What to do with Brodie Grundy

The news this week of Brodie Grundy‘s PCL injury that will see him out for the better part of three-months has thrown a spanner in the works for trading ahead of round seven.

Owned by around 50% of the competition at round six, the popular pick as part of many set-and-forget ruck lines, is a must trade. Does it have to be this week? Not necessarily, but it’s a lot of coin to have on your bench if you are unable to go through with your planned moves involving Grundy next week if other issues appear.

Here are some scenarios…

1. Grundy to Gawn

It is an obvious one, but if you don’t have Max Gawn, you need him. Yes, he’s expensive but he’s one of the form players in the competition and head-and-shoulders above the rest of the rucks. A breakeven of 87 means he’s not getting any cheaper – especially with the instant reward of playing the Hawks this week. Ladhams scored 107 against Lynch last week.

2. Grundy to another premium

This is for the crew who have Braydon Preuss in R3 like Roy, Calvin and I. The insurance of having a higher priced cash cow now gets used by getting him off the bench and therefore moving Grundy to another big midfielder (hello Clayton Oliver for me). If you’ve got another ruck to whack into R3, that would be ideal. Sam Hayes is the best to have there – so in a way, it could be Grundy down to Hayes and then upgrade a fattened cow to a premium and possibly have some cash left over. I’m not going to run through the premium options in other lines as you can hopefully find whoever suits your side.

Early R7 trades thanks to @Toyota_Aus.

The Brodie Grundy trade is allowing @RoyDT and @CalvinDT get Cripps back while @WarnieDT is spending his Warne Chest to get in two premium midfielders.

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— AFL Fantasy (@AFLFantasy) April 26, 2022

3. Grundy to Preuss

Already got Gawn? You can join the growing crew with the ‘low-risk’ move of getting Braydon Preuss in to be R2. Preuss and Gawn (aka Prawn which I saw on Twitter) will be the most popular ruck combo moving forward. Could be something you try to fade, but this might not be the place to do it in my opinion. Join the masses and bank $266k which would be handy for a rookie upgrade. Ideally you’ve got someone playing in R3 like Hayes.

Other options

Every team is different and has different needs. There are some moves that come with risk… such as:

Trade Grundy to premium elsewhere, play Sam Hayes – I’m only expecting a 50-ish average from Hayes from here. I might be selling him a little short, but while his score of 77 would certainly be fieldable as a ‘rookie’ on field while upgrading elsewhere, those points came from 47 hitouts against the hapless Eagles.

Trade Grundy to premium elsewhere, play Tristan Xerri – With CCJ doing well in the VFL and Noble stating Goldstein will be playing, there’s every chance that Xerri could be on the outer at some point. It would be a ballsy move to ride the X man considering he’s almost ready to cash out as a fattened cow.

Trade Grundy to Peter Ladhams – $650k, BE50 and with scores of 112 and 107 in last two, there’s a lot to like on paper. The paper also shows that those scores were against the Eagles and Hawks. Big O and the Lions this week won’t be easy.

Trade Gundy to another ruck – Witts and ROB have been solid, but I don’t think I could go there. We all know Marshall is a premium ruck… but Ryder returns this week. Nank is interesting – big score last week, Eagles this week – but whoever you’re getting, it feels like it would be a play through to the byes at least. Pretty much, Preuss is as good option and comes cheaper… don’t sweat his ownership.

Hold Grundy, play a ‘bench’ ruck, trade to English on return – Tim English was looking like being the second banana in the ruck line up before his hamstring injury during training last week. He’s listed on the club’s website as 1-2 weeks. Could you play Sam Hayes for Grundy for a week or two before trading to English? You could, but I wouldn’t want that coin there. Xerri is another option to play as could be Strnadica. But the aim of the game is points. Grundy has to go at some stage… just do it now and get your team in a better place (ie. scoring more points) immediately.