The best mid-price SuperCoach gamble from every AFL club

Pick a team full of mid-price players and it’s almost certain to blow up in your face. But nail the right ones and it’s your ticket to SuperCoach stardom. Who should you pick?

Picking a team full of mid-price players is an almost guaranteed way to blow up your SuperCoach season in spectacular style.

As tempting as they are, players are underpriced for a reason — their scores last year were way below their best.

Some will bounce back the next year as they return from injury, make the most of a change of club or their role in the team, or banish a year of terrible form.

A chosen few will score well enough to be keepers — that is, they will stay in your team all season and never cost you a trade.

THE PHANTOM: SUPERCOACH RANKINGS 1-50

EASY GUIDE: HOW TO PICK A WINNING SUPERCOACH TEAM

BIG GUNS: THE MONEY MEN IN THE MIDFIELD

The $50,000 question, of course, is which ones.

This is an imperfect science, but years of experience and analysis has taught some lessons about nailing the perfect mid-price pick.

Here’s our best bet from each club in 2019.

ADELAIDE

Brad Crouch $418,000 mid

We’re kicking things off with one of the riskiest players on this list. Crouch has a horrible injury history, but when he does get on the park he has shown he has the perfect game to be a top SuperCoach scorer — in his final four matches in 2017 he scored 138, 120, 110, 99. Then he missed all of last season with injury. And he’s had what the Crows say is a “minor” setback this pre-season. Alarm bells.

BRISBANE

Alex Witherden $455,000 def

Word out of Brisbane is this is the year Witherden goes from being a very promising youngster to a genuine star. Showed in his first two seasons he can score big in SuperCoach — including three 100-plus totals in his debut year — and new kick-in rules should help him. Picking a mid-pricer in defence isn't as big a risk as in the midfield. Get on.

CARLTON

Nic Newman $394,100 def

SuperCoach players fell in love with Newman when he arrived at Sydney as a mature-age recruit from the VFL and burst on to the scene with two big hundreds in his first six games. He dropped off a bit last year before being traded to Carlton, but he’ll get a lot more opportunities at the Blues, where he will fit perfectly into Brendon Bolton’s high-possession game plan.

COLLINGWOOD

Jordan De Goey $476,400 fwd

The SuperCoach scoring system rewards players who change the outcome of matches, and De Goey does that more than most. If Nathan Buckley can start him at a few more centre bounces it would help build his possession numbers, but even stationed forward he can rack up points from goals and score assists. And he’s only 22.

Jordan de Goey can turn a game on its head.

ESSENDON

Aaron Francis $350,900 def

Essendon coaches made Francis wait for his chance but when he got it late last year, the former No.6 draft pick grabbed it with both hands — literally. The 21-year-old took 10 contested marks in the final two rounds including six in Round 23, helping himself to 104 SuperCoach points. Intercept defenders are exactly the type of players you should be looking for.

FREMANTLE

Connor Blakely $461,800 def

Sometimes the impetus for a SuperCoach scoring spike has more to do with other players in the team — or no longer in the team. The departure of Lachie Neale creates a huge hole in the Fremantle midfield, and Blakely is at the front of the queue to fill it. The 22-year-old has built an impressive resume playing at half-back in the first four years of his career and is now ready to become Nat Fyfe’s wingman.

GEELONG

Luke Dahlhaus $418,300 fwd/mid

It was tough to find a candidate at Geelong with so many established stars in a battle-hardened team. But Dahlhaus shows how quickly we move on in footy, and SuperCoach. Two years ago he was one of the most popular selections in the game and he averaged over 90 as recently as 2017. Now at a new club with fresh motivation, there’s no reason he can’t get back to those heights.

Luke Dahlhaus says he needed a fresh start. Picture: Alison Wynd

GOLD COAST

Anthony Miles $342,000 mid

Speaking of fresh starts, Miles gets one at the Suns after seven seasons at Punt Rd. Despite being one of the Tigers’ leading clearance players he dropped out of the best 22 over the past two years, playing just six senior games. But he has lost none of his ball-winning ability and will start at every centre bounce for his new club. And given the Suns are likely to concede plenty of goals, there will be a lot of those.

GWS GIANTS

Toby Greene $354,600 fwd

The injury-prone, karate kicking controversy magnet is a polarising figure but there’s no question about his SuperCoach scoring ability. He burst out of the blocks last year with 131 points in Round 1 before injuries derailed his season, leading to two scores under 30, the lowest season average of his career and a bargain price for 2019. Hopefully his ankle is right for Round 1.

HAWTHORN

Chad Wingard $481,100 fwd/mid

The Hawks’ star recruit could be the silver lining of Tom Mitchell’s knee injury. He is priced at his 2018 SuperCoach average of 88 points, but that was more like 103 after Ken Hinkley moved him into the midfield in the second half of last season. And he’s likely to spend a lot more time there this year.

Alastair Clarkson is just the man to get the best out of Chad Wingard.

MELBOURNE

Jack Viney $449,500 mid

Anyone who watched Viney’s return from injury in last year’s elimination final walked away with a reminder in their phone to put Viney in their 2019 SuperCoach team. Coming off very limited preparation, Viney accumulated 27 disposals, 17 contested possesions, eight clearances and five tackles — despite playing only 67 per cent of the game. If he starts this year fully fit he’ll be in prime position to take Max Gawn’s precision taps.

NORTH MELBOURNE

Aaron Hall $389,200 mid

The former Gold Coast gun has never been noted for his defensive pressure but if he has a licence to attack, he can be as damaging as any player in the competition. His opening four rounds of 2016 is etched in SuperCoach folklore, scoring 129, 124, 134, 114 before life soured on the Sunshine strip. North is well stocked for inside bulls and he should slot in perfectly on a wing at Arden St.

PORT ADELAIDE

Hamish Hartlett $349,200 def

Hartlett is the prototype for a SuperCoach defender, winning plenty of the footy and using it well, often with high-scoring long kicks. He played only five matches last year before wrecking his knee. He has ticked every box in his rehab, is on track to play Round 1 and could be a sneaky pick in your defence.

RICHMOND

Jack Higgins $392,700 fwd

Now we’re getting speculative but if this comes off, remember you read it here first. Higgins broke Champion Data records for SuperCoach scoring as a junior and made a promising start to his AFL career, averaging 72 points a game in 2018. Of more interest is how he performed after Damien Hardwick gave him more responsibility in the midfield, finishing the year with scores of 90, 108 and 85. Second-year spikes are rare but not unheard of — can he follow in the footsteps or Marcus Bontempelli (who jumped from a 79 average to 103 in his second year) and Clayton Oliver (70 to 112)?

Jack Higgins on day one of Richmond’s pre-season. Picture: Michael Klein

ST KILDA

Dan Hannebery $326,100 mid

Hannebery was SuperCoach royalty from 2013-16 when he was one of the best-scoring and most reliable midfielders in the competition. As recently as 2017 he averaged 97 points a game before falling off a cliff last year. Is his body cooked or will a fresh start at St Kilda rejuvenate the hard-running midfielder? The Saints obviously have faith, signing him to a five-year contract.

SYDNEY

Sam Naismith $251,400 ruck

Most players will go straight for the big guns in the ruck, locking in Brodie Grundy and Max Gawn. They will also have to find ways to fill every other position than a lot less money than players who are brave (or crazy) enough to take a bargain-priced ruckman. Naismith is back after missing all of last season with a knee injury, and should take the No.1 ruck spot back from Callum Sinclair. The big question mark is over his scoring potential — he played 13 games in 2017 for a highest score of 87.

FIRST COLUMN: BROWNY’S BIG SUPERCOACH DILEMMA

TOP PICKS: THIS YEAR’S SEVEN MUST-HAVE PLAYERS

WEST COAST

Keegan Brooksby $202,700 ruck

If you’re thinking of taking a gamble in the ruck, why not go totally out on a limb and select the forgotten former Gold Coast big man? Brooksby, 28, was the dominant ruckman in the SANFL last year has a second shot at an AFL career at the Eagles. He’s a long shot but with Nic Naitanui out and Nathan Vardy injury-prone, he only needs Tom Hickey to hit a pre-season hurdle and he comes very much into the picture.

WESTERN BULLDOGS

Tom Liberatore $300,400 mid

Saving the best til last? Libba is the classic mid-price SuperCoach puzzle. On his day he can be one of the topscoring midfielders in the game, as evidenced by three successive seasons of 90-plus averages from 2013-16. But there are a lot of unknowns. How is his knee? Where will Luke Beveridge play him? Why does he have a tattoo of a chocolate bar on his arm? Only time will tell.

MORE SUPERCOACH NEWS AND TIPS

Originally published as The best mid-price SuperCoach gamble from every AFL club