Jimmy Bartel: Deck of Dream Team 2011

Name: Jimmy Bartel
Club: Geelong
Position: Midfielder
Bye Rounds: 6 (Multi bye) & 22
2010 Average: 105.4
2010 Games Played: 21
Predicted Average: 112

Why should I pick him? Why shouldn’t you pick him? That is the question! oh, that is the next question, you would think I would have realised that by player 52 in the deck of DT. Anyway, there are so many reasons to select Jim Bob as a premium mid this year. Firstly, he is the ever reliable Jimmy, barely misses a game (2 in the last three years), he tackles heaps, loves junk time to boost an already awesome score (occasionally saving a bad one), he is consistent (dropped under 90 only 3 times last year), can pump out huge scores (4 scores over 130 last year) all this and he has been playing 3rd, even 4th fiddle. What if their new coach hasn’t forgotten that Jimmy Bartel is a Brownlow Medalist and re instates him to the place he won it…. predominately in the midfield. The last couple of years, Jimmy has been thrown around like a piece of rubbish, always in the shadows of Gazza and Selwood. Bomber Thompson even played him as a tagger at times last year which is a complete joke and waste of talent. The positive thing is that two of those three are gone, and the remaining one will cop the hard tag 90% of the time, leaving Jimmy racking up huge possessions and scores.  A couple of years ago Bartel started to develop a reputation for a lock as captain when Ablett was out injured. In 2008, Gazza was missing in round 17 and 18 when Jimmy pushed out scores of 144 and 147. Could the be a sign for post Ablett potential?

Why shouldn’t I pick him? Over the years Jimmy has had mixed results against hard tags. When I have seen Jimmy fail DTwise against a tag, the Cats have usually been up by heaps anyway and Jimmy’s efforts/ DT scores often reflected a lack of need to break the tag. The Cats will rely on him a lot more this year however and he will be forced to break it (when it occurs). Jimmy has a small history of letting coaches down as captain. In the last two years he has scored a below par 60 when all indicators were that he was going to smash it and a definite captain option.

Deck of DT Rating. Ace – Jimmy is the forgotten man of DT this year. Keep a very close eye on his pre season because if Scott is going to unleash him back into the middle consistently, and allow him to finish quarters across half back, he will smash his personal best and reinstate himself in the handful of true elite DTers.

This is the final Deck of Dream Team entry for 2011. Thanks heaps for reading and get excited, because tomorrow we get to start making our teams for the new season! Make sure dreamteamtalk.com is where you head to after logging into your new team!