KFC SuperCoach Plus Article: 11 things you need to know for Round 12

The byes are here and with a host of players missing every piece of intel can help give you the edge in KFC SuperCoach. Check out this week’s 11 must-know stats.

Patrick Cripps produced his best KFC SuperCoach score of the season in Round 11.

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From price and score projections to a stunning Jack Ziebell stat and this season’s most traded players, here are the 11 key stats you need to know ahead of Round 12:

MORE: AL PATON’S TOP BYE TRADE TARGETS

1. If you’ve suddenly realised you have a lot of players unavailable this week, don’t panic — you’re not alone. With six teams off on the first bye round, some of the biggest names in KFC SuperCoach are putting their feet up. North Melbourne captain Jack Ziebell (62.4 per cent of teams) is the most popular Round 12 bye player, followed by Giants ruckman Matt Flynn (39.8 per cent), Hawks Jacob Koschitzke (36.4 per cent) and Jarman Impey (35.2 per cent) and Port Adelaide rookie Lachie Jones (33.3 per cent). Tom Stewart, Tim Taranto and Tom Mitchell are also in more than 20 per cent of teams. Meanwhile, 1.3 per cent of teams will be without Touk Miller — one of the surprise packets of the season, averaging 117.9 points a game — 0.9 per cent are missing Tom Jonas, 0.6 per cent will need cover for Luke Breust and 103 coaches will have to survive without Kangaroos midfielder Trent Dumont.

Jacob Koschitzke is unavailable this weekend due to Hawthorn’s bye.

2. The news Brodie Grundy also won’t play this weekend — or in any of the bye rounds — is not what KFC SuperCoaches wanted to hear this week. The Magpies superstar is in almost 95,000 teams, ranking him third on the popularity chart behind Dustin Martin and Ziebell. Grundy scored 76 points despite playing just 48 per cent of Saturday's game against Geelong before he was subbed off early in the third quarter. A decision on whether to trade Grundy will be weighing on the minds of many coaches, but more than 7000 have already pulled the trigger. Max Gawn is the most popular replacement (1112 trades), with Nic Naitnaui (987) and young Tiger Callum Coleman-Jones (622) other popular alternatives.

3. Compounding the Grundy pain, he was the most popular choice as captain in Round 11, nominated by 18.3 per cent of coaches, ahead of Max Gawn (16.5 per cent — 120 points), Jack Macrae (10.7 per cent — 145 points) and Marcus Bontempelli (5.5 per cent — 125 points). Among the more exotic captaincy choices last round were Dayne Zorko (0.7 per cent — 162 points), Jake Lloyd (0.6 per cent — 142 points), Scott Pendlebury (0.2 per cent — 50 points) and Patrick Cripps (0.3 per cent of very brave coaches who were rewarded with 133 points, Cripps’ best score of the season).

4. That score was a huge relief for the 37,000 players who have held Cripps through a tough first 11 rounds — 15,000 traded him out during that time. There are signs the Blues co-captain has turned the corner in the past three rounds, and not just in his KFC SuperCoach average (107.3 compared to 82.8 from Rounds 1-8). Early in the season he spent 14 per cent of time as a forward. That is down to 7 per cent in the past three weeks, and his score involvements have dropped as a result, but all his other stats are up. Most notably, his pressure has gone through the roof, jumping from an average of 39.1 pressure points in the first eight rounds to 66.7 in the past three games. That’s mainly on the back of his tackle numbers more than doubling, from 4.3 to 8.7 a game. Even after starting the year at what many saw as a discount price, Cripps lost $112,500 in value to Round 9. But after bottoming out at just $411,200, he is starting to climb again. He added $36,800 to his value in the past two rounds and with a break even of just 41 this round against the Eagles, he is projected by SuperCoach Plus to jump another $25k before Carlton’s Round 13 bye.

Is Patrick Cripps back?

5. Giant Matt Flynn ($367,700 RUCK) is the second-most traded out player so far this week behind Grundy, with more than 6900 owners cashing in his $243,800 price rise since Round 3. Flynn has been a spectacularly successful pick, averaging 89.3 in seven matches, especially compared to competing ruck bench candidates Paul Hunter (three matches, 44 average, +$31,000) and Lloyd Meek (four matches, 56.8 average, +$89,100). But this could be the perfect time to make a trade. Flynn’s break even has climbed to 75 and SuperCoach Plus is predicting a slow crawl of price increases from here. If he maintains an 81 average he will get to $406k — but you would have to hold him all the way to Round 23.

6. At the same time as Flynn closes on his maximum price — and his Round 12 bye — there are cheap rucks ripe for trading in. Hawk Ned Reeves ($123,900) has the lowest break even in KFC SuperCoach of -98 after scoring 80 and 92 in his first two games. Reeves is projected to jump a whopping $80,000 after his next game, but the complication is he also has a bye this week so that next score won’t come until Round 13 (assuming he keeps his spot, which seems a safe bet). If you need a player this week you could grab Richmond’s Callum Coleman-Jones ($161,200 RUC/FWD), who scored 112 in his first game of the year. His price won’t rise until Round 14 but based on KFC SuperCoach projections that jump could be even bigger than Reeves’. Geelong’s Max Holmes ($121,900 MID/FWD, BE -40) and Gold Coast’s Malcolm Rosas ($123,900 FWD, BE 5) both have the bye in Round 12 but will be on the bubble if they keep their spot in Round 13.

7. Flynn has now been traded out by more than 30,000 coaches so far this season, but that doesn’t crack the top 10 of offloaded players. Errol Gulden is the most traded-out player this year after being moved on by 86,493 coaches, ahead of Josh Dunkley (74,636), Braeden Campbell (72,030), Patrick Dangerfield (70,399), Matt Rowell (66,100), Lachie Neale (63,614) and Jordan Clark (62,710).

Caleb Poulter has been a great buy in KFC SuperCoach.

8. The most traded-in player this season is Magpie Caleb Poulter, who has been added to more than 70,000 teams over the past month (almost 700 prescient coaches picked him in Round 1). It has been a great move — in five matches he has averaged 69 points and gained $144k in value. With a break even of just 11 in Round 12, he’s set for another big jump. Resurgent Crows forward Taylor Walker ranks No.2 behind Poulter after being traded into 45,430 teams, ahead of Tiger duo Dustin Martin (44,857) and Riley Collier-Dawkins (43,822). Heath Chapman, James Jordon, Dayne Zorko, Jordan Ridley, Lachie Jones and Jack Macrae round out the top 10. The next two on the list are James Madden and Cody Weightman, who split SuperCoaches last week. Both were added to more than 35,000 teams, with Madden winning the head-to-head battle by just 77 trades. They would have been happy after he outscored Weightman 68-53 in Round 11, but both gained more than $50,000 in value so there were no losers there!

9. Tim Taranto’s owners might have been scratching their heads at his score of 87 from a whopping 36 disposals, eight marks and six tackles against the Lions. But his game illustrates the difference in the KFC SuperCoach scoring system compared to other fantasy games (where Taranto scored 143 points). Efficiency is a huge factor in KFC SuperCoach scoring — simply, you don’t get points if you kick the ball to the opposition or to no one. Just 16 of Taranto’s disposals were effective; of his 23 kicks, six were clangers and 10 were ineffective. He lost 27 points as a result of kick and handball clangers and also gave away a free kick.

Tim Taranto needs to tidy up his disposal.

10. Nic Naitanui showed in the same round how to score well in KFC SuperCoach from limited disposal numbers. Nic Nat had 20 disposals against Essendon, ranked equal-11th on the ground, but scored most of his round-high 163 points from his ruckwork, with 67 points coming from hitouts-to-advantage alone. He won another 27 points from ruck hardball gets and 17 points from tackles.

11. Jack Ziebell has been one of the picks of the KFC SuperCoach season, but his numbers in recent weeks haven’ quite matched his incredible output early in the year. From Rounds 1-6 Ziebell averaged 127.3 points per game including scores of 148, 155 and 169. In the past five rounds his average is 100.2 with a high of 111. His disposal count is down from 30 to 23.8 per game and he is taking fewer marks, but if you’re looking for a simple reason for the decline, North Melbourne’s kick-in numbers paint a clear picture. In the first six rounds Ziebell took 55 kick-ins and played on from 49 of them — miles ahead of the club’s No.2 Aaron Hall (10 kick-ins). In the past five rounds Ziebell still ranks No.1 at the Roos with 29, but the margin is much closer, with Hall taking 20. It’s no coincidence the former Sun, who averaged just 64.3 to Round 6 (including one game as the sub and another injury-impacted score) has boosted that number to 111.2 over the past five weeks.

Originally published as KFC SuperCoach Plus Article: 11 things you need to know for Round 12