Defenders:
Premiums: Really only running with Ryan right now. Don’t see him having any regression in his game from last year and provides a VC/C option, with an insane ceiling.
Mid-pricers: McKercher clearly has all the abilities to be a premium by seasons end and I’m hoping to skip the queue by owning him early, but that’ll depend on what pre-season brings. Mills and his ownership kind of force my hand in this here. Missing the boat on a mid-pricer feels worse than starting Ryan over Sheezel for me, so thats the reasoning there. Sinn has been in the conversation for a few years now to really work his game into a SupeCoach friendly role, so hoping that pre-season will show that he has that ability with Houston making the move interstate.
Rookies: Largely interchangeable at this stage, just looking to grab those with high ownership and make more selected calls as pre-season ramps up an debuts get announced.
Midfielders:
Premiums: Opted to go deep here, probably too deep while typing this but this is how it stands. Serong has a good rapport with myself after last year, so he gets the nod for his consistency (sixteen tons last year, low of 84) while Cripps, coming off a second Brownlow, made his way in due to providing a little bit of P.O.D for others around his price (Brayshaw/Sinclair). Gulden, Dawson and Rozee all have around 50K value in my mind, while Oliver is the great unknown but like Mills, his weight of ownership (49%), makes me feel better about the call.
Midpricers: Just Peatling for the moment, unsure on it to be honest but word is he’s been in good shape this pre-season so that the reasoning for now.
Rookies: Similar to the backline, it’ll come down to who gets the nod round 1. There’s some money on the bench here which could be cut easily to move D2 into a premium. (Feeling McKercher to Sicily)
Rucks:
Premiums (kind of?): TDK seems tipped to really break into that top echelon of ruckman in 2025 and his numbers in 2024 are definitely in the right direction for that to happen. 31% ownership puts him behind just Xerri so clearly plenty of coaches are thinking the same thing. Jackson wasn’t in calculations until it was reported Darcy would miss the early stages, so I’m comfortable starting him. Even with some up and down scoring in 2024, he did finish as the sixth best average and fifth most points scored for forwards, with no reason to not swing him down there later in the season.
Rookies: Boyd for the moment but it’ll be a cheap swingman unless a rookie rucks gets a round 1 call up to make some quick cash.
Forwards:
Mid-pricers: Hate this setup, losing sleep over it. Will probably cave and start with one of Horne-Francis/Rankine but I can’t help but feel theres value in most of these guys, which obviously their ownership indicates. Over 60% for Macrae, Smith and Daniel, while Parker, with his experience, should be able to fit into, and score well even with a 50/50 split, in Norths lineup. Lynch and Powell-Pepper come with experience and have money to make after injury riddled years, but currently toying with some of the West Coast mid-season picks here too.
Rookies: Once again, the popular ones but interchangeable when the time comes.
Flex: Flynn for now, like the use of a ruckman here to cover that short position if theres an early season injury. Tipping he gets the #1 ruck role out West if his body is right in a split with Williams.
Final thoughts: Plenty of work to go and movement to come as we filter through debuts, injury updates and factoring in R0 and byes (which I haven’t fully committed too just yet). Obviously missing some of the big ones in Bont, Xerri, Butters, Sheezel, Flanders etc means missing the boat and realistically, I’ll cave and start someone of that nature. I feel I’ve got enough VC/C options early, but no real fallback, set and forget captains if the VC fails, which may haunt me enough to start someone like a Xerri.
8.3K left, projected 1822.
Feel free to leave some thoughts and comments down below!
Same as last year, got some leagues going so feel free to join! Any experience level welcome.
Average@SCT1 – 646850 (20 team league)
Average@SCT2 – 954874 (20 team league)
Average@SCT3 – 543715 (10 team league)
My first post for the 2025 season!
I like the structure of your side, it is very close to my current structure.
I have one premium in defence, 3 mid pricers and then rookies.
Oliver is also my current M6, I do have Xerri as R1 but am thinking about TDK if Pittonet is not selected:
Macrae is also my M1, I am not starting JHF or Rankine because there is so much value in players in the 200-400k range.
Good luck in 2025.
Love Cripps (obviously), but he’s not worth nearly $600k and you’ll be able to get him much cheaper as a fallen premium later as he does have a low score in him.
Nice, Dane. That FWD line is somehow iron clad but not a budget buster. Love it.
Neither of JHF or Rankine could be a good move. Let the dust settle, dodge the variance early. I see both as Top 6 walk ups but they’ll be available all year I suppose.
Ryan interesting. Love to own him and unparalleled when he cooks. Just a matter of, like you said, whether Freo retool their 2024 system or switch it up.
Don’t think you’ll need Flynn though, habib.