Friday Fantasy Fill Up – Rd. 17

Welcome to a Friday arvo column that hopefully helps you get set for the weekend ahead. I’ll be looking at the key points/questions that have popped up during the week with some quick fire opinions, plus a look at how the mighty Warne Dawgs are looking ahead of the coming round.

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• Calvin’s Captains
• Fry’s Cash Cows
• Roy’s Rollin’ 22
• Dunny’s Thursday Scramble
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• Weekly podcast
• Patreon Pintcast

Thursday night footy

Geez Errol Gulden (126) is good. Going at 133 in his last three, maybe he was the right VC option over Tim Taranto (97) whose ton run ended last week… and didn’t hit triple figures again this week.

Angus Sheldrick (46) had an ankle issue early in the game and ended up with just 54% TOG. Not great if you had to play him and those of us looping won’t be taking that score. DFS Australia has him going up $51k this week.

I’m feeling super-sorry for the Jake Lloyd (38) owners who were getting some reward after some average scores since trading him in after the bye (he was averaging 99 in 5 rounds before bye, coming off 123… then threw up 77, 87, 73, 79 since). He was concussed from a big Nank hit.

Unfortunately Jacob Bauer (8) tweaked his hamstring in the first quarter while fellow debutant Sam Banks (39) didn’t have a big one with 13 disposals and one mark.

What are we doing with Dunkley

It’s a trade for me.

I don’t think there is any world you hold him now – unless of course there were bigger issues – but after Sheldrick’s 46, there isn’t a bench loop I could trust going into this week. He’s obviously out this week, but no guarantee to be back next week. The worst part is that he’s a top end talent and we realistically want him in the last few rounds for our Fantays finals … plus he could end up being slightly unique as not all coaches will get him back.

I’ll be trying to hatch a bit of a plan to grab him at some stage for a mid-$900k figure in the couple of weeks post-return.

Personally, the only option I would really entertain is a top of the line player for him. That is, someone you’ve got in your Rollin’ 22 for the rest of the season. Maybe this is a topic for another Fill-Up, but the best 22 is who you think will be in the top scorers for the rest of the season, or in my opinion, somene who is scoring as well (eg. there could be 10 players who are top 6 forwards … if that makes sense).

It’s a swap to Jordan Dawson or Sam Docherty in the backline via some DPP (Sheezel for me). Or a big dog midfielder … I would still be hunting some value, despite the temptation of going to Marcus Bontempelli. There are a few who you could launch into as a sub-$950k player. Lachie Neale could give some instant reward this week or you could go with Christian Petracca now that we know Clarry is missing the next 3-4. If you’ve got Cameron in your ruck, this might be your opportunity to get to Tim English.

As a FWD, it’s grabbing who you don’t have … that you like! I like grabbing the player I want. I know there’s good reason to look for a more unique option, but I like just getting the player I think will score the most for the rest of the season. Simple.

Roy’s Rollin’ 22 has Connor Rozee and Zak Butters as top options. I like Jack Macrae. I think he’s got his role worked out and if you were looking at ownership, he ticks some boxes there. Stephen Coniglio is cheap. He hasn’t has the ceiling this year, but he’s safe … role is there, etc. If you need to save the cash, consider Ben Keays, but I feel like I’ve missed the boat there and priced at 90 makes him a bit of a worry if he isn’t scoring in that role that saw him have 1 CBA last week – and the potential of some tagging roles.

Listen to the Wednesday night Patreon Pintcast for plenty of Dunks Discussion.

Understanding late changes

Last week we saw something that threw coaches out. Josh Sinn was listed as a green dot after he came into Port Adelaide’s squad for Junior Rioli who was out due to personal reasons.

Sinn ended up on the team sheets in the 22, despite the comms specifically saying he was into the 26-man squad that would “be finalised an hour before the game”.

My take on what happened last weekend was that Rioli was named as last on bench on Thursday night, and they just replaced him with Sinn on the Friday when they withdrew him. Port Adelaide either submitted the team sheet with a straight swap (4th on interchange) as they couldn’t leave it as 3 on interchange and 5 emergencies… as they were going to finalise the 22nd play one hour before the game commenced; or Champion Data, who control the feeds, input the data in the same way as they weren’t given information on who was into the 22 (PA didn’t have to provide this).

Below images come from official AFL communications.

Let’s go back to round nine. There was a bit of a change to process which has been taken advantage of by a few clubs. That is, essentially you can name a 26 and make changes from within that 26 to finalise your 22 on game day. This has been contentious due to players being ‘omitted’ and then made sub. Whether it is to save some embarrassment (Trent Cotchin, Dyson Heppell), or some mind games, clubs haven’t liked putting omitted next to a player’s name if they were in fact playing, even as a sub.

Brad Scott has taken this and run! From rounds 9-15, every week their sub had come from the bench in the named 22. The weekend was the first time they hadn’t done it in that way.

The moral of the story is that coaches should be across the wording from clubs in the lead up to games. If there is a withdrawal BEFORE the usual teams being finalised an hour before the game, check their statement. Whether it is on the website or social media, they will usually state who is into the 22. If it doesn’t say that, then keep an eye on any info from the club via pressers or media interviews to see if there is any intel on who could come in (and also subs).

As for Brad Scott, we can’t trust his 22 and the sub is a pretty good chance to be coming from the bench, not the emergencies like most teams.

Also, for those planning for 2024, we are likely to have clubs naming 23s… whether they name the sub early or not is yet to be decided, but we could be back to the old submarine days here on DT Talk where we were predicting who would be the sub from that bench… ahhh!

Dual-position player updates incoming

The third and final round of dual-position upgrade is coming after this weekend. Traditionally we have seen the fewest number of updates in the post-R17 roll out, but there could be a couple of names of interest.

Players need to have 35% of game time in a second position outside of their single position that they’re named in Fantasy.

Jayden Short injured his hamstring last week, but he’s now done enough to gain DEF status clocking up over 50% of time in defence. Handy for draft … and depending on when he’s back, he could half an option to bring in with Saints and Dees coming up (both green in Cal’s Scale of Hardness).

Just missing out last time, Max Gawn is on the cusp of FWD status with 34%. Sam Walsh is currently on 35%. While his numbers haven’t been epic, his capacity as a Fantasy player would put him in contention as a top 6.

Not that it really matters, but Nick Daicos, Jack Sinclair and Sam Docherty are all a good change to gain MID status. It helps with flexibility, but at this time of the year, probably not really going to be a big factor.

Look out for the new DPPs to be added to the game shortly after lockout lift on Sunday night.

Warne Dawgs – Round 17

My moves have changed overnight since recording the Fantasy Preview video for the AFL site. Sheldrick’s stinker off the bench means I will need to play Windhager plus the midfield combo of Ashcroft and Johnson. That’s three rookies on field. I don’t love it, but I am prioritising keeping them for cash generation while offloading McGrath (FINALLY!!!). The move of getting Dawson isn’t one I would normally go with – paying for him priced so high (120 average) seems silly, especially when I have three rookies on field – but the captaincy, some decent opponents coming up and the FOMO is making me do it. It’s either a DEF and FWD for two FWDs for me. Coniglio seems like a decent play – which is where I have to go to if I’m grabbing Dawson … but I’m not writing off Butters and Macrae combo. Who knows, it could even be Macrae and Cogs with some cash for next week to get a rookie up (although, Simpkin is looking tasty for the cash strapped next week – check the Scale of Hardness).

ROUND 17 TRADES

Josh Dunkley > Stephen Coniglio
Andrew McGrath > Jordan Dawson
Cash left: $33k

ROUND 17 CAPTAINS

Nick Daicos VC
Jordan Dawson C

Click here to watch the YouTube team update video.

Lockout times

Thursday, July 6	STADIUM (NETWORK)	EST	LOCAL
Richmond vs. Sydney Swans	MCG (SEVEN)	7:20pm	7:20pm
Friday, July 7
Western Bulldogs vs. Collingwood	Marvel Stadium (SEVEN)	7:50pm	7:50pm
Saturday, July 8
Brisbane Lions vs. West Coast Eagles	The Gabba (FOX)	1:45pm	1:45pm
GWS GIANTS vs. Hawthorn	GIANTS Stadium (FOX)	4:35pm	4:35pm
St Kilda vs. Melbourne	Marvel Stadium (SEVEN)	7:25pm	7:25pm
Port Adelaide vs. Gold Coast SUNS	Adelaide Oval (FOX)	7:40pm	7:10pm
Sunday, July 9
Geelong Cats vs. North Melbourne	GMHBA Stadium (FOX)	1:10pm	1:10pm
Essendon vs. Adelaide Crows	Marvel Stadium (SEVEN)	3:20pm	3:20pm
Fremantle vs. Carlton	Optus Stadium (FOX)	4:40pm	2:40pm

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