Jonathan Brown reveals his final KFC SuperCoach line-up for 2020
How can you not pick the two biggest matchwinners in the game? Jonathan Brown has been up in the early hours making late changes to his SuperCoach line-up. This is the result.
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In the current climate we’ve all had a few sleepless nights. That’s why I’m awake at 2am writing this.
I can’t get back to sleep so I’ve done the only logical thing — opened my SuperCoach team.
And after a few last-minute changes, I have to say I’m pretty happy with my starting line-up.
When my phone lit up (sorry Kyles) the first thing that hit me was having three young blokes with no real history of SuperCoach pointscoring in the backline, so the defence has undergone a major overhaul.
In come Jack Crisp and Brodie Smith, two players who I’m confident will play a lot of midfield minutes this year.
Sam Docherty is Carlton’s dedicated kicker — so we know he’ll get his hands on the footy a lot — and James Sicily could be the topscoring defender in SuperCoach this season. Ben McEvoy’s move down back will free up him to take more intercept marks and he’s already a high possession-winner.
My top-line midfielders haven’t changed since I picked my first team in January - Lachie Neale, Patrick Dangerfield, Elliot Yeo and Stephen Coniglio.
I wanted one of my Western District boys and Hugh McCluggage is in for a big year, but while I was able to negotiate my way around my wife’s anger for having the night light on, I couldn’t talk my way past the SuperCoach salary cap auditor. So I’ve leant on my other favourite Western District boy, Sam Walsh, who was a SuperCoach stud in his first year.
Up forward, how can you not pick the two biggest matchwinners in the game - Dustin Martin and Toby Greene?
They’ve both had ripping pre-seasons, and the final Marsh Series game where they played against each other (Greene had 21 touches and five goals, Dusty had 24 and two) showed they are in for dominant years. If they spend 50 per cent of the game up forward that’s fine because they have such a huge impact down there. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finish one-two in the Brownlow.
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Jack Steven and Devon Smith are both bargain buys. Steven is set for big midfield minutes at the Cats with Tim Kelly gone, Mitch Duncan injured and a cloud over Joel Selwood. Smith will be the comeback player of the year. He’s a tackling machine which is great for SuperCoach scoring.
In the ruck the strategy is simple: pick Grundy and Gawn, the top two pointscorers of last season. I’m not a fan of big leadership groups — I’ve already said to Maxy and Brodie they can alternate as my SuperCoach captain.
When it comes to rookies, I feel confident picking players like Tom Green, Curtis Taylor and Brandon Zerk-Thatcher after strong pre-season form. With just two games in the Marsh Series if rookies had an impact it’s a good indicator they’ll be there in Round 1 or early in the season, as opposed to the days of three or four NAB Cup games where you didn’t know if teams were full-strength.
I’m also happy to pick four Gold Coast youngsters, headed by Matt Rowell. The Suns’ mantra for the next three years will be to get games into their kids, especially the high draft picks.
Last year I came in as a SuperCoach rookie all pumped up to protect the reputation of key-position forwards. I started with Joe Daniher and that didn’t work out too well.
This year some have accused me of selling out so a lot of pressure falls on the young shoulders of Max King, my sole representative from the key forward fraternity.
And you should be placed in an institution if you don’t have Marlion Pickett in your team. Based on his Grand Final performance he should be priced above $500,000, but we can pick him for just $123,900.
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The biggest casualty of my early-hours editing is Lachie Whitfield, but I think Toby Greene can match his scoring and he comes in almost $100,000 cheaper.
So this is where I sit with Round 1 around the corner. I’ll keep a close eye on team selection but I’m not planning any last-minute changes.
The pillars are all there. Now I better turn my phone off before I cop a pillow to the face.
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