TAC Cup statistics for 2008 AFL draftees

Now we’ve gone through the WAFL and SANFL draftee statistics in the previous two posts, time for the main course: the Victorian kids. They’ve mostly been running around playing each other in the TAC Cup this year, and there is plenty of fantasy value to be mined out of this table!

Take these numbers with a big grain of salt. Remember that whereas the Perth and Adelaide kids have been playing against men in a half-serious competition where some teams actually play to win, the TAC Cup is an open free for all that is more of a series of glorified scouting sessions than a cut-throat league. You’ll see scores that most players will never replicate in the real AFL. With those caveats in mind, you can still get an idea of the pecking order in terms of who is a better fantasy player from this draft class. Let’s rip into it, draft order as usual!

Note: I’ve added in Dangerfield to the bottom there for all you fantasy coaches who were wondering about how he fared playing for the Falcons this year.

Wow, that’s a beautiful set of numbers. Try not to get too excited! The only 100+ scorer, Banner, is yet another Port midfielder… it seems like they have loaded up on kids with outstanding junior stat lines. Can Hamish Hartlett, Banner and Matthew Broadbent all get their turn this year? It’s hard to see that happening barring major injury woes at Port. The numbers do tend to gather up the top, not only because the quality of player goes up in the top rungs of that draft ladder, but also because in TAC Cup games those top-10 players were also the leaders on their teams and demanded the ball more, something which for the most part will not be the case in the AFL this year, particularly for key forwards.

Tom Lynch’s numbers look very high to me, albeit from only four games. This tantalises me that given the Saint’s historically shocking run with injuries to tall backs, Max Hudghton aging and Matt Maguire no guarantee to return to full fitness, the 191cm lad could get his chance sooner rather than later. From the looks of the raw numbers he doesn’t mind playing kick to kick in the backline… should fit right in with Brendon Goddard then!

Sidebottom’s numbers don’t include the finals – none of these tables do – so it doesn’t take into account his 10-goal performance in the TAC Cup grand final. Averaging 90.1 is still enough to put him second behind Lynch (and Dangerfield, but he shouldn’t count). The key question with him is how outside he plays once he wears the black and white in anger. Collingwood probably need him to play more inside to cover for the loss of Scott Burns and to cover for the mediocrity of Shane O’Bree, but he may be given more of an outside role in his first year, as happens to many draftees whom coaches tend to feel are not big enough in the body to handle pack work at their tender ages.

Looking further down the list, it’s easy to see why many fantasy coaches were keeping a beady eye on where Heyne was drafted to, because his numbers stick out at that part of the draft. Could we see Lynch running the ball out of the St Kilda defence and bombing it long to Heyne this year? Stranger things have happened.

Enough of me rambling on, time for you to pick the eyes out of this one. Tell me in the comments which numbers you like the look of, and which discourage you.