11 down, 13 to go!

And so it begins… We’ve already dealt with multiple teams resting throughout the early portion of the fantasy season but now the REAL bye rounds commence. Four squads will put their feet up this weekend and as a result, the depth of a lot of fantasy teams will be tested. The popular move this round will be to bank some cash for future upgrades and as we shuffle a few rookie magnets at the trade table, make sure you invest in the correct cash cows!

Rookie/cash cows are typically defined as players who started the season priced at $300,000 or lower

Mooooving On

Part of our weekly trade focus is to remove the rookie-priced players who are no longer making money. When a cash cow sees their average fall in line with their breakeven or they find themselves on the outside looking in for multiple weeks at a time, that’s a good time to give them the axe.

Fattened cash cows

1. Matt Roberts, Swans ($546K, 69 AVG, 114 BE)
2. Caleb Windsor, Demons ($523K, 57 AVG, 78 BE)
3. Charlie Lazzaro, Kangaroos ($334K, 42 AVG, 66 BE)
4. Aaron Cadman, Giants ($355K, 46 AVG, 60 BE)
5. Harvey Thomas, Giants ($387K, 47 AVG, 57 BE)

Injured/non-playing rookies

1. Blake Howes, Demons ($464K, 57 AVG, 59 BE)
2. Will Graham, Suns ($490K, 71 AVG, 37 BE)
3. Hugo Garcia, Saints ($374K, 54 AVG, 26 BE)
4. Darcy Jones, Giants ($312K, 43 AVG, 44 BE)
5. Colby McKercher, Kangaroos ($592K, 73 AVG, 22 BE)

Cash Cow King – Round 11

The stellar form continued from Jeremy Sharp in Round 11, with the Dockers wingman chalking up his 3rd triple-figure score of the year to outscore his rookie peers. There wasn’t much distance between Sharp and Lions FWD Kai Lohmann, who posted a score of 98 one round after finding himself stuck on 99. Pies duo Joe Richards (94) and Harvey Harrison (88) thrived with everyone’s favourite MID/FWD Darcy Wilson rounding out the nominees with a score of 80. Once again, I’ll be siding with Sharpy for my vote and as he continues to produce it’s now possible we can hold him through his bye round.

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Making Moves

Money makers

We will all need a boost from our cash cows to survive the next month of fantasy footy and reliable rooks are hard to come by at the moment. The sublime scores that Jeremy Sharp ($698K, 105, BE 45) continues to produce have us second guessing whether it’s the right move to trade him out when his bye arrives, with the Dockers wingman averaging an impressive 99.2 points in the last month of action. There’s hope he can maintain his production in Darwin this week and a small portion of the fantasy community will look to Kai Lohmann ($558K, 98, BE 22) for more strong scores after his bye round.

Bruce Reville ($356K, 55, BE 8) is another popular rookie who will have his feet up this week – robbing us of another cheap trade target for this round at least. Despite an eye-catching performance on Friday night, we can’t turn to Joe Richards ($376K, 94, BE -21) as he now faces an extended stint on the sidelines with a fractured metatarsal. That will see a lot of coaches turn to his teammate, and the most recent Rising Star nominee, Harvey Harrison ($289K, 88, BE 7). Both Harrison and his mature-aged teammate Lachie Sullivan ($362K, 59, BE 11) should benefit from the massive injury toll that Collingwood is currently facing.

They aren’t the only viable downgrade option this week as coaches look to shuffle their cash cows and pocket some convenient cash for upgrades during the rest of the bye rounds. The most-popular cash cows being targetted by coaches are coming off a pair of 60’s with both Joel Freijah ($315K, 64, BE -3) and Kane McAuliffe ($292K, 65, BE -5) bound to be fielded for the next three weeks by their owners. Tonight’s mid-season draft will hopefully gift us with a few additional rooks in the future, but paying up for these aforementioned, cheaper fantasy players is a tactic a lot of coaches will employ ahead of Round 12.

Keep the faith

Darcy Wilson ($658K, 80, BE 70) is still an incredibly reliable source of scoring, although he is approaching his peak value. An average of 86.2 points from his last five matches suggests that Wilson can stay put for his owners until his week off arrives, although I’m starting to lose confidence that Sam Clohesy ($587K, 68, BE 62) can pull off the same feat. Matchups with Essendon and St Kilda should lead to another decent score or two, but the Suns’ talent has seen his production fall off recently with just one score over 75 in his last six games.

With coaches facing plenty of issues at the moment, Clohesy can survive for a fortnight while you patch up the gaps around him – although, there are already 2,500+ coaches that are looking to upgrade what is likely their D6 spot at the trade table this week. Bulldogs duo Riley Garcia ($458K, 78, BE 33) and Harvey Gallagher ($448K, 72, BE 35) may be called upon to contribute for the next few matches with Seth Campbell ($421K, 55, BE 43) another popular starting pick who could be hanging around for coaches. A career-best outing from Jed McEntee ($293K, 65, BE 8) against the Roos has increased the interest in Port Adelaide’s young gun, however, I’m not completely sold on him as an option.

Cut them loose

Off the top, anyone who still owns FWD bench pieces regressing in value should make that a priority at the trade table this week. I’m talking about Charlie Lazzaro ($334K, 22, BE 66), Zane Duursma ($309K, 11, BE 63), Aaron Cadman ($355K, 33, BE 60), Harvey Thomas ($387K, 42, BE 57) and Mykelti Lefau ($388K, 35, BE 61) who all have a bit of value on their head and are only going to continue bleeding cash. The Roos/Giants players could be held for another week while their bye round kicks in, but it’s still a priority to move them.

Anyone who held Matt Roberts ($546K, 24, BE 114) would have been disappointed to see him come back into the team as the substitute and should act accordingly. He deserves a shoutout for racking up four +6’s in just 11 minutes of game time although, an astronomical breakeven of 114 means he needs to be axed ASAP. Lacklustre efforts in Round 11 from Caleb Windsor ($523K, 32, BE 78) and Oliver Dempsey ($517K, 43, BE 68) have pushed them to the top of the cue for tradeable rookies and another meagre showing from Harley Reid ($551K, 58, BE 66) in a heavy loss will see coaches move the talented Eagle on as well. You could wait another fortnight to cut Reid, but he’s effectively done his job by climbing $251K in price.

Thin Ice

Even though he earned a late call-up for the Bulldogs, I can’t confidently rank Ryley Sanders ($491K, 70, BE 71) higher this week. We all know that the young jet can score when given the opportunity, but he was fortunate to play 76% of the game vs. Sydney with Anthony Scott going down early with concussions. My gut says the only way we see Sanders playing this week is via the sub vest – making him too risky to trust. Geelong duo Oisin Mullin ($322K, 29, BE 30) and Jhye Clark ($343K, 61, BE 23) are equally hard to trust at the moment, however their owners probably aren’t looking to trade them out right now. Clark will unfortunately miss a fantasy-friendly matchup against Richmond after he copped a one-week suspension and Mullin’s inconsistent role with the Cats continues to hamper his scoring potential.

Wait and see

A trio of discounted rookies priced under $300K could be on the radar for coaches once they return from their bye round. The recent scores we’ve seen from Logan Morris ($277K, 63, BE 0) and Wil Dawson ($249K, 44, BE 18) don’t instil us with an abundance of confidence, but they may be called upon if they can maintain their spot in their respective sides – while Toby McMullin ($260K, 65, BE -6) returned for his first appearance since the opening round for a score of 65 from just 40% TOG. If he can shake the sub vest when GWS return to action, there is a world where McMullin can become a productive cash cow.

Outside of those three talents, some may look at basement-priced Magpie Ed Allan ($200K, 25, BE 23) this week, provided he can maintain a spot in Collingwood’s senior outfit. There’s optimism that Allan can put up a solid score against the Bulldogs this weekend, but I don’t trust his defensive teammate Charlie Dean ($264K, 39, BE 11) to aid fantasy coaches. Cheaper FWD’s Nate Caddy ($282K, 46, BE 24) and Chris Burgess ($317K, 49, BE 28) will also be looked at as cheaper trade targets but it’s wise to steer clear from that pair.

Sub status

Subbed On – Ryley Sanders, Matt Roberts, Will Parker, Charlie Lazzaro, Jake Rogers, Toby McMullin, Steely Green, Taj Woewodin, Tyrell Dewar

Subbed Off – Josh Draper, Zane Duursma, Jed Walter, Toby Conway, Brandon Ryan, Calsher Dear, Lance Collard

Half of the starting subs in Round 11 can be considered as cash cows, with some of them producing greater numbers than others. I was hopeful that Richmond rook Steely Green ($200K, 29, BE 24) could see solid minutes and perhaps emerge as a heartbeat in the FWD line, but that wasn’t the case last round. A concussion for Shai Bolton may open the door for the crafty small, but he’s always going to be at risk of copping a green/red vest.

State League Stats

Caiden Cleary, Swans (144) – 39 disposals, 6 marks, 5 tackles, 1.1 in front of goal
Mitch Hardie, Cats (143) – 37 disposals, 10 marks, 1.2 in front of goal
Wade Derksen, Giants (131) – 29 disposals, 10 marks, 4 tackles
Zane Trew, Eagles (129) – 36 disposals, 7 marks, 4 tackles
James Tunstill, Lions (127) – 25 disposals, 6 marks, 6 tackles, 3.1 in front of goal
Ted Clohesy, Cats (127) – 26 disposals, 4 marks, 8 tackles, 2 goals
Max Heath, Saints (124) – 19 disposals, 21 hitouts, 9 marks, 5 tackles, 1.1 in front of goal
Andy Moniz-Wakefield, Demons (117) – 33 disposals, 6 marks, 4 tackles
Bailey Laurie, Demons (115) – 25 disposals, 6 marks, 5 tackles, 2.1 in front of goal
Harry Rowston, Giants (113) – 26 disposals, 10 tackles
Patrick Voss, Dockers (110) – 16 disposals, 5 marks, 4 tackles, 5.2 in front of goal
Jaxon Binns, Blues (107) – 26 disposals, 8 marks
Will Graham, Suns (105) – 26 disposals, 8 tackles
Charlie Lazzaro, Kangaroos (100) – 19 disposals, 11 tackles
Riley Hardeman, Kangaroos (94) – 22 disposals, 10 marks
George Stevens, Cats (94) – 28 disposals, 4 marks, 1.1 in front of goal
Kynan Brown, Demons (93) – 21 disposals, 4 marks, 7 tackles
Lachlan McAndrew, Swans (93) – 10 disposals, 34 hitouts, 5 tackles, 1 goal
Olli Hotton, Saints (92) – 17 disposals, 5 goals
Zac Taylor, Crows (91) – 23 disposals, 8 tackles
James Tsitas, Suns (91) – 26 disposals, 5 marks, 4 tackles
Kaleb Smith, Tigers (86) – 23 disposals, 6 marks, 1.1 in front of goal
Lachlan McNeil, Bulldogs (85) – 13 disposals, 7 tackles, 2 goals
Caleb Mitchell, Swans (84) – 21 disposals, 5 marks, 1 goal
Arie Schoenmaker, Saints (83) – 20 disposals, 6 marks
Karl Worner, Dockers (81) – 24 disposals, 4 tackles
Billy Wilson, Blues (79) – 22 disposals, 5 marks, 4 tackles
Liam Reidy, Dockers (77) – 13 disposals, 34 hitouts
Jedd Busslinger, Bulldogs (74) – 18 disposals, 8 marks
Shaun Mannagh, Cats (73) – 13 disposals, 3.1 in front of goal

Remember the Name

In no particular order, here are some of the other rookie-priced players to consider throughout the season.

DEFENDERS

James Leake (Giants, $252K)
Jakob Ryan (Magpies, $200K)
Billy Wilson (Blues, $201K)
Arie Schoenmaker (Saints, $200K)
Archie Roberts (Bombers, $200K)
Jedd Busslinger (Bulldogs, $200K)
Charlie Edwards (Crows, $240K)

MIDFIELDERS

Caiden Cleary (Swans, $231K)
Clay Hall (Eagles, $200K)
Hugh Jackson (Power, $200K)
Harry Rowston (Giants, $241K)
Harry DeMattia (Magpies, $228K)
Mitch Hardie (Cats, $200K)
George Stevens (Cats, $200K)

RUCKMEN

Henry Smith (Lions, $200K)
Coen Livingstone (Eagles, $200K)
Max Heath (Saints, $200K)
Nathan Kreuger (Magpies, $261K)
Archer Reid (Eagles, $213K)
Will Verrall (Demons, $200K)
Taylor Goad (Kangaroos, $243K)
Mitch Edwards (Cats, $207K)

FORWARDS

Kynan Brown (Demons, $200K)
Andy Moriz-Wakefield (Demons, $200K)
James Tsitas (Suns, $200K)
Ashton Moir (Blues, $216K)
Billy Dowling (Crows, $200K)
Tom Anastasopoulos (Power, $200K)
Brayden George (Kangaroos, $200K)

Fry

An Australian coffee/burrito enthusiast who is the frustrated owner of 16 fantasy teams. Writer for SportsbyFry and DT Talk ?