The Phantom’s Pre-Season: The role changes that might affect SuperCoach in 2019

The introduction of new rules is set to have a big impact on SuperCoach scoring but so will a number of individual role changes. The Phantom looks at seven potential player moves and what they could mean for SuperCoach in 2019.

• The Phantom’s pre-season guide to: Premium smokies | Premium forwards | Premium defenders | Premium midfielders | Mid-price defenders| Mid-price midfielders | Mid-price ruckmen | Mid-price forwards | Mid price smokies | Cash cows in defence | Midfield cash cows | Cash cow defenders | Cash cow ruckmen | Cash cow forwards | Cash Cow smokies

• Survival Guide and Phantom team

The introduction of new rules is set to have a big impact on SuperCoach scoring but so will a number of individual role changes. The Phantom looks at seven potential player moves and what they could mean for SuperCoach in 2019.

Gary Ablett (Geelong)

$580,600, mid

The 34-year-old is set to line up as a forward in 2019 in a move that is already keeping opposition defenders up at night.

Ablett booted 44 goals in his last season at Geelong before moving to the Gold Coast in 2010 and has 402 career goals to his name.

While Ablett’s unbelievable year in 2010 also saw him average 31 disposals per game, his forward-half role this season will be a more permanent one.

“It might be I am only getting half the possessions that I am used to getting, but I’m damaging with those possessions,” Ablett said earlier in the pre-season.

“It is going to be a new role for me but a role I’m really looking forward to.”

If he stays fit, there’s little doubt the best SuperCoach scorer we’ve even seen will go big at times in 2019 but it’s unlikely to be consistent enough to make him a viable selection as a midfielder-only.

But it will help SuperCoaches in another way.

Team-mates Tim Kelly ($505,800 Fwd/Mid), Brandan Parfitt ($434,300, Fwd) and Sam Menegola ($543,100 Fwd/Mid) should see more midfield minutes as a result of Ablett’s move.

Expect the biggest scoring spike to come from Parfitt, who averaged 80 points per game in 2018.

Harris Andrews marks in a pre-season practice match against the Suns.

Harris Andrews (Brisbane)

$480,100, Def

After posting six SuperCoach tons and aa 97-point average in the opening 12 rounds, Andrews announced himself as a top-line SuperCoach scorer in 2018.

The 22-year-old, who missed a month of football after a nasty collision with Jeremy Cameron in Round 14, took 25 contested marks and ranked second in the competition for one percenters per game.

But, in 2019, coach Chris Fagan wants him to ply his trade at the other end of the ground, believing Andrews can be even more effective as a forward.

While it’s hard to be sure how the Lions will line up in Round 1, Fagan has liked what he’s seen so far.

“It is still experimental at the moment but he has looked really good,’’ Fagan told The Courier Mail.

For those SuperCoaches who have Andrews in their plans, monitor his role in the upcoming JLT Series. While it might be great for the Lions, a forward line move is likely to have a negative effect on his SuperCoach scoring.

THE PHANTOM’S INTEL: CROWS v POWER

Young Sun Ben Ainsworth is after more midfield time in 2019.

Ben Ainsworth (Gold Coast)

$333,200, Fwd

“I want to progress into an almost full-time midfielder. I look up to the likes of Devon Smith who plays a variety of roles in terms of on the wing, midfield and forward and also Toby Greene with his forward craft.”

That’s what Ainsworth, who averaged 119 SuperCoach points in the TAC Cup, told the Gold Coast Bulletin in January.

And if he gets what he wants, a breakout year is on the cards for the 20-year-old.

Between rounds 7 and 11 last season, Ainsworth pushed up the ground – after spending majority of his first two seasons forward – and averaged 20 disposals, nine contested possessions, five clearances, four tackles and 90 points per match, in an impressive five-game stretch.

Jack Martin (Gold Coast)

$439,200, Fwd/Mid

Ainsworth’s team-mate, the super-talented Jack Martin, is also a chance to spend more time in the midfield in 2019 after a standout pre-season.

Martin has played roles in defence and attack - and played them very well – for the Suns in the past but has failed to average more than 81 SuperCoach points is any of his first five seasons.

A more-permanent midfield move might change that.

Josh Battle (St Kilda)

$232,100, Fwd

Saint Josh Battle in action during the club’s intra-club match.

The 20-year-old was drafted as a key-forward and spent his first two years on St Kilda’s list as a forward-line target.

But, like the Hawks have done with James Sicily, the Saints are trying Battle as an intercepting defender in 2019.

“We just thought it might suit his attributes; he’s got a really good tank, ran a really good 3km time, he’s an excellent natural athlete,” St Kilda’s backline coach Henry Playfair told the club’s website.

“He’s also got good speed and uses the ball well on both sides of his body, and he can intercept mark it, so he’s got a lot of things that we like.”

And after an impressive performance, which included a number of big intercept marks, in the recent intra-club match, a rookie-price Battle is another to add the JLT Series watchlist.

Callum Mills (Sydney)

$428,900, Def

With departure of Dan Hannebery and Josh Kennedy turning 31 in June, the long-awaited permanent midfield move for Mills could eventuate.

While we’ve heard it before — and on more than one occasion — the 21-year-old, who has played an important role across half-back for most of his 55-game career, has trained with the midfield group over summer, dominated match-simulation and was one of the Swans’ best through the middle in the recent practice match against the Giants.

Mills the midfielder is a chance to finish as at top-six SuperCoach defender in 2019.

Wayne Milera (Adelaide)

$433,100, Def

In 2018, the sublimely-skilled 21-year-old made his mark on the competition, proving almost impossible to catch dashing from defence.

From Round 17, Milera averaged 23 disposals, six marks, four rebound 50s and 95 SuperCoach points per game.

But with Brodie Smith back in 2019 and Rory Laird going nowhere, will Milera remain across half-back to form a dynamic trio of running defenders or push further up the ground?

Watch his role in the JLT Series closely.

THE PHANTOM’S INTEL FROM THE FIRST PRACTICE MATCHES

Originally published as The Phantom’s Pre-Season: The role changes that might affect SuperCoach in 2019