AHOY there, me hearties. I’m back to help you select your AFL Fantasy captain for round three.
After a very mixed round of Fantasy numbers from our premium players, it’s time to take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly scorers from last week to see if they will continue their poor form or turn it around this week.
The good and the great
Who would have thought, but Nathan Jones [MID, $487,475] is currently the highest averaging player in the competition with 138 points per game. Jones only scored over 100 points once last year but is certainly on fire at the moment. He plays Greater Western Sydney this week and scored 80 and 96 against them in 2013, but still sits a long way out of my top five.
Steve Johnson [MID, $648,278] top scored for the round last week with a huge 153 points and is proving why he started the year as the most expensive player in the competition. He plays Collingwood this week and has averaged 114 against them in his last five games (although he didn't come up against them in 2013).
Johnson is currently averaging 137 points and will go head to head this week against Collingwood’s captain Scott Pendlebury [MID, $625,253] who scored 126 and 129 in his last two games at the MCG.
Pendlebury had 152 points last week against the Swans and scored 127 points against Geelong last year. To prove that wasn’t a fluke, he posted scores of 117, 133 and 131 against the Cats prior to that. He’s a reliable superstar who ticks all the boxes for selecting a Fantasy captain this week.
On Sunday night, Jobe Watson [MID, $574,619] meets Carlton and could potentially be tagged by the one and only, ‘Mr. Ed’ Curnow. Mr. Ed tagged Trent Cotchin last week to keep him to just 79 points and despite going to Stanton in their most recently game, Watson has been too damaging not to be tagged by Curnow this week.
Watson scored 104 and 77 against Carlton last year and has averaged 137 in his opening two games. Will his amazing run of form end this weekend? Mr. Ed says ‘yes’.
Despite being flogged by West Coast to the tune of 93 points last week, Melbourne still managed to have six players score over 110 points.
This might point the way to the Eagles' opponent for round three, St Kilda, scoring quite heavily in Fantasy-land. Nick Riewoldt [FWD, $585,652] gets his chance at Patersons Stadium to add to his average of 137 points this season after dominating the Giants last week for 148 points.
Riewoldt only has previous scores of 89, 103 and 85 against West Coast, but still should keep his Fantasy form rolling on Saturday night.
The forgotten man in Fantasy this year has to be Kane Cornes [MID, $597,218]. He has a been Fantasy star for many years, and averaged 105 back in 2006 when plenty of footy fans were in nappies.
Although he only had scores of 106 and 60 in his last two games against the Kangaroos, Cornes is averaging 132 points this year after 136 points in the Showdown and certainly should be on your radar again in round three.
The bad and the ugly
Premium players + poor scores = a mad pirate.
I get so mad, I bruise my fingertips as I type numbers of failure as my Twitter feed gets full of angry followers. Who can blame them after pick two of my top five captains last week, Scott Selwood [MID, $554,259] scored just 48 points, his lowest score since 2010. Arrgggghhh!
There is some light at the end of the tunnel for those who haven’t already traded Selwood in anger - he did score 124 points against St Kilda last year and should bounce back this week.
His teammate Dean Cox [RUC, $504,850] had his worst Fantasy score of 51 points in his last 88 games against Melbourne last week. I was that mad that I counted each one of them.
Big Cox should bounce back this week after Shane Mumford scored 132 points last week against Cox’s opponent for this week, Tom Hickey. Cox scored 102, 118 and 119 in his last three games against St Kilda and should easily double his score from last week.
My ‘go to’ boys of old in Dane Swan [MID, $589,063] and Gary Ablett [MID, $614,860] also had below par scores.
Dane Swan just doesn’t look to be the Fantasy player he has been in previous years, spending the majority of his time playing up forward. He’ll come back to form at some point but he only managed 68 points last week and must be relinquished of captaincy duties until we get some of the ‘piggish’ scores that we have seen in the past.
Ablett was tagged by the dangerous Ryan Crowley and limited to just 80 points. I did warn you last week about this. Ablett plays the Brisbane Lions this week at Metricon Stadium, a ground he has scored over 100 at 11 times in his last 12 games there.
In his last three games against the Lions, Gaz has been tagged by Andrew Raines but still had scores of 105, 143 and 97. But… Raines will probably not play this week (check Thursday night teams) meaning that Ablett will dominate like his ex-teammate Steve Johnson did last week.
Just quickly…
Here are few more of the popular players that have been researched. If I have missed your favourite, message me on Twitter (@CalvinDT) and I’ll do my best to cover them next week.
Callan Ward [MID, $521,160] v Melbourne at Spotless Stadium: Ward scored 138 points against Melbourne last year and after West Coast had six players over 100 points last week, he should feature in the top scorers again.
Dayne Beams [MID, $521,853] v Geelong at the MCG: Beams had a solid 113 as my number one captaincy option last week and has scored 137, 100 and 129 against Geelong in his last three games despite not playing against them in 2013. He’s a just a Fantasy gun!
Joel Selwood [MID, $584,852] v Collingwood at the MCG: watch out for Brent Macaffer who went to Kieren Jack last week and held him to only 60 points! He tagged Selwood last year and held him to just 69 points. Until then Selwood's record against Collingwood has been awesome but he must be selected with caution this week.
Leigh Montagna [MID, $595,139] v West Coast at Patersons Stadium: Montagna scored 110 last week against GWS and had 113 against West Coast last year. Throughout his career he has had massive scores of 166, 144 and 130 against the Eagles and I think he will be great again.
Trent Cotchin [MID, $590,449] v Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium: Despite a promising start last week, Cotchin was tagged out of the game for his 79 points and will face off against another quality tagger this week in Mitch Wallis. The dangerous Wallis held Daniel Wells to just 54 points last week and Cotchin might be in for a long day once again.
Tom Rockliff [MID, $589,063] v Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium: Rockliff scored 96 points in round one after shutting Sam Mitchell out of the game. He has previous scores of 86 and 93 against the Gold Coast last year, but we have much better options for round three and they are listed below.