Gary Ablett Jnr – Deck of Dreamteam 2013

Name: Gary Ablett Jnr
Club: Gold Coast Suns
Position: Midfield
Assistant Coach 2013 Price: $642,500
Bye Round: 13
2012 Average: 124.7
2012 Games Played: 20
Predicted Average: 122

So you have thrown away all the wrapping paper, started eating leftovers and woken up with a hangover you don’t remember how you got.  It is Boxing Day, the test is about to start and you are still trying to work out what the hell some of the presents your aunt and uncle gave you are.  Sit back and relax and I will restore some normality to your day.  Lets take a look at a guy that everyone must have in their team.

Why should I pick him?

Sometimes these articles just simply write themselves. Let’s be honest.  It is Gary Ablett!  Do you need any more than that?  The question you need to ask yourself is “Am I serious about winning my League and/or the FJ?”  If you answered yes to that question well this means that you have to select Ablett.

GAJ does start out at a fairly high price and a fairly high average.  He may drop slightly over the first few rounds but he does come up against teams like GWS, Melbourne, Brisbane and Port in the first 7 weeks.  These teams shouldn’t trouble him a great deal and I think that he should score 125+ against each of these teams. My only concers are the tagging efforts of guys like Andrew Raines.

In his last 3 seasons for Geelong he scored averages of 112, 119 and 119 and his first two seasons with the Suns have netted him 112 and 124.  It just shows that the little master has settled into his role at Gold Coast and some of the other players are stepping up and taking a bit of the pressure off him.  Whilst it hasn’t resulted in wins he is getting a little more free possession.  His possession count has gone up from 30.3 avg to 33.7.

One thing we do know about Gary is that he is fairly durable.  he has played at least 19 games in each of his last 4 seasons. So you can pick him with a fair amount of certainty.

Why Shouldn’t I pick him?

The price is the key here.  He is  the second most expensive player behind Swanny.  He is priced at an average of 124 and you would think that he will drop in price at some stage during the season.   By how much is the question.  Last year he started at $554k and the lowest he got was $521k.  Was it worth burning a trade for the sake of saving $30k?  I don’t think so.  The biggest risk is the amount of points that you are likely to miss out on could be significant and if your opponent has him for captain you could well lose the game based on that choice alone.

Over the last couple of years he has had a couple of issues with his hammy’s but to be honest I don’t think that this is a reason to not pick him.  He only missed two games last year through injury and I can’t see that being any higher next year.

Deck of DT Rating:  Ace.  Seriously, was he going to be anything else?  This guy is a DT Stud and we know it, so like I said before, if you don’t have plans to have this guy in your team then you are not planning on having any success. I can’t see Gary finishing the year averaging any less than 120.  based on that he will be in the top 5 average scores for the year.

Are you going to start with GAJ?  I will be.

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