The Phantom’s SuperCoach pre-season: Cash cow midfielders
The Phantom’s SuperCoach moves into the all-important cash cow week. Today, it’s time for the best rookie-price midfielders. Is Sam Walsh worth the price tag? Who are the best mature-age picks? The Phantom runs the rule over the best options
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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
The Phantom’s SuperCoach moves into the all-important cash cow week. Today, it’s time for the best rookie-price midfielders. Is Sam Walsh worth the price tag? Who are the best mature-age picks? The Phantom runs the rule over the best options.
THE TOP PICKS
Sam Walsh
(Carlton $207,300)
“I’m yet to see a weakness, to be honest. He’s a serious athlete.”
That’s how veteran Kade Simpson described his new team-mate on SEN this week.
Everything you hear about the classy, hard-working midfielder is overwhelmingly positive.
And his numbers are no different.
In 41 junior matches covered by Champion Data, the No. 1 pick averaged 29 disposals per game.
Walsh, who averaged 142 SuperCoach points at the Under-18 championships, has been turning heads at the Blues over the pre-season and should slot straight into the midfield against the Tigers in March.
The Phantom’s Verdict: Will be worth the elevated rookie price — fit him in if you can.
Jackson Hately
(GWS $148,800)
After averaging 91 SuperCoach points in 12 senior games at SANFL level in 2018, the 190cm Hately was drafted ready to go.
And he’s reinforced the point with a terrific pre-season at the Giants.
As a junior, the 18-year-old did best work on the inside, rating elite for clearances and tackles at the Under-18 championships, where he averaged 108 points per game.
But he’s also shown he can break away from the contest and be damaging on the outside.
There’s midfield spots up for grabs at GWS and Hately is right in the mix.
The Phantom’s Verdict: Likely to score well when he gets the chance.
Luke Valente
(Fremantle $117,300)
There’s a lot of Jack Graham about Valente.
Both are strongly-built midfielders, who captained South Australia at Under-18 level. They won plenty of footy and dominated junior games.
And late last year, like Graham, the questions revolved around Valente’s speed and upside, in comparison to a number of other midfielders in the draft.
But, after overcoming an early-season injury, Graham played a big role in the Tigers’ drought-breaking premiership in his first year in the competition.
In a developing Docker engine room without Lachie Neale and the injured Connor Blakely, Valente could do the same.
The 186cm, 80kg Valente is great by foot — on both sides of his body — and averaged 22 disposals and 118 SuperCoach points per game as he lead his side to the 2018 Under-18 title.
The Phantom’s Verdict: JLT Series will tell us more about where the ready-made midfielder fits into Ross Lyon’s plans.
Ely Smith
(Brisbane $117,300)
In a similar mould to Hately and Valente, Smith — taken at pick No. 21 in last year’s draft — arrived at the Lions with a body ready for senior football.
The contested beast, who stands at 187cm and 86kg, averaged 114 points in the TAC Cup last season and ranked elite for disposals, contested possessions, clearances and score involvements.
While he’s ready to play AFL footy tomorrow, the Lions’ developing midfield isn’t short of inside ball winners so Smith may have to bide his time.
The Phantom’s Verdict: Unless Smith lights up the JLT Series, he might be more of a mid-season downgrade option
Liam Stocker
(Carlton $126,300)
After a slow start to 2018, the 183cm midfielder averaged 25 disposals, 14 contested possessions and six clearances in the final nine games of the year, to finish with a SuperCoach average of 110 and a Morrish Medal as the TAC Cup’s best-and-fairest.
And the Blues, who were desperate to land Stocker after trading picks with the Crows, should give him a chance early in 2019.
The Phantom’s Verdict: How many kids can Carlton play in the midfield?
THE MATURE-AGERS
Brett Bewley
(Fremantle $117,300)
At this point of the pre-season the mature-age Docker, drafted from Williamstown in the VFL, is the must-have midfield cash cow.
The 23-year-old, who averaged 26 disposals, five inside 50s and 104 SuperCoach points per game last season, has fit in seamlessly at Fremantle and is firming as a Round 1 starter.
The damaging left-footer has impressed with his running ability and will be a great addition on a wing, helping to send the ball forward to a new-look forward line featuring Jesse Hogan and Rory Lobb.
The Phantom’s Verdict: Lock him in.
Nick Hind
(St Kilda $117,300)
And there’s another mature-age recruit who has bolted — literally — into Round 1 calculations, after impressing coach Alan Richardson over summer.
Hind, plucked from Essendon’s VFL side, averaged 22 disposals, four marks and 87 SuperCoach points in 2018 and will bring some serious speed and line-breaking ability to the St Kilda side — two traits the Saints are crying out for, especially in the back half.
The Phantom’s Verdict: Mature body. Senior experience. Round 1. You couldn’t ask for more.
AFTER ANOTHER PRE-SEASON
Charlie Constable
(Geelong $123,900)
After averaging 121 SuperCoach points at the Under 18 championships and 109 points in the TAC Cup in 2017, the big-bodied midfielder was close to an early-season debut last year.
It didn’t eventuate but, after an impressive first year in the VFL, it could be a different story in 2019.
The 191cm Constable, whose game has been likened to Carlton star Patrick Cripps, averaged 24 disposals, 10 contested possessions, five marks, four tackles and four clearances per game in his first season against men.
The Cripps’ comparison is enough for me.
The Phantom’s Verdict: It’s a strong midfield but Constable can add another element. Over to you, Chris.
Joe Atley
(Port $123,900)
With star Ollie Wines likely to miss the early part of the season with a shoulder injury, the third-year midfielder, who has three senior games to his name, is the ready-made replacement.
The 20-year-old is a similar build, standing at 188cm and weighing in at 88kg. Wines, four years his senior, is 190cm and tips the scales at 99kg.
And, like Wines, the No. 32 pick from the 2016 draft is a contested-ball beast.
In his draft year of 2016, Atley won 55 per cent of his possession in a contest. In 2017, playing for the Magpies in the SANFL, that percentage was 52. And last year, a season when he averaged 22 disposals, six clearances, five tackles and 91 SuperCoach points per game, 50 per cent of his possession was won in a contest.
Wines’ percentage in the past two seasons were 49 and 51 and in that time, he recorded 163 more contested possessions than any other Power player.
The Phantom’s Verdict: A SuperCoach lock if he’s in the Power’s Round 1 midfield.
Luke Davies-Uniacke
(North Melbourne $197,500)
The ball-winning midfielder averaged 24 disposals, 12 contested possessions, five clearances, six score involvements, one goal and 134 SuperCoach points in the TAC Cup last season, with a 33-disposal, 184-point performance in the finals the highlight.
That’s a paragraph taken from my analysis of Davies-Uniacke ahead of debut season in 2018.
It’s fair to say, after failing to score more than 37 points in five of his seven games last season, he failed to replicate his junior numbers in the big time.
But that doesn’t mean the big-bodied midfielder, with another pre-season under his belt, can’t do so in his second season.
He’s going to get more opportunity in 2019 and he’s still rookie-price.
The Phantom’s Verdict: One to keep an eye on during the JLT Series.
Originally published as The Phantom’s SuperCoach pre-season: Cash cow midfielders
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