Daniel’s Dilemma: Midfield Trauma

Welcome back to Daniel’s Dilemma! Another week, another dilemma and the fantasy gods have struck us with lightening not only once, but twice. It is our midfield that has endured the most pain over the weekend, with suspensions and injuries completing a deteriorating round.

The round saw Adelaide midfield dynamo, Rory Sloane recorded the biggest score of the round with a whopping 143 points as the Crows eased to a 68 point win over Western Sydney. This score was closely followed by our favourite son, Tom Rockliff who repaid his many owners faith with a score of 137 against a determined Tigers outfit.

The headaches started on a Saturday night when Gary Ablett landed awkwardly on his shoulder courtesy of a tough Brent Macaffer tag. With the star midfielder on only 67 with nearly half the competition placing the ‘C’ comfortably on him, a chorus of groaning and moaning was to be expected.

At the time of writing, Ablett was travelling to Melbourne to seek further medical advice on his diagnosed dislocated shoulder, but it hasn’t become any clearer to the Gold Coast staff how serious the outcome is.

Though Ablett’s injury is not the only migraine we have to deal with: Brendon Goddard and Tom Rockliff have also been issued a one week ban for rough conduct and striking respectively.

This news obviously implements further discomfort when deciding who to replace our star with, making it tougher to introduce a new midfielder in confidence.

With this predicament at hand we need to look at our options and act accordingly to make sure that the absence of Ablett does not affect our fantasy teams as much as we first thought.

Even though you may feel that there is a simple sideways trade to another in form gun, I will present to you my best 3 unique players that us coaches can seriously consider before pressing that deceiving trade button.

 

1: Levi Greenwood ($553,826) 1.29% Ownership

It is amazing to see the amount of owners that Greenwood has acquired, considering he is averaging 102 and has not dropped under the magical 100 mark in 6 of his 7 previous games!

He seems to be able to pick up possessions around the ground with ease and with St.Kilda, Carlton and Geelong the next 3 games for North Melbourne this rich vein of form is set to continue.

Greenwood has been in unassailable form lately and the strong North Melbourne midfielder should be strongly considered before you make any trades this week.

Click here for Greenwood’s 2014 stats on DT Live.

 

 

2: Brandon Ellis ($536,485) 2.2% Ownership

The Richmond midfielder has been a shining light in what has arguably been a dull season for the yellow and black.

He manages to produce score after score that keeps his very little number of owners proud of there invest they made throughout the season.

Ellis has racked up an incredible 7 straight tons and is a target you should seriously consider when replacing Ablett.

Richmond has Port Adelaide, West Coast and GWS in their next 3 games and even though these may seem like difficult fixtures, Ellis has shown that he can perform against the best clubs.

Click here for Ellis’ 2014 stats on DT Live.

 

3: Tom Liberatore ($531,378) 6.72% Ownership

Liberatore is a name that we have become accustomed to when it comes to reliable, hard tackling midfielders this year.

He manages to top the scoring lists week after week and it’s the impressive numbers he is producing that keeps his owners coming back for more.

In his last 10 games, Liberatore recorded over 8 hundreds and has also accumulated numerous amounts of tackles to help him to those totals.

With Gold Coast, Essendon and Hawthorn approaching, Liberatore will find it hard to keep up this tantalising form, though he can match it with the best and should be firmly placed on your watch list for this week.

Click here for Liberatore’s 2014 stats on DT Live.

 

Given that your midfield may have been inflicted with a lot of pain over the weekend, it is important to consider your options to replace the irreplaceable. The player to fill the shoes of Ablett has to be one of a high standard, but it’s always worth having a look at the players ‘outside of the box’.

ROY’S TRADE TALK: Click here to read his Gary Ablett special.

THE TRADERS’ PODCAST: Listen to the boys discuss the Ablett trade.