No more bagging the Blues, they’re set for SuperCoach supremacy

In their leader Patrick Cripps, the Blues have one of the genuine superstars of the competition on their playing roster, and could yet have a couple more to go alongside of him as the Blues look to push further up the ladder in 2020.

Blues players will be hoping there is more to celebrate about in 2020.

Ah, Carlton … they just know how to build expectations, don’t they? Every year they seem to find new and exciting ways of mortifying their fans and intriguing onlookers, be it through fallouts with their favourite sons or their footballers finding improbable ways to injure themselves.

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Yet hope springs eternal for the legions of Bluebaggers who’ve witnessed a failure to adjust to modern football that makes Melbourne supporters think ‘actually, perhaps we don’t have it so bad’.

In their leader Patrick Cripps, the Blues have one of the genuine superstars of the competition on their playing roster, and could have a couple more besides, with last year’s Rising Star winner Sam Walsh appearing to be capable of becoming more than Robin to Cripps’ Batman.

Elsewhere, their side has a heap of players who seem primed to have seasons that will make them strong SuperCoach considerations, with the likes of Sam Petrevski-Seton and Jack Martin exciting DPP options. Don’t sleep on Matthew Kreuzer either; if the big man is fit, he’s one of the prime ruck choices in the competition, averaging just shy of 100 ppg in his 15 appearances last season. At just $528,900 he looms as a player to keep an eye on over preseason, particularly for Draft.

THE PREMO: PATRICK CRIPPS | $635,900 | MID | 117.1

Yes, Cripps is in the top ten most expensive players, but he is worth every cent of his price point. The midfield maestro only scored less than 85 points on four occasions in 2019, but more importantly he topped 150 as many times. In 2019 he missed two games, but if he’d made his average score in the two games that he missed then he would have achieved a points total that would have catapulted him into the top 5 scoring players in the competition for the season. Carlton have no player like him; if you want a consistent and reliable premium, it’s impossible to look past Cripps.

THE BREAKOUT CONTENDER: SAM PETREVSKI-SETON | $443,300 | DEF / MID | 81.6

As Fox Footy’s Sarah Olle pointed out, Sam Petrevksi-Seton looms large as a breakout contender for the Blues in 2020, but – at that awkward price – just where does he sit in SuperCoach realms? Petrevksi-Seton’s second half of the year was encouraging – he flourished in a new role off halfback but moved into the midfield where his speed and disposal by foot made him an ultra-efficient player. However, much like the Blues, Petrevski-Seton is unpredictable and his SuperCoach scores were still largely erratic, making him a boom or bust type in 2020.

New recruit Jack Martin will be hoping for more success in Navy Blue

BOOM OR BUST: JACK MARTIN | $420,800 | FWD / MID | 77.5

Is this the most underwhelming player in the game to date? The highly talented and yet perennially disappointing Jack Martin might just flourish in new surroundings having departed the Suns for the Blues in the off-season. Martin failed to finish in Gold Coast’s top 10 in any of the clubs’ best and fairest nights since his arrival to the club as a highly-touted mini draft selection – so what’s up with Jack? He has shown glimpses of how deadly his impact can be on games but he’s never once averaged more than 80 SuperCoach points in his six seasons. He has managed only 11 SuperCoach centuries in the last four years but with all of that said, he’s the one player that might just have the biggest turnaround in SuperCoach 2020. He’ll sit on the outside of the packs, run up and down on the wings and be given a licence to drift forward and hit the scoreboard and, given the Blues’ list this season, it's feasible to suggest that Martin could jump from a 77-point average to a 90-point average this year.

THE ROOKIE: SAM PHILP | $121,800 | MID | DNP

The Northern Knights speedster came from nowhere to be selected at Pick 20 and recruiters don’t tend to pull players from obscurity early on unless they’re very sure they’re a player of the future (apart from Blaine Boekhorst … RIP SOS). Philp is nicely priced in SuperCoach but with the array of emerging midfield options available at VISY Park it may mean Philp is back in the pecking order. He is a legitimate goalkicking midfielder with a big tank and already has an AFL-ready body standing at 185cms and weighing 80kgs. Keep track of his preseason. If he’s named in Round 1, you could do worse than stash him on the bench as a cheap option.

Originally published as No more bagging the Blues, they’re set for SuperCoach supremacy