Rare Gems – Round 12

Player Name (Club, Price, Ownership, Average, Bye round)

DEFENDERS

Harris Andrews (BRL, $455,000, 1.7 %, 90.6, 13)
Averaging 94 if you take out an injury-affected 60 from round 5, the young Lion has been putting together an excellent season so far in 2019. Like most key-position players, his scoring can be a little bit up-and-down, but Andrews does more than enough in his good games to outweigh the bad. Strongly consider if you have any remaining backline spots left after round 13.

Wayne Milera (ADE, $411,400, 0.7 %, 86.3, 14)
Touted by many as a potential breakout candidate this year, Milera didn’t disappoint over the opening month, posting scores of 82, 105, 109, and 86. Unfortunately, that all came to a grinding halt with an injury-affected 41 in round 5. But now he’s back, and looks to have picked up right where he left off. He shares a bye round with the injured Lachie Whitfield, and is over $150K cheaper. With viable downgrade targets hard to come by at the moment, creative coaches could kill two birds with one stone here: replace a long-term injured player, and free up significant cash.

MIDFIELDERS

Dayne Zorko (BRL, $539,800, 2.5 %, 99.1, 13)
After a slow start to the year, averaging just 88 over the first 6 rounds, Zorko has since averaged 113. He’s still as vulnerable to a tag as ever, but so long as that’s the exception rather than the rule, he could offer tremendous value at this price.

Luke Parker (SYD, $608,900, 1.6 %, 110.8, 13)
Since 2014, Parker’s scoring has gone good year (108.5), bad year (99.7), good year (111.9), bad year (99.3)… needless to say, many people went into last year assuming it was going to be one of his good ones. For various reasons, that didn’t eventuate, with Parker posting a 2018 average of 103.5. But it looks like he might have just been skipping a year, as he’s now averaging 110.8 this season! His worst score for the year is an 86 in round 1, and with his last four scores being 114, 145, 135, and another 135, he’s getting harder and harder to ignore.

Ben Cunnington (NTH, $565,000, 2.8 %, 113.3, 14)
Is he the real deal? For historical reasons, I’m still not convinced, but an increasing number of SCTers are. Personally, a near-28-year-old who has never averaged over 96 keeping up an average like this for a whole season seems unlikely. But I can understand why some people are starting look beyond that. It’s not a move I am prepared to endorse, but I wish the best of luck to anyone who is gutsy enough to try it.

RUCKS

Honourable mention: Rory Lobb (FWD) (FRE, $483,600, 5.7 %, 91.5, 12)
At 5.7 percent ownership, Lobb misses the usual Rare Gems cutoff of 3 percent, but I’ll give him an honourable mention this week anyway. With Sandilands sidelined, and Sean Darcy continuing to be out of favour, Lobb has become Fremantle’s no. 1 ruck this year. Averaging just under 92, he’s the pick of the bunch amongst ruck/fwd swing options this season, and with ROB unlikely to be around for much longer, those who want to continue having ruck cover would do well to consider him. A good F6/7, perhaps?

FORWARDS

Tom Hawkins (GEE, $507,800, 2.5 %, 97.8, 13)
First featured a month ago, Hawkins has earned the rare distinction of a repeat Rare Gems showing. There’s not much to say here, really. In fact, Chillo has already summed it up pretty well this week: Geelong is currently the best team in the competition. As long as they continue to be the best team, Hawkins will kick plenty of goals. And as long as he kicks plenty of goals, he’ll score well in SuperCoach.

Jack Ziebell (NTH, $467,500, 2.2 %, 85.2, 14)
Much of Ziebell’s SuperCoach fortune depends on where he plays: if he plays in the midfield, he can score as well as any forward; if he plays forward… he scores like a forward. Keep an eye on what new coach Rhyce Shaw does with him over the next couple of weeks. If it looks like he’ll be playing predominantly midfield, he could be worth a look.

Do you have any of these rare gems in your team? Boast about it in the comments below!

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