Lefty’s Leftfielders – Jack Darling

G’day all,

17 days until the real stuff kicks off! Don’t get me wrong I am enjoying the NAB cup but it will be almost a relief when that first bounce down happens – if for no other reason than to stop me fiddling with my team!

I have finished with my ‘offseason’ Leftfield selections, and from here on in will be looking at those unique players who have impressed so far in the NAB cup ie ‘preseason’ Leftfielders

Call it jumping on the bandwagon after one good score if you like, but what I tried to look for was a lesser like who seems to have changed roles or even been granted a different/additional position for selection in 2014.

Anyway, welcome to the seventh edition of Lefty’s Leftfielders – today is all about the Eagles young gun Jack Darling.

Name: Jack Darling

Club: West Coast Eagles

Position: Forward

AFL Fantasy Price: $374,500

AFL Dream Team Price: $377,400

Bye Round: 9

Percentage owned: 3.8% (UBER-NIQUE- the phrase for those players owned by less than 1 team per league on average)

Argument For

His lone 2014 NAB game returned 94 points against a pretty poor Freo side, this included JD playing a sweeping role across half back for most of the first quarter. 5 tackles and a goal helped boost his score as did his game high 8 marks. Looked fit, lean and hungry for the ball – exactly what we want to see at this stage of the year. Little bit hard to gauge how relevant this score was as Fremantle were awful and looked half asleep for most of the game – but I would rather he dominate in a game like this than just be ok.

In 2013 JD averaged 68.9 points over 21 games, this included 3 tons and a high of 127 versus the hapless Demons in round 3. He played predominantly in the forward half of the ground, and was one of the better performed Eagles players in what can only be described as an underwhelming year for the club.

In the off-season the Eagles replaced long time coach and club legend John Worsfold with former Kangaroo’s midfielder Adam Simpson, who most recently was an assistant coach at Hawthorn. Its often hard to gauge the impact a new coach will have on a group of players, particularly after such a long time under a favourite son like Woosha, but all the talk coming out of the Eagles has been really positive. One thing Simpson has been quoted on numerous occasions is he wants more flexibility in the playing group, including a bit of midfield time for Darling. This should result in the strongly built young lad (he is only 21!) boosting his possession numbers as he will spend more time around the ball.

There is no issue with Darlings job security, if he keeps himself fit he is picked every week. He has never worn the green vest in his career, and I can’t see that changing. Attacks the ball with serious intent without getting his head or body into awkward positions, runs hard and doesn’t whinge at the umpires if things don’t go his way.

With Kennedy back at full fitness, Cox or Nic Nat likely to be resting more in the forward line this year due to the interchange caps, it is likely Darling will be getting the third tallish defender most weeks. Most sides will struggle to find a matchup that works both in the air where Jack is a good grab and on the ground where he covers lots of grass over a game. Think a Zac Dawson type of defender who will be forced most times to combat Darling one on one, most would agree Darling will be coming out on top of that match-up more often than not!

Jack has proven himself to be a resilient beast since debuting in 2011, having missed only 2 games in his first 3 seasons. Perfect for a set and forget F6 in my opinion, this bloke fronts up almost every week for you.