Stefan Martin – Lefty’s Leftfielders

Welcome to this week’s edition of Lefty’s Leftfielders – where we try to find a unique player for your squad.

This week on Lefty’s Leftfielder’s is Lion’s recruit Stefan Martin.

 

Name: Stefan Martin
Club: Brisbane Lions
Position: Fwd/Ruck
Price: $356,400

 

Argument For

With the uncertainty surrounding Luey’s form and fitness I have been forced to shuffle my team a bit and have come up with Martin as a possible option. I looked over his last 2 years as 2012 was a bit of a horror for him, I got a bit of a shock when I looked at his numbers over the last few years…

In 2011 Martin played 21 games for an average of 82. This included 8 scores of 90+ and includes 5 over 100 with a best of 114.From rounds 8 -18 he had a purple patch where he averaged 99 over the 10 weeks. He was playing as 2^nd ruck during this time, when not in the ruck he was spending the majority of his time at FF or CHB depending on match ups.

In 2012, Martin played only 7 games for an average of 76. Injuries plagued his year and an injury affected 23 in round 3 affected his average. He actually scored 3 x 100’s last year in rounds 14, 15 and 16 with a best of 118 which surprised me as I had forgotten how well he can score when on the park.

In 2013 Stefan suits up for the Lion’s and appeared likely to play his familiar 2^nd ruck role/ KPP. However, Luey’s ongoing injury issues may mean an increased ruck role for Martin, with only the inexperienced Longer to fill the void if/when Luey misses games.

 

Argument Against

Stefan is coming of a 7 game season which in itself is a big concern, and add to that he has changed clubs and you have to ask yourself just what his role will be?

His NAB cup form has been ok without being outstanding, personally I would have liked to see a bit more of Martin in the number one ruck role

He seemed to get his biggest scores when playing a Ruck/ Full Forward role at Melbourne. With the likes of Brown and Cornelius in the Brisbane forward line, I can’t see Vossy being keen on another big lumbering type down there? I will be keeping an eye on team selections, really hoping that Brown or Cornelius is left out (hard to see that happening though). That means Martin will play a Back/Ruck role at the Lions, which has seemed to reflect in lower scores for Martin in the past….

 

Lefty’s Call

I had my rucks locked until this week – the change of Mark Blicavs and the injury concern of Leuy has forced a rethink of my team.

Being a Fwd/Ruck does add some flexibility and appeal to Martin and I don’t see him being a vest candidate.

I am contemplating using him as a stopgap until Nic Nat comes back (hopefully Nic gets vested in his first few games back and drops in $) however I am by no means certain on him.

Brisbane’s first 5 rounds are against Bulldogs (Minson) Adelaide (Jacobs) Gold Coast (Smith) North Melbourne (Goldstein) and Melbourne (Jamar). With the debatable exception of Adelaide quite a soft draw and I think Voss will err on the side of caution with Leuy and rest him as long as possible with this current Achilles flare up.

I will probably decide based upon Brisbane’s injury and selection news – If Leuy looks to be out for a few weeks or Cornelius/Brown are out then I will take a punt on Martin. The improvement of the Lion’s and their willingness to take the game on and kick quickly inside 50 all are favourable to Martin’s chances in my opinion.

I will be hoping he can get back to his form of 2011 and average 80-85 which is a 10-15 ppg lift from his current price.