Five midfielders to consider for your SuperCoach team in 2025

The midfield is the engine room of our SuperCoach sides. If you don’t nail it, you risk falling behind. PATCH names the big guns and bargains you need to consider.

The engine room of our teams, the midfield is where the lion’s share of SuperCoach points are to be won.

It’s where most of our captains will live and also often give a home to our best rookies. With 11 players, it forms nearly a third of our sides.

You have to nail your midfield.

If you don’t, you risk being left behind.

Here’s five guys who I’m monitoring in the pre-season with serious consideration for one of those 11 midfield slots in my side – or maybe a Flex spot – and I think you should be too.

Zak Butters | Port Adelaide | $648,900

I’m about to say something controversial, but I just want you to hear me out. Zak Butters is good at football. It’s a bit of a leap, I know, but the man is a bona fide star and I think I’m more likely to start him than Marcus Bontempelli – although I’ll do everything I can to own both. That’s because Butters’ opening 11 rounds are simply electric and will allow him to cash in against bad sides. The Power plays Collingwood (who I hope are bad), Richmond (very bad), Essendon (bad), St Kilda (who knows), Hawthorn (sadly good), Sydney (good), North Melbourne (bad), Western Bulldogs (???), Adelaide (OK?), Geelong and Fremantle (both good). He also has a friendly bye.

He’s currently in only 30 per cent of teams – compared to 50 per cent for Bont – which is understandable considering his price, but also tasty for those of us going with him.

Clayton Oliver | Melbourne | $451,600

70, 111, 115, 109, 122, 123, 127, 120, 84. This isn’t a run of scores, this is nine years of averages from Clayton Oliver. SuperCoach’s Mr Consistent had a 2024 to forget after a tumultuous pre-season and was beset by injuries. I’m ready to forgive and forget last season if he can get close to his best, and all signs from the track so far are that he’s fit and raring to go.

If he is, then you absolutely have to lock him into your side at less than $500k. This is as big a no-brainer as we get in SuperCoach. I still want to see him in action, but rewind 18 months and we’d have been shocked to see a fit Clayton Oliver average less than 120, let alone less than 85. If we get 105 that’s a huge win, anything more than that and we’re laughing all the way to the bank to deposit 50,000 big ones.

Clayton Oliver has had a great pre-season. Picture: Michael Klein

Tom Green | GWS Giants | $574,200

Many people were burned by Tommy last season, stumping up more than $600k for him and watching that cash – and his point-scoring output – burn down around him. I’m going back for another look. Green averaged 111 in 2023 before dropping to 106.6 last year. But if you take his injury-affected 5 out of his score and his average bumps back up to 111. I’m not concerned by the early bye – as I’ll write about more this pre-season.

I’m still a Tom Green truther, and he’s high up on my draft rankings, but can you justify picking him ahead of other players? He’s been in and out of my side – currently in – but is also the first guy who can move if I decide to restructure, or if I decide I like the look of someone else more. I think he bounces back and is value, but is he more value than Clayton Oliver or the next guy on the list…? I think not.

Tom Green’s game is built for SuperCoach. Picture: Phil Hillyard

James Peatling | Adelaide | $352,800

My wonderful colleague Tim Michell wrote up Adelaide’s new midfield weapon in his mid-pricers rankings – pointing out his average of 105.5 when he played as an inside midfielder at GWS. Tim said “Had he retained his FWD status, Peatling would have been one of the first picked players for many SuperCoaches this year”, and I don’t think he’s wrong. I’m not convinced there are spots in our midfields for anyone who isn’t a rookie or averaging more than 105, but I’ll be keeping a very close eye on him in the pre-season to see if he’s able to break three figures, and if I reckon he can then maybe that shiny, fancy new Flex spot might have its first tenant.

Ed Allan is pushing for more midfield time at the Magpies. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Ed Allan | Collingwood | $194,000

At the other end of the price ledger is a guy who could prove one of the best buys of the season … depending on where (or if) he lines up.

Allan played just two games last year, one in round 11, when he scored 26, and the other in round 24, when he ripped off a lazy 94 SuperCoach points running through the midfield and half-forward. Allan picked up 21 touches, six tackles, three clearances and a goal that day, and those are some tasty numbers for a guy in his second game of AFL footy.

I’ve got a lot of question marks over the Pies this season, including the fitness Tom Mitchell, and Jordan De Goey, how they use veterans Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom, if they try to rejuvenate their side, and if they’ll actually be any good (I hope not).

A lot of those questions need answering before I can splash the cash on yet another expensive rookie, but the signs are there for Allan if he can get an opportunity in the centre square. If he’s stuck forward, then I reckon we’ll see more scores closer to the 26 than the 94. Plus, could he be a sub risk? To quote the worst man in the world: Concerning. Looking into it. Is he a better option than Sam Lalor or Elijah Tsatas?

Originally published as Five midfielders to consider for your SuperCoach team in 2025