Player of the week: Leigh Fisher. Take a bow, Fish. Your half-time score of 104 was good enough, but you followed up to finish with 147 points, in a quality Dream Team display that will have every one of your owners bursting with happiness. You may have infuriated every single fan at the MCG, but it was a perfect DT game: Plenty of stats (18 marks, every single one uncontested) and no impact so the opposition doesn’t worry about shutting you down. The only down side is your final quarter, which netted just five points, as you only registered a kick and a handball.
Biggest disappointment: The Sydney – Port Adelaide game. Too many guns scored poorly in this game, so I’m giving this title to the whole bloody match instead. Consider this: Chad Cornes = 38. Ryan O’Keefe = 37. Danyle Pearce = 48. Adam Goodes = 65 (not as bad as some of his scores this year, but still bad). Shaun Burgoyne and Steven Salopek = 55 each. Brendon Lade = 46. Warren Tredrea = 33 (I know he’s injured, but 33 is a shocker). And to top it off, the normally reliable Brett Kirk got 31. Yup folks, that match was a piss-poor one for pretty much every DT coach. The only respite came through the genuine guns of Kane Cornes, Nick Malceski, and Tadhg Kennelly, who all scored decently.
Other points of interest:
- Richmond’s young ruck/forward Adam Pattison helped himself to 107 points in their honourable Friday night loss to Adelaide. Patto has been much maligned, but there’s no way Plough will drop him from now on, and he does actually have some considerable talent for a big bloke. He could well be beginning a mid-season form patch after hitting his gears. Cameron Howat also did well with 96 , and he is a performer who has slipped under the radar of a lot of DT coaches
- The Johnsons – Steve and Michael – both topped the ton in Saturday’s Geelong v Freo match. The forward (Steve) and back (Michael) both have midfield potential, in my opinion, and both are worth careful consideration when you’re going about your upgrade plans over the next few weeks. Steve is better value, although Mick has more potential for consistently big scores. Keep an eye on this blog in the coming days for more
- Another worth watching is Kane Tenace, who recorded 79. Tenace has been in blistering form in the VFL, but as we all know that doesn’t always translate well into the big league. There have always been doubts about his kicking, but if he can keep racking up numbers like that consistently, not a single DT coach will care
- Andrew Carrazzo kept up his steady form, scoring 115 in the Blues’ loss to the Roos. Meanwhile, Lindsay Thomas and Matt Campbell both didn’t disgrace themselves for North Melbourne, with Thomas scoring 78 in his return from injury, and Campbell getting 65 after a single-figure game last week against Essendon
- Leon Davis snared a surprising 92, which was his best game since round eight last year. Just don’t expect the same situation next week – small forwards, like Davis, are notoriously unreliable
- At the other end of the scale, Dane Swan had a bad day by his standards, collecting just 76 against the Bulldogs. Swan is a proven DT performer, and his sky-high price will plummet as a result of that, so keep him in mind. Daniel Kerr’s price should also fall (even if it was his best game in four weeks), although you should not do anything about drafting him in until the tribunal has sorted through its paperwork after his clash with Cameron Bruce
- Jared Brennan scored his third under-30 game for the year, to go with his two 100+ efforts. This bloke is the most inconsistent DT player going around – and I’m happy to debate that with anyone
- Adam Campbell, from Fremantle, scored just 16, a week after kicking four goals against Hawthorn
- Young Queenslander Sam Gilbert, for the Saints, was a good player on Saturday night, racking up 95 points. Another banana-bender, the highly-rated David Armitage, looked composed out in the middle although didn’t win a heap of ball in his debut game. Armitage scored 46
