The Phantom’s Round 7 review: The good, the bad and the biggest turning point since ‘97

AFTER a disappointing start to the year, it turned for Lion Dayne Zorko on Sunday. But is it enough for the SuperCoach community to jump on? LISTEN to the latest episode of The Phantom’s Lair Podcast.

The Phantom's Round 7 Review

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ON September 20, 1997, early in the last quarter of the preliminary final at the MCG, with his team leading by four goals, Bulldog Tony Liberatore kicked what he thought was the sealer against the Crows.

As he celebrated in the arms of teammates Paul Hudson and Brett Montgomery, the umpire signalled a behind.

The moment became one of the biggest turning points in recent memory as the Crows, led by mercurial forward Darren Jarman, dominated the rest of the game to book their place in the grand final and then, a week later, claim a historic first premiership.

But have we just witnessed a more pivotal moment?

If you are a regular listener of The Phantom’s Lair SuperCoach Podcast, you would know the SuperCoach Hipster has struggled through the opening six rounds of the year with premium midfielder Dayne Zorko, who has failed to fire a shot, one the of main factors in his side’s slow start.

But on Sunday it turned.

Zorko, without the tight opposition attention he received in the first six matches of 2018, stood up for the Lions — and the Hipster’s SuperCoach team — tallying 32 disposals, 10 tackles, four goals and 164 points.

The Hipster scored 2350 points for the round, a score which saw his overall ranking climb more than 15,000 spots.

It could be the turning point for the Hipster and also the entire Phantom’s Lair Podcast team in the head-to-head competition with the Herald Sun’s SuperCoaches Box podcast.

The captain of the Victorian contingent, Gilbert Gardiner, basically had sidekick Al Paton — who I must mention is ranked 790 after Round 8 — in his arms celebrating after a dominant opening month.

But, after South Australia took the points for the second time in the past three weeks, it might just be another early Crow by the Vics.

Let’s get back to Zorko.

Is it enough for the rest of the SuperCoach community to jump on the Lion midfielder, who looks to have completely bottomed-out at a ridiculously cheap $425k?

While it might, The Phantom suggests waiting another week to be sure.

With a Round 8 break-even of 44, Zorko is unlikely to be available at a cheaper price this season but given he failed to score more than 46 points in three of his first six matches, we need to see more.

Even though Collingwood elected not to tag the damaging midfielder, Zorko’s performance against the Magpies highlighted the importance of quelling his influence.

While all of Zorko’s numbers were good, the 29-year-old’s 10 tackles and game-high 97 pressure points — 25 more than any other player on the ground — were the most impressive, given his work rate has been questioned over the past two weeks.

It’s worth sacrificing $30-$40k to be more certain on Zorko’s future scoring because, if he can recapture his best form, anything less than $500k is a bargain.

Well done, Hipster.

THE GOOD

Bulldog Jack Macrae tallied a round-high 189 SuperCoach points against the Suns.

The only player to score more SuperCoach points than Zorko in Round 7 was Bulldog Jack Macrae. The ball magnet tallied a huge 40 disposals, 25 contested possessions, eight tackles and 189 points. Well done to those SuperCoaches who traded in Macrae, who is now the highest-scoring player in the game, prior to the weekend. For those who don’t own him, this is the final week to jump on, given his break-even of 45, but there is arguably better value around in the midfield ahead of Round 8.

Melbourne draftee Charlie Spargo followed up his impressive 81-point debut with 15 disposals, eight contested possessions, one goal and 78 points against the Saints. The 18-year-old confirmed himself as the best downgrade option this week, ahead of fellow bubble boys Ben Ronke, Kobe Mutch and James Worpel — in that order.

Is there a more frustrating player than Hawk James Sicily? The 23-year-old, who has dual-position status as a forward/defender in SuperCoach, has missed two games through separate suspensions in the first seven rounds of the season but also scored more than 120 points in three of them. Sicily’s average of 113 ranks him second behind Rory Laird in defence and — ignoring Mason Wood who has only played one game — second behind Robbie Gray in the forward line.

At $498k, he’s still a bargain. Jump on this week before his price shoots above $500k in the coming rounds.

THE BAD

Jack Billings. This part of the weekly review is simple because I can just copy over last week’s template. Billings’ 57 points in Round 7 makes it four scores of 57 or less in the past five matches. Surely it can’t get any worse from here. Well it might because, the 22-year-old, who is now worth $377k, a whopping $131k less than his starting price, could be dropped on current form. At this stage, there’s no real value in trading him and The Phantom will still be upgrading elsewhere first.

Christian Petracca’s return from a finger injury wasn’t what SuperCoaches were hoping for.

Demon Christian Petracca wasn’t much better on return from the finger injury that kept him out of the Round 6 clash against the Bombers. The Phantom’s team would’ve been better off if he missed again, given both forward bench options, Bayley Fritsch and Zac Langdon, outscored him. Petracca, who was supposed to blossom as a full-time midfielder in 2018, failed to attend a centre bounce against the Saints and spent most of his time in the forward line but let’s hope that was Melbourne being cautious.

Dustin Martin’s 87 points against the Dockers makes it three weeks without a SuperCoach ton and, while it’s frustrating for those with the Brownlow Medallist, non-owners should be excited. Martin has lost $91k off his starting price tag and faces another high break-even of 162 in Round 8.

Young Giant defender Jeremy Finlayson, who averaged 92 SuperCoach points in the opening five rounds of the year, has now posted consecutive scores of less than 65, with his 62-point performance against the Cats his lowest for the year.

While upgrading Finlayson this week is the obvious move, given his break-even of 86 points is now higher than his average, The Phantom expects the 22-year-old to bounce back from a tough night down in Geelong, which saw him boot two goals after switching to attack.

Marcus Bontempelli late withdrawal from the Bulldogs side burned plenty of SuperCoaches. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

THE PHANTOM’S MENACE

Western Bulldogs.

While it didn’t affect The Phantom, the late-withdrawal of Marcus Bontempelli hurt a lot of SuperCoach teams, especially those who only just traded him on Friday.

But there is also a lesson to be learned. If you can — and I know it’s hard for some to be on their phone or computer over the weekend — save your trades until the first lot of final teams are announced on Saturday as the reverse trade button cannot be used after the first game of the round has started.

THE PHANTOM ROUND 7

Score: 2081

Overall Ranking: 15,112

Originally published as The Phantom’s Round 7 review: The good, the bad and the biggest turning point since ‘97