SuperCoach AFL 2025: Winners and losers from round 12, early trade advice

Can’t afford the top dogs in SuperCoach? We’ve got the player for you. Plus a ‘diabolical’ Chad Warner stat, all the key scores from round 12 and early trade mail.

There were two fewer games in round 12, but no shortage of SuperCoach drama.

Week one of the mid-season byes delivered some big surprises, on the positive and negative side of the ledger.

Here are the most important SuperCoach performances from the weekend with an eye to round 13.

WHO’S HOT

Jye Caldwell – 123 points

Bargain of the week and possibly of the year for the almost 1500 coaches smart enough to grab him last week. Scored most of his points in one immense quarter against the Lions, with six touches in the first term, five in the second, five in the last – and 16 in the third, along with three tackles, a goal, 11 contested possessions and seven clearances. The good news for non-owners is his price only increased $11,300 after his injury-interrupted start to the season. But now is the time to pounce after back-to-back tons if you want a cut-price gun to finish your midfield.

Jye Caldwell has put himself on the SuperCoach shopping list. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Brodie Grundy – 161 points

Flew the flag in an amazing solo effort against Adelaide, and Reilly O’Brien – one of the toughest rucks in the competition to score SuperCoach points against. Grundy couldn’t have done much more – 23 disposals, six marks, five tackles, 20 contested possessions, 35 hitouts (eight to advantage).

Hugh McCluggage – 159 points

Left Lachie Neale, Josh Dunkley and Dayne Zorko in the shade to top Brisbane’s scoresheet on Thursday night – as he has for most of the season. His season average is now 121.2, well ahead of Neale (105.8), Dunkley (108.8) and Zorko (108.7). Wonder if an opposition coach will tag him any time soon ... or anyone will pick him in SuperCoach (7 per cent ownership).

Noah Anderson – 146 points

Taking the captaincy has done wonders for Anderson’s SuperCoach scoring, boosting his average by nine points a game to 115, ranked No.5 of midfield-only players in SuperCoach. We already knew he could score a stack of points at home, but he proved the point again against the Dockers with 39 disposals and 22 contested possessions.

Steele Sidebottom – 146 points

Time to acknowledge the season this guy is having. Incredibly, his season average of 104 is 29 points up on last season – that isn’t supposed to happen at age 34! Thriving as a pure midfielder for almost the first time in his career, Sidebottom blitzed the Hawks with 27 touches, eight marks, five tackles and two goals.

Dion Prestia – 132 points

Remember this guy? Playing his first game for the year, Prestia reminded the footy world what a quality player he is when his body allows it. After racking up 31 disposals and seven clearances against the Giants his SuperCoach price of $426,100 might look tempting, but you simply couldn’t go there given his injury history. Unless he does it again next week ...

Dion Prestia produced his biggest SuperCoach score since the 2019 preliminary final. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Nic Martin – 128 points

Is he the form player of the competition? Listed as a DEF-FWD in SuperCoach but just plays everywhere, and does it brilliantly. Three of his past four scores are 145, 163 and 128, the most recent coming against one of the toughest opponents in the comp. In that past month he has tallied 127 disposals, 33 marks, 17 tackles and five goals.

Luke Jackson – 122 points

Sean who? The worry about Jackson was always how he would score when Sean Darcy returned from injury. We shouldn’t have been concerned. Justin Longmuir had a simple solution – play Jacko as a centre bounce midfielder. Lining up on Noah Anderson at some restarts (with an 8cm height advantage), Jackson racked up 27 disposals and still added 21 hitouts (four to advantage). Lock him in as one of this year’s top SuperCoach forwards.

Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera – 100 points

Not Nas’s best score for the year, but it might be his most impressive. That’s because he was almost KO’d by an Aidan Johnson bump and spent most of the second quarter off the ground. Saints fans and his SuperCoach owners breathed a huge sigh of relief when he passed a HIA assessment, even though he had under 30 points to his name at halftime. But his second half was simply breathtaking, cutting Melbourne to ribbons with his run out of defence and precise long kicks into the forward line. His last quarter alone featured 15 disposals – all kicks.

Campbell Gray – 70 points

An accomplished performance for the Tigers defender on debut for more than 60,000 SuperCoach teams this week, with an intercept mark in the dying minutes delivering a timely boost that sat him comfortably in most best 18s for the round. The big question now is what happens when Noah Balta is available for selection against Sydney next week. Fingers crossed!

WHO’S COLD

Caleb Serong – 97 points

Not terrible, which is a fair summation of Serong’s season. But he has struggled to hit the heights of 2024, dropping 10 points on his season average and posting two scores above 110 – compared to 13 last year, including five above 140 (one so far this year). On the plus side he has gone below 97 just once, and his price is a tempting $535k for non-owners. Maybe this week’s bye will freshen him up for a big run home.

Caleb Serong is averaging 105.5 points a game. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Lachie Neale – 89 points

A popular vice-captain option on the back of some monster games against Essendon in recent years, Neale produced a workmanlike performance that was well short of his SuperCoach heights. That’s a fifth score of 90 or lower – to go with seven above 110. It makes him very hard to trust!

Dayne Zorko – 66 points

The Lions are just going at the moment and performances from Zorko and Josh Dunkley (72) on Thursday night reflect a mid-season slump from the premier. On the receiving end of a forward defensive tag from Matt Guelfi, Zorko had 22 kicks and one handball (great ratio!) but limited impact on the game, especially early.

Kysaiah Pickett – 66 points

The price of Pickett’s recent red-hot form became clear moments into the Demons v Saints game in Alice Springs, as Marcus Windhager took up his position next to Pickett – where he stayed for most of the next 120 minutes. That’s probably unfair on Windhager, who gathered 28 disposals while restricting Pickett to just 12, and no direct scoreboard impact.

Izak Rankine – 62 points

SuperCoach scoring rewards acts when scores are close, and in a big blowout that means it can be very hard to catch up if you miss the boat early. Rankine had just four effective disposals in the first half despite the Crows running riot at the SCG. His overall disposal efficiency of 50 per cent, plus two frees against, added up to a surprise miss from the Crows gun.

Levi Ashcroft – 59 points

Missed his Break Even after being subbed out of the game midway through the last quarter. Has been one of the rookies of the year and only dropped $5500 after lockout – owners will be hoping he can get through to the Lions’ bye in round 16 without losing too much value. His Break Even of 77 against the Crows this week is gettable.

Chad Warner warms up before the round 12 clash against Adelaide. Picture: Matt King/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Chad Warner – 58 points

A horror night on so many levels from the Swans, with Warner’s ball use diabolical at times – of 19 disposals, just four hit the target. He kicked 0.3 in front of goal but at least you can’t question his effort after winning 12 clearances, clearly the most on the ground. A game against Richmond next week is a good chance for Warner to bounce back.

Changkuoth Jiath – 32 points

Roughly 7000 coaches jumped on the CJ money train after round 9, when he had a Break Even way in the negatives after posting scores of 135 and 132 in successive weeks. Unfortunately, that train has gone right off the rails, with Jiath failing to top 61 points in his three games since, including a season-low against Collingwood.

Riley Bice – 9 points

Worst case scenario for coaches who held Bice when he was subbed off with just two disposals (one effective). He’s now a must-sell, but unfortunately you’ll get $33k less than those who traded last week.

Originally published as SuperCoach AFL 2025: Winners and losers from round 12, early trade advice