11 down, 13 to go!

We’ve almost reached the halfway point of the fantasy season and the mid-season bye period is about to get underway! By the end of Round 16, it’s fair to assume that we would want all of our on-field rookies to be gone with some cash cows emerging as more pressing trade concerns than others. While we all want to launch into the Zach Merrett’s of the world at any chance we get, it’s important to maintain a long-term view with your three weekly trades so you can better your team throughout the bye rounds.

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 11

An eclectic group of cash cows finished among the top scorers last round, with the majority of the nominees earning their first votes of the year! Essendon debutant Angus Clarke and rebounding Roo Riley Hardeman put forth epic scores and will become hot trade targets as a result, while Kane McAuliffe also managed to produce the best numbers of his young fantasy career. The ever-reliable Sam Davidson kick-started festivities for his owners with 94 points back on Thursday night, with Freo fan favourite Murphy Reid bagging four goals on his way to the same score. As a coach who doesn’t own ANY of these rooks, I’m giving my recognition to Hardeman after he raised the bat against the Magpies with his first 100+ score.

*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 11?

• Sam Davidson (94)
• Angus Clarke (98)
• Kane McAuliffe (94)
• Riley Hardeman (106)
• Murphy Reid (94)

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Round 11 Power Rankings

After 11 weeks of action, these are the top 10 cash cow performers in season 2025!

Power Ranking 2025 #AFLFantasy Cash Cows Round 11 💰🐮

1. Levi Ashcroft ⬆️ 1
2. Sam Davidson ⬆️ 2
3. Zach Reid ⬇️ 2
4. Harvey Langford ⬇️ 1
5. Jaxon Prior ⬆️ 3
6. Riley Bice ⬆️ 1
7. Riley Hardeman ⬆️ 3
8. Xavier Lindsay (NR)
9. Murphy Reid (NR)
10. Luke Trainor ⬇️ 5 pic.twitter.com/zGJHO2rB1Q

— SportsbyFry (@sportsbyfry) May 27, 2025

Making Moves

Let ’em grow

One of the easiest downgrades of all time has emerged to start the bye rounds with Angus Clarke ($291K, 98, BE -23) ticking all the boxes for fantasy coaches. Three snags on debut led to a 98-point outing for the newest Don and owning the final bye round has led to Clarke finding his way into almost 30,000 teams. In that same Friday night contest, Richmond youngsters Kane McAuliffe ($521K, 94, BE 3) and Campbell Gray ($264K, 54, BE 5) did enough to ignite their cash generation and emerge as possible downgrade options. McAuliffe is classified as a near-midpricer, but that won’t stop some from finding room for him in their midfield, with North Melbourne DEF Riley Hardeman ($491K, 106, BE 1) destined to draw interest after his week off in Round 12. A bottomed-out Kai Lohmann ($351K, 58, BE 29) also has some appeal as a trade target and as another cash cow who owns the Round 16 bye, there’s merit in pouncing on him ahead of their Thursday night clash with Essendon.

After giving Sam Davidson ($647K, 94, BE 48) and Jaxon Prior ($663K, 92, BE 41) a pump-up last week, the duo excelled for their owners by both registering a 90+ score in Round 11. It was another reminder that sometimes holding onto these proven cash cows can lead to success, although I fully expect a few to take the money and run by trading Davidson out now that his bye has arrived. We’re still a few rounds away from executing that plan with Dees duo Harvey Langford ($683K, 67, BE 60) and Xavier Lindsay ($582K, 79, BE 46) when their bye arrives. It was nice to see them continue to move in the right direction during their win over the Swans though, with Levi Ashcroft ($795K, 89, BE 70) the one rookie that coaches would feel comfortable keeping in their team beyond the Round 16 bye for the Lions. Of course, by that time most of us will look to pull the trigger on Ashcroft and turn him into an A-grade premium – however, a 92.5 AVG over the last month may see some hold him and address more pressing needs.

A lot of owners have probably moved on from the next group of cash cows, but holding onto Murphy Reid ($515K, 94, BE 27), Christian Moraes ($459K, 67, BE 28) or Riley Bice ($645K, 70, BE 73) last round turned out to be a fine manoeuvre. Reid and Moraes are still best served as bench pieces and I can fully understand why coaches have opted to upgrade Riley Bice in recent times, but there is a world where you could opt to hold some of these rooks in the hopes that they produce scores that contribute to your best-18 over the bye rounds. There aren’t as many of us who chased Tobie Travaglia ($399K, 72, BE 32) – thanks in large part to his shaky job security and yo-yo scoring. On the back of his 72-point effort against the Suns and with a convenient Rd 13 bye, there could be some coaches who chase TT to boost their DEF/MID stocks.

Watch this space

In brief, every rookie listed in this group can be moved on before the end of the bye rounds. Recent scoring binges from the likes of Dan Curtin ($433K, 70, BE 28) and Elijah Hewett ($522K, 63, BE 45) have seen them enhance their price tag and they still have a few bucks to gain. However, their inconsistent seasons to date mean that when Round 15 arrives, we’ll want to offload them. Sydney duo Corey Warner ($471K, 61, BE 55) and Caiden Cleary ($493K, 51, BE 63) are also ready to be dumped, with Cleary’s recent scores in particular an indicator that he has served his job as a cash cow. After scoring 66.5 points on average in his first month of action in 2025, Cleary has slowed up considerably since then with an uninspiring 46.2 AVG over his last four outings.

The annoying lack of production from Finn O’Sullivan ($409K, 55, BE 34), Sid Draper ($301K, 29, BE 55) and Tom Gross ($321K, 5, BE 58) continued in Round 11 – although FOS probably deserves a mention for hitting a career-high with his 55 points. Gross is the real flop, with Mini McQualter finally freeing him from the shackles of a vest only for the budding Eagle to find himself subbed off in the third quarter with just three disposals to his name. Gorss leaving the ground came at almost the exact same time that Sid Draper entered the field and with half the season behind us, it’s fair to say my read on Adelaide’s exciting prospect was way off. I did flag the Crows’ tendency to ease their first-year players into life as an AFL player, but averaging just 34 points from 42% TOG in eight senior matches makes him a failed pick thus far.

Gross and Draper weren’t the only rookies affected by the sub vest with Hugh Boxshall ($339K, 35, BE 17), Cody Angove ($316K, 47, BE 17), Hugh Jackson ($231K, 26, BE 23), Jaxon Binns ($451K, 15, BE 55) and Harry Rowston ($230K, 12, BE 44) all seeing their time on ground managed thanks to being subbed on or off last weekend. On paper, it seemed as though Rowston was the best pick of the bunch, only to start as the sub for GWS and play just 7% of the contest vs. Carlton. We were reminded in Round 11 that it’s wise to wait on $230K first-gamers until we know if their fate will be impacted by the fluro. Defensive trio Sandy Brock ($369K, 43, BE 29), Joe Fonti ($400K, 38, BE 35) and Matt Carroll ($404K, 37, BE 47) all managed to avoid the dreaded sub vests, although their scores last round will hardly inspire their owners.

Let ’em go

Injuries will force our hand once again at the trade table this week. Rookie of the year contender Zach Reid ($749K, 67, BE 64) was the first one to go down and it’s a damn shame that after he finally managed to string (pun intended) some games together, the Dons defender is now facing a month or more on the sidelines. In that same Friday night hitout, Sam Lalor ($560K, 21, BE 72) suffered a hamstring injury of his own that will force his owners to offload and his teammate Luke Trainor ($570K, 21, BE 85) is also on the chopping block after he spent a fair chunk of the game playing as a FWD. The Tigers duo are trade priorities given their miserable 21-point efforts against Essendon and with three trades a week up our sleeve, there’s hope that you can still reach reasonable heights by trading the aforementioned trio and grab a rookie, mid-pricer and a bonafide premium.

I’ve somewhat buried the lead with Cooper Simpson ($321K, 0, BE 31) emerging as the biggest rookie injury from the weekend. Before registering a single stat, Simpson suffered a nasty AC joint injury – ending his night on 0 points, much to the dismay of the 9653 coaches that traded him into their team ahead of this fixture. At just $321K, it’s hard to move Simpson on to a player of note, leaving roughly 22% of the competition with an annoying headache at F7-F8. Speaking of, the chances are slim, but it’s possible that Sam Wicks ($585K, 50, BE 61) or Max Hall ($557K, 26, BE 79) are residing on your FWD bench at this stage of the season. A hamstring injury to Wicks and a poor score affected by an ankle complaint for Hall means that both of these cash cows should be offloaded as soon as you get the chance.

Sub status

Subbed On – Ted Clohesy, Maurice Rioli, Jaxon Binns, Harry Rowston, Deven Robertson, Hugh Jackson, Sid Draper, Harry Sharp, Hugh Boxshall

Subbed Off – Luke Cleary, Cody Angove, Finnbar Maley, Cooper Simpson, Tom Gross, Charlie Spargo, Sam Wicks, Ethan Read

Seeing all these names listed in one group only makes me more annoyed about the sub-rule. Yes, if it was abolished, there are no guarantees that the likes of Hugh Boxshall or Sid Draper will play more minutes, but at least they’d have a chance! Instead, the dumbest rule in the game continues to dramatically affect the cash generation for our rookies – with SEVENTEEN rookie-priced players subjected to a green or red vesting ont he weekend. Sigh.

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.

Any rookies worth grabbing other than Clarke? Johnson, Sheldrick, Lohmann, McAuliffe, Smith?

— Kaz (@Kazainka) May 27, 2025

Ahead of Clarke, no. However I’m warming to the idea of targeting Kai Lohmann as a forward downgrade option. Priced at 35, we saw Lohmann average 59.8 from a full season in 2024 and I think it’s clear he is in Brisbane’s best-22 when healthy. I’d prefer him over paying up for the likes of Sheldrick and McAuliffe at the moment and I want to see Johnson in action before launching too.

Leo Lombard?

— DWH (@DWH93591975) May 27, 2025

Is a player we watch closely. Given his lengthy injury layoff, I’ll be stunned if he avoids the vest against the Dockers and there’s still plenty of time to invest in him after Gold Coast’s bye for the second half of the season.

Best cash cow mid price Sheldrick, McAuliffe , Sam Berry or X O’halloran over the byes

— Ben Boschie (@boschyoz1) May 27, 2025

With the bye rounds upon us, a lot of us are shopping in this area to find value and while I’ve previously been against launching into these awkwardly priced types, there’s merit in targeting them over the next month or so. Given the injuries to some of Richmond’s MID’s I tend to rank McAuliffe at the top of the pile, with job security concerns hovering around the other three. Berry seems like the sexy pick that everyone is talking about this week, but I’m getting strong Henry Hustwaite 2.0 vibes. If he dodges the vest though, he’s great value so thanks to the rolling lockout you can keep a trade up yyour sleeve and launch/jump off when the Crows lock their final team in on Saturday evening.

Although it isnt for this week is Hardeman a viable trade in next week coming of his bye?

— Shaun (@iNSANITY_AUS) May 27, 2025

He continues to go from strength to strength over the last few rounds and after his week off, I expect a lot of people to launch into him. Sub $500K and a fantasy friendly role should lead to continued cash generation.

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 ?