KFC SuperCoach 2021 mid-season awards: Best, worst picks, biggest bolters

Roll our the red carpet, it’s time for the KFC SuperCoach mid-season awards show. Who are the best and worst picks of 2021?

The bye panic is over, every team has played the same number of games and we can take a moment to look back at the crazy season that has been KFC SuperCoach 2021.

Who could have predicted Jack Ziebell could start the season valued at $257K and finish it as the No. 1 scoring forward?

Or that Lachie Neale, Patrick Dangerfield and Rowan Marshall would all turn out to be terrible starting picks, while Taylor Walker would stage a shock career renaissance at 31 years of age.

Most of us got some picks right, some very wrong and a few in between. Our experts have nominated their winners in six award categories, and revealed their best and worst trades of 2021 (so far). We’ve also got some hart numbers to back them up.

Pass the envelope please …

POD OF THE YEAR

The voting:

Al Paton: 3. Touk Miller, 2. Jarryd Lyons, 1. Callum Mills

Tim Michell: 3. Jarryd Lyons, 2. Ollie Wines, 1. Nick Hind

Dan Batten: 3. Callum Mills, 2. Touk Miller, 1. Jarryd Lyons

Totals: Lyons 6, Miller 5, Mills 4, Wines 2

Jarryd Lyons is averaging 121.1 points per game.

KFC SuperCoaches clamour to get Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Macrae and Lachie Neale into their teams at the start of the year and have been guilty of overlooking Lyons for several seasons. The Brisbane Lions star scored 10 consecutive hundreds to start 2021 and has bounced back from an 82 in Round 11 with scores of 128 and 141. In fact, seven of his last nine scores have hit the captaincy threshold of 120 many KFC SuperCoaches use. He is the third ranked midfielder behind Macrae and Clayton Oliver yet still in only 8.2 per cent of teams. One day we’ll learn.

BARGAIN OF THE YEAR

The voting:

Al Paton: 3. Jack Ziebell, 2. Jarman Impey, 1. Isaac Cumming

Tim Michell: 3. Jack Ziebell, 2. Darcy Parish, 1. Tom Hickey

Dan Batten: 3. Jack Ziebell, 2. Darcy Parish, 1. Taylor Walker

Totals: Ziebell 9, Parish 4, Impey 2, Cumming 1, Hickey 1, Walker 1

Jack Ziebell has thrived in a new role in defence.

KFC SuperCoaches are always on the look out for pre-season positional switches and those who took note of Ziebell’s defensive role under David Noble have been hugely rewarded. Ziebell started the season at a ridiculously cheap $257k and had surged to $599k by Round 9. A season keeper for less than $300k almost seems too good to be true but Ziebell is shaping as exactly that.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

The voting:

Al Paton: 3. Matt Flynn, 2. James Jordon, 1. James Rowe

Tim Michell: 3. Matt Flynn, 2. James Jordon, 1. Chad Warner

Dan Batten: 3. James Jordon, 2. Tom Powell, 1. Matt Flynn

Totals: Flynn 7, Jordan 7, Powell 2, Rowe 1, Warner 1

Matthew Flynn is getting a chance to shine six years after being recruited in the 2015 draft.

Our KFC SuperCoach experts couldn’t split Flynn and Jordon for the best rookie of 2021. Jordon has played every game for the ladder-leading Demons and has been incredibly consistent, only dropping below 76 three times. Those who were patient and held him until his Round 14 bye cashed in with a $264k profit. Flynn has been in and out of the GWS team but has found a niche as a ruck/forward supporting Shane Mumford. If you’ve held him this long, you could be set to make a whopping $300k off a player who for most was their starting R3. He opened the campaign with 140 and has only dropped below 70 once.

BUST OF THE YEAR

The voting:

Al Paton: 3. Patrick Cripps, 2. Jordan Clark, 1. Lachie Neale

Tim Michell: 3. Patrick Cripps, 2. Tom Phillips, 1. Connor Rozee

Dan Batten: 3. Patrick Cripps, 2. Tom Phillips, 1. Flynn R2

Totals: Cripps 9, Phillips 4, Clarke 2, Neale 1, Rozee 1, Flynn R2 1

Patrick Cripps has scored above 100 just twice this year.

The Carlton co-captain loomed as one of the best buys of the year and his popularity went through the roof after he dominated a pre-season hit out against Essendon. Many KFC SuperCoaches chose Cripps over Sam Walsh and the difference between the Blues pair has been an average of 24 points per week. Cripps was available for more than $110k less than his starting price in Round 10, which seemed almost impossible at the start of the year when $523k looked a bargain. Two hundreds in 13 games is well below what KFC SuperCoaches were expecting.

MID-PRICER OF THE YEAR

The voting:

Al Paton: 3. Darcy Parish, 2. Taylor Walker, 1. Tim Taranto

Tim Michell: 3. Darcy Parish., 2. Sean Darcy, 1. Ben Cunnington

Dan Batten: 3. Jack Ziebell, 2. Sean Darcy, 1. Aaron Hall

Totals: Parish 6, Darcy 4, Ziebell 3, Walker 2, Taranto 1, Cunnington 1, Hall 1

Darcy Parish has been the KFC SuperCoach breakout star of 2021.

Imagine if you started Parish at $465k or had the foresight to jump on after his breakout performance of Anzac Day. Parish was still available for $496k in Round 7 and has scored eight consecutive tons – seven of which have been 115 or better. Parish has thrived given greater midfield time in the absence of injured Bomber Dylan Shiel and there’s no question now he’s a bona fide KFC SuperCoach premium.

STORYLINE OF YEAR

The voting:

Al Paton: 3. Tom Highmore selection drama, 2. Premium injury carnage, 1. Return of Tex

Tim Michell: 3. Premo forward injuries, 2. Tom Highmore’s 111, 1. Darcy Parish’s emergence as a premium

Dan Batten: 3. Late Mail’s own Tom Highmore, 2. Where are the forward premiums?, 1. Tex renaissance

Totals: Highmore 8, Injuries/forward premiums 7, Tex 2, Parish 1

We’re highlighting Tom Highmore’s 111 in Round 13, but there hasn’t been a player who has dominated the thinking of KFC SuperCoaches as much as the St Kilda defender all season. Highmore looked destined to be one of the cash cows of 2021 when he scored 60 and 77 in his opening two games, only to be dropped and not picked again until Round 9. Scores of 47, 36 and 17 (as medical sub) in his next three games hardly inspired much confidence and many KFC SuperCoaches jumped off during the byes. Those who stuck fat were rewarded with a breakout performance of 22 disposals and 13 marks against Adelaide. A real story of persistence for those who held but one of trade pain for those who moved him on and had to endure a performance which seemingly came from nowhere.

MY BEST TRADE …

Al Paton: Selecting Dayne Zorko as my Josh Dunkley replacement was a great move until Zorko’s suspension. But my No. 1 is replacing Hayden Young with Isaac Cumming in Round 4. Both started in the $200k range, along with Jordan Clark, and Isaac is the one I should have picked from the star. He has still gained $100K since I brought him in and provided some great scoring including 113 last round after being on -2 at quarter-time. The plan was always to upgrade him but he’s sitting very comfortably at D6.

Tim Michell: Tom Powell to Jack Steele in Round 11. Steele scored 150 as my captain that week and backed it up with 140 the next round.

Dan Batten: Liam Duggan to Jarman Impey. After two average scores to begin the season, I made the call to downgrade Duggan to Impey. While it looked like a silly move when Duggan registered a monster 146 in Round 5, the cash I banked in nabbing an eventual forward premium helped set me up in the early stages of the season.

MY WORST TRADE …

Al Paton: Plenty of contenders here. Most are a case of terrible timing — exhibit A: trading out both Tom Highmore and Miles Bergman a week or two before they produced 100-plus scores out of the blue during the byes. I recruited Christian Petracca and Tom Hawkins just in time for their worst scores of the year, but my bold move of trading out Lachie Neale for Jordan Ridley in Round 5 has to take the cake. To that point Neale was averaging 81.5 and Ridley 133 … of course the next week Ridley scored a concussion-impacted 31 while Neale smashed out a 157 in the same game, his only 100-plus score of the season until last weekend.

Tim Michell: James Jordon to Isaac Heeney in R11. He lasted 3 weeks which included a 55 and a 42 before being traded to Aaron Hall. Had I known about the Round 14 fixture change I would have never done it, but that’s easy to say in hindsight. Trading Steven May after Melbourne predicted he would miss 2-4 weeks only for him to return after one week is a very close second. Needless to say I got him back when he bottomed out at nearly 400k.

Dan Batten: Hayden Young to Chris Burgess. Chris Burgess as the short-term No. 1 ruck option vs Isaac Cumming at $330k. Wanting to leave enough cash to get Jayden Short the following week, I went with Burgess, who made a whopping $30k until I shipped him off five weeks later. Choosing Shai Bolton over Dayne Zorko a week before his infamous nightclub incident is a close second.

Amazingly, Jack Ziebell and Tom Hickey are heading for first 100-plus seasons in their careers.

Of the rookies not on this list, Anthony Scott, James Rowe, Errol Gulden, Chad Warner, Harrison Jones and Tom Powell all made at least $150,000 profit — consider them a win.

Lachie Jones (+$104,000) and Heath Chapman (+$101,700) are borderline rookie picks, but Rhyan Manswell (+$74,500), Paul Hunter (+$50,900), Brayden Campbell (+$46,500) and Jordan Clark (+$21,700) all count as fails.

Tom Highmore is up $92,400 but with a break even of -6 and an apparently safe spot in the St Kilda backline (final), he and still has more money to make.

Michael Waltere is having his worst season in a decade, at least when judged by KFC SuperCoach numbers, and Scott Pendlebury could finish the season with an average under 100 for the first time since 2007, his second season in the AFL (although, to be fair, he did play through injury for several games this year).

Remarkably, Max Gawn almost made this list — he has had the 12th biggest price drop of any player ($126,300), but he did start from a very high base.

Sadly, Saint Hunter Clark has been a huge mid-price miss, dropping $108,700 since Round 1.

Originally published as KFC SuperCoach 2021 mid-season awards: Best, worst picks, biggest bolters