SuperCoach AFL Round 2: Unique of the Week

Round 2 brought some amazing high scores in the Unique of the Week, broken down by position, with at least two of them must-gets to shore up the backline and forward line before prices begin to rise.

Travis Boak of the Power has gone back into the middle and is all of a sudden a solid SuperCoach investment in 2019

Every week there’s a player who a small few count their blessings that they have and everyone else suddenly goes ‘who doing what now?!’ and starts trying to work out how they’re going to get them in.

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Round 2 brought some amazing high scores in the Unique of the Week, broken down by position, with at least two of them must-gets to shore up the backline and forward line before prices begin to rise.

ROUND 2 UNIQUES OF THE WEEK

DEF: DANIEL RICH | $428,200 | 127 points | 1.8% ownership

His ownership only increased by 0.5% from Round 1 to Round 2, but expect that to increase exponentially as player prices begin to adjust. Rich has shown that he is back to his best when he sets up play for the Lions behind the ball, with scores of 97 and 127 indicating just how smoothly he’s moving. With the next two teams Brisbane facing being normally happy hunting ground for Rich — he averages 90+ against both the Power and the Bombers — and a Breakeven lower than 30, he would appear a safe bet to insert into a defensive structure. Rich is ranked #2 defender in the competition and is $60,000 cheaper than the #1 scoring defender in the competition, West Coast’s Jeremy McGovern, owned by 6.1% of all SuperCoach players. Rich’s scores have been helped remarkably by the new kick-in rule boosting the scores of those who play on and rebound from the goal square, something Rich has done at every opportunity.

Ben Cunnington of the Kangaroos is in few SuperCoach sides in 2019, but those that have him love him

MID: BEN CUNNINGTON | $522,900 | 159 points | 0.5% ownership

Where is the faith in North Melbourne extraction machine Ben Cunnington? For the last three seasons his SuperCoach scoring ability has been consistently on the rise, from 80.1 points per game in 2016 to 91.1 the following year and then 96.3 in 2018. In 2019 his two-game average is an extraordinary 125 ppg, seeing him currently ranked inside the top ten scoring players in the game. While he should hit his Round 3 Breakeven of 53 comfortably, a note of caution for those looking to add him as a Point of Difference in the midfield — not until Round 13, when the Kangaroos take on the Giants, does Cunnington face an opponent that he averages over 90 against throughout his career.

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RUC: TOM HICKEY | $485,600 | 139 points | 0.4% ownership

Increasing his SuperCoach output by a lazy 103 points from Round 1 to Round 2, Hickey had a day out against the Giants. The toughest task awaits the former Saint and Sun, with the now Eagle set to take on Brodie Grundy in the Grand Final rematch in Round 3. His ownership level is unlikely to change in Round 3, however, as his Breakeven has soared to 107 — a score that he has only ever managed against the Magpies once, way back in 2012. To put that into perspective, his side the Suns were in their third season in the competition and Brodie Grundy was starring … for South Australia in the Under 18s Championships.

Tom Hickey of the Eagles was enormous in Round 2, scoring a huge SuperCoach score

FWD: TRAVIS BOAK | $478,000 | 123 points | 4.9% ownership

Make no mistake — Travis Boak is currently the second best-performed FWD in SuperCoach in 2019 and you NEED him in your side right now. Having looked to have essentially switched roles with Brad Ebert, who now plays forward more than midfield, Boak is currently averaging over 100 points per game for the first time since 2014 and is close to hitting 40 ppg more than he did last season. With Ollie Wines likely to be absent for at least one more week, Boak historically doesn’t average less than 90 ppg against his next eight opponents in a row, taking him through to nearly the Power bye in Round 13. He’s set to smash his Breakeven of 35 in Round 3 to pieces, having spent 76 percent of time playing in the midfield thus far this year — that’s over double what he spent in the guts in both 2018 and 2017.

Originally published as SuperCoach AFL Round 2: Unique of the Week