Fremantle 2017 SuperCoach preview: premium selections and who to avoid

FOR a team which won just four games and finished in the bottom four, Fremantle surprisingly has plenty of exciting SuperCoach options in 2017. Who should you pick and avoid?

Lachie Neale stepped up in Nat Fyfe’s absence last year. Picture: Daniel Wilkins

FOR a team which won just four games and finished in the bottom four, Fremantle surprisingly has plenty of exciting SuperCoach options in 2017.

Who should you pick and avoid?

PREMIUMS

Lachie Neale $612,800 mid

Elevated his game to another level in 2016 after Nat Fyfe missed most of the season with a broken leg. Neale amassed an astonishing 18 tons — including nine in succession betweens Rounds 2 and 11 — to average 112.6 points.

Nat Fyfe $573,500 mid

When fit, Fyfe is Fremantle’s best player. Played only five games last year but still posted a 157, 115 and 141. He should be the first player you think about picking for your team.

A fully fit Nat Fyfe must be in your team. Picture: Daniel Wilkins

David Mundy $507,200 mid

For the first time in four seasons Mundy’s SuperCoach average dropped below 100. A consistent performer who can score big on his day.

MID-PRICED RISKS

Connor Blakely $400,400 mid

A surprise packet after playing 15 games in his second AFL season and averaging 20 disposals and 73.6 SuperCoach points. In his first season at the Dockers, Blakely was a ball magnet in the WAFL and he capped off an exciting 2016 with best afield honours in Peel Thunder’s premiership win. The 20-year-old has spent this pre-season building his endurance.

Bradley Hill $355,200 mid/fwd

Left Hawthorn to return home to WA and he’ll either relish the extra responsibility in Freo’s midfield or struggle without his ex-premiership teammates around him. Tipping the latter. What we do know is Hill has elite endurance and speed, as shown by him winning two 3km time-trials this pre-season, but the speedy winger needs to lift his disposal average somewhere in the low to mid 20s.

Danyle Pearce $422,600 mid

Finds plenty of the ball but disposal efficiency dropped in 2016 and his goals were also down. Pearce played every game last season but scored 80 or less in more than half of them.

Aaron Sandilands $308,200 ruck

The veteran big man turned 34 last month and there has to come a point where his body begins to slow down. But Sandilands should be feeling refreshed after he was restricted to five games last year after having his ribs busted in Round 2. A 105 score in Round 23 against the Bulldogs gives some confidence he could still be capable of punching out triple-figure scores in what could be his final season.

Aaron Sandilands’ price has plummeted because of injury.

Harley Bennell $387,000 mid/fwd

High risk but there’s the potential for high reward. There have to be question marks over the former Suns midfielder’s durability after he missed the entire 2016 season with a right calf injury and then suffered another muscle injury to his other calf this summer. So far, the signs are positive for Bennell after revolutionary calf treatment in Germany before the Christmas break. In case you’ve forgotten, Bennell ended the 2015 season as a premium player after averaging 101.7 points. If he’s playing Round 1 he is worth the gamble.

ROOKIES

Griffin Logue $180,300 def

So impressed have the Dockers been with their first draft selection, they have already added an extra year to Logue’s contract. Keep an eye on him during the pre-season competition.

Griffin Logue has already impressed the Dockers. Picture: Mark Dadswell

NO-GO ZONE

Sam Collins $394,500 def

This is nothing personal because Collins was a rookie godsend in the second half of last season, but his starting price this year is just too high.

Joel Hamling $282,900 def

His contract at the Dockers belies his SuperCoach price. But stopping goals doesn’t necessarily equate to SC points. Hamling’s highest score from eight games last year was 63.

Cam McCarthy $203,600 fwd

Missed the entire 2016 season after walking out on GWS. McCarthy kicked 35 goals in a breakout 2015, but after a year out of the game can he pick up where he left off?

TEAM PREVIEW

Minor premiers in 2015, hardly anyone saw Fremantle’s slump to 16th in 2016. Injuries took a massive toll on the Dockers and at one stage late in the season there were 17 players in the casualty ward. Superstar Nat Fyfe will return and Harley Bennell should finally play his first game in purple. Add David Mundy, Lachie Neale and Bradley Hill and the Dockers have a star-studded midfield. There are some concerns up forward following Matthew Pavlich’s retirement. Matt Taberner needs to keep stepping up, promising young forward Cam McCarthy missed last season and former Cat Shane Kersten is recovering from a groin problem. The Dockers will bounce back in 2017, but how high in the question.