12 down, 12 to go!
It’s crazy to think that we’re only halfway through the 2025 fantasy season! The first bye round is behind us and we still have a bunch of trades up our sleeve to help us navigate the best-18 rounds. However, rookies are starting to crumble. Our favourite cash cows are finding themselves vested or scoring in the 30’s and as a result, the depth for each fantasy team is being tested. Thankfully, with only St Kilda and Frementle on the bye this week, we should all be able to field close to 22 green dots and better our chances of posting a reasonable point total. As we move magnets to find the best combination for Round 13, it’s important to maintain the long-term view of bettering our teams so that we (hopefully) exit the mid-season byes with no more pesky rookies on our field.
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 12
An unlikely hero emerged as the top scorer last week, with Joe Fonti besting all of our popular rookies with his 86 points. GWS’ defender led a rather unassuming group of vote getters in Round 12, with the likes of Elijah Hewett and Dan Curtin probably gone now for the coaches that opted to start the season with them. Connor O’Sullivan falls into the same category, although Kai Lohmann helped 3,500+ coaches that traded him in with a ripper score on Thursday night. Yes, I know Lohmann didn’t start the year as a rookie-priced option and Patrick Voss (77) should technically get votes, but I’m overriding the nominess thanks to Cobra Kai’s higher ownership.
*If you’re having issues submitting your vote try clicking “view results” first and that should resolve the problem 🤞
Making Moves
Let ’em grow
The first mid-season bye round saw a large number of our popular rookies struggle to score. Household names like Ashcroft, Trainor, Langford, Boxshall and Bice all faltered last weekend and as I cast my eye over the crop of replacements, there are hardly any home run picks emerging. Angus Clarke ($345K, 42, BE -6) was the popular pivot prior to Thursday night with a whopping 44,000 coaches opting to pounce on the Essendon rook. Some invested in his new teammate Zak Johnson ($238K, 34, BE 18) as well, only to see him subbed out of the contest in the 4th. There were even a few who rolled the dice on Archer Day-Wicks ($282K, 41, BE 10), although he didn’t record great fantasy numbers and his place in Essendon’s team is far from safe. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, with savvy coaches happy to pounce on Kai Lohmann ($392K, 79, BE 8) despite his inflated price tag and he rewarded them with a healthy 79-point game fuelled by three goals.
As the weekend unfolded, a few other cheaper cash cows emerged as future buys. Caleb Mitchell ($252K, 51, BE 8) managed to avoid a pair of vests in his first game of 2025 and Tigers trio Campbell Gray ($301K, 50, BE 3), Tom Sims ($351K, 69, BE 7) and Kaleb Smith ($322K, 59, BE 2) all own single digit breakevens after their efforts against GWS. Mitchell and Gray intrigue me the most as viable downgrade plays, although they still have a bye week just around the corner. One rook who had his feet up last week and will return to action is Riley Hardeman ($491K, DNP, BE 1), with the North Melbourne DEF scoring 106 points in his last outing. Checking in at almost $500K, Hardeman has already made a significant chunk of change and that price tag may lead to some teams overlooking him.
However, trading a frustrating rookie like Bice or Trainor to Hardeman may be a way to reignite some cash gen in your side. An average of 66 points in his last five matches, there is optimism that the rebounding Roo can maintain a solid streak of scores that contribute to our best-18 over the bye rounds. It would be foolish of me not to mention the reigning No. 1 pick in last week’s mid-season draft, Tom McCarthy ($230K, DNP, BE 25). The belief is he will make his AFL debut over the next fortnight and McCarthy hardly looked out of place for the Eagles’ WAFL side last round – recording 26 disposals and 5 marks for a score of 90. His new teammate Elijah Hewett ($547K, 75, BE 42) maintained his price rise with a strong showing vs. Geelong and another mainstream starting pick in Daniel Curtin ($475K, 79, BE 17) put up career highs in disposals (16) and tackles (5) to produce on Saturday night.
Watch this space
All good things must come to an end. Levi Ashcroft ($785K, 57, BE 96) had been a steady source of production for 11 weeks of the fantasy season, but a red vest in Round 12 has seen him stall. If you have bigger issues to address, you can keep the budding Lion in your team until Brisbane’s bye round, but a breakeven of 96 and a matchup with the Crows in Adelaide has led to almost 7000 coaches swinging the axe on Ashcroft. Once upon a time, Xavier Lindsay ($592K, 58, BE 51) was also deemed to be a must-have rookie. While he still managed to post fine numbers against St Kilda, the coaches who still have Lindsay in their team should look to jump ship before he plummets in price. The replacements for the likes of Ashcroft and Lindsay aren’t overly inspiring and with three trades up our sleeve, it’s improtant that we don’t get caught buying into crappy rookies.
To avoid this, a lot of coaches targeted mid-pricers last round, with Kane McAuliffe ($564K, 55, BE 31) was one of the popular buys. While McAuliffe continues to tick upwards in value, his owners won’t be filled with confidence when it comes to his weekly scoring output and it wouldn’t shock me if we saw him demoted to the sub (or even flicked out of the team) before the mid-season byes ended. On the cheaper side of things, Gold Coast debutant Leo Lombard ($311K, 28, BE 37) showed flashes against the Dockers, although he still has work to do before we consider him as a trade target. Cody Angove ($340K, 46, BE 18), Hugh Boxshall ($349K, 30, BE 33) and Sandy Brock ($388K, 52, BE 28) also need to string better numbers together before we consider shopping in those ares and while Joe Fonti ($442K, 86, BE 17) produced against Richmond, I’m classifying him in the same group. Fontempelli will likely keep Conor Stone on the outside looking in, but it’s hard to trust him as a cash cow investment with Port, Brisbane and Gold Coast on the schedule before his bye.
Let ’em go
The obvious trade-out candidate this week is none other than Riley Bice ($593K, 9, BE 99) following his 9-point effort against the Crows. Roughly one month ago, I told coaches they could have faith in Bice to right his wrongs but boy oh boy was I wrong. Even with a Richmond matchup on the horizon, the smart play is still to cull the Sydney defender this week before he drops any more in price. His teammate Caiden Cleary ($448K, 8, BE 81) also remains on the chopping block and while there aren’t as many viable downgrade options in the forward line, I would still be making him a trade priority. The Swans’ duo aren’t the only beloved rookies in the firing line, with Luke Trainor ($526K, 31, BE 93) another must-trade candidate after he was also subbed out on Saturday.
Hopefully, by trading out all three of those rooks you can find a reasonable upgrade (or two) this week, but it’s not a terrible idea to bank some cash for future trades as well. If you’ve managed to dodge those bullets, now is also a great time to cull the cash cows who have virtually maxed out in price. Max Hall ($553K, 73, BE 63) and Murphy Reid ($520K, 33, BE 48) can be ditched while on their bye and despite the recent successes of Jaxon Prior ($662K, 39, BE 73) and Harvey Langford ($664K, 36, BE 90), they too can be moved on. Both Prior and Langford enter the weekend at $650K+ and with a trio of trades, you should be able to find a way to land a big fish to fill their position.
Sub status
Subbed On – Devin Robertson, Caiden Cleary, Sid Draper, Bailey Laurie, Bo Allan, Ted Clohesy
Subbed Off – Zak Johnson, Levi Ashcroft, Leo Lombard, Karl Worner, Luke Trainor, Riley Bice, Aidan Johnson
In a week where a lot of coaches (myself included) needed the bottom tier of our teams to prop up our sides, our rookies failed. The likes of Riley Bice, Levi Ashcroft, Luke Trainor and Caiden Claery have helped a lot of us through the first half of the fantasy season, but on the weekend that quartet COMBINED to score a measly 105 points. Woof.
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 is more viable this week and long term between Tom McCarthy and Campbell Gray? Should Caleb Mitchell replace either/both of them in my plans?
— Skippy (@SKIPdaZIP) June 3, 2025
Ripper question. I think given where West Coast are at, Tom McCarthy will be the pick of the downgrade options if he gets named for a debut. Adem Yze seems keen to keep pumping games into Campbell Gray and while his scoring output may be worse than Caleb Mitchell’s, his perceived job security in the Tigers’ side makes me lean towards Gray as the better investment.
Madden as ruck option if he is in with Briggs out?
— Panayioti (@Yioti99) June 3, 2025
100%! We will get more clarity on who will lead the ruck Briggs when the teams drop on Thursday, but Nic Madden shapes as a logical replacement. Checking in as a $230K RUC, Madden has averaged 96.9 points from 9 VFL games this season and he’ll be a tantalising rook if Adam Kingsley gives him a gig.
Only small sample size but what do you think Angus Clarke role is long term as he get more games in? He looked very impressive as a forward in my opinion in his debut game.
— Johnny.T (@Johnnnyhs) June 3, 2025
It’s hard to get a read on the bottom tier of Essendon’s team at the moment as their depth is being tested. With that said though, I believe he’ll be able to do his job for us as fantasy coaches and score around the 50-point mark for the next month or so.
We gonna get any basement rookies this week? In the market for 3
— Nathan G (@fireballmudflap) June 3, 2025
I got a lot of questions similar to this one and I think it’s fair to say Nathan, we’d all like 3 basement rookies to be named this week! It would also be an added bonus if we had assurances around their job security and they all averaged 60+ for the next 4-5 games, but unfortunately, that’s not how the game works. With 3 basement rookies unlikely to emerge and to stop ourselves from buying into any cheap green dot, it’s important to cast your eyes forward with your trade plans and have a think about your future trade plans (both players you want to bring in and players you want to trade out). To answer your question though, I think McCarthy is the best rook who should get a run before too long and the new Dons duo in Liam McMahon and Archer May.
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)
Tom McCarthy (Eagles, $230K)
MIDFIELDERS
Luke Urquart (Kangaroos, $230K)
Josh Smillie (Tigers, $322K)
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)
Ty Gallop (Lions, $230K)
Recent Comments
- on Fry’s Cash Cows – Rd. 13: “After passing on Kennedy, I’m grabbing Miers myself mate – I think he’s a great target!” Jun 6, 16:51
- on Fry’s Cash Cows – Rd. 13: “I think because of his versatility, Leake may get another run later in the year. But I’m only making a…” Jun 6, 16:43
Podcasts
Calvin's Captains
Calvin’s Captains – Rd. 13
The Thursday Scramble
The Thursday Scramble: Round 13 Bye Week 2
Calvin's Captains
Calvin’s Captains – Rd. 9
Cash Cows
Fry’s Cash Cows – Rd. 10
Cal's Scale of Hardness
Cal’s Scale of Hardness – Rd. 10
Calvin's Captains
Calvin’s Captains – Rd. 10
