Take a bow Stephen Coniglio! The highest individual score of the year to date will be hard to beat. There are a few players at the moment in rare form that will aim for huge scores this week, but with potential captain options of Nat Fyfe and Jack Macrae unavailable and only six games to choose from, it makes it all that little bit harder this week.
Richmond v Geelong
(Friday – 7:50pm @ MCG)
A genuine Friday night blockbuster (first since round 1) with a few solid options for VC. The Tigers will rely on Dustin Martin to help win the midfield battle, but it will be Bachar Houli who will top the SC scoring for them. Houli is in career best SC form averaging 127.7 over the last three weeks and will be hard to top. The Cats are spoilt for choices, but it will likely be Mitch Duncan or Patrick Dangerfield fighting against Houli for top scorer.
Best choice: Bachar Houli
Carlton v Brisbane
(Saturday 1:45pm @ Marvel)
Few weeks ago, this would have been a tough choice between two of the best players in the comp in Lachie Neale and Patrick Cripps, but the latter is down on form. Neale is a great choice for VC this week, his stats speak for themselves. The only possible spanner in the works would be if he gets the tough Ed Curnow tag, but that could go to Lions skipper Dayne Zorko. Zorko, like Neale, is in great form and both average 140+ against the Blues in their last 3 games against them.
Best choice: Lachie Neale
Gold Coast v North Melbourne
(Saturday 4:35pm @ Metricon)
With only six games this weekend, it’s a shame these two sides are playing against each other for us coaches. Ben Cunnington is a genuine top 10 midfielder chance this year and Todd Goldstein could score well, but you’d be better off avoiding players from this match.
Best choice: Ben Cunnington
Adelaide v GWS
(Saturday 7:35pm @ AO)
This promises to be a highly entertaining game with plenty of eye-catching stars set to shine. The Crows will be hoping star Rory Sloane is fit and firing to help out Brad and Matt Crouch, but I’m banking on the red-hot Josh Kelly to continue his recent form and outscoring the Crows and Giants stars, including teammate Stephen Coniglio, fresh off his 207 last round.
Best choice: Josh Kelly
Sydney v West Coast
(Sunday 3:2pm @ SCG)
All fans would love a repeat of the tight battles from over a decade ago between these rivals, and some coaches in need of POD captaincy choice could seek out two of the best scoring defenders in the game. Both Shannon Hurn and Jake Lloyd are more than capable of an elite score this weekend, and despite better options elsewhere, they present a tempting POD captaincy selection.
Best choice: Jake Lloyd
Collingwood v Melbourne
(Monday 3:20pm @ MCG)
SC royalty Brodie Grundy and Max Gawn will square off on the traditional Queens Bday blockbuster. Despite them dominating all in their path, when the two square off against each other, neither of them reaches the lofty heights expected and needed to warrant the captaincy. Grundy and Gawn average 91.3 and 91.8 respectively in the last 4 games they have played against each other going back to the start of 2016. Warning signs are there to avoid the pair, but with them both averaging 127+ in 2019 and 136+ over the last 5 rounds, they would be extremely hard to pass up.
Best choice: Max Gawn
Hot Sauce’s Top Picks
- Josh Kelly
- Lachie Neale
- Max Gawn
- Brodie Grundy
- Dayne Zorko
Wildcard: Jordan DeGoey
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Agreed – Lachie Neale in to Josh Kelly for me.
Why is Hurn on the list?
He’s that good!
My bad
Kelly of the Tim variety into Kelly of the Josh variety for me this week.
My plan of Grundy into Gawn or Gawn into Grundy will have to be parked for the next two weeks and then again in round 21.
I’ve got the VC on Tim Kelly too.
T Kelly in P Cripps for me.
VC Kelly or Danger, though I back Cripps to bounce back not sure I trust him with the C
Cunnington into J. Kelly for me.
Danger into Cunnington for me, I expect Cunners to go huge with some of the scores GC has given up to midfielders this year! For example:
vs Dogs:
Libba 150
Macrae 139
Bont 124
vs Carlton:
Cripps 169
Walsh 123
Murphy 114
vs Adelaide
no big scores but 5 mids hit the ton
vs Brisbane
Neale 142
Robinson 125
vs WC
Gaff 154
Shuey 133
Yeo 132
vs Melbourne
Oliver 175
vs Geelong
Kelly 140
Atkins 115 (not a huge score but by far his best for the season)
vs GWS
Coniglio 207
Kelly 138
Hopper 125
De Boer 116
Yep. Right on, Ben.
What GD said … if you have the sly centurion 🙂
I honestly can’t see the attraction to Cunnington.
Ok he may go huge v GC but…NOTHING in his history shows he will sustain this output.
Every year Midfielders go through purple patches, and coaches jump on because they ” have a great draw/ bye ” or “are in career best form”
This time last year Ed Curnow , Ollie Wines and Bryce Gibbs were all approaching $600K and looking the goods.
A whole lot of folks jumped on, thinking these were the hottest mids going around. By round 17/18 all three had bombed badly.
For those who have already jumped on Cunnington, I hope I’m wrong. For those that have yet to make the trade, you have been warned !
Hear, Hear.
Mentioned the same to Gunboat earlier in the week regarding Cunnington.
Loves to handball, usually records low TOG, tackles are down this year but disposals are at an all-time high but is a contested beast. I don’t see him increasing or maintaining a disposal avg of 29 to 30 and will likely revert back to his 22-26 range.
I’d love to be proven wrong but there is only 1 way Cunnington’s SC avg is going for the 2nd half of the season and that is down but what to extent is the big question.
It’s a gamble. True. But an average of 113 mid season is not to be sneezed at. Players develop and so do teams. If a player can average X for half a season, then there’s nothing to say they can’t average X for another half season.
Adam….’there’s only one way Cunningtons average is going and that is down’. Based on what? A player who consistently scores well will just begin to score poorly for no apparent reason??
Look at Heeney, Oliver, Cripps for example. Some of the most selected players on SC. Their scores have been erratic and unreliable to say the least. Yet most coaches still have them in their teams.
Reliability is in the eye of the beholder.
J Kelly into Gawn?
I think I’m right in saying neither Gawn nor Grundy have tonned up in their last 3 encounters. I had a look this morning. Tread carefully mate!
Danger into
TU: Neale (hoping Zorko gets Curnow’d), or
TD: Josh Kelly
Thanks all 🙂
Surely Neale is the tag target now?
That’s if at all Curnow does tag, he’s named at FF this week.
Allsaints.
I don’t have Neale or J Kelly yet.
If I had both, F#*k Danger ,I would be going Neale into J Kelly for sure.
So just to confirm does the captain loophole work in the bye rounds just the same as any other week? The information on SC website for the bye rounds is confusing at best.
Had the VC on Danger, have to bank that score if I can