Stephen Coniglio – Deck of DT 2025

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Darren – coach of WiseOceanPODs – was the 2023 AFL Fantasy Classic champion. He joins us today as a special guest for Winners Week where a former No.1 comes on to chat about a player for the Deck of DT.

Stephen Coniglio is a forgotten man heading into the 2025 AFL Fantasy season, sitting in just 1.4% of teams, but can this forgotten premium return to his fantasy best and be relevant for us this season?

Why should I pick him?

Value

Stephen Coniglio is undeniably value priced down at 77 and costing just $789,000 after averaging 72 in the 2024 season. This is off the back of a very injury riddled year where he was subbed out on 4 different occasions for varies injuries including a MCL knee injury in Rd5 vs St Kilda, a shoulder injury in Rd 11 vs Geelong, which he again aggravated in Rd 18 vs Tigers, and finally a nasty facial injury vs Lions in the Semi Final. These injuried games resulted in low scores of 59, 45, 46, and a 6, which dramatically bring down Coniglio’s avg and priced at figure.

By simply removing these injured scores, Coniglio averaged 83, automatically making him a minimum of 6 points of value without any other considerations.

You could also argue that due to his injuries, particularly his troublesome shoulder, Coniglio was being played out of position in the back half of the season to lighten the load on his body, priming him for finals. This resulted in some lower scores that are unusual for someone of Coniglio’s calibre.

When Coniglio played in his preferred role as a fulltime midfielder, attending 70%+ CBAs, he averaged 94 across 7 games, presenting 17 pts of value from his starting price.

Fantasy History

Coniglio has been fantasy relevant player for over a decade, where he has constantly averaged over 100 fantasy points. His best fantasy season was back in 2018, where he averaged 111, but more recently he averaged 102 in 2023 where he finished as the 25th ranked fantasy player putting him into the conversation of the top 8 midfielders. If he can capture this recent form in 2025, Coniglio could be a keeper for us for the season, giving owners a big advantage as they save a trade and can upgrade around him.

Premiership Window

GWS are well and truly in their premiership window when you consider their list profile and talent. However, their list is starting to age, particularly their star players, meaning that preimership window may not be open for long. If GWS want to make the most of the position they find themselves in, they should turn to their star midfielder that played a major part in getting them to multiple final campaigns throughout 2016-2024 to lead the way and be trusted with a fulltime midfield role.

I expect Stephen Coniglio to have a full healthy preseason to overcome his injuries, then he can return to his ball winning ways in a fulltime midfield role averaging 100 fantasy points, presenting 23 pts of value as a starting pick.

Why shouldn’t I pick him?

Injury Risk

Throughout Coniglio’s career he has had quite a few injuries which has restricted his games per season. In his 13 season career, he has never playing all the available games throughout the season, always missing at least 1 game either through injury or suspension.

While Coniglio’s 2024 injuries weren’t concerning injuries for the longevity of his career, consider they were unique and quarky issues. Now that he has recently turned 31, should we expect to see more injuries in his future?

Coniglio has now recovered from his injuries after having successful facial and shoulder surgery in November, returning to training in December, and progressing well in the preseason so far.

Role Change

Upon returning from his injuries, Coniglio seemingly played out of position as his centre bounce attendances fluctuated compared to his usual 80% attendance we saw at the start of the season and through his career. This could be due to a couple reasons; either the club was managing his workload as he was still struggling with his shoulder, or his role is shifting slightly with the inclusion of Toby Bedford and James Peatling into the GWS midfield mix.

Thankfully, James Peatling has since been traded to Adelaide Crows, freeing up a midfield rotation. Question is, who does this go to? With Tom Green easily the #1 mid, and Bedford seemingly #2, could the third be Coniglio? Or will it be Josh Kelly, Finn Callaghan or even Brent Daniels? Preseason games will show.

Early Season Bye

GWS have the round 2 bye, which is a tricky bye round as we only get one score from Coniglio before the bye, but will receive two price rises. You could argue that the safe play is to wait and see how he performs in the first two games of the season and pick him up following his bye as his price difference would be minimal and you could spend your starting cap elsewhere to maximise points of field.

Deck of DT Rating.

KING

Stephen Coniglio may not be the player in everyone’s team right now currently only 1.4% owned, but considering he is priced very similarly to Clayton Oliver at 42% owned and arguably has more reasons to be priced this low with a similar fantasy scoring history. I’d expect him to be highly owned to  start of the season.

Darren Carr