Kane Farrell – Deck of DT 2025

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Why should I pick him?

There is vast opportunity across the half-back line at the Power this year. Superstar Dan Houston has departed the club and with him takes around 95 points per game, a figure he has maintained for several years. This opens up a great avenue for another Power defender to step into the role of primary distributor, and Kane Farrell is the early frontrunner.

Farrell’s average of 78.4 last year was comfortably a career best by almost 12 points. In order to be an effective starting pick this season, he would need to improve by at least that much again. He’s demonstrated a ceiling that has made him relevant in draft, but his floor scores and playing second fiddle to Houston mean his classic relevance has never been high.

The most attractive aspect of the Farrell pick is his early start to the season. It’s unlikely Farrell becomes a top 6-10 defender so his role in your starting team would be as a stepping stone, which means both value – and the matchups to capitalise – are paramount. His opening month consists of Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon and St Kilda. This is a phenomenal run of matchups for defenders – almost as good as it gets – and it’s conceivable Farrell starts the season in red hot form with some ceiling scores to quickly elevate his price.

We know the Power love to have long kickers on their half back line. Houston, Farrell, Burton and even past players like Trent McKenzie under the Hinkley regime have all been able to kick it a country mile, and because of this Port tend to launch a lot of their scoring chains from half back. As such, Farrell fits the mould of a player the Power will want to have the ball in the hands of even more now.

Adding to the intrigue for Farrell is the fact that it seems Port are going to settle Jase Burgoyne down on a wing. Burgoyne’s phenomenal end to last season raised eyebrows that perhaps he could be Houston’s successor, but with Burgoyne further up the field some responsibility still has to be with one or more defenders. Bergman is a gun, but often has to play a lockdown role. Burton’s job security is shaky at the best of times, whilst Byrne-Jones is well and truly a forward now. Logan Evans is still very young, and Josh Sinn has yet to fully master the art of kicking a football. And don’t forget about Rory Atkins!

When it comes to fantasy defenders, kick-ins are highly important and despite Houston being Port’s main distributor out of defence it is Farrell who held this responsibility the most last season. He took 85 kick-ins (around 32%), with Houston (80, or 30%) not far behind and Burton (57, or 21%) getting his fair share. Logan Evans debuted mid-way through the season and took a fair few, but Houston copped a hefty suspension and then Farrell got injured so the numbers around this period are quite skewed. In 2023, it was Burton who was the main kick-in guy, and Houston barely took any. From this, we can see the Power are happy to share this responsibility around and don’t want one player having a monopoly on this role, signaling their desire to remain as unpredictable as possible and/or their trust in all the defenders. Even so, with Houston leaving 30% of the kick-ins on the table, it’s likely Farrell will get at least part of this share, even though I expect Logan Evans to be the main beneficiary.

Why shouldn’t I pick him?

The host of names mentioned above could well and truly just share the points around. Despite all the flags that would prevent you from picking most of them, several things still have to fall into place for Farrell to take advantage. Come the end of the season, we could see all of the Power defenders just averaging in the 70s to low 80s range. With Houston now gone, its possible that the Power shift some usage away from the defenders and get it in the hands of their superstar midfielders a lot more. They’ve also beefed up the forward line with some linking runners who push up high and demand the ball (Richards, Berry, even Lukosius types).

Probably the most obvious flag for Farrell right now is the fact that he’s rehabilitating a serious hamstring injury. He went down in the final rounds last year and missed the Power’s finals series, but despite some lack of information it can be deduced that he has reaggravated the injury at some stage in the preseason and is in rehab still. Just last week their fitness boss said that round one will be touch and go for Farrell, and if we don’t get to see the backline mix at full strength in the practice games it will be hard to pick him with confidence.

Another major issue is the fact that the Power are one of the lowest teams in the comp in handball receives. Jaiden Popowski on X has identified this stat to be one of the most predictive for fantasy scoring, and Port ranked second last in the competition for this in 2024 after being third last in 2023. Before 2023 they were amongst the top teams, but it seems Hinkley has shifted away from that style and prefers to get the ball out of the backline through long kicks rather than retaining and chipping it around, which is what we look for from our premium defenders.

Deck of DT Rating.

JACK

It feels like the question here is not whether Farrell can get the role, but more surrounding how Port might move the ball. He is a good chance to be their highest averaging defender and will take the lion’s share of the kick-ins, but if the Power opt to spread the ball around or alter their reliance on the backline for ball movement then his upside may be limited.

Farrell right now sits in just 3% of starting teams, and has floated in and out of my side before the news of his injury status dropped last week. In order to be a successful pick, we likely need Farrell to be pushing into the 90s range. Whilst I think he’s capable of doing this, particularly early in the season when the matchups are great, it may be hard to trust it in round 1 if he is unable to play the preseason games.

DidakDT

DidakDT is a Collingwood fanatic who possesses a love of data and its use in fantasy sports. His obsession with fantasy footy has carried over into the BBL, NBL and the NBA.