The Supercoach Hipster, Matt Turner, reveals his 2019 team
Left-field selections are SuperCoach Hipster Matt Turner’s trademark but how many has he gone with this year after a disappointing 2018 season? See his 2019 team.
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Picking a team laden with left-field selections and featuring only a handful of popular picks can be a fun way to play SuperCoach.
You can also become your league’s version of Carlton if things go awry.
I should know — it happened to me, the Supercoach Hipster, last year.
Going into the 2018 season, the Phantom set a challenge for me to pick just two non-rookie defenders, midfielders and forwards who were in more than 10 per cent of teams, and trade in only players who were in fewer than 10 per cent of squads.
I started poorly, ranking just outside the top 80,000 SuperCoaches after the opening two rounds, and hardly improved from there as my all-time worst finish of 46,260 was confirmed by season’s end.
My left-field selection strategy backfired horribly and adding unnecessary early trading of premiums, poor recruiting, failure to get popular stars, high buying and low selling into the mix made my campaign look as ordinary as Carlton’s light blue M&Ms guernsey in 1997.
The big question heading into round one this week is: will having no rules on POD selections while staying true to my love of quirky picks lead to a scoring spike in 2019?
Time will tell.
Pending team announcements, here is my starting side for 2019.
DEFENCE
I may regret not going with Sydney’s 2018 SuperCoach gun Jake Lloyd but Crow Rory Laird (38 per cent of teams) is as consistent as they come and I don’t expect Brodie Smith’s availability or the new rules to affect his scoring.
Shannon Hurn was one of my few decent left-field picks for 2018 and I was shocked to see him in just 7 per cent of teams at the moment considering the chances of his superboot being even more useful as a kick-in weapon, particularly after his impressive JLT Series (111, 89).
Wayne Milera bumped up his average from 58.6 in 2017 to 79.8 last year and his classy ball use, along with scores of 123 in the final JLT match and back-to-back tons to end 2018, encouraged me to be among the 3 per cent of sides to choose him.
I have been trying to find the cash for Harris Andrews (2 per cent) but settled on Jayden Short (3 per cent), in the hope he can find plenty of footy in Richmond’s defence.
MIDFIELD
Jack Macrae (23 per cent) only dipped below 98 with two scores last year — once when he got injured and the other time in his second game back from the sidelines — and finished with an average of 127.1 so I considered him a must-have selection, even at his high price.
Clayton Oliver (25 per cent) proved too hard to resist, while Stephen Coniglio hurt me last year by not having him when he averaged 108.4 after being available as a mid-pricer.
Even with the more premium price tag this year, I could not ignore Coniglio (16 per cent), who fired scores of 140 and 123 in the JLT Series.
Rory Sloane (6 per cent) and Jack Steele (2 per cent) are my midfield PODs — the Crow being a big scorer primed to bounce back from a down year and the Saint as a player capable of taking his output to the next level.
Sloane averaged between 105-114 in every season from 2012-17 before dropping to 96.6 in an injury-plagued 2018, while Steele ended his last campaign with four consecutive tons, including 140 in round 23.
Like 67 per cent of SuperCoaches, I found it too difficult to overlook Carlton’s latest number one pick Sam Walsh.
RUCK
I know what you’re thinking. I’m crazy, right?
In a move I realise I may quickly regret, I am pairing Geelong’s Rhys Stanley (1 per cent) with last year’s top Supercoach scorer, Brodie Grundy (44 per cent), in the ruck department.
It was not always going to be like this.
I actually started the pre-season with Stanley’s Cats teammate Darcy Fort as my second ruckman, looking to save money to invest elsewhere.
As other SuperCoaches locked in Max Gawn or Todd Goldstein, who I initially moved to after Fort, I saw a risk worth taking in Stanley.
I’m backing that the high-tempo games as a flow-on effect of the 6-6-6 formation and new kick-in rule will help the mobile big man, and reckon he will finally become a consistent Supercoach scorer as Geelong’s No.1 ruckman.
His streak of 149, 109, 90, 104, 103 and 111 from round 13-19 last year is encouraging but I realise it’s a huge gamble.
I would like to have back-up — Zac Clarke is still under consideration if he is named for Essendon — but at this stage I have Western Bulldogs rookie Jordon Sweet on the pine at R3.
FORWARDS
The forward line has proven the most difficult section of the ground to pick players this pre-season.
It’s like the old RAA ad in SA — who can you trust?
Patrick Dangerfield (68 per cent — how is he not in 100) and Isaac Heeney (45 per cent) are obvious answers, and they are in my team.
But beyond that, there do not look like there are many sure things.
I have backed Jack Darling (3 per cent) at my F3 position.
Tim Kelly, Sam Menegola and Josh Dunkley have all been in my side at various points over summer but their potential roles and extra cost led me to the West Coast forward.
Darling’s 2018 average of 86.9 was deceiving — he scored -1 when he was concussed in round 22 against Melbourne and 14 when he was injured against St Kilda in round 11.
He is at a nice age (26) and coming off a solid finish to the season (110, 92, 112, 82), as well as a decent JLT Series (101, 96).
Darcy Moore (24 per cent) has done enough in the JLT Series (scores of 79 and 97) to take a punt on him at $239,400.
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