Welcome to Cal’s Scale of Hardness. You can get weekly updates (and 10 rounds at a time – or by downloading the full season document) of the Scale of Hardness over on our Patreon page. Along with weekly…. extra podcasts, a LIVE Sunday night show, Calvin’s Captains, Roy’s Roll’ 22, Jaiden’s epic stats and a shitload more… let’s get into this Scale shall we….

After four weeks of data, here’s the Scale of Hardness. This will feature on DT Talk on the second Thursday of each month. For weekly updates to the Scale, consider joining our Patreon. Members on the $10 tier will get updates with some commentary on each position and what I’m seeing along the way.

DISCLAIMER – The brilliant Scale of Hardness should be used as a guide, colours don’t represent games where potential taggers effect a premiums performance so make sure you look at that as well. Also worth noting that FWDs (relevant for draft) can be downloaded with the full document.

DEFENDERS

Tagger alert – Worth noting, as a DEF… Nick Daicos could get attention here from Windhager. Also worth noting this in the MID section as we floats through both positions, basically doing whatever the hell he pleases.

EASY RUN: Melbourne, Port Adelaide and the Kangaroos

Tossing up between Jayden Hunt and Trent Rivers this week? Then the scale has the answer for you… the answer is RIVERS. His draw is as juicy as it comes, meeting three of the four easiest teams for DEFs to score against over the first four rounds. In fact, he doesn’t meet a ‘hard team’ for the next six weeks and by then… it will be his time to go.

Gives up Uncontested Marks: For defenders, this is the easiest way to collect an easy +6 and the following teams have given up the MOST uncontested marks this year…. And funnily enough, according to the brilliant scale of hardness, they certainly give up plenty of points.

Kangaroos (mega green), St Kilda (mega green), Hawthorn (light green), Essendon (mega green), Bulldogs (light green) and the Suns (mega green).

HARD RUN: St Kilda and Essendon

I’ve said it for the last few weeks and it has finally arrived. The run for the Saints and the Bomber DEFs have come to an end. They have had a juicy run to now which has allowed some player to ‘spike’ their scores.

Players like Liam Stocker (avg 8o this year, 88 last week), Mason Redman (avg. 97 in his last three), Jordan Ridley (avg. 82 this year) and Andrew McGrath (avg. 78 this year) are about to get a serious reality check.

Bringing in these players is not recommended by the scale and if you have the luxury this week, the scale encourages you to move them on.

MIDFIELDERS

Tagger alert – Watch out for James Aish to Touk Miller or Noah Anderson… or maybe even Matt Rowell who ranks third the league in contested possessions (behind Cripps and Oliver).

EASY RUN: Kangaroos, Collingwood, Gold Coast and Port Adelaide

Plenty to like here especially if you are a fan of Luke Davies-Uniacke. His next four weeks look super!

I also really like the runs of Port Adelaide who don’t see a ‘hard’ team for the next 11 weeks. This is nuts and might change with more data but maybe hold onto players like Connor Rozee and keep in mind his scores this year have been against Lions (95), Collingwood (81), Adelaide (113) and Sydney (69). Teams that are light green, mega red, light green and mega red on the scale.

Gold Coast are in the same boat and don’t meet a ‘hard’ team until after their bye.

Andrew Brayshaw also has a great run leading to his bye, and of course that’s the same for Caleb Serong as well.

HARD RUN: St Kilda, Essendon and the Bulldogs

Plenty of relevant names from these teams.

Personally… I might be hunting for a premium MID tonight and the names that have popped into my thoughts are Zach Merrett and Brad Crouch. Their runs say that this isn’t a good idea though. Especially Crouch with Jack Steele returning. His numbers have been great without Steele there this year… but history shows that it actually made no difference to his scores last year when Steele missed. In fact… he averaged 10 points less in those four games compared to what he did when Steele played.

The thing here is… you’re getting one of these premiums for the long term and therefore you must see the big picture, what goes around, comes around….

RUCKS

It’s simple… rucks either give up shitloads of points… or they don’t. Hence the colours! That’s a shitload of green and at the moment we have teams who don’t have a ruck and are bleeding points.

Top Rucks ranked based on runs (and ability)

Sean Darcy – Gold Coast most likely won’t have Witts this week so he’ll battle Moyle and then English who has conceded the second most points this year.

Rowan Marshall – Collingwood (no ruck) into Carlton and Port. Great little run, providing he can avoid the bloody vest. Don’t make me ring Dwayne’s World again (below)!

Tim English – his run isn’t great… but at the moment, he is shaping the scale of hardness, killing anyone he pleases. Give him a tough match-up and he still kills it. He changes the scale’s colours.

Green Vest punishment complete! Well played @CalvinDT! 😂🍷https://t.co/r8Yb6k7R5h #AFLFantasy pic.twitter.com/bwse4EEowY

— DT Talk (@DTTALK) April 11, 2023

 

HOT WEEKLY PLAYERS

JORDAN DAWSON – second most traded in

Did you know that six of the most traded in players this week are DEFs? Not a surprise really based on the shit we have seen.

After his awesome game last week as a MID, let’s look at that draw coming up for him. I wouldn’t be surprised in he even cops a little Ed Curnow attention this week after his domination in round 4. Collingwood (#1 hardest) is a scary sight in a couple weeks time… and he could even cop a “Finn Maginness tag” along the way as well.

CLAYTON OLIVER – the beast

He’s too expensive now… is he though. His run coming up is crazy and although he has averaged 128 this year, he has done it against harder opposition and is now chasing a Brownlow. His worst score this year was 111 (Sydney – Mega hard).

His scores from last year against the teams coming up are…

Essendon (117), Richmond (129), North (151), Gold Coast (120), Hawthorn (126) oh my god… I didn’t even expect that… that’s an average of 128.6! Have mercy! Now.. how do I get him?

Please note: You can get weekly updates (and 10 rounds at a time) of the Scale of Hardness over on our Patreon page.