Chook’s Rooks – Partial Lock-out

For better or for worse, right? We’re pretty much married to our Greater Western Sydney rookies now, making this a bit of an awkward Chook’s Rooks, wedged into a week where our Giants are locked but before we get to see which other rooks have landed a gig in their respective round-one teams. It’ll have to be brief then, which is kinda lucky given I’m also in the midst of writing school reports, my basketball column for our local paper and my debut piece for the Ass Coach – not a sleazy mag for personal trainers, but the subscription service that adds all the bells and whistles to AFL Dream Team. Anyway…

Locked in (or out) last week

Overall, our GWS rookies made a pretty spectacular start to their Dream Team careers, with one hundred, three 90s and a further five players with 70 or more. Mid-forward Adam Kennedy was the highest scorer, registering 116 points from a healthy kick-handball ratio of 17-11 and, importantly, 11 marks. Pre-lockout, Kennedy had been vying for my eighth midfield spot with James McDonald and got the nod based on his dual-position status, but you wouldn’t have been unhappy with the old farmer, who knocked out a near-ton with 98. Unfortunately, he also nearly knocked out popular mid-pricer Luke Parker with a high hit, breaking the Swan youngsters jaw and drawing a two-week penalty from the tribunal. If your major pre-lockout decision was McDonald or Stephen Coniglio, then the latter, at about $70k more, looked to be the wrong choice based on the Sydney game, scoring almost half as much as the former. I wouldn’t write Coniglio off yet, though, as he played with plenty of poise, suggesting strong job security and, surely, some solid scores in the near future.

Solid scores is what we can also expect from fellow midfielder Dyl Shiel, although not in the first match given his lack of match preparation. He started brilliantly, picking up 20 points in the first 18 minutes, but trailed off before being stranded on 36 points when handed the red vest. Taking his place on the field was Calvin’s correct guess at the starting sub, Dom Tyson, whose vest-affected score of 25 – combined with his high price of $170k – would’ve seen him drop a few dollars if the prices changed after just one round. Luckily for owners of the high draft pick, that 25 will only count towards one price fluctuation and, given the rotation policy in place at Blacktown, Tyson should get the chance to share the vest around. And Tyson wasn’t the lowest scorer on the ground on Saturday night. As forecast, Sydney rookie and GWS discard Harry Cunningham copped the vest for the Swans, restricting him to a 19-point cameo.

In the ruck, Jon Giles refused to be bullied by Sydney behemoth Shane Mumford and finished fast to record 77 DTs. It was a good enough result to give me the confidence to forge ahead with the much-discussed one premium/three rookie ruck structure, assuming that at least two of Orren Stephenson, Jarrad Redden and Billy Longer are named tomorrow night. The big-bodied ruckman are the ones that’ll worry Giles the most (even see him sidelined some weeks, I reckon, with Sheedy opting for Brogan instead), so a decent score against Mumford hints to some solid output against some of the less brawny big blokes.

Tommy Bugg justified his selection as the most popular rookie-priced defender in Dream Team with a first-up 97, forcing a lot of coaches to consider picking a non-starter this week to get their grubby hands on his score if they picked him as an emergency. Nathan Bock looks to be the best option, but only if you were totally sold on the former Adelaide backman’s potential before Bugg went ballistic. I’m in the Bugg emergency camp, but will be picking seven on-field backs who are playing this week and be happy enough that Bugg’s century will count towards his first price rise down the track. I’m far less happy that, despite having Bugg cemented in my D7 spot all pre-season, I switched him to the bench just 90 seconds before lock-out and, inexplicably, put teammate Jacob Townsend on in his place, hoping for a differential to the masses, I guess. Townsend had only just joined my team in place of Sam Darley after I failed to confirm whether Darley had hurt himself in the Giants’ reserves game that afternoon. (You’re in as soon as you’re on the verge of your third game, Sam, I promise). Anyway, it didn’t look to be a terrible move about two minutes before half-time when hard-nut Townsend led Bugg 34-32, but then Townsend was somehow penalised with a free kick against as Kieren Jack drove his knee into his head, leaving him trailing Bugg 31-32 and with a gash above his temple. Bugg went on, of course, to record 65 points in the second half, including a monster third term, while Townsend managed to add only eight to his total. I’m not devastated with the Townsend pick, though, as it looks like they’ll get a few games into the boy and his first half showed his scoring won’t always be so depressing. Bugg, if he can avoid full-body cramps in the future, looks to be a beauty!

This week

Well, let’s see what happens at the selection tables of the 16 AFL clubs yet to get their seasons underway. The absence of Melbourne midfielder James Magner, Western Bulldogs pair Clay Smith (mid) and Tory Dickson (fwd), and Richmond defenders Brandon Ellis and Steven Morris from their respective VFL affiliates bodes well for their chances of making AFL debuts in round one. We’ll know for sure tomorrow if Magner has recovered sufficiently from his finger injury to take his place in the Demons team, while the Eliis-Morris news will arrive as smartly as this afternoon. Smith and Dickson gets a lot trickier, as the Bulldogs don’t play until Sunday, meaning we won’t have their final teams until shortly before lockout on Friday. In fact, Sunday’s games include a few rookies we’d like some guarantees about that, unfortunately, we might not receive. Darren Pfeiffer (mid-fwd) and Chad Wingard (mid) may or may not be in the Port Adelaide team that takes on St Kilda on Sunday, while Koby Stevens (mid) and Gerrick Weedon (fwd) are in the hunt at West Coast given its injury toll. A few other names to look out for on teamsheets tomorrow are Aaron Hall (Gold Coast forward), Lachie Neale (Fremantle mid), Billie Smedts (Geelong def-fwd), Cam Guthrie (Geelong def), Simon Hogan (Geelong mid), Marty Clarke and Peter Yagmoor (Collingwood backs), Jackson Paine (Collingwood def-fwd), Tom Ledger (St Kilda mid), and Jamie Cripps (St Kilda forward), but you won’t need more than a few of these blokes if you loaded up on Giants last week.

Follow on twitter: @ChookDT