Docherty was worth waiting for. In 2017 Sam Docherty was the 4th highest scoring player (top defender) in the league, and a cornerstone of Mark’s first premiership. A cruel ACL in the 2018 preseason had Mark holding him a year on the bench, but a second ACL a week into preseason training the following year saw him on the trade block. With a rebuild in full swing, I managed to get a deal of Doch for picks 22 (Jordan Lewis) and 72 (Liam Stocker), with pick 90 (Matt Scharenberg) coming back my way. Docherty is once again the highest averaging defender in the league, and if this form continues will be hoping for another premiership medal for his collection.
The emergency loophole doesn’t always help. A point of contention in the league this week (mainly thanks to Bont), the loophole doesn’t actually help if you don’t have the cattle putting up the scores. Nelson had all 5 emergency positions available for loophole scoring this week, but with the top score between them a 49, there wasn’t anything worth taking. As was pointed out in the discussion, this strategy isn’t without risk, but while the option is there, Nelson it appears will continue to take it.
Could last year’s fortunes be turning? Last year, there was no person who personified close but not close enough more so than Adam. Rounds 3-5 he suffered 3 losses by 50 combined, and while he squeaked into the finals, the grand final will continue to haunt him for the near future (or at least until a trophy sits in his cabinet), with Connor “I hate you” Blakely not even offering a whimper of defence in the final game. Now with the first single digit result of the season going his way, this could be a new, clutch Adam we’re seeing in 2020.
Andrew Gaff wants his missing medal. In 2018, Andrew Gaff had one brain fade that cost him his season, and consequently a premiership medal (which if this year is anything to go by, the Eagles aren’t going to get him one in the near future). While the rest of his teammates have premiership medals, he has his eyes on a bigger prize – a Dangergawn medal. 93 isn’t a score that could have got votes in any other head to head game, yet in the close tussle between Paul and Adam, it was just enough to get him the 2 votes, and keep him atop the leader board after 4 rounds. I’m not suggesting he’s threatened to hurt the other midfielders in his team if they outscore him, but I’m just saying we expect more from Paul’s vaunted mids.
Marshall needs to ruck solo. Before the season began with the shorter quarters announced, many commentators were suggesting most teams would scrap the 2 ruck set up as with less game time the primary ruck can do enough, and a pinch hitter (hopefully better than Taylor Walker) can do enough to give them a spell. St Kilda decided to buck this trend with their off-season acquisition Ryder getting game time alongside Marshall. While Marshall wasn’t terrible, this week we got to see just how much better he scores without giving away so many ruck contests. Will be interesting to watch the rest of this season at the St’s and how it affects Mark’s team long term.
Without Fyfe, will Max get a win? Much like Freo, the name that jumps off the page when you look at Max’s team is the reigning Brownlow medallist (and Dangergawn runner up) Nat Fyfe. On his day could go off for 150, and so to lose him to a hamstring for the next few weeks could make points hard to come by. Anything can happen in this league, but losing your best player is never easy to cover in a draft league.
And then there was one. Coming into this round, only the 2 teams from New Zealand were undefeated, and now with Nelson’s loss Greg stands alone. Pre-season both Kiwi teams were tipped to be fighting to make it to the finals, but Greg is making short work of all opponents so far, and so this team is one we need to be wary of. A test will come now with Stewart out for the short to mid-term, and so we need to see how Greg looks to cover that. If Berry jumping in with a ton is anything to go by, I’m sure he will find the depth to cover this set back.
Jaye’s youth are starting to shine. While this young team can’t be expected to win much, this week we saw a glimpse of their future – and I want in on some of these players. Caleb Serong made his AFL debut and didn’t look out of place. Hayden Young played his best game of his 3 to date, looking every bit the high draft pick he was (#3 in our draft, #7 in AFL draft). With multiple under 20’s to return (Duursma and Georgiades among them), some experience into these legs could make some stiff competition sooner than we’d like.
First win of the year a team effort. While pages could be written just expressing my shock at Michael Gibbons getting the top score in this match, I’m more impressed by the overall team effort that got this win. 7 scores above 80 vs 4 from Jordan (with 80’s effectively worth a ton in previous years) set up this win, which went right down to the final game Sunday evening. While it still wasn’t a huge team score, the list is young enough that they could each get 10 points better throughout the year, that would be a very formidable opponent.
Are fantasy premiership hangovers a thing? I know there’s much debate in the actual sports community about the drive being missing following success (like being asked of Richmond now), but can that happen when your players don’t know they’ve had said success? While Dixon tried hard, and Gawn did Gawn things, there were a lot of passengers that Jordan will have to question if they actually want to play. Obviously Zach Merrett doesn’t, but the rest of the list is going to have to have a good hard look at itself this week before their match with the team they beat in the prelim final last year.