Deck of Dream Team 2012: Jack Grimes

Name: Jack Grimes
Club: Melbourne Demons
Position: Defender
Assistant Coach 2012 Price: $329,400
Bye Round: 12
2011 Average: 74
2011 Games Played: 6
Predicted Average: 85

Why shouldn’t I pick him?

I’m going to start with the negatives because it was the first thing you thought when you clicked on this article! Injuries.

Jack Grimes is probably on a lot of coaches’ never again list after the injuries he has sustained over his four year career. A groin in his first year (1 game), a hip in his second year (11 games), a hamstring injury in his third year (14 games) and then his broken foot in his fourth year (6 games). So that injury history isn’t pretty. There were so many people saying “I told you so” last year when he broke his foot and fools like me selected him. So, yes… he is massively injury prone, but the broken foot was a ‘freak’ injury – hopefully he is over his soft tissue stuff.

Why should I pick him?

There is no doubt that Jack Grimes has heaps of fantasy potential. In his second season, he averaged a massive 89 points per game and back that up in 2010 with an 81.9 average. Last season he broke his foot against Adelaide in Round 7 early in the game while on only 6 points. Prior to that his first 6 scores consisted of scores of 104, 86, 62, 99 and 86. I, like many others, was pumped with his start and for his price, was a great pick.

So anyway, Grimesy has Dream Team written all over him. He scored 109 in his second game ever and is consistently racks up 20+ possessions each game. With the byes as they are this year – sharing with Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, Geelong and Sydney – there is merit in going with Grimes as most of the ‘big guns’ share the Round 13 bye. A big bonus when using the Assistant Coach Team Picker is scrolling down to his name and seeing him there with other dudes who averaged 66 last season. With his nice little 10% discount, we can see that there is value there on top of his already modest average from last season that was cut by that 6 points.

Grimes is what we would call Melbourne’s ‘quarter-back’. He is responsible for most of the clearances out of the back-50 for the Dees and for what has been great for us Dream Team coaches, he often takes kickouts and kicks them to himself. Boom! Easy +3’s baby! We all know this is what he is about and he’ll be definitely one of the highest possession defenders in the competition, providing he stays fit.

He is doing all of the pre-season training from all reports and Jade Rawlings (backline coach) said this: “I’ve been very pleased with Jack’s progress. He has genuine presence among the backline group and has had a good pre-Christmas.” That’s gotta be positive?!

Deck of DT Rating. QUEEN – There is the obvious injury risk with picking Jack Grimes. He hasn’t played more than 14 games in a season in his 4 years at AFL level, but with the risk in picking him is the reward. Being priced at an average of 66 is well below his capabilities, and in reality, well below what he will average in 2012. An average of anything over 80 will be a win in picking him (if he stays fit), but I’m banking on Grimesy averaging up towards the high 80s and hope that others are scared off by his injury history.

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