Kieren Jack – Lefty’s Leftfielders

Welcome to the another edition of Lefty’s Leftfielders – hopefully you all followed my advice and had Nick Suban in your team on the weekend… love it when a plan comes together and logic does pay off (although 5 frees for in the first half and 3 goals was a massive help haha).

This week on Lefty’s Leftfielder’s is Swan’s son of a gun Kieren Jack – currently sitting in only 2.6% of all teams….

Name: Kieren Jack
Club: Sydney Swans
Position: Mid
Price: $505,800

 

Argument For

Jack is rapidly becoming one of the stars of the AFL – indeed many would suggest he is already there after his huge efforts in last year’s finals series. Tagging roles on Dangerfield and Swan in the QF and PF respectively barely slowed him as he not only limited his opponent’s influence but managed to have a large impact himself. Then in the GF Jack turned in a master-class of tackling with a huge 10 tackles for the game (to go with his 2 goals).

At 26 and with 7 preseasons under his belt Jack seems cherry ripe to take his game to an even higher level, and there have been no reports of niggling injuries over the pre-season.

In 2012, Jack played all 22 games for an average of 98.5. This included 9 scores of over 100 including 6 scores of 115 or higher. His best return was a nice score of 131 when he was supposedly tagging Griffen but 34 touches and 2 goals makes me suggest it was a ‘loose’ tag at best!

Jack has benefited from an apprenticeship of tagging the competitions best players over the last 3 years and learning how to become an elite midfielder himself. The emergence of Hannebery, Bird and Parker in the last year has also helped Jack as he seems to have more of a license to run off his man these days.

The biggest reason I believe Jack is a great leftfield choice is the Swan’s early draw and Jack’s record against them

The swans first 4 games in 2013 and Jack’s 2012 scores are:

Jack’s 2012 scores

GWS (115, 127)
GC (125)
Nth Melb (89)
Geelong (100, 79)

So if Jack maintains his 2012 form against his first 4 opponents he will be averaging a tick over 105 after the first 4 rounds.

I can’t see Jack getting tagged much with the likes of Kennedy, ROK, McVeigh and Jetta running around for the Swan’s so I think he will pretty much be left to keep doing his thing.

 

Argument Against

I always am a little nervous picking a player from the premiership side early the following year. There is no doubt that the teams that play in the magical final weekend in September have a reduced preseason and can struggle to get up and going in the early rounds the following year. Jack has only played 1 full length NAB cup game for a reasonable return of 80 in 2013, not sure how much we should read into that as Longmire seemed more interested in finding out more about his rookies than his established players.

Jack is capable of throwing a low score – highlighted by his lowestreturns of 63,72 and 72 again in 2012.

 

Lefty’s Call

I have said it before – St Kilda and Sydney have very friendly starts to the year with GWS and Gold Coast games, and I am looking to maximise my chances to gain points and/or cash with under-priced players from those clubs.

Picking Jack isn’t about trying to make some quick cash – I see his role in my squad as equalling the returns of higher priced mids like Danger, Beams etc whilst saving the $’s on his initial purchase price.

I am hoping he will average 110 up to the bye (aided by his soft early draw) and I think Jack will be a long term keeper in my team – but hey if he throws a few average scores then we have 2 trades each and every week to trade out underperforming guns…..

Good luck all