- Oct 13, 2017
- 3,724
- 10,512
- AFL Club
- Western Bulldogs
Always seems to be a thread every year where posters can give their thoughts on their clubs own players, usually a good resource for player info. With supercoach opening recently I thought it might be a good time to kick it all off.
I'll only do Doggies players that I'd imagine are somewhat relevant.
DEFENDERS:
Caleb Daniel (545k)
I'd imagine Caleb will be a pretty popular player. He's a model of consistency, since moving to half back in 2019 he has only scored under 75 in 2/34 games (68, 71) and going over 115 in 7/34 games (124, 134, 128, 118, 120, 154). With that 154 being in last years final so not attributing to his average. The fact that our defenders try to feed him the ball every time we exit D50 should mean he is rarely going to have a bad score, which the data over the last two years shows. He's not going to reach the levels of Lloyd/Whitfield/Laird I think he is a solid choice as I doubt unless he gets an injury he's going to drop below 500k. A poster recently did discredit his selection by saying his role might change cos he can't actually defend, I'd say that's a ridiculous comment. Since moving to HBF he's won a AA guernsey, a best and fairest and a club most courageous medal. Whether you think he's a good defender or not it's pretty clear he's going to play there in 2021. I'm also going to use this post as a reason to post this montage of Caleb's best kicks of 2020.
Bailey Williams (452k)
IMO Bailey is the only other defender I think even comes close to consideration. Had a breakout year in 2020, averaging 84 and finishing top 5 in the clubs best and fairest. He's always had SC potential, averaging 81 in his third season (2018) including a score of 139, but then only playing 9 games in 2019. Played every game in 2020 and solidified himself as a lock in the dogs back six. He still had some quite low sores last year (50, 59, 68) but he did find some consistency. Between round 7-14 he had scores of 83, 93, 82, 105, 87, 119, 103, 82 for an eight round average of 94. If you think he could keep that kind of form up he'd be an ok option, but there's better options from other teams.
MIDFIELDERS:
I'll just preface this with it's anyones guess how Bev manages our midfield this year. The only player who has a role locked in would be Hunter. So it's probably safe to start with none of these gun mids, but I guess if no one is picking Macrae/Bont/Treloar it's pretty tempting to get them as POD's..
Jack Macrae (650k)
Everyone knows how good at SC this guy is. In the last three seasons he's averaged 127, 123, 121 to be the premier supercoach midfielder over those three seasons. I'm not going to go through his scores over the years cos I dare say if you're reading this you've owned him or played against him in that period. With Treloar coming in it's probably just better to wait and see with him in 2021. In saying that there's nothing worse than when he goes one a massive run and you don't have him (in 2018 I didn't have him, he had a month where he went 141, 189, 156, 177. My opposition had him as captain every one of them scores, it was not fun).
Marcus Bontempelli (623k)
I think Bont is the one to pick from our midfield. He should play more forward next year which given how well his game translates to SC points should see him atleast hold his average and IMO improve it. Last year he had 19 touches vs Sydney for 166 points and 14 touches vs Geelong for 122 points. He just knows how to score SC points for fun. He also scores alright when he has a heap of it... 199 points from 33 touches vs Adelaide and 161 points from 28 touches vs Hawthorn. He's the lowest risk option of all our big midfielders. Basically if you think he'll average 20 touches and a goal a game he'll average 110, I'd back him to average more touches/goals than that.
Lachie Hunter (618k)
Is anyone gonna pick him? Probably not. He is the fittest bloke at the club (which is weird as he has three chins) and is a lock to play wing, he could be alright with reduced interchange. But much better options.
Adam Treloar (587k)
I think Treloar is a good pick. His record speaks for itself with a career average of 101 and an average of 108.9 in his five seasons of Collingwood. Priced true to that average I believe he can average 110+ in the dogs run and gun style midfield. The talk about him being injury prone is laughable. He has that weird double hammy in 2018 which I've never seen before and I doubt I'll ever see again and last year he had a hamstring vs Sydney. Besides that he's basically never been injured.. don't listen to the crap that some people say about him being a walking injury. I did see on twitter (cant find to resource now - sorry0 that Treloar's fav ground to play at stats wise is Etihad. I believe all this points to an improved average this season.
Tom Liberatore (569k), Bailey Smith (494k)
I'm grouping these two together as they're bascially in the same boat. There's too many question marks on their scoring with Treloar coming in. Would have been all over Smith if we didn't get Treloar into the club.
RUCKS:
English will be a good pick when Martin retires but neither of these two are relevant this year except on the role of Dunkley..
Forwards:
Josh Dunkley (560k)
My #1 pick for the dogs. With Danger having an interrupted preseason I will be extremely surprised if he isn't the #1 forward this season. There seems to be some history rewritten about Josh's season last year (mostly be Essendon supporters, shock) where he seemed to attend every ruck contest for the season. Simply not true. In the first three rounds of the season he played pure midfield and scored 67, 131, 128 while being the beast he was in 2019. In that third game he injured his knee and missed 7 games. In the 7 game period he missed Bailey Smith filled the void and Liber returned to his 2014 career best form. So when he returned to the team in round 10 he was forced to be in the second midfield rotation which IMO makes total sense, hence the DPP. I highly doubt that'll be the case this year, especially after his trade request. Last year once he returned and played 70/30 forward/mid he still scored between 87-151 for the remaining games of the season. So even when he does play forward he scores well. I'd expect more scores closer to 151 than 87 in 2021, he's the only dog that I'd say is a lock. If you did have doubts on that whole ruck fiasco than Martin coming to the club would help ease your mind. 110+ average is on the cards this and year, hopefully 116+ like 2019.
Hope that helps some people out. Look forward to reading other posters club previews.
I'll only do Doggies players that I'd imagine are somewhat relevant.
DEFENDERS:
Caleb Daniel (545k)
I'd imagine Caleb will be a pretty popular player. He's a model of consistency, since moving to half back in 2019 he has only scored under 75 in 2/34 games (68, 71) and going over 115 in 7/34 games (124, 134, 128, 118, 120, 154). With that 154 being in last years final so not attributing to his average. The fact that our defenders try to feed him the ball every time we exit D50 should mean he is rarely going to have a bad score, which the data over the last two years shows. He's not going to reach the levels of Lloyd/Whitfield/Laird I think he is a solid choice as I doubt unless he gets an injury he's going to drop below 500k. A poster recently did discredit his selection by saying his role might change cos he can't actually defend, I'd say that's a ridiculous comment. Since moving to HBF he's won a AA guernsey, a best and fairest and a club most courageous medal. Whether you think he's a good defender or not it's pretty clear he's going to play there in 2021. I'm also going to use this post as a reason to post this montage of Caleb's best kicks of 2020.
Bailey Williams (452k)
IMO Bailey is the only other defender I think even comes close to consideration. Had a breakout year in 2020, averaging 84 and finishing top 5 in the clubs best and fairest. He's always had SC potential, averaging 81 in his third season (2018) including a score of 139, but then only playing 9 games in 2019. Played every game in 2020 and solidified himself as a lock in the dogs back six. He still had some quite low sores last year (50, 59, 68) but he did find some consistency. Between round 7-14 he had scores of 83, 93, 82, 105, 87, 119, 103, 82 for an eight round average of 94. If you think he could keep that kind of form up he'd be an ok option, but there's better options from other teams.
MIDFIELDERS:
I'll just preface this with it's anyones guess how Bev manages our midfield this year. The only player who has a role locked in would be Hunter. So it's probably safe to start with none of these gun mids, but I guess if no one is picking Macrae/Bont/Treloar it's pretty tempting to get them as POD's..
Jack Macrae (650k)
Everyone knows how good at SC this guy is. In the last three seasons he's averaged 127, 123, 121 to be the premier supercoach midfielder over those three seasons. I'm not going to go through his scores over the years cos I dare say if you're reading this you've owned him or played against him in that period. With Treloar coming in it's probably just better to wait and see with him in 2021. In saying that there's nothing worse than when he goes one a massive run and you don't have him (in 2018 I didn't have him, he had a month where he went 141, 189, 156, 177. My opposition had him as captain every one of them scores, it was not fun).
Marcus Bontempelli (623k)
I think Bont is the one to pick from our midfield. He should play more forward next year which given how well his game translates to SC points should see him atleast hold his average and IMO improve it. Last year he had 19 touches vs Sydney for 166 points and 14 touches vs Geelong for 122 points. He just knows how to score SC points for fun. He also scores alright when he has a heap of it... 199 points from 33 touches vs Adelaide and 161 points from 28 touches vs Hawthorn. He's the lowest risk option of all our big midfielders. Basically if you think he'll average 20 touches and a goal a game he'll average 110, I'd back him to average more touches/goals than that.
Lachie Hunter (618k)
Is anyone gonna pick him? Probably not. He is the fittest bloke at the club (which is weird as he has three chins) and is a lock to play wing, he could be alright with reduced interchange. But much better options.
Adam Treloar (587k)
I think Treloar is a good pick. His record speaks for itself with a career average of 101 and an average of 108.9 in his five seasons of Collingwood. Priced true to that average I believe he can average 110+ in the dogs run and gun style midfield. The talk about him being injury prone is laughable. He has that weird double hammy in 2018 which I've never seen before and I doubt I'll ever see again and last year he had a hamstring vs Sydney. Besides that he's basically never been injured.. don't listen to the crap that some people say about him being a walking injury. I did see on twitter (cant find to resource now - sorry0 that Treloar's fav ground to play at stats wise is Etihad. I believe all this points to an improved average this season.
Tom Liberatore (569k), Bailey Smith (494k)
I'm grouping these two together as they're bascially in the same boat. There's too many question marks on their scoring with Treloar coming in. Would have been all over Smith if we didn't get Treloar into the club.
RUCKS:
English will be a good pick when Martin retires but neither of these two are relevant this year except on the role of Dunkley..
Forwards:
Josh Dunkley (560k)
My #1 pick for the dogs. With Danger having an interrupted preseason I will be extremely surprised if he isn't the #1 forward this season. There seems to be some history rewritten about Josh's season last year (mostly be Essendon supporters, shock) where he seemed to attend every ruck contest for the season. Simply not true. In the first three rounds of the season he played pure midfield and scored 67, 131, 128 while being the beast he was in 2019. In that third game he injured his knee and missed 7 games. In the 7 game period he missed Bailey Smith filled the void and Liber returned to his 2014 career best form. So when he returned to the team in round 10 he was forced to be in the second midfield rotation which IMO makes total sense, hence the DPP. I highly doubt that'll be the case this year, especially after his trade request. Last year once he returned and played 70/30 forward/mid he still scored between 87-151 for the remaining games of the season. So even when he does play forward he scores well. I'd expect more scores closer to 151 than 87 in 2021, he's the only dog that I'd say is a lock. If you did have doubts on that whole ruck fiasco than Martin coming to the club would help ease your mind. 110+ average is on the cards this and year, hopefully 116+ like 2019.
Hope that helps some people out. Look forward to reading other posters club previews.
