GameDay Squad – Round 7 Trading Targets

• There are no weekly trade restrictions, which means that you can take your MRO frustrations out stress-free.
• In GDS the cards you use to play are virtual player cards which you can collect from player card packs, with that, there is a fully functioning peer-to-peer transfer market in which you can trade, auction and sell player cards that you own. Yes, this means that you can not only rage trade but rage sell all of your Mitch Duncan cards!

It’s also essential to keep in mind that GameDay Squad is a dynasty fantasy football platform and that will be heavily taken into consideration in this article.

GameDay Squad – Create. Coach. Compete.

BUY!

Adam Treloar

Western Bulldogs – Midfielder (MID)

The thought of kicking the season off with 30-year-old Adam Treloar taking up one of my five midfield slots frankly grossed me out! But, with six weeks now in the books and amongst all the chaos of teammates Jack Macrae and Bailey Smith getting “bevo’ed”, Adam Treloar has soaked up all the opportunity and has become genuinely relevant as a midfield-listed player card. It should hardly be a surprise, historically, when Treloar has played as a majority midfielder, he’s proven to be a gun. For six straight seasons Treloar averaged over 100+ AFL Fantasy points, but for various reasons in recent years whether it be injury, covid and/or role which leads to a lack of opportunity Treloar hasn’t been as solid a pick as he historically has been. However, 2023 Adam Treloar is a different beast. Averaging 118 GDS fantasy points through the first six rounds and averaging the highest centre-bounce-attendance percentage (aside from Tim English obviously) amongst all Western Bulldogs players in their past two matches, Treloar has been one of the better point-of-difference players to own in GameDay Squad Aussie Rules.

There might be no better time to jump on the Adam Treloar train as well. Some of the league’s best midfielders are drastically underperforming when it comes to fantasy footy. Luke Davies-Uniacke, Andy Brayshaw, Jack Macrae, Lachie Neale and now we have just seen Touk Miller go down with a knee injury. Jump on while other coaches are still in 2022.

Because this guy is a walking, talking mummy… With every Treloar write-up has to come some form of a disclaimer. Impending injury or role-change under Bevo could come into play at any moment. Treloar is notoriously injury prone and Bevo doesn’t even know what midfield rotation Bevo wants. Be that as it may, the numbers are showing that at least for right now, Treloar is a card you want to own!

Jayden Short

Richmond Tigers – Midfielder (MID)

A little bit of a forgotten man in GameDay Squad Aussie Rules and rightfully so… I wouldn’t want to touch Jayden Short with ten-foot poll given he’s listed as a midfielder for 2023. But! And hear me out… if he reprises his role of old (like he did in round 6) where he plays deeper in defence and can rack up kicks and marks like he used to, does he all of a sudden become an option? Particularly in plus matchups?

… I still think no, but only for 2023. As mentioned above, GameDay Squad is a dynasty platform which means you retain your player cards from season to season. I know it’s a small sample size, but it’s hard not to get excited watching Jayden Short rack up 21 kicks, 7 marks and 644 meters gained playing 100% defence time for Richmond like the Jayden Short of old. So if he keeps this up, he will be in line for a position change in 2024, which automatically makes Jayden Short a playable option again.

To pump the breaks a little bit. Nathan Broad is due back for Richmond this week, which means someone has to lose out down back. Previously it has been Short, so it is important to temper expectations slightly here. But his game last week was a timely reminder of what Jayden Short can do in that quarterback role down back for Richmond, and he’s a card you want in your hands if that role does become consistent again.

SELL!

Brisbane

Brisbane Lions – Midfielder (MID)

Lachie Neale, Josh Dunkley, Hugh McCluggage, Jarryd Lyons (I’m going to exclude Will Ahscroft for now, I think it would be too unfair) what bloody system are they running up in Queensland? We’ve seen two bonafide fantasy stars in Lachie Neale and Josh Dunkley look like they are playing with two left feet, Hugh McCluggage has gone from being one of the better dynasty options and a top 15 midfielder last year in GDS scoring to barely pushing top 50, and Lyons? well, maybe relevancy was a stretch in 2023 anyway but for the other three, they have been nowhere near consistent or good enough. Neale, Dunkley and McCluggage all have the top three CBA percentage amongst Brisbane players (Aside from Oscar McInerney), Neale specifically is averaging the highest CBA percentage league-wide amongst midfielders (87%), but can still only muster up an average of 102 GDS fantasy points per game so far this season. Dunkley is a player who came into the season as the #1 projected forward in the game after averaging 124 GDS fantasy points in 2022… Dunkley is now averaging just 105 GDS fantasy points per game and frankly looks a shell of the man we saw in 2022. So to summarise and emphasise the discrepancy in scoring from 2022 to 2023:

2022:
Lachie Neale’s GDS average: 124 points per game
Josh Dunkley’s GDS average: 124 points per game
Hugh McCluggage’s GDS average: 120 points per game

2023 (6 games in):
Lachie Neale’s GDS average: 102 points per game
Josh Dunkley’s GDS average: 105 points per game
Hugh McCluggage’s GDS average: 85 points per game

So what can we put it down to? Too many cooks in the Brisbane engine room kitchen? Is Chris Fagan pulling a Bevo on ALL of his midfielders? A system change that hates fantasy football? or maybe we’re even in the middle of a changing of the guard? We could hypothesise all day but one thing is for certain, the three Brisbane “guns” we thought we had, are no longer must-starts until we see more production and consistency.

For AFL fantasy, all three of these guys have leaked so much cash you’ve either jumped shipped or your stuck. Congrats on the former, I’m so so so sorry if you fall into the latter!

Callum Mills

Sydney Swans – Midfielder (MID)

This one is an emotional decision and I can admit that, but I have had it up to my receding hairline with Callum Mills! After rankings as the fifth-best midfielder in the game last year, averaging a huge 128 GDS fantasy points per game, Mills has gone on to absolutely disappear off the map in 2023. Horse has taken a leaf out of Bevo and Fagan’s book and has decided to stick two middle fingers up to the fantasy community reducing Mills’ CBA percentage from 56% per game percentage in 2022 to a measly 31% so far in 2023. It’s not even like Mills is playing off the wing to save some form of dignity in his scoring, he spent 80% of Sydney’s matchup against Geelong in the defensive half of the field… even going 1 on 1 with Tom Hawkins for a portion of the game… like give me a break! Mills isn’t playable, he’s a long way from playable, a long long long way from playable…

For AFL Fantasy Mills is another midfielder leaking points for the fun of it. I’m sorry if you still have him start planning for 2024…

HOLD…

Harry Sheezel

North Melbourne Kangaroos – Forward (FWD)

Aaron Hall the Sheezel killer? I mean I’ll be the first to admit that it’s easy to feel that way at the moment but maybe we all just need to chill out for a second. I actually thought if anything, with Hall being reintroduced into this North Melbourne side, we would see Sheezel playing higher up the field, even into more of a midfield/forward role… we literally saw the opposite. Sheezel played more than 80% of the game deep in North Melbourne’s defence. The most damning stat against Sheezel coming out of round 6 is that for the first time this season, he had 0 kick-ins, while public enemy #1 Aaron Hall collected 5 total kick-ins on the day. Obviously, that sucks, and not to sound like a broken record but GDS is a dynasty fantasy sports platform, Sheezel is still only 18 years old and is still the most valuable player in GameDay Squad Aussie Rules at the moment so please don’t overreact to a games evidence of poor scoring, the guy hasn’t forgotten how to play footy. I’d sit Sheezel over these next couple of rounds to see how the Hall, Ziebell, Sheezel trio works down back just to be safe, but I wouldn’t jump off the ship entirely yet.

For AFL Fantasy, this is a little bit harder of a ship to navigate. His price is at a point now that is primed for cashing in, but his BE is still low and the sample size is too small to jump ship, if you can afford it, give it a week or two to suss the situation out further.

Hayden Young

Fremantle Dockers – Defender (DEF)

If you could make a robot half-back flanker for fantasy and you could pick all the pieces like marking ability, kicking disposal efficiency, time-on-ground, and ability to score points with kick/mark game-style, you would make Hayden Young. The 22-year-old Freo defender is averaging 20 disposals, 7 marks, 85% time-on-ground and .825% disposal efficiency through the first 6 rounds but for some reason, he hasn’t elevated his game enough to take the next step in his fantasy scoring, a step we all thought he would take this year. Young is only averaging 95.5 GDS fantasy points to this point in the season, and outside of his round one score of 137 GDS fantasy points, we haven’t seen much to think that the next step is near. He’s frustrating to own because you watch him, and you think he has everything to be great as a fantasy asset but just doesn’t get around the ball nearly as much as he should. I still think he’s going to be one of the best defenders in fantasy soon, he’s a definite hold but for now, he cannot be started.

For AFL Fantasy, Young will like leak points for a few weeks yet. He could be an incredible buy option if he starts to string some games together and we see his price bottom out.

The information contained in the article is not intended and should not be understood or construed as financial advice. As always please do your own research, my placing history suggests you should absolutely do your own research!