Nine down, 15 to go!

I refuse to declare we have a “rookie crisis” (trademark Warnie DT, 2006-07). There are ALWAYS value options that pop up on a weekly basis that present us with downgrade choices – the hard part is nailing the correct ones. Almost everyone reading this would have bought into Jedd Busslinger, Hugh Boxshall or Lewis Hayes over the last fortnight, and for one reason or another, there are now concerns over their ability to assist our squads moving forward. A few rooks are putting their hand up prior to Round 10 as good trade targets and with the bye rounds almost upon us, the investments we make over the next few rounds are going to be incredibly important. If we want to have a completed team coming out of the byes, we need to nail these picks.

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 9

It was hard to keep up with Essendon duo Zach Reid and Jaxon Prior last round, with the Dons defenders both hauling in 14 marks to drop a 110+ score. Their teammate Saad El-Hawli had his own impressive outing against the Swans and as a result, he’ll become a popular downgrade option this round. Harvey Langford maintained his stellar form and produced a season-best score, while the ever-reliable Levi Ashcroft finds himself in the nominees once again.

*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 9?

• Harvey Langford (95)
• Zach Reid (118)
• Jaxon Prior (115)
• Saad El-Hawli (82)
• Levi Ashcroft (84)

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Round 9 Power Rankings

After 9 weeks of action, these are the top 10 cash cow performers in season 2025!

Power Ranking 2025 #AFLFantasy Cash Cows Round 9 💰🐮

1. Zach Reid ⬆️ 2
2. Levi Ashcroft ⬇️ 1
3. Harvey Langford ⬇️ 1
4. Luke Trainor ⬆️ 1
5. Riley Bice ⬇️ 1
6. Max Hall (NR)
7. Caiden Cleary ⬇️ 1
8. Sam Davidson ⬇️ 1
9. Jaxon Prior (NR)
10. Riley Hardeman (NR) pic.twitter.com/LrzXy8WVFT

— SportsbyFry (@sportsbyfry) May 13, 2025

Making Moves

Let ’em grow

A couple of cash cows have bobbed up as potential downgrade choices on the back of their Round 9 efforts. Cooper Simpson ($260K, 59, BE 2) and Saad El-Hawli ($312K, 82, BE -1) find themselves at No. 1 and No. 2 on the list of trade-in options, with some coaches even opting to bring them both in this week. It’s fair to say that Simpson and El-Hawli aren’t “must-have” rookies, although their recent performances should buy them a few more weeks in their respective teams and provide us with a decent source of cash gen. Slightly more expensive than these other guys, Sandy Brock ($321K, 48, BE 10) had a decent showing last weekend, although I’m much more interested in Roos halfback, Riley Hardemann ($381K, 64, BE 3). If it wasn’t for the Round 12 bye, Hardeman would probably be getting more love as a downgrade option as he continues to establish himself in North’s best-22.

Even with his recent success, no one is looking to trade Zach Reid ($668K, 118, BE 21) or Jaxon Prior ($592K, 115, BE 25) to Hardeman with the Bombers’ backmen THRIVING on the weekend against Sydney. A pair of epic scores from Reid and Prior will see their owners keep them for a much longer stretch than anticipated and it feels like we can also trust Luke Trainor ($588K, 69, BE 45) moving forward. Trainor could be upgraded if you can reach an elite DEF option, however he does have North and Essendon on the horizon which should equate to strong scores. Similar to this defensive trio, coaches will continue to trust Harvey Langford ($618K, 95, BE 26) and Levi Ashcroft ($746K, 84, BE 56) on the bench thanks to their recent form, while the coaches who held Max Hall ($565K, 70, BE 41) won’t be mad with his recent output that includes three straight scores of 65+.

Watch this space

After 40% of us invested in Hugh Boxshall ($312K, 38, BE 3) in the past fortnight, it’s hard to envision him holding his place in St Kilda’s side this weekend. The budding midfielder only registered 49% time on ground last Friday and it seems like he’s destined to become a red dot on Thursday – or worse, find himself demoted to the role of sub. Similar could be said for Bombers debutant Archer Day-Wicks ($233K, 27, BE 22), who had 23 points in the first half only to spend most of the second half against Sydney prioritising cardio over fantasy points. A few of our other cheap alternatives in Tom Sims ($273K, 43, BE 17) and Cody Angove ($279K, 37, BE 23) need to show us more before we would feel confident buying them, but West Coast youngster Tom Gross ($347K, 23, BE 41) is a different case.

Despite starting in the green vest, Gross quickly got to work when he came onto the field and the popular belief is that he’ll squeeze his way into the Eagles’ starting 22 vs. St Kilda. Gross comes at an inflated rate, although at this stage of the week, Gross is shaping up as a decent buy given his inside MID role. Checking in with an even higher price tag is Jaxon Binns ($424K, 76, BE 19) with the VFL fantasy premium turning plenty of heads in his first AFL hitout of the season. He should hold his place in the team, but a Round 12 bye coupled with his hefty price makes it hard to buy into Binns right now. Quickly, we didn’t get a great score out of Elijah Hewett ($487K, 34, BE 41) last round, however he should be able to right his wrongs against the Saints at home in the upcoming fixture.

Let ’em go

Let me preface this by saying you don’t have to instantly trade out everyone on this list, with only two trades up our sleeve for this week and some rookies are clearly more pressing trade issues than others. Take Riley Bice ($666K, 66, BE 79) for example – Sydney’s mature ager has been a stellar source of points and cash generation so far this season, but he currently finds himself as the most traded out player with over 8,500 coaches axing him from their team. Trading Bice out depends slightly on which player you can bring in on the other side of the trade, with a lack of cash to facilitate an upgrade to a premo the reason why I’m personally leaning towards keeping the Swans defender. It’s fair to say that we’d rather move on from Xavier Lindsay ($540K, 44, BE 60) first, with consecutive poor scores seeing the dashing Dee stall in price.

In a similar tier as those two, Caiden Cleary ($514K, 37, BE 53) and Sam Lalor ($561K, 63, BE 62) could be chopped from our FWD line if they’re residing at F7-F8. Doing so probably frees up enough cash to help another on-field upgrade and they’ve essentially reached their peak price point. It’s more tempting to ditch an underperforming rookie from our benches and the grouping of Murphy Reid ($487K, 39, BE 67), Sam Davidson ($621K, 62, BE 70), Connor O’Sullivan ($531K, 51, BE 68), Isaac Kako ($403K, 37, BE 46), Conor Stone ($441K, DNP, BE 25), Corey Warner ($493K, 41, BE 54) and Finn O’Sullivan ($396K, 29, BE 49) will all be explored as trade out options for their owners. I’d much rather move on from the first three before the other cash cows, as the likes of Reid, Davidson and COS are all going to start losing value – with another subpar effort in Round 10 likely leading to a $30K-$40K dip in price. If you are moving any of that collective out of your team, I wouldn’t go investing in Joe Fonti ($361K, 17, BE 34) or Finnbar Maley ($255K, 20, BE 22) with the pair failing to fire last weekend.

Sub status

Subbed On – Lance Collard, Bailey Macdonald, Jake Rogers, Christian Moraes, Tom Gross, Josaia Delana, Ted Clohesy

Subbed Off – Matthew Jefferson, Lewis Hayes, Daniel Curtin, Archer Reid, Finnbar Maley

I haven’t mentioned Lewis Hayes ($254K, 52, BE 6) yet in this piece, with one of the most popular buys last week suffering a devastating ACL tear vs. Sydney. With his season now done, Hayes will become a red dot for 16,502 coaches and clog up a spot at D8. Dan Curtin ($411K, 16, BE 60) and Christian Moraes ($430K, 25, BE 64) found themselves on the opposite end of the sub patterns in the Showdown and both should be culled ASAP with everyone’s favourite Geelong rookie, Ted Clohesy ($339K, 3, BE 70) failing to get amongst it in 14% game time.

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.

Who to flick first – Lindsay or Cleary?

— Gedav (@Gedav147022) May 13, 2025

I think we move Lindsay on first. He’s coming off consecutive poor scores, which naturally means when we trade him out he’ll score 80+ lol. Cleary should be able to tackle his way to greater heights, so I’d keep him and trade Lindsay.

Saad vs Simspson? Simpson is cheaper but Saad looks to have scoring potential

— Scootermcgavin (@scottdylan791) May 13, 2025

Good question! Some coaches are looking at buying both of these rooks in a double downgrade move this round, but if I’m investing in one, it’s Cooper Simpson. I’m still not convinced that either Simpson or El-Hawli have stellar job security, but I think the young Docker is less of a sub risk and his halfback role gives him access to solid scores.

Your view whether to trade Murphy Reid or Bice, please mate?

— DWH (@DWH93591975) May 13, 2025

The easy answer is Murphy Reid goes before Bice, but assuming Murph is on your bench and Bice is on your field that makes it a tad trickier to navigate. Chasing a Bice upgrade may serve you better on field from a scoring standpoint, although I view Reid as more of a trade priority now that he’s starting to lose value. Flick Murphy out first.

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

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 ?