going to get the role, but he's worked desperately hard to get back on that list. It just depends whether there's going to be a role for him, but his scoring power in the VFL was very
00:43:56
Speaker
Okay, that leaves us with $562,000 for new homes needed. And it's up forward. It gave you some coins, mate. Nah, I'm going to spice it up, Dossie.
00:44:15
Speaker
Just to give just the listeners a different bit of a perspective and just to make them think about something other than what the content creators have just been jamming down our throats with the ruck line. I'm vetoing Cherry and I'm putting in Rowan Marshall. We haven't got the coin. Surely. 560K. No, because we've got one more pick. It's going to be 72K available for us or something like that.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, but you've still got Hami and Dossi to pick, so they're gonna have to veto and get creative. And unfortunately it looks like Dossi's gone offline, so I don't know if that means we've lost everything.
00:44:56
Speaker
No, it shouldn't. It should still be recording anyway. Yeah, I think that's okay. I think that's going to mean that the next couple of picks are going to have to get creative, won't they, Halsey? Yeah, that's why I did it. It's going to have to be more vetoes. That's why I did it. I don't think that's going to work, Dean. So if that's like, that's our whole salary cap spent, is it?
00:45:15
Speaker
Yeah, maybe you have to go nuke them down to someone to free up a bit of cash to to get a forward round out with a forward rookie. You like how I go then because I've used my two vetoes. All right, boys. So I'm going to go a little bit spicy here and knowing that, uh, Hami doesn't have any vetoes left, uh, but we just want to screw over Dossi a little bit here. So we're going to, we're going to play the system a little bit. I'm going to go, uh, vetoing Andy Brayshaw.
00:45:43
Speaker
just a little bit unsure of how it's going to line up with Hayden Young going in there, Matt Fife. There's a little bit of uncertainty and we've got Rory Laird as our captain option, so I'm not sure we need to have two 110 midfielders in there. So I'm going to go down to Matt Crouch. Now there's been a lot of talk about him not being in the side, but I firmly believe he's going to be in that side as that third midfielder.
00:46:05
Speaker
If you have a look at his last six games in three of those games, he got seven, six and four coaches votes. So they really liked what he was doing. Adelaide play a high stoppage brand of footy and I believe he's going to push that 95 to 100 average and be a good scorer for us. So, Hami, you're up. Well, thanks, mate. I like that. Stado, quick salary cap check. What do we got? 340K.
00:46:33
Speaker
And both yourself and Lou have got vetoes available. Is that right? Correct. Well, then how can I pass up Essendon legend forward superstar Harry Jones at three hundred and twenty eight thousand dollars. He's prime for a big season. He's training the house down. All of his injuries.
00:46:55
Speaker
No. So what I'll do, someone started typing in Louis, which is we'll delete that because I'm not going to allow him the time to enjoy it and come across with my last veto and put in Finlay McRae. Equally good, big.
00:47:18
Speaker
which means our team is full. We fit under the cap, but there is one veto left. So, Louis, you can make the last change in our squad. You've got 30K to play with. Now, just to clarify some of Doss' picks. No, no, I won't do that. Have a look at the list. The pressure is certainly on here, boys.
00:47:46
Speaker
So I'll just go through the squad. So why are you thinking? I'll go through the squad. Sorry if I don't get it in price order. It's not the way we've typed it in because it's been how we selected, but our defenders run Tom Stewart, Hayden Young. It would be Elliot Yeo. Ironically, that's my first three in my squad. Then we have Zach Williams, Nick Coffield and Marty Hoare with Curtin and Pink the Stink.
00:48:16
Speaker
on the bench and midfield and forgive me if I get this order incorrect. There's a bit more to work through. So it'll be Rory lead, Jack Still, Joy Newcomb. God, looks a bit thin peeps. Zach Butter still in there? Ah, sorry, my apologies. So Jack Still, Zach Butter's, that does look a bit better. Joy Newcomb,
00:48:46
Speaker
Matt Crouch, Nick Martin, Riley and Colby.
00:48:53
Speaker
and on the bench is Hall and Roberts. Our rucks, Brody Grundy and Rowan Marshall. What the hell happened there? Max Heath is on the bench for us, obviously handcuffed to Rowan. It's obviously the strategic reason why we've done that, or it was just taking the piss. Forward line, we've got McCray, Adams,
00:49:22
Speaker
Billings, Fife, McCray and Harley Reid, with Manor and Darcy Jones on the bench, both 200K and Jai Clark as the utility. Hopefully that's given enough background music for you, Lou. You don't have to use your last veto, but it'll be funny if it was Jai Newcomb.
00:49:48
Speaker
Look, it's not going to be, John Eukim. That was the one that I did originally look at, but I'm just not sure we'll be able to get...
00:49:56
Speaker
up to anybody more significant there. I think I'm going to go with somebody who's been quite popular. It's probably going to be a bit spicier here, but I think Jack McRae was a guy that didn't really enthuse a lot of us as he was chosen. So I'm going to take out Jack McRae there just because I think there's a little bit of uneasiness over that dog's midfield where they line up. He's also done a hamstring just recently.
00:50:26
Speaker
Uh, so interrupted pre-season, we don't like that. Uh, so I'm going to go with somebody who is good friend of the draft doctors, got plenty of hype at the end of last year and he's getting rightfully so. Sammy Flanders is going to come in and he's got, that's going to leave us with about 50 K left over to, to hopefully if one of our rookies are dropped on the bench or there's somebody in the preseason games that
00:50:55
Speaker
doesn't go the way that we plan. There's just a little bit of a buffer zone for us to pivot from there. So yeah, Sammy Flanders gets the spot. Well done, Louis, and pretty good pick. The only thing I'll be critical of our forward line is we have four of the forward line players with the bye, but look, it's still a pretty good squad. Well done, team. Really do appreciate it. Apologies to our listeners. Dost did drop off the
00:51:24
Speaker
is Chrome just lost the plot a little bit, but we'll be able to put it all back together, which is great. So thanks, everyone, for joining us. We really do appreciate, Louis, who's been on every single podcast that is known to man over the last couple of weeks and the content's been quality, Louis. So we do really appreciate that. Obviously, you dedicate a fair bit of time to our communion, mate. So we do appreciate it.
00:51:49
Speaker
No, thanks mate. And yeah, don't sugarcoat it either, Stato. When we removed Patti Dow, Dossie just couldn't handle it. He saw tears streaming down his face and then I saw the keyboard fly up and behind him. So he's very passionate about Patti Dow.
00:52:09
Speaker
No, no, they're cool. And the best thing about this though, boys, is that Dossie's been hating doing all the editing, but it's his own fault now.
Closing Remarks and Listener Acknowledgements
00:52:18
Speaker
So he's going to be sitting here for hours putting this back together and it's all him. Beautiful. And Holmesy, thanks very much and well done with the potty for Steve Fizz. I did tell him how much I enjoyed it, mate. Great insights.
00:52:33
Speaker
and keep those up when you've got the time. And, Hami, lift your game. The rest of us are putting out with the rest of the community, mate. You need to dig in a little bit harder. I think you and I have got a family of lies to face this week, don't we? Sorry, name drop for us. Who are you catching up with? No, with Bails. We've got episodes coming out, you and I.
00:53:01
Speaker
Beautiful, great to see. Follow us on Pod Pod AFL on X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and please leave a rating and review this pre-season to help us out. We look forward to catching up with you next week. We'll be able to take the piss out of Dossy a fair bit more than we did tonight. See ya.