23 down, one to go!

Congratulations fam, we’ve made it. 185 days ago we saw Richmond and Melbourne clash in the first preseason hitout of the year and we started to formulate a plan. For some, that plan didn’t go according to plan and the 2024 season has been a grind. Other coaches have soared to post unbelievable seasons and are one weekend away from securing a Hilux, top-100 hat, or simply bragging rights against their mates. Regardless of where you sit with nine matches to go in the fantasy season, this year’s collections of cash cows have performed at an incredible rate – allowing coaches to complete their teams earlier than usual. So let’s show some love to the rooks who helped us throughout the past five months and determine the winners for the all-important cash cow awards!

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

Cash Cow King – Round 23

I’ve reiterated how important the last few rounds of votes are going to be for the CCK award, and yet none of the frontrunners were able to snag a nomination in the penultimate fantasy round. Earning a recall after three weeks out of the side, the honour of the top-scoring rook belonged to Joel Freijah (115). The Dogs defender thrived down back and chalked up 29 touches and 13 marks for his season-high score. Familiar names Darcy Wilson (100) and Harley Reid (99) put forth ripper scores, while Blake Howes (95) and Archie Roberts (95) held off a decent number of contenders to round out the second-last batch of nominees.

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Award Races

Game of the Year

Over the course of the season, the cash cow class of 2024 has gifted us with 24 triple-figure scores, with some unexpected names appearing on the list of rookies who raised the bat (shoutout Blake Drury). Of these 100+ outings, four games in particular stand out from the rest of the pack and it’s possible that some coaches missed out on ALL of these epic scores. The highest total from a rook this season came in Round 20 when Matt Roberts helped himself to 36 touches and a snag for a whopping 138 points. Two other cash cows challenged Roberts for the throne by topping the 120-point threshold – with Colby McKercher (123 – Round 17) and Bodhi Uwland (124 – Round 13) excelling earlier in the season. Jeremy Sharp’s 118 points back in Rd 9 vs. Sydney was the 4th highest score from a cash cow and these votes will likely be dictated by which of these scores you benefitted from.

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Cash Cow Coach of the Year

Unlike in past seasons, there wasn’t an obvious choice for the Cash Cow Coach of the Year award. Technically speaking, Collingwood, Richmond and North Melbourne provided us with the most debutants this season by blooding six new faces each – however, not all of those rookies became great money-makers. The best bang for your buck likely came from discounted Geelong and Melbourne players, with multiple rookies aiding coaches at different points of the season.

Simon Goodwin gifted us with brand new Demons to start the year in the form of Blake Howes and Caleb Windsor while the likes of Andy Moniz-Wakefield and Koltyn Tholstrup helped us in the post-bye portion of the season. The Cats followed a similar pattern as Oliver Dempsey emerged as a must-have rook early on before Shaun Mannagh and Lawson Humphries went on to achieve great heights over the final two months of the fantasy season. St Ross Lyon’s rookies headlined by Hugo Garcia, Darcy Wilson and Arie Schoenmaker deserve a special mention too, while the Beveridge and the Bulldogs have successful campaigns from Harvey Gallagher, Joel Freijah and Ryley Sanders to thank for their recognition.

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Arguably the most hotly contested award for season 2024 – I expect the race for DPOY honours to be tight. Matt Roberts, Colby McKercher and Lawson Humphries have been amongst the best cash cows in the entire comp this season and anyone who still owns any of the three young guns is probably happy to keep them for the final weekend. Almost every coach started the season with Roberts and McKercher in their teams and their instant cash generation would’ve made it easy to leapfrog to a premium in multiple lines. They were likely traded by their owners when the pair missed Round 10 although they both sit 2nd and 3rd respectively for total price increase – having both climbed almost $500K since the start of the year!

While McKercher and Roberts buoyed our successes early, Lawson Humphries has been arguably the best rookie in the final third of the fantasy season. Averaging 75.9 from his eight games so far, Geelong’s diamond in the rough finds himself 4th on the season price increase list – albeit about $100K behind his cash cow peers. If you jumped on Humphries early enough you would have likely been boosted by his noteworthy scores and 94 points in preliminary final weekend may have helped you claim a matchup W or two. Three of the best rooks vying for one trophy – good luck picking this one.

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Midfielder of the Year

The majority of our reliable rookies owned a second position for the bulk of this fantasy season, making it hard to signal out the cash cows who should legitimately challenge for the MID of the year crown. The four players who received the most votes in last week’s ballot all spent the bulk of their game time in and around the stoppages – either as an outside specialist or in Harley Reid’s case, at a high number of centre bounces. Most of these characters did their best work prior to the bye rounds for fantasy coaches, with some inconsistent performances from Darcy Wilson and Jeremy Sharp the only exceptions. In saying that, a lot of coaches were forced to lean heavily on these cash cows until the byes finished and the reason we were able to complete our teams earlier than usual is thanks to players like Sam Clohesy and Co. There’s an outright favourite in my eyes, but I’m intrigued to see how close this vote is.

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Ruckman of the Year

I’ll keep this brief since the ruck department hasn’t provided us with a lot in 2024. Small cameos from Jordon Sweet and Nathan Kreuger may have helped during the season, but it’s possible that your R3 spot was occupied by Harry Barnett all season. Personally, I captained the developing Eagle five times to cash in a vice-captain score and he well and truly played his role as a loophole option for roughly 30% of the competition. Sweet scored in big doses for a small span of time and Kreuger may have contributed a score or two, but I’m tipping the cap to West Coast’s ruckman.

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Forward of the Year

Owning Oliver Dempsey to commence the year, it’s likely your fantasy season start with a bang. With a lot of uncertainty around the preferred structure of our FWD lines, most coaches found themselves fielding 2-3 rooks for the bulk of the 2024 campaign. Dempsey proved to be a must-have early and he didn’t slow down over the course of the season with back-to-back 100+ outings following Geelong’s bye. The Rising Star favourite scored 90+ on six different occasions and reached a peak price of $694K – with a few recent scoring lulls leading to a price dip.

It’s very possible that once Oliver Dempsey had served his purpose for the fantasy community, his place was taken up by Billy Dowling or Shaun Mannagh. Their late-season heroics may have helped facilitate the final few on-field upgrades for coaches, or instead, they provided a security blanket at F5-F6. It’s going to be tough for Dowling and Mannagh to compete against Dempsey but their plaudits in the final portion of the season at least deserve to be recognised.

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Cash Cow MVP

Here we go, the one that matters. We’ve been blessed with reliable rookies across every line this fantasy season and as a result, the battle for the MVP crown is expected to be a tight one. The consistent, elite production from four cash cows in particular helped narrow down the field and your vote will likely be determined by how long these rooks resided in your team. Jeremy Sharp proved to be the must-have MID for the early portion of the year with Matt Roberts and Colby McKercher holding down a similar role until their DPP additions allowed them to be swung back. Oliver Dempsey performed at the same level in the front-6 and if you were forced to hold onto one of these cash cows for longer than expected, they likely rewarded your faith with a stellar score. Unlike recent seasons when Harry Sheezel and Nick Daicos have blitzed the rest of the field, this vote should be a tight one.

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Fry

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