Eight down, 16 to go!

The next few rounds are going to be quite telling in the context of the AFL Fantasy season. Most of our rookie picks have reached a price point where we are happy to move them on to facilitate an upgrade elsewhere, and at the end of the day ,that’s still the preferred tactic. However, impressive scores from Levi Ashcroft, Zach Reid and Luke Trainor to name a few have left us wondering if we should keep a few of these cash cows in our starting 22 for a tad longer. Those who traded Ashcroft out last round will be kicking themselves, but the coaches who move on from Riley Bice could find themselves in the same position one week from now if he thrives vs. Essendon. There’s no easy answer, but making the right call on which rookies to cull will go a long way to setting up for success as the bye rounds inch closer.

Rookie/cash cows are typically defined as players who started the season priced at $400,000 or lower

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Cash Cow King – Round 8

We were treated to another 100+ rookie score over the weekend, with Levi Ashcroft saving the best until last! In his first Q-Clash, the budding Brisbane talent racked up 71 points in the first half and put forth the best fantasy numbers of his young career. Bombers backman Zach Reid wasn’t far off registering the first century of his career either, with he and Luke Trainor assisting coaches down back. Elijah Hewett and Harvey Langford both excelled as they squared off on Saturday night to earn a nomination – but it’s hard to ignore Levi as the Round 8 CCK for me.

*If you’re having issues submitting your vote try clicking “view results” first and that should resolve the problem 🤞

Who's gets your vote as the most important cash cow in Round 8?

• Zach Reid (90)
• Harvey Langford (78)
• Elijah Hewett (81)
• Luke Trainor (87)
• Levi Ashcroft (115)

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Round 8 Power Rankings

After 8 weeks of action, these are the top 10 cash cow performers in season 2025!

Power Ranking 2025 #AFLFantasy Cash Cows Round 8 💰🐮

1. Levi Ashcroft ⬆️ 1
2. Harvey Langford ⬆️ 1
3. Zach Reid ⬆️ 2
4. Riley Bice ⬇️ 3
5. Luke Trainor ⬆️ 3
6. Caiden Cleary ⬆️ 1
7. Sam Davidson ⬇️ 3
8. Xavier Lindsay ⬇️ 2
9. Elijah Hewett (NR)
10. Karl Worner (NR) pic.twitter.com/XDmNFfTjoQ

— SportsbyFry (@sportsbyfry) May 6, 2025

Making Moves

Let ’em grow

After floundering for downgrade options the last few rounds, a couple of rooks are putting their hand up as viable trade targets. At the top of the list is Hugh Boxshall ($273K, 74, BE -7), with a 60-point first half setting up a stellar debut for St Kilda’s inside bull. There were over 21,000 smart coaches who pounced on the Saints rookie as soon as he avoided the starting sub vest and over 15,000 are making the same, simple move ahead of Round 9. There are no guarantees he’ll dodge the fluro in the future, but Boxshall’s place in a senior side seems safer than the other cash cow prospects coaches are eyeing off this week. Down back, Riley Hardeman ($334K, 73, BE 10) or Joe Fonti ($354K, 70, BE 11) could become solid sources of cash gen, even if we are flush with DEF options at the moment. I give the slight edge to Fontempelli ahead of his Roos counterpart, however there isn’t much separating the duo.

Will Lorenz ($252K, 49, BE 9) has also emerged as a potential option following his debut with Port Adelaide in which he started with a BANG – scoring 27 points and gathering 8 touches in the first quarter before the Bulldogs took control. In that same contest, Jedd Busslinger ($244K, 8, BE 29) wasn’t given the chance to establish himself after starting as the sub and as I stated, it’s fair to assume we aren’t shopping for a rookie down back at the moment. A lot of the fantasy community will still own all three of Luke Trainor ($561K, 87, BE 41), Zach Reid ($596K, 90, BE 36) and Riley Bice ($670K, 44, BE 76) down back and despite a scoring slump from Bice, I’m still confident that they have money to make over at least the next 2-3 rounds. You’d feel safest with only two of those rooks on field in your backline, with Levi Ashcroft ($709K, 115, BE 44) and Harvey Langford ($555K, 78, BE 23) the cash cows giving us the most confidence in the MID line.

Spare a thought for the 2551 coaches who traded out Levi ahead of Round 8, only to see the talented Lions cub gather 29 disposals and produce one of the best rookie scores we’ve seen all season. Both Ashcroft and Langford can be plugged in somewhere between M6-M8 for the foreseeable future after averaging 84.2 and 73.2 respectively in the last month. If you’re not fielding Levi at F6, then the only other rookie answer at the moment is Caiden Cleary ($503K, 61, BE 27), following a bounceback performance against GWS. A 61-point outing won’t wow coaches, but laying almost as many tackles (7) as he had disposals (8) indicates he should continue to climb in value. I wouldn’t suggest fielding him, although Elijah Hewett ($472K, 81, BE 19) deserves a shoutout following another stellar score – his second 75+ outing in his last three matches.

Watch this space

It’s hard to give advice on what exactly we should do with uninspiring rookie picks like Finn O’Sullivan ($404K, 49, BE 42) and Isaac Kako ($405K, 38, BE 42) at the moment. The duo went head-to-head last Thursday night and once again, they failed to impress from a scoring standpoint. And yet, neither of them has made a significant amount of cash and it feels like a bit of a wasted trade to try and move them on now. Someone like Max Hall ($539K, 69, BE 42) makes more sense as a trade-out candidate having made over $300K now since the start of the season. You’d back him in to hit his breakeven this week, although coaches are starting to lose confidence in Xavier Lindsay ($539K, 33, BE 47) and almost 4,000 coaches are electing to give him the flick after his disappointing effort vs. West Coast. If you can’t upgrade Lindsay to a player you desire, there’s a world where he gets another life.

Clearly, his time is nearing an end and DEF duo Luke Cleary ($439K, 48, BE 32) and Matt Carroll ($394K, 32, BE 27) fall into the same basket. Similar to Max Hall, you’d back Cleary and Carroll to get their breakeven in Round 9, but their poor showing may see their place in their respective sides come under fire. Corey Warner ($494K, 50, BE 45) is another middling rookie who should probably be moved on (especially now that his brother has resigned with the Swans), although it’s hard to trust the downgrade choices in the forward line right now.

Round 8 debutants Finnbar Maley ($247K, 43, BE 12) and Josaia Delana ($233K, 26, BE 23) didn’t put their hands up as must-have rookies and Oliver Whiltshire ($252K, 40, BE 13) continues to follow the same inconsistent path as previous Geelong rookies. They are still cheap enough that we can wait to see if there is a “pop” score that forces our hand, with Bo Allan ($302K, 37, BE 28) bound to also generate some interest as a trade option after he serves his one-game suspension.

Let ’em go

Before any of these cash cows continue to depreciate in value, it’s time for them to go! The coaches who gave Sam Davidson ($625K, 57, BE 71) an extended opportunity will want to cash the Bulldogs winger in following consecutive 50-point scores and a red vest, but he’s not alone. In defence, the likes of Jaxon Prior ($542K, 50, BE 59) and Connor O’Sullivan ($545K, 31, BE 72) should be prioritised as trade out candidates and as I’ve highlighted in this piece, there are a lot of options down back that you can trade them too. They’re both at solid price points where you can pocket a handy amount of cash that will help with another upgrade and they’ve played their role as cash cows.

Most owners would have axed Daniel Curtin ($436K, 49, BE 50) at some point the past month after he struggled to score consistently, however there will still be a few of us who held onto Murphy Reid ($505K, 39, BE 64) and Sam Lalor ($555K, 55, BE 60) in the hopes that they turned things around. Lalor is a rookie that I’ve still got in my current team, although he stuck on my FWD bench and with now way to switch him into another position, he’ll likely sit there for a few rounds until a viable downgrade option puts their hand up. In a perfect world I’d give him, or Murphy Reid, the flick as their inconsistent/lacklustre scoring means that it won’t be long before they start to lose significant cash.

Sub status

Subbed On – Quinton Narkle, Jedd Busslinger, Oliver Whiltshire, Harry Sharp, Jake Rogers, Will McLachlan

Subbed Off – Joe Berry, Sam Davidson, Corey Warner

Fantasy coaches were likely focused on Sam Davidson and Jedd Busslinger rotating through the sub vest for the Dogs last round, but we need to spare a thought for St Kilda rookie Tobie Travaglia ($388K, DNP, BE 29). He became the first player in 2025 to start the game in a sub vest and see ZERO minutes of action. I understand that he was a late in for the Saints on Friday night, but come on Ross, it’s not like the result was in the balance late in the game. Poor bastard.

Q & A

I’m adding a Q&A section to the weekly articles to help address the biggest issues we have with our rookies/cash cows. If I don’t get to your answer in the article, I promise I’ll answer it on Twitter – and as always, you can drop your follow-up question below.

Which rook out of fonti, hardeman, Lorenz or Hayes if debuts would u pick? Fonti leaves me with 430k in bank.

— Henry (@Henry31701340) May 6, 2025

If Lewis Hayes gets picked for Essendon, he’ll probably join Boxshall as the No. 1 target this week. I’d rank him slightly ahead the other players, but then I’d go Fonti, Lorenz, Hardeman.

Will Bo Allan come straight back in?

— Grapevines (@Grapevineys) May 6, 2025

You’d think so. It was disappointing for the 28,000+ coaches to see the first-year Eagle suspended in his first hitout of the season. After West Coast allowed him to build his fitness in the WAFL for a few weeks, the expectation is that he’ll string a few games together in the middle portion of the season.

Planning to trade in Sheezel this week. Who would you trade out first – Bice, Trainor, Reid, Lindsay, Lalor?

— Matt I (@LesFong) May 6, 2025

Everyone wants to grab Harry Sheezel this week – including me! To get him, I think Lindsay, then Lalor are the two rookies who can go first and if I had to ranks the DEF trio it would be Trainor, then Reid, then Bice.

Already got boxshall and buss, who are our downgrade targets this week? Or better to chase value in pou and hustwaite?

— Nick (@cabba212) May 6, 2025

I kind of poo poo’d the idea of chasing Hustwaite last week and he responded with a very respectable 87-point outing. Both he and Phillipou (could even add Kiddy Coleman to this conversation) are emerging as mid-priced options that we will consider, but I would recommend casting your eye forward to your bye structure before pulling the trigger on them. Outside of Boxshall and maybe Fonti, I don’t have a ton of confidence in the rookie crop this week and there’s nothing wrong with chasing the value and targeting one, or two of these mid-pricers.

Which one out of Lalor, Hall, Bice would you trade 1st?

— Anthony Ellul (@anthonyellul) May 6, 2025

Lalor, then Hall, then Bice for me.

Remember the Name

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

DEFENDERS

Josh Gibucs (Tigers, $230K)
Luke Beecken (Lions, $230K)
Alix Tauru (Saints, $313K)
James Barrat (Saints, $247K)
Ben Jepson (Suns, $230K)

MIDFIELDERS

Luke Urquart (Kangaroos, $230K)
Josh Smillie (Tigers, $322K)
Caleb Mitchell (Swans, $230K)
Zak Johnson (Bombers, $230K)
Ben Camporeale (Blues, $230K)

RUCKMEN

Max Heath (Saints, $230K)
Taylor Goad (Kangaroos, $230K)
Tom Campbell (Demons, $316K)
Kayle Gerreyn (Bombers, $232K)
Lachlan McAndrew (Crows, $302K)
Nic Madden (Giants, $230K)

FORWARDS

Cooper Simpson (Dockers, $230K)
Cody Angove (Giants, $230K)
Ashton Moir (Blues, $230K)
Will Hayes (Magpies, $230K)
Ty Gallop (Lions, $230K)

Fry

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