This is a post I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I watch the Fanplanner plan teams come and go in the FanFooty databases each week, and I have a page where I can see the popularity of players in the last X number of teams in either Dream Team or Super Coach. The following is a planned Dream Team made up of players who only appear once in the last 20 plan teams entered into FanFooty.
1/20 AFL Dream Team
Backs
Brad Symes, Brent Guerra, Andrew Welsh, Chris A. Johnson, Daniel Pratt, Shannon Hurn, Matt Maguire
James Strauss, Levi Greenwood
Centres
Dane Swan, Shane Tuck, Ryan Griffen, Chris Masten, Courtenay Dempsey, Stephen Hill
Dayne Beams, Tom Swift
Rucks
Troy Simmonds, Darren Jolly
Shaun Hampson, Sam Jacobs
Forwards
Matthew Richardson, Steve Johnson, Ryan O’Keefe, Corey Jones, Robbie Gray, Lachie Hansen, Beau Dowler
Neville Jetta, Simon Hogan
I made this team using the Fanplanner so I can verify that it is under the cap by $9,900. For those who are interested, this team’s best Guru score is 1636.
I see a fair few names there that surprise me, starting in the backs. What does Johnson have to do to get some love from you people? He seems very much in the mould of a Martin Mattner to me, moving to a club that suits his style more to get better opportunities, albeit at a near-premium price already. Guerra has certainly done nothing wrong, particularly with the news that Trent Croad not returning until round 6 at the earliest meaning that he’s going to spend a lot of time in the quarterback role, sitting on defensive 50, racking up the +6 scores as he redirects play. Hurn has been a fantasy favourite for many years, though it seems his star has waned. Strauss is one of those promising players whom, it seems, will get squeezed out of calculations due to structural pressures, with a lack of spots available for back rookies this year in a lot of plan teams.
In the centres, I’m surprised that more people haven’t picked up on Swan’s reliability, while Tuck’s scintillating second half of 2008 isn’t impressing enough coaches. Swift is one name I thought I’d see more of after some rapturous training reports emanating from the west. In the rucks, I had heard from several sources that coaches were leaning towards sticking with the Cox/Simmonds combo which served them so well last season, though perhaps the money has started drifting towards value at that #2 ruck slot.
In the forwards, I am surprised to see Stevie J’s name as he was the model of consistency last season. Do you Fanplanner users not value consistency? The rest of the names in that forward line are more justifiable, though I suspect Hogan’s name may not qualify as the preseason rolls on and odds firm on him getting early games.
I’ll do one of these for Super Coach tomorrow. For now, let me know which names surprise you in the comments.
