I don’t know why, but I have the golden touch with SC. Gaze upon my squad in awe and wonderment.
A lot of these players are shared with my Dream Team, so I won’t go into great detail again with them.
Luke Hodge: I like Hodge in SC better because his touches usually mean more, so the injury concerns are less of a concern for a slow start. Having said that, six clangers on Friday night is not a good start.
Chris Newman: With Bowden roaming, he will rack up the rebound 50s and marks from opposition kicks.
Jarrad Waite: I watched him carefully in the NAB Cup game where he zoned off the third forward (in that case Mitch Thorp) and played the Hodge role to perfection. Some players are talked up to play like Hodge without the toys in the kit bag to be able to deliver, but Waite is capable of playing that role. The only question for me is whether his team responsibilities allow him to play that way. His game on Richo on Thursday showed that he can be just as good following opponents up the ground and hurting them on the scoreboard. Very happy with this pick.
Martin Mattner: With no Tadhg Kennelly, and Nick Malceski‘s knee still held together with twine, the halfback rebounding for the Swans is going to be left to Mattner more and more this year. Instead of the 2008 dynamic of the three candidates taking turns to play this lucrative role from week to week, Mattner is the only man left who can do it all year.
Chad Cornes: No explanation necessary, especially in SC.
Jed Adcock: Same reasoning as for DT. However, I had been wavering in SC with a structure involving two mid-pricers, with Lachie Henderson uppermost in my thoughts. After Henderson failed to make the Lions side for Round 1, I was lucky enough to get into the SC site during the 160 minutes of maelstrom and change my team around, putting Adcock in. Mind you, each page load took around 10-15 minutes, but I got there.
Andrew Raines: The reversion to a 5/2/1/1 structure makes me happier about Raines’ injury, particularly if Henderson comes in next week.
Stephen Hill (e): Consideration was given here to Michael Hurley but I think Hill will get more games and more of the ball.
Nathan Grima: I had Greg Broughton here prior to the teams being named but was able to slot in Grima. Of course, he didn’t survive the cut on Friday, so this may turn out to have been a dumb move! Oh well.
Gary Ablett jnr (c): If you didn’t buy GAJ in SC after his magnificent pre-season, you had rocks in your head. Set and forget your captain for 22 glorious rounds. GAJ is just about a defensive pick at this stage, as you just know half the competition is going to install him as perma-captain so there’s more danger in not buying him.
Jimmy Bartel (vc): I’ve seen a lot of teams with the AB portion of the ABC Geelong engine room. I get the feeling Jimmy is going to tantalise us more with garbage time salvation jobs, but with the pressure of captaincy off him I am not as stressed.
Paul Hasleby: Will probably be a better SC player than DT, though I am worried about a week like that 10 that Rhys Palmer pulled out in SC at random last season.
Travis Tuck: If I liked Tucky in DT, I LOVED him in SC. That sort of inside game makes him an SC gun, even with turnovers, because the majority of his possessions are contested so the ranking points pile up.
Daniel Rich: Lock, another inside mid whose ball will be hard-won. The fundamentals of his game all point to him being an SC superstar, especially early with Simon Black still proppy so his TOG won’t be limited.
Liam Anthony: His NAB numbers for SC demanded a starting position over Robinson, but I got lucky – sort of!
Mitch Robinson (e): His 109 in round 1 is a huge bonus coming in as my emergency. It looks like he’s got a place for a while yet, barring further disaster.
Dayne Beams: Anthony’s injury leaves me with no midfield bench cover if Beams doesn’t get named early, so this is a problem. Hopefully I’ll have at least until the end of round 2 to think about it.
Dean Cox: No-brainer.
Drew Petrie: I suppose it’s a bit dangerous buying him at what could very well be the height of his price, but I can’t see much else in that Kangaroo forward line that will take points off him. Apart from Brent Harvey, he is all the Kangaroos have got in the way of genuine game-changing star power, so he’ll be used on or around the ball as often as possible.
Jesse White: I like this #3 ruck far better than my DT one. The undervalued White will get games early, there’s a hole in the depth chart waiting for him to fill it and I like buying Swans players in SC, so this was a confluence of feelgood factors for me.
Jake Spencer: Hopefully I’ll never have to use him.
Simon Goodwin: The lack of Brett Burton means someone has to kick the goals for the Crows early, and I’m not confident at all in their forward talls so I think that with Jason Porplyzia underdone, Goodwin has as good a chance as any to step up into that role.
Brett Deledio: A shocking round 1 was more like just a shocking first half of only 13 in SC, with his second half a much more respectable 47. I don’t think he will have a worse day than that this season, barring injury.
Steve Johnson: Is set for a huge 2009 after being freed up from the responsibility of having to directly engineer goals. His role against Hawthorn of racking up ball across half forward is fabulous for SC because it means lots of inside 50s and a goodly amount of goal assists, both of which are lucrative for ranking points. It also means he’s got less defensive pressure on him as the defenders drop back into a zone and/or flood. Come to think of it, why did I leave him out of my DT?
Shaun Higgins: Naturally. Could turn out to be an SC specialist.
Hayden Skipworth: I was iffy on this until I saw his NAB Challenge scores, which were solid.
Nathan Krakouer: I would have liked Ryan Houlihan here but his price was too high in SC. Hopefully Krak won’t turn it over too much.
Mitchell Brown: A much better SC prospect, I think, especially if he does play forward. I like him as an SC starter a lot.
Taylor Walker (e): Another SC specialist, I suspect.
Jack Ziebell: What a luxury, to be able to have Jay-Z as my 9th forward! This was the only place i was comfortable with him being, as I am still wary of Laidley’s shenanigans. I could afford with the more relaxed SC salary cap to gamble on upside here.
That’s a structure of 5/2/1/1 – 2/2/1/3 – 2/0/1/1 – 3/3/1/2 = 12/7/4/7. You can check out my team’s live scores by using this link – my team ID is 22606, as you can see, if you want to use me as your head to head opponent for the Exteam feature of FanFooty. So, that’s my Super Coach squad. There shall be no sniping. Only basking in my reflected glory. That is all.
