Numbers… it’s what DT is all about. Price changes; averages; break-evens… the list goes on. I’ve decided to go about the numbers a different way this week. Instead of choosing 10 numbers based on specific stats and events that have happened over the weekend, I’ve turned to Saturday Night’s Powerball Lottery to challenge myself to do it the other way around, finding events and statistics from the weekend’s games based on 8 numbers not of my choosing. Whilst there were 8 lucky winners (who pocketed a cool $539k) on Saturday night, there were many more winners in the world of DT as a new breed of midfielders dominated processions.
So based on the winning powerballs, I give you this week’s numbers (oh, the next time I will tell you about http://www.freepokerquiz.com/).
10 – Players who scored more than 130 points in Round 9. Whilst there were some regular high scorers in the mould of Stevie J, Deledio and Chappy in there; coaches of Matt Rosa, Mitch Robinson and Jack Riewoldt would be equally happy with their huge scores in a fairly low scoring round. It’s worth noting that 3 of those 10 players were Tigers players following their huge win over the Hawks at the weekend.
13 – Length (cm) of Bulldogs flyer Zeph Skinner’s rat tail. Whilst the Friday Night crowd lifted for every one of his 3 touches, it was the questionable statement at the back of his head that caught people’s attention. Personally – I’m not a fan. But to each their own…
22 – I had to find room for a mention of him in here; for Collingwood’s #22 Steele Sidebottom continues to go from strength to strength in 2012 as he tallied another 135 DT points for his jubilant owners on Saturday. Initially only stated for a 90-95 avg, with his scoring only really extending to regular 90’s; Sidey has added high scoring to his consistency to create a potent combination resulting in some huge scores. With back to back to back 30d + games, he is turning into a superstar in the absence of Ball and now, Swan.
36 – Possessions by Dayne ‘Mini-Swan’ Beams against Adelaide on the weekend. Now with 5 consecutive scores of 100, including 4 over 120; Beamer is now beyond a must-have in DT this year. After starting slow in the first few rounds, he’s since gone ballistic; taking advantage of Luke Ball’s absence in the process. Costing around $518k nearing Round 10, he’s an expensive but worthy upgrade for your forward line.
37 – Expected price rise (in thousands) for GWS midfield/defender Sam Darley after R10. After a solid 64 on debut against the Lions in R8, Darley came on (after starting as the reptile) and smashed out a respectable 42 points. With a BE of -38, he gives us one of the only decent downgrade options on the bubble this week as we look to downgrade some of the maxed-out rookies prior to the MBR’s.
38 – Amount of coaches (seemingly) that failed to trade in Brisbane maestro Dayne Zorko last round. After plenty of talk through the week, many astute coaches moved on their spent cash cows to get in the stoutly built midfielder. For those that started him on ground, you would’ve been handsomely rewarded with another 90 + score.
Supps
28 – Disposals by North big man Todd Goldstein v Brisbane. In what is becoming an interesting battle for North’s ruck supremacy, Goldy continues to dominate in the absence of HMac. After being recalled following McIntosh’s injury, Todd didn’t let his team down – totalling 47 hitouts to go with his massive possession tally (for a ruckman). The safe thing to do as a DT coach regarding this matter? Stay away from both. It has become a Harry Potter-themed scenario, where ‘neither can live (in DT terms) whilst the other survives’.
42 – Seconds it took for Brisbane trainers to allay our fears about Tom Rockliff’s knee on Sunday. After going down with a stomach-turning hyperextension, my first thought was ‘poor kid, hope it’s not as bad as it looked’; with my second thought turning to ‘damn, now I’m gonna have to trade him out of my DT – how much did he cost again?’ Thankfully for Rocky (and his DT owners), he was miraculously up running again minutes later. Despite a lacklustre finish to the game, at least we won’t need to use up another trade for an LTI.
Send me your ‘Numbers’ for the week @McRathDT
The Benchmark
Hats off to Teek coach, Kartheek as he smashed out the highest score of the round – that of 2,452. I must admit that I’m getting a little jealous seeing all of these coaches pumping out 2400+ scores, but that’s a rant for another day. Impressively, team Teek was the only team to do so in R8 – beating the next best team by over 60 points!
Deledio and Waters held the fort for him at the back, whilst his stacked midfield finally fired – with Boyd, Ebert, Hayes, Montagna, Barlow and Bartel all playing well. With Maric and Giles performing excellent in his ruck division, his DPP forward line (including a sure-fire NAB Rising Star performance from GWS young gun Adam Treloar) all played well to assure him of the weekly prize. Let me just say – when Buddy Franklin is your lowest scorer in the forwards with 97, you know you’re onto something special. Lucky bugger!
Also – special mention to Carnablues coach, Tim who held onto his #1 ranking and now leads the competition by 90 points.
Whore of the Week
After his second massive score of 2012, he simply couldn’t be ignored here. Geelong star Steve Johnson was absolutely everywhere on Friday night as he tallied a career-high 36 touches and 14 marks to finish on 148 points. Seemingly floating around the ground gathering possessions at will – Stevie J put on an uncharacteristic, yet impressively rounded performance that did not included a single goal. Starting to really hit his straps now, Johnson sits behind only Sidebottom, Robinson and Chapman for points scored (by a forward) in 2012.
One step forward and two steps back
No this isn’t the description Nick Riewoldt’s new run-up for goal; this is a metaphor for the game of a promising Irish rookie not to be named *cough cough* *Tommy Walsh*. After tallying a singular kick against his previous club, he gave away two free kicks to bring his grand total to -3 DT points in only his second game in the red and white. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets another game, after he was subbed off in the third quarter. Walsh now becomes the 2nd Swan to finish in the negatives in 2012, after fellow DT spud Andrejs Everitt managed the feat a few weeks back.
The Round Up
Highlights – Lids, Robbo, Sidey and Beams for making my life as a DT coach that much easier; Giles for leading the way in the ruck yet again; Gibbs for finally coming to the party in 2012 tallying a drought-breaking 111; and Carlton (unconvincingly) breaking away on Sunday to hand Melbourne a morale-shattering 58 point loss.
Lowlights – Sub-par efforts from Hargrave, Danger and Jacobs; as well as the Horse for temporarily forgetting how to tackle/mark on Saturday; finally Rockliff for a. scaring the DT world with a season-ending looking knee injury and b. for coming back on to then finish with only 76 points.
Team McRath – With the team now back on track after a month of sub-standard performances (much aligned with the Blues funnily enough); I’ll be looking to get more consistency across the board as I face some tough matchups in my league this week. With a lack of downgrade options at the moment, I’m faced with holding my trades for now with the MBR’s only a week away.
Much like the AFL, the competition is getting more even by the week – with a 2100 score still not enough to get you inside the top 10,000 scorers in Round 9. As we turn our attention to the final full round of football for almost a month – how are you faring? Are you set for the byes? Are you carrying injuries? How many upgrades have you got left? Let us know below in the comments below.
Feedback appreciated as always. Also – if you’re not already… follow me in the Twittersphere: @McRathDT
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