AFL SuperCoach 2024: Five of the best midfield premiums options assessed
Just picking your SuperCoach AFL team today? Then start with the midfield. It’s where the big points are and where most money should be spent. We’ve assessed five of the best premium options.
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Points are the name of the game in SuperCoach, and the bulk of points are found in the middle of the ground, around the ball.
They’re often where the bulk of your points are scored, and generally where you’ll splash the most cash each season.
It’s important to nail them, though – if you get them right, you have a solid captaincy option for the whole season.
If not, well … just look at those who forked out for Jack Macrae in 2023, only for the gun midfielder to languish in the forward line and on the wing for the season.
For the first time, SuperCoach’s Mr Reliable in the midfield is not on the list.
Clayton Oliver finished outside the top 10 for total points for the first time since 2016 due to injury, but he’s off the radar for now due to the fact he is still training away from teammates due to off-field issues.
Nick Daicos, vying to be the number one scorer in the game, has also not been listed here as he’s available as a defender — which is where we wager most people will be picking him.
Here, instead, are five rolled-gold premiums to consider for captaincy scores all through the year.
MARCUS BONTEMPELLI $724,600
Magnificent Marcus was unlucky not to walk away from 2023 with a Brownlow Medal — or a finals appearance.
The magician averaged a remarkable 129 during the season, often carrying the Doggies on his back alongside Tom Liberatore.
Will he average 129 again? Almost certainly not. The list of players able to back up that sort of season contains: Gary Ablett Jr. End of list.
While Bontempelli is overpriced, he’s still not a man you’re likely to pick up on the cheap – you’ll have to fork out considerable cash at any point of the year to bring him in, and at that point you’d hope whoever you picked instead of him isn’t that far behind him.
Safe as houses pick.
ZAK BUTTERS $636,100
Has been pointed out already by The Phantom but Butters’ run home in 2023 was absolutely extraordinary.
He scored 134, 137, 139, 129 and 158 in his final five rounds in a ball-tearing stretch of form. Now well and truly locked into a midfield role, Butters showed he’s a ridgy didge, fair dinkum option in the guts for SuperCoachers.
Butters was tackling, racking up 30 touches a game, and hardly going near the forward line except to pick up some sneaky goals.
I don’t think he keeps that insane pace up for a whole season, but where Butters really shines is in his bye structure — he doesn’t have a scheduled week off until Round 13 (remembering Round Zero doesn’t count towards SuperCoach), leaving him two whole games ahead of premiums like Tom Green by that point in the season.
Port Adelaide share a bye with only Fremantle, making them the easiest teams to cover during the four-week bye period in the middle of the season.
LUKE DAVIES-UNIACKE $635,100
LDU missed 10 games through injury in 2023, which was bad news for those who jumped on then, but good news for those of us who were a bit more cautious.
We’ve seen he’s now the main SuperCoach scoring option in that midfield, with an average of 113 across the season, with a stellar run after returning from injury after the byes.
He scored 94 in his first game back, before a run of 134, 129, 133, 127, 106 and 125.
He then missed the last two rounds again.
The dymanic Roo also started the season with a 143 and a 155, proving he’s every bit a captaincy option.
While last season was injury-affected, the two before weren’t, with LDU amassing 20 games in 2021 and 21 games in 2022.
RORY LAIRD $653,100
Old reliable Rory.
Once a seagull with numbers to rival Jake Lloyd, Laird lobbed into the midfield in 2021 and his numbers jumped from averaging from 95 to 105 well past 115, with averages of 116, 121 and 116 in his past few seasons — and there appear to be no challengers to take that midfield time off him.
Laird is getting his hands on the ball aplenty, but it’s not his only source of scoring, with the gun mid laying 10 tackles or more six times last season and racking up clearances.
His kick-to-handball ratio isn’t ideal, with Laird handballing far more than he kicks it, but those handballs are often from the bottom of the pack or the middle of congestion, which is points.
He dropped below 100 just five times last season, including a disappointing 50 in Round 1, but repaid the faith of those who stuck fat with a 147 in Round 2.
Those mammoth scores make him a wonderful captaincy option through the season — when Laird goes big, he goes massive.
JACK STEELE $529,500
Steele was wrecked by injury in 2023, averaging just 94.8 points across 20 games, missing a few games early and going missing in a few others.
It was revealed Steele played hurt through much of the season and it showed as he was well below his best.
While he hasn’t had a flawless pre-season so far, if he’s healthy come round one he can be one of the best value picks you can make.
Priced to average less than 100, Steele averaged 122 in 2020 and 126 in 2021, with a drop back to 110 in 2022.
In that 2021 season he dropped below 100 just three times with a 99 and pair of 91s.
Ross Lyon has also coached sides which score bulk points, with St Kilda’s glorious 2010 (from a SuperCoach perspective, sorry Saints fans) resulting in Brendan Goddard averaging 130, Nick Dal Santo hitting 112 and Lenny Hayes 103.
The points flowed from the likes of Lachie Neale, Nat Fyfe and David Mundy during his stint at Fremantle, so there’s no doubt the points are on offer in Lyon-coached sides.
If Steele is fit, I don’t see why he can’t return to a 115 average.
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