Syringe has asked for a poll in answer to what may be a season defining question: “to Rowell or not to Rowell?”. I personally think, and doubt it’s subject to much dispute, that had Rowell played out 2020 he would have been a genuine Brownlow chance, the Suns would have played finals and he’d have finish as a Top 8, or close, MID. You might think I’m embellishing, but go back and watch the Suns first 4 games in 2020 as I did the other day – the kid’s f*cking insane! Put it this way: by Round 3, as the site’s resident captaincy counsel, I was suggesting him as VC/C option (C’d him in R3 myself). From modest disposal counts, albeit highly efficient and often contesed, Rowell was pumping out 80, 171, 141 and 114 and playing a style deliciously conducive to SC – we were all loving it.
But, of course, he copped a dirty shoulder dislocation in Round 5 to stunt his, and the Suns, ascent. The question becomes how does that impact his return? Does he tackle as hard? Will he have managed minutes? What’s the chance of re-injury? By way of news, Rowell’s only just started to resume contact training but reportedly crushed all the non-contact pre-season training. With that in mind:
Loading ...The poll’s obviously binary, so feel free to get into why or why not you’re starting Rowell; price, re-injury, other options, etc.
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What do you mean? Neale only won the brownlow because Rowell decided he wanted to coach for a season.
This is such a hard one for me.
My heart says yes. The Kids a star already. Future of the game .. yadda yadda ya.
My head says “wait a minute” He’s played 4 games. Yes he has unlimited “potential” . I just think there’s so many unknowns.
With his huge ownership he really is, as important player as any in SC this year.
Start him and he plays every game and finishes top 10 Mid. You ( and half the comp) have a Midfield keeper for sub $500k. Huge advantage.
But……
If he starts slow what then?
Burn a trade and maybe $ as a correction?
Hold the faith hoping he returns to form ?
This has kept me up at night 😉
I’m honestly still undecided as to wether I will start him.
Its him or Walsh for my M 5 spot.
I’m not sure you could start both?
I predict best case they both finish somewhere between 8th and 12th best Midfielders. Fine to have one as M8 seasons end, but surely not both.
Walsh has hardly put a foot wrong, with talk of more inside mid time ,could be a “safer” option for only $48K more.
So what do think guys.
T/U Rowell.+$50K “everyone else is ”
T/D Walsh . “go against the grain”
¿porque no los dos?
Sorry Chillo
I just wanted to gage Walsh’s potential as another option.
All good! I’m rolling with Walsh and Rowell right now, expecting big things from both
Same.
Last year you’d be mad to start an all-value MID, but it’s genuinely feasible to start ALL of Cripps, Walsh, Taranto, Rowell (even Cerra).
I checked the supercoach rules and there isn’t anything to suggests that you can’t have Rowell and Walsh in your team so, you don’t have to worry about that anymore.
Every single question you ask yourself about Rowell can also be asked with equal relevance to just about every player in every squad. It could be anxiety, go and watch the ducks for a while.
I hear you Justin.
For me Super Coach is all about calculated risk.
I try to look at past stats ( draft pick / scoring history etc.. ) this give me a much clearer idea of what might occur.
Rowell has such a small sample size of games played, it is extremely difficult to predict what he might do?
In those 4 games..
He averaged 2 goals a game .
Does this make him a goal kicking midfielder?
Is that sustainable ?…. or is there still upside?
My point is we are so quick to jump on Rowell as a Midfield keeper, based on very little evidence.
Folks are looking at Walsh but here’s others around $550K that have so much more data. In my mind, they are just as likely to finish in the top 8/12 mids.
Take Andrew Brayshaw for instance.
The newest member of the Fremantle leadership group.He should increase his TOG further, and will play full time midfield this year.
Breaking out in 2020 he raised his average by 31 ppg to 101.3
1% ownership..
He loses his Forward DPP. why do we always forget about these guys ?
What he doesn’t lose, is the potential to get quite a bit better this year. With natural improvement and increased opportunity, I think he could push into the 1o8 /112 range.
Are we honestly expecting more than this from Rowell ?
Same thoughts for me Freo. Yep, over four games he was fantastic last year. …. 4 games …
He was and probably will be a CD favourite again … lets not forget that fact, as it is very real.
But, comes with risk … that shoulder will no doubt have a weakness … subject to a possibility of re-injury again … and the way he plays, if he continues to go in hard, it is a chance again.
Then, there is the Suns and their ability (the players around him) to aid in helping his scoring … if he is easily targeted by opposition defence taggers, he could be shut down more easily … and lets face it, the Suns won’t have too many other guys in that midfield that will be worth focussing on.
For me, if you start him at M5 – he’s not a stepping stone. It’s one trade you don’t want to or plan on having to make. So he has to be a keeper … just not sure he is. But again, as you say, this is what makes or breaks a SC season … it always comes with a large slice of luck as well as good research …
Good article GD for getting the discussion going!!
It’s a smart line if questioning FT. When you really get down to it, Rowell has never played a full length match of footy!
Not starting Rowell
Prefer Walsh and Cripps at similar price
Rowell’s training still being managed and Walsh and Cripps are flying preseason
Can’t have them all
The way I look at it is Cripps, Walsh and Rowell have so much potential at that price. I have all 3, with Rowell at M6 (Laird sitting in mids at the mo). It allows me to run deeper in both mids and defenders with risk mitigated by not having a sketchy mid pricer in my mids. I trust all those 3 to make worthwhile keepers over Hately, Green, Cunnington etc to be good enough points / cash generation wise.
Look I was planning for him to be a lock but the more I think about it the more I’m swinging away from it, There’s a lot of value around, and for only a little bit extra cash there are some really tasty options. Will probably switch my decision 100 times before the season starts. Great discussion point though GD
Rowel l is and will be a gun however spending that kind of money on a second year fit player is crazy no matter how good he is. Oh and he is coming off a full season injury as well. Also remember that teams know him and although probably not tagged work will be put into him to limit a little. Not for me this year.
Currently I feel like there’s too little data to make any solid scoring projections either way, and history suggests a 4 gamer is not a premium. I’m also concerned about him being managed both with TOG and missing weeks.
However, as a non-owner, I’m worried about his ceiling, and his ownership is so high (currently 54%), that I’m considering a defensive move to start him anyway.
Worth noting that all 4 of his completed games were at home.
Oliver (111), Fyfe (108) and Macrae (100) all produced stunning second seasons, so it’s not impossible, but those are three of the best we’ve seen in SC, and weren’t coming off injury.
Good topic and good discussion. I’m a firm no. As we are all mentioning it’s only 4 games of data to go off, fully get it he is a special talent.
I really try not to compare people or situations, Fyfe in his 2nd year was in a decent side by memory, the game has changed, ect, ect.
However we can compare players coming off shoulders. Fyfe did his in his 2nd year after going at an average of 108, following season 9 games at 94. I’m gonna say Fyfe and Rowell are of the same ilk which is a huge honour for Rowell as Fyfe is a freak. I want my premiums, or as many as I can to be bang on fitness wise. Even the ones I pay unders for, hence why you are probably paying unders.
It’s a no for me, as if you wouldn’t lay a shoulder into him when you get the chance as an opposition player. Also after a year of inflated scoring in some games, I’m not saying he didn’t earn his scores, but many players got larger scores than they normally would of last season, last season scores are very much not normal.
If not Rowell, does someone like, say, Serong have a chance of replicating Satan/Fyfe/Macrae’s 2nd year trajectory? Thoughts?
I like Serong GB but awkward starting price.
By all accounts Cerra is stand out in Freo midfield
At the moment I have Taranto over serong at 20,000 more
Thanks, Paul. Good point. Hopefully seeing them all play will clear things up.
As much as he is a joy to watch there are to many unknowns with Rowell for me…agree with most comments above for and against but it is the type of injury he has along with the likelihood of receiving hard tags that concerns me…also not convinced that he will be a top 10 Mid this year
Andrew McGrath is a very good player…one of many who I think will give you sleepless nights compared to Rowell, and should even improve on his 95 avge from last year, and is much the same price.
Bias…what bias ???
In at M5 atm we’ll see how he gots JLT looking to see if he’s lost any form of his tackling ability
“If in doubt, then start without!” Then after the second round, when he’s come out with back to back high tons, trade him in and lie on supercoach talk that you had him from the start, and jump on the bagging that will be piled on those that didn’t pick him as well. Then after round 4 trade him back out as his shoulder has popped out again and bag all the gullible sheep that jumped on the band-wagon and picked him just because everyone else did! 🙂
22 game season, full length games. Young player. Not sure. I’m leaving him out and have Cripps instead