SuperCoach formguide: Best trade, captain picks for Round 17

REVEALED: The amazing numbers that show Brendon Bolton must be trying to win a spot in his SuperCoach league finals. TOP TRADE, CAPTAIN PICKS

BRENDON Bolton is winning a lot of admirers at Carlton, and a lot of them play SuperCoach.

In fact, we suspect the Blues coach is a secret SuperCoach player himself.

For evidence, take a look at the top-scoring players over the past five weeks. Patrick Dangerfield tops the list with an insane average of 159, followed by two Blues — Sam Docherty (136) and Bryce Gibbs (128).

At No. 6 is another Carlton player, Matthew Kreuzer (121).

Not bad for a team that has won two games in that time.

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The Blues don’t score a lot (ranked last in the AFL for goals), reflected in the fact the highest-ranked Carlton forward by SuperCoach averages is Liam Jones, who comes in at No. 27 and actually plays at full-back.

But it’s a different story in the midfield and across half-back, where Bolton’s game plan really kicks in — the Blues rank No. 1 in the AFL for kicks and No. 2 for marks.

Can you pump up my SuperCoach score a bit this week, boys? Carlton coach Brendon Bolton with prolific scorers Matthew Kreuzer and Bryce Gibbs.

Last week Carlton lost to Melbourne but nine Carlton players posted SuperCoach scores of 90 or more compared to just two Demons; four Blues outscored Melbourne’s top-ranked player Clayton Oliver.

What does this mean for our SuperCoach sides? Loading up on Blues seems a smart move, but with limited trades there are two clear standouts.

Docherty hasn’t scored under 120 for seven weeks. He is averaging 18 points a game more than the second-best defender (Rory Laird) and the second-most points of any player in any position (behind Dangerfield).

So if you’re one of the 120,000 SuperCoaches without him in your team, you need to move heaven and earth to find the required $653,700 (forget waiting for a price drop).

That might mean cashing in Nic Newman’s $322k price rise — another Blue, Ciaran Sheehan, is on the bubble this week and costs $117,300 — and/or upgrading an underperforming backman like Heath Shaw or Zach Tuohy.

Another option is to move a dual-position player like Taylor Adams or Jake Lloyd into the midfield and trading in Docherty to fill the vacancy down back. Normally you would back your eighth midfielder to outscore any defender, but Docherty is a unique case.

The other standout Blue is Matthew Kreuzer, who is on track to be clearly this year’s No. 1 ruckman with an average nine points clear of second-placed Todd Goldstein.

Getting Kreuzer is more of a challenge given his $607k price tag and the fact we have only two spots in the ruck — one of which many coaches have filled with bargain-priced Max Gawn.

But we should take a moment to salute the 15,000 coaches brave enough so select the injury-prone Blues big man. And if another injury strikes the ruck department in the run home, have some cash in your back pocket to get him pronto.

JUMP ON

Joel Selwood $483,100 MID

It’s a matter of timing with Joel. His price is in free fall thanks to his head-clash with Hayden Ballantyne which means he is super cheap this week, and will be even cheaper next week (he’s projected to lose another $33k). But if you need a gun midfielder now he’s very hard to ignore.

Tom Mitchell $589,800 MID

If money is no object and you need points you can’t go past the Hawthorn ball magnet. Now the No. 2 scoring midfielder this year and hasn’t scored below 100 since early April. Won’t let you down.

Ciaran Sheehan $117,300 DEF

If you need to find cash from somewhere the Irishman seems the best option this week. Has hardly set the world on fire in his two games (scoring 38 and 42) but will gain some value after his third game this week (hopefully) and, more importantly, can free up cash to go after the likes of Mitchell and Docherty. Popular bench defenders like Jarrod Berry, Alex Witherden and Luke Ryan are scoring well and you can get by with just one of them.

JUMP OFF

Patrick Cripps $533,500 MID

You can’t fight bad luck. Was a smart pick a week ago — until a kick in the back of the leg ended his season. Value means you can get a selection of top-line midfielders (Scott Pendlebury is $523k, Marcus Bontempelli $525k) but at this stage of the year if you have the money, get Mitchell.

Sam Powell-Pepper $361,100 MID

SPP has given great service this year but it’s time to move him on with a break-even of 97 coming off an injury-affected 45 last week. It’s just a $122k jump to Joel Selwood and an extra 50 or so points a week.

Ryan Nyhuis $117,300 DEF

We love the Nyhuis story. We love this terrible meme. But that doesn’t make him a great SuperCoach pick. The Docker kicked four goals on debut and scored 78 which is pretty good but not jaw-dropping. And is he going to kick four every week as a defensive forward? Can we even trust Ross Lyon to keep him in the team? Use your money elsewhere.

Sam Powell-Pepper has been a great SuperCoach pick, but his time is up. Picture Sarah Reed

CAPTAINS CORNER

Patrick Dangerfield

Danger is doing his best to make this section redundant. If you don’t like messing around with loopholes just put the C on him and enjoy your weekend. But he was restricted to 90 last time against Hawthorn (thanks to an early knee in the ribs) so it pays to have a back-up plan. Put the VC on Dangerfield and look to the later games of the round for a Plan B (that we hopefully won’t need).

Scott Pendlebury

Do we still trust Pendles? His recent form has been underwhelming (av 96 over his past five) but we know what he is capable of — especially against the Suns. His past three games against Gold Coast have produced scores of 165, 135 and 134.

Dayne Zorko

Probably won’t score 196 like last week but has plenty of other big scores under his belt this year to show it wasn’t a fluke. Averages 110 in his past three against Richmond.

Dustin Martin

Had a rare stinker last weekend and ready to bounce back. Mitch Robinson put the blanket on him in Round 4, restricting Dusty to a season-low 54 points, but he’s gone for the year.

Nat Fyfe

He’s back. Scored 139 against the Kangaroos and looked like a new man — or the man who won the 2015 Brownlow — winning clearances and taking contested marks. Will he rise for the derby?