SuperCoach AFL 2025 trade guide: Top rookies, premium targets for round 9
Finding value is the key to SuperCoach success – just ask the coaches who brought in Chad Warner last week. See this week’s best bargains and the cheapies to buy now.
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Round 8 demonstrated the value of value.
Coaches who sold the farm for Zak Butters were rewarded with 109 points, while coaches who spent $200k less on Chad Warner and Christian Petracca were rewarded with 140 and 129 points respectively – and cash left to fund their next upgrade.
It won’t work out that well every week, but it shows how you can improve your team quickly by getting an extra score from a budget premium instead of relying on a Sam Davidson 46 or Xavier Lindsay 56 in your best 22. Even reliable rookies can drop an unexpected bad score, as Riley Bice (49) did this week.
So, with all due respect, the 3000 coaches paying $687,000 to get Max Gawn this week are not going about this the right way!
The good news is there are more fallen premos on the radar this week. See our top picks below, plus the best rookies for round 9.
ROOKIES
The most obvious move of the week – if you didn’t grab him last week, as 13,000 coaches did. Has the lowest Break Even in the comp after scoring 72 and 82 in the past two rounds. The only query is if he keeps his spot when Connor Nash returns from suspension, but that is two weeks away and an injury to Cam McKenzie (broken hand) could change the selection picture. Will make cash and can play on field – for now, at least. Get on.
If you have Hustwaite already, finding a rookie to downgrade to becomes a lot trickier. Erasmus has been on the bubble since round 3, left to churn out big numbers in the WAFL. But a hamstring injury to Hayden Young could open the door for a timely return – and the Dockers midfield needs a shake-up.
There is always a risk a player will be omitted, injured or drop a poor score before they get to the three-game milestone needed to make money in SuperCoach, but so far this year coaches haven’t been burnt badly by jumping on cheapies after one game. Boxshall had been bashing the selection door down at VFL level – averaging 24 disposals, 16 contested possessions, 10 tackles and 128 SuperCoach points, including scores of 157 and 162 – and he stepped up in his AFL debut. The young West Australian attended nine centre bounces in a St Kilda win on Friday night on his way to 16 disposals, six tackles and 75 SuperCoach points.
Another one-gamer you could take a chance on after an impressive 83-point return in his first game for 2025 (he played two games last year and was the sub in both, scoring 31 and 13 SuperCoach points). His role was a lot more outside than Boxshall, with 15 disposals (13 effective) across half-back and a wing in Ballarat. Is he the next Christian Moraes? I would prefer to wait for another look before committing.
PREMIUM TARGETS
Well played to the 7616 coaches who had the conviction to grab Warner last week at his lowest price. The rest of us can join the action after a $27k price rise that still leaves him $72k under his round 1 value. Warner has been part of Dean Cox’s first-choice onball unit for a month, attending over 70 per cent of centre bounces after hovering in the 30s and 40s for the first five rounds. There will be down games – that’s how Chad rolls – but the upside is clearly worth it.
It’s been hard to get a read on Marshall this season. He put up three very low scores in a row – 61, 52, 65 – from rounds 4-6 but his past two have been back to his more familiar standard, scoring 133 against Brisbane (the hardest ruck match-up in the game) and 112 against Fremantle. How much is missing most of pre-season with a pelvis issue impacting him? It’s impossible to know but we can tell you this is a crazy price for a player who started the year over $600k and has averaged 112-plus the past two seasons. The last of those low scores is about to drop out of his rolling average, so this is the last week we’ll get him this cheap. Faces the Eagles in two weeks, and we saw what Max Gawn just did to them.
That Eagles game is also front of mind for coaches considering Sinclair, currently the fourth-highest scoring defender for 2025 but available for almost $60k under his starting price. He was averaging 126 after round 5 before Ross Lyon experimented with his midfield, handing Sinclair and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera some centre bounce exposure. That didn’t really work for the Saints or SuperCoach, with both players doing their best work behind the ball. That’s where they both played as St Kilda returned to form against Freo. Don’t stress about an 83-point game, Sinclair went at 100 per cent efficiency but had just one kick-in as the Dockers kicked 5.3 for the game. BE of 131 means you could wait a week but he scored 111 the last time he faced the Blues.
Price has bottomed out and now available at a $93k discount, although it’s been a while since he started the season with a blaze of glory with three scores over 130. Zorko has hit three figures just once in five games since then, although two of his other scores are 94 against Richmond and 95 against Gold Coast on Sunday – helped by a late flurry when the Lions played keepings off to wind down the clock. Value is clear but the Lions also have to find a way to fit Keidean Coleman into their defence soon. He returned from an ACL in the VFL at the weekend and had 28 disposals and 136 SuperCoach points.
It’s deja Roo. Last year LDU averaged 96 over the first seven rounds, fell to $516k, then roared home with a 114 average. In 2023 you could get him for $494k in round 16 then enjoy an eight-round blitz at an average of 126 points per game. This year his price has fallen $96k since round 1, but with a Break Even of 74 there are unlikely to be any more price falls. Is there evidence of a form turnaround this year? His past two scores (114, 101) are encouraging but we haven’t seen a real big one yet. Pencil in round 10 when he faces Richmond, a team he scored 141 against the last time they met.
A safer pick than Zorko, Dunkley had his highest centre bounce numbers of the season in the Q-Clash. Ultra reliable, Dunkley has averaged 115, 111 and 111 in the past three seasons while barely missing a game in that time. His numbers have been slightly down in recent weeks – hence the $80k price drop – but a big one could be just around the corner, and he has favourable match-ups in the next two weeks against North Melbourne and Melbourne.
Do you count as a fallen premium if you’re $1100 under your starting price? We’re claiming Rankine considering he is a must for your finished forward line – currently ranked No.2 for total points behind Jack Macrae. Non owners need to find a time to get him, and a low low Break Even means this is as cheap as he’ll be for a while.
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Originally published as SuperCoach AFL 2025 trade guide: Top rookies, premium targets for round 9
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