Mitch Robinson‘s debut was overshadowed by 2009’s most popular fantasy player injuring his knee.
The mainstream media were all talking about Ben Cousins, but fantasy coaches’ eyes were mostly glued to the progress of Andrew Raines on Thursday night, and he was having about as good a game as could be expected under the circumstances until he fell with a grimace in the last quarter and came off limping with a problem in what coach Terry Wallace described later as the lateral outside of the left knee. Dr Peter Larkins diagnosed the injury as bruising on radio MMM at the time, but no one will know for sure until the swelling goes down and scans are done in the next couple of days.
Those of us who bought him – and according to FanFooty’s databases, he is the most popular player among those of you who have used FanFooty’s Exteam feature (which is how you get live team and head to head scoring) – will be hoping that it’s just bruising and nothing more serious, because this could be the start of a 2008-level backopalypse given the continuing paucity of options around his price. With Lachie Henderson not making the Lions 25, if his owners are to be forced into a sideways trade, the options are players like Jarryn Geary, Josh Head, Shannon Hurn and Ricky Petterd, all of whom have upside and/or fitness concerns. Depending on the length of the injury, the temptation may be to rely on Stephen Hill, Jared Petrenko or the like while Raines recovers… but that’s why they were on the bench in the first place, we didn’t want to start a darn rookie in the backs! Gah!
Robinson’s excellent numbers, however, were a welcome sight to those who made the right decision, especially those who were hemming and hawing over him or Dayne Beams and couldn’t get into the sites during the 160 minutes of maelstrom. For myself, however, it was tinged with a flash of hatred for Dean Laidley. I don’t need much reason to hate him at the best of times, but I have now discovered how, even though he has named Liam Anthony and Jack Ziebell in his starting 18 for round 1, he is going to sabotage my team: he has somehow managed to convince me subconsciously to leave Robinson as an emergency and start Anthony, which could cost me anywhere up to 80 points! Grr!
Ryan Houlihan looked like being a bit of a disappointment by not joining in the party, but it was an excellent sign for fantasy purposes that he got some cheap numbers in the last quarter when he was rotated into the middle to give the regulars a rest. He’ll be right. The frustrating thing about it from my point of view is that he may very well be the nuff-nuffs’ trade of choice for Raines, if (as they wouldn’t have if they hadn’t done their research) they didn’t have Houlihan to begin with. Feh!
Those of you who were whinging in the chat about my recent potting of Chris Judd will not get a retraction. My comments were only ever fantasy related – and I didn’t rule him out of SC considerations. Give it a month and see if he’s still averaging 100 in DT. Harrumph!
I’m sure there are plenty of other aspects of this game you want to talk about in the comments, so I’ll leave the rest to you and go to bed. It’s been a big day, with the kicker being that Champion Data have decided, in their infinite wisdom, that no one should have live Super Coach scores – not even the Super Coach site! Further news on this if it comes to hand. Rest assured that the SC numbers currently on FanFooty are the right ones – beware incorrect imitations. I’ll post my teams tomorrow for you to snipe at. I hope your team went well!
Brad
March 27, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Raines also left the field in the last quarter of last night’s match with a knee injury, which was later revealed as a lateral meniscus tear.
“At this stage he is expected to miss 3-4 weeks, but if the damage is worse than expected, he could be out for a longer period,†Monaghan said.
Knox
March 27, 2009 at 2:53 pm
SEN reports he has a slight Meniscal Tear. 3-4 but probably more.
Roger
March 27, 2009 at 2:53 pm
If Raines knee is bad, how about Rains for Grimes? Melb website says he will only miss 2 weeks?
Knox
March 27, 2009 at 2:59 pm
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/default.aspx?newsid=73875
The Fone
March 27, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I’m pretty stoked… got rid of cousins at 5pm and got in Foley instead. Tossed up whether or not to get Shane Tuck given the hype but stuck with Dalziel.
Only disappointment for me out of that game was Joel Bowden! Went ice-age cold.
John
March 27, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Did Raines injury occur as a result of a collision or just from running wear and tear on the knee???
fryzie
March 27, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Roger, that move would take balls of steel.
Raines was out last year due to a knee injury, first game back – hurt his knee.
Grimes was out last year due to a back injury and has had back problems which has delayed his AFL return.
Significant upside to Grimes but a hell of a risky move chief.
Muppet Executioner
March 27, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I’m just pissed off no-one has looked at my link up the page of a vid that shows Hitler going banana’s over his DT picks – it’s pure gold
Nick
March 27, 2009 at 4:05 pm
John, Raines injured his knee going forward in a tackle. It looked pretty tame, but he was brought down onto the knee, screamed a bit and play moved on, then he got up and walked to the trainer to grabbed an arm and walked him off.
Doogie
March 27, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Both cuz and raines will be out for the next 4 weeks http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25250444-19742,00.html?from=public_rss
pascoe
March 27, 2009 at 4:30 pm
chad yeh i got bowden. i am still gonna stick with him and hope that wallace has enough sense to throw him down back again as he is the only tigers defender besides newman that has any sense down there. bowden needs to be in the backline against the cats dogs coming up
benno
March 27, 2009 at 4:34 pm
don’t worry muppet i had a look and that is some seriously funny shiza. check it out y’all
fryzie
March 27, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@ Muppet – that might be because we all watched it 2 weeks ago when it came out. Cheers anyway mate.
Hibbo
March 27, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Breaking News:
From SEN- Liam Anthony wont play this week and could be out for 4 weeks cos of a stress fracture!
it just keeps getting worse!
benno
March 27, 2009 at 4:44 pm
yes. he is the antichrist.
mOnty if you can think straight, maybe you’d like to compare hawks murphy v gilham? i, like hitler, need to replace raines.
Brad
March 27, 2009 at 4:48 pm
@ Hibbo
FUCK ME DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brad
March 27, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Donald McDoanld confirmed at least 6 weeks for Anthony with more than one stress fracture in the foot.
fryzie
March 27, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Laidley has gone too far this time, I can’t believe he would break his own players foot JUST to screw us around.
Orba
March 27, 2009 at 5:01 pm
fryzie! hahahahahahahahaha
John23
March 27, 2009 at 5:01 pm
F*** YOU DEAN LAIDLEY!
Muppet Executioner
March 27, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Oh no not Liam and to think it was him or Beams
Aaaaaggggghhhhhhhh
The problems are starting to mount for my list like coke at a mormon funeral
– and fryzie – I do feel more than a little embarrassed after you exposing me as a late to the party dickhead 🙁
Muppet Executioner
March 27, 2009 at 5:26 pm
just for the recoIrd, dean laiMdley makes lAfe very hard foFr all of uAs dream teaGmers
Muppet Executioner
March 27, 2009 at 5:44 pm
sorry I’ll turn my glasses back the right way
Muppet Executioner
March 27, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Raines did his right knee last year R2 and they called it 3 weeks back then and we all know what happened to him 08 –
Raines season over 09???????????????
At least I’ve got rance if it’s not LTI
ryan
March 27, 2009 at 6:43 pm
i cant wait for judd to smash it and prove u wrong monty, he is a superstar that will average high 90s this year
m0nty
March 27, 2009 at 6:46 pm
That’s my point, ryan. If he only averages high 90s then he’s a failure in fantasy terms, because for the price you’re paying he has to average at least 100 and push into the top six fantasy mids. Not going to happen in DT. In SC he’s a chance.
Jazzman
March 27, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Imagine if Cousins had been discounted as expected. The agony for many DTers would have multipled exponentially!!!
Adam
March 27, 2009 at 10:01 pm
With the state of players and injuries in the first 24 hours, I reckon Hentschel is going to do both his ACLs going through the banner.
korza
March 28, 2009 at 1:52 pm
If Hentschel goes down im gonna go and climb Ayres rock as high as i can. And im jumping…
Team_Lactose
March 30, 2009 at 2:45 am
LOL at Muppet Executioner.
Novel way of telling everyone your gay.:)