Our last upgrades

As we all look to upgrade the last of our premiums into our Defender 7/Midfield 6/Forward 7 spots, I thought I would look into some good, unique, and hopefully slightly cheaper players that would hold your team strong when others around you are crumbling. I’ve especially looked for unique players that are flying under the radar slightly just because they might be averaging that couple of points less than the ‘must have premiums’. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful in getting your team exactly right.

Defenders:

Andrew Carrazzo

• Price: $384,400
• Season avg: 82
• % of teams owned by: 2.76%

This guy is a gun. Coming back from his injury that he sustained early in his round four match against Essendon, Carrazzo didn’t miss a beat, climbing to 118 in a best-on –ground display against the Eagles. If you take out that one point injury-affected score, he has a season average of 103, beaten only by Deledio of all the backline players. However, the best thing about this guy is his price, which will continue to plummet (thanks to his injured game) with a current break even of 136. Wait until after his round 14 game against the Hawks (whom he doesn’t average well against anyway) before jumping onboard at the bargain basement price of around 360k. Perfect upgrade for the likes of Hargrave/Clarke etc.

Jack Grimes

• Price: $405,200
• Season avg: 86
• % of teams owned by: 6.44%

He has battled injuries over his career, but go back a couple of years or so and he was one of the top defenders going around averaging close to 90. This season he started slowly, but in his last five games has an average of over 95, and has also been consistent, not going below 75 since round three. This is perhaps due to his recent move into a struggling midfield and acting as a dependable go-to man. You’d have to be brave to trade Grimes in, but as he really builds into a season for the first time you might begin to reap the rewards.

Midfielders:

Michael Barlow

• Price: $437,100
• Season avg. 90
• % of teams owned by: 4.69%

Before you look at his season average and think: no way is he going to be in my six premium midfielders, I urge you to take a closer look at his scores… and by that I mean his round one score of 52 and his round two score of 67, and perhaps jiggle the memory a bit and recall that he was the starting substitute in both those matches! Suddenly his season is looking a lot better, hey?! Now, in both those matches he came on early, once nearly half way through the third quarter and once at half time. If we multiply his scores by the time in which he was an active player in the match, he started the season with scores of 140 and 130 respectively! I know that he had fresh legs and all that, but still pretty impressive don’t you think? So if we take into account those new scores his season average turns into a much better 104, with 100+ scores in every match but three. (And one of those was a 99.) Still not quite a super premium, but certainly a very respectable sixth midfielder.

Josh P. Kennedy

• Price: $436,300
• Season avg: 103
• % of teams owned by: 9.26%

Got off to a ripping start to the season before starting to deteriorate slightly with a last five game average of 91. In that time he scored a 81 and a 83 which are his only scores under 94 for the whole season, showing he’s pretty consistent. On the other hand he can also go big with scores of 147 and 136 already this season. If you’re after a player who will score lots of 90s (a fairly solid score in itself) and some big 100s in-between, you’ve found your man.

Forwards:

Danny Stanley

• Price: $416,000
• Season avg: 97
• % of teams owned by: 0.96%

The ex-Magpie seems to have found his home at the Suns, playing an important role at centre-half forward/forward pocket. Didn’t play until round eight due to injury but since then has three 100s, a ninety and an eighty. He is very consistent, and while he will never get a big hundred can always be relied upon for a useful ninety or solid low hundred. Unlike many other premium forwards he does not attract a good opposition defender or a hard tag. What I love most though is the tiny number of teams he is in, and so making him surely the perfect Forward 7. Reliable, consistent, good scoring and unique. Definitely a great upgrade option for Treloar/Smith etc.

Ryan O’Keefe

• Price: $425,200
• Season avg: 81
• % of teams owned by: 2.85%

After a very slow start to the season Ryan is starting to return to the form that saw him as one of the top premiums in the years past. If we’re kind and take out his first three scores of the year, that would bring his season average up to 97, a very good average for a potential Forward 7. In that time he has amassed four 100s and a 98. His draw for the rest of the year is also good for him, with career averages of over 81 against all but one team that the Swans play during the rest of the year. Definitely a bit of risk involved but if he keeps up this current form it’ll certainly be worth it.

Well, that’s about it, thanks for reading and good luck for the rest of the season. It seems that twitter’s the big thing on DT Talk, and although I’m not a big user (as you would probably be able to tell from my two, yes 2, tweets), I do hop on occasionally so feel free to follow me and put forward any questions or comments. You can find me at @rjblakers1000

All the best,

Rainjan Blakers