Since it’s the last one of these for the season, I thought I’d do a bit of a Movers & Shakers/Rare Gems mashup this week: highlighting uncommon but successful starting selections from the Round 1, and contrasting them with some more common but less successful ones.
LEGEND: Player Name (Other Position) (Club, Starting Price, Current Price, Average, Games Played In 2021, Round 1 Ownership)
Defenders
Changkuoth Jiath (HAW, $266,500, $406,300, 84, 16, 4.4%)
His season may have ended prematurely, but his extremely SuperCoach-friendly inteceptor/halfback distributor role meant it was great fun for us while it lasted. Gave us points and made us cash – what more could you want from a cow-like object?
Jordan Clark (MID) (GEE, $241,800, $282,500, 62, 8, 54%)
A very popular pre-season pick as a potential cow-like object, but never really going, managing just the 8 games at an average of 62 this season.
MIDFIELDERS
Darcy Parish (ESS, $465,800, $544,400, 116, 21, 1%)
What a breakout he’s had this year – and clearly not one that most of us saw coming, given his low Round 1 ownership. Well done to the one percent of coaches who started him – and to those who jumped on early once he moved into the midfield in Round 6 or 7.
Matt Rowell (GCS, $495,100, $350,600, 62, 11, 48%)
I tossed up between putting Cripps, Neale, and Rowell in this spot. All three had injury issues this season which prevented them from playing to their potential. But at a similar starting price to Parish, it’s probably Rowell that makes for the best comparison. After an incredible first few games last year, he seemed like such a sure bet at the start of this year. Lesson for the future: just because a player seems like a sure bet, doesn’t mean they actually are a sure bet.
RUCKS
Sean Darcy (FRE, $420,100, $648,800, 121, 20, 0.1%)
The 23-year-old ruckman was never going to find himself in too many teams at the start of the year, given that he missed Round 1, but he’s enjoyed an amazing breakout season since he got back into the side the following week.
Max Gawn (MEL, $751,400, $565,300, 119, 21, 43.5%)
Still one of the game’s top rucks, but coaches getting more than 20 points per week less than what they paid for isn’t ideal. Paying up probably seemed worth it in the first half of the season, but with Luke Jackson taking on more and more of the Demons’ ruck duties, Gawn has only had two captaincy-worthy scores since his bye.
FORWARDS
Nick Hind (ESS, $331,000, $442,100, 93, 21, 1.7%)
Much like with Jiath, the lesson here is pretty simple: halfback distributors rack up SuperCoach points. With Adam Saad having crossed to Carlton in the off-season, someone at Essendon was always going to step up and fill that void.
Tom Phillips (MID) (HAW, $402,600, $344,100, 70, 21, 29.8%)
Another one who seemed like a pretty safe bet, but didn’t deliver. With an average of 13.5 effective disposals per game this year, he just hasn’t found enough of the ball for him to score the way we hoped he would.
Who was the player that got away from you this season? And who was your worst starting pick? Let us know in the comments below!
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Darcy def the one that got away…started Draper !!
Worst starting pick…..Cripps. Could there possibly be anyone else ???
Hall, Rich, Thomas , Dale, Cumming, McDonald would have all been good picks. Heppell as well, although more popular
Stefan Martin, plan was to play him until the byes then turn him into Grundy.
Traded him for less than I paid for him.