Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna had Harley Bennell locked in months before the AFL draft, but how about fantasy coaches?
Think back to the start of this year when fantasy coaches were hemming and hawing over whether to get one or both of Tom Scully and Jack Trengove, where the smart move was to get both. Many will be scared off Bennell by his low WAFL Dream Team average in conjunction with his high price, but the fact that all of his 12 games as a mid-sized midfielder came in the seniors means those numbers are a lot more impressive than they look. By way of comparison, David Swallow averaged just on 65 in Dream Team in the VFL last year (more on that in another post).
Jack Darling had been winning all the headlines pre-draft and duly fell down the board to West Coast, who evidently still don’t mind taking kids with alleged character issues despite their recent history, but his junior history is littered with starring performances. Please note that the following tables are split in two due to many players playing in both seniors and colts (reserves) grades of the WAFL. Understandably, there’s a discrepancy in averages, the biggest of which is for Darling himself, suggesting that he hasn’t got the body to dominate with the big boys just yet, as you’d expect.
2010 WAFL DRAFTEES – COLTS STATISTICS
Player |
Tm |
Pos |
Recruited from |
Ht |
Wt |
G |
K |
H |
M |
T |
HO |
FF |
FA |
G.B |
DT avg |
Jack Darling |
WC |
F |
West Perth |
191cm |
87kg |
6 |
74 |
46 |
34 |
20 |
14 |
15 |
7 |
17.9 |
102.5 |
Alex Fasolo |
CO |
F |
East Fremantle |
180cm |
80kg |
9 |
165 |
64 |
55 |
20 |
3 |
7 |
12 |
6.11 |
98.8 |
Ben Newton |
PA |
M |
South Fremantle |
184cm |
77kg |
6 |
73 |
62 |
30 |
17 |
1 |
11 |
6 |
10.5 |
93.3 |
Reece Conca |
RI |
M |
Perth |
185cm |
79kg |
7 |
99 |
59 |
36 |
15 |
1 |
7 |
10 |
4.3 |
84.0 |
Kirk Ugle |
CO |
F |
Swan Districts |
172cm |
69kg |
4 |
39 |
28 |
4 |
24 |
0 |
8 |
3 |
7.6 |
82.0 |
Tom Ledger |
SK |
M |
Claremont |
178cm |
73kg |
15 |
175 |
163 |
33 |
34 |
0 |
33 |
26 |
8.13 |
73.5 |
Jayden Schofield |
WB |
B |
East Fremantle |
179cm |
75kg |
21 |
247 |
131 |
105 |
40 |
2 |
25 |
26 |
15.8 |
72.6 |
Jamie Cripps |
SK |
B |
East Fremantle |
183cm |
75kg |
1 |
6 |
11 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1.0 |
69.0 |
Angus Litherland |
HW |
B |
Claremont |
190cm |
86kg |
16 |
122 |
59 |
29 |
32 |
1 |
10 |
20 |
1.0 |
41.0 |
2010 WAFL DRAFTEES – SENIOR STATISTICS
Player |
Tm |
Pos |
Recruited from |
Ht |
Wt |
G |
K |
H |
M |
T |
HO |
FF |
FA |
G.B |
DT avg |
Jamie Cripps |
SK |
B |
East Fremantle |
183cm |
75kg |
6 |
73 |
50 |
31 |
12 |
0 |
4 |
7 |
9.10 |
84.5 |
Alex Fasolo |
CO |
F |
East Fremantle |
180cm |
80kg |
9 |
114 |
45 |
43 |
32 |
0 |
7 |
10 |
14.8 |
84.2 |
Reece Conca |
RI |
M |
Perth |
185cm |
79kg |
5 |
54 |
38 |
29 |
10 |
0 |
5 |
3 |
0.1 |
72.4 |
Jack Darling |
WC |
F |
West Perth |
191cm |
87kg |
12 |
96 |
69 |
63 |
36 |
7 |
15 |
15 |
13.8 |
68.5 |
Jacob Brennan |
WC |
B |
East Fremantle |
193cm |
83kg |
19 |
195 |
101 |
75 |
74 |
2 |
16 |
25 |
2.1 |
66.5 |
Harley Bennell |
GC |
M |
Peel Thunder |
185cm |
74kg |
12 |
98 |
104 |
32 |
21 |
9 |
13 |
13 |
13.11 |
62.8 |
Tom Derickx |
RI |
R |
Claremont |
201cm |
100kg |
22 |
112 |
108 |
63 |
53 |
330 |
26 |
37 |
10.4 |
57.4 |
The quiet acheiver amongst this lot is Fasolo. It seems Collingwood can never get enough small forwards on its list, so I would be wary of Fasolo’s job security, especially if Brad Dick makes a full recovery from this year’s ongoing problems. However, his recruitment may point to the Magpie coaching staff not having confidence in Dick in the long term, as well as Leon Davis nearing the end. Then again, with the retirements of Paul Medhurst and Tarkyn Lockyer I suppose they did need to bolster their stocks in that area.
As I said, I will do a similar post for the SANFL presently. Let me know what your thoughts are about this lot. I’d be particularly interested to hear commentary on Bennell. Can you take the same sort of chance on #1 and #2 in the draft again?