Calvin’s Captains – Rd. 18

EssenTON Vs Hawthorn

In the last 2 weeks, my #1 captain option has come from the game where they play Hawthorn. This is pretty bizarre and not something I have chased. But over the last 2 weeks many premium on ballers have dominated against them. Swan (165), Beams (147), Pendles (142) and Boyd (131) didn’t struggle against them in games they lost. So what does this mean for Essendon? We’ll… surely Jobe Watson and Stanton will get amongst it this week. Jobe Watson has had 121 and 124 in his last 2 games this year and has averaged 107 on the Hawks in his last 3 (ex. 33pt Injured game). He’s averaged 120 at Etihad this year from his 9 games and should be pretty good. Stanton has had previous scores of 119 and 127 on the Hawks but has only averaged 81 in his last 3 games this year. If he can avoid the ‘loose’ tags of the Hawks, he might just smack out something like he was at the start of the year.

Percentage Booster?

Collingwood will head to Skoda to play the Giants with the plan to smack them up! Collingwood have the lowest percentage out of the top 6 teams on the ladder at the moment and need to fix that up this week. The Hawks did this a few weeks back when they played the Giants in a game when they won by 162. On that day, 11 Hawthorn players crack the magical ton. This will surely happen again as Collingwood look to set up a top 4 finish. Since returning from his injury, Scott Pendlebury has had scores of 142 and 117 and Dayne Beams has kept his wicked roll going with 147 and 137 in recent weeks against quality opposition (Haw/Geel). Then we have Dane Swan who has averaged 129 in his last 3 games this year with a huge 165 last week. Swan has only played outside of Melbourne once this year and had 143 (GABBA). His form is better than anyone’s with an average of 138 in his last 5 and you’d be mad to turn your back on him this week.

But… check out some surprising numbers other premium guns have had on the Giants this year. Amazing really… yeah a few have smashed them as you’d expect, but these are really quiet low compared to what we were expecting. Does this worry me? No… the highest scoring Collingwood player will have 40d and a bag of goals next to their name and I think these 3 guys can easily do that!

The Others

Gary Ablett – clearly the best of this lot here. Last year he had just 23pts on the Swans before he was injured but before when he was with Geelong, he used to kill them big time with previous scores of 127, 167, 141, 126 and 150. He’s had 143, 104 and 148 in his last 3 at Metricon and after scores of 143 and 128 in his last 2 games this year. All the signs suggest he’ll be good this week.
Trent Cotchin – had 120 on the Blues earlier this year and is averaging 115 in his last 3. But, Cotchin has only cracked the 120+ mark we want from a captain 3 times this year from his 16 games. Not good enough in my pirate eyes.
Matthew Boyd – will be pretty good! He had 146 (39d) on the Saints in Rd. 3 of this year and a nice 143 on them in 2011. Clinton Jones seems to avoid him and although Boydy had his 2^nd worst score (82) for the year last week, he’ll be back this week.
Ivan Maric – watch the team selections this Thursday night and if Carlton go into the game without rucks, watch out for Maric. Last week, Minson killed them for 99pts and a massive 54 hit outs. So if big Will can do that… Ivan might be due for a big one after being quiet in recent weeks (83 & 88).
Joel Selwood – requested by my twitter buddy @MattCraigDT so lets have a look. Joel had 106 on the Crows earlier this year and 84 last year. He did have 5×100+ scores in a row before that on them but after 97 and 95 in the last 2 weeks, we must go with someone better… even though he should kill it on his home ground!
Sam Mitchell – Sam has only played at Etihad once this year and had 125 on that day. He had 128 on the Bombers last year and has been going pretty well in recent weeks averaging 111 in his last 3. Should be solid.
Brett Deledio – is carrying a lowest score of just 103 in his last 5 games this year and is averaging 116 in his last 3. But… he has only scored 1×100+ on the Blues in his career of 14 games and had 91 on them in Rd. 1 of this year. Dusty Martin got the Carrz tag that day, but surely he’ll go to either Cotch or Delids this week.

There you go… all the best, thanks for hanging out with the Irish Pirate and good luck for the up and coming week.