The Phantom’s SuperCoach pre-season: Premium forward analysis

The Phantom’s SuperCoach pre-season is in full swing. Today, we look at the top-priced forwards for 2019. Danger is a no-brainer but who comes next? Can we trust the key position players? The Phantom runs the rule over the best premium options.

The Phantom's SuperCoach Pre-season: Premium Forwards

• The Phantom’s preseason: Premium defenders
• The Phantom’s pre-season: Premium midfielders
• The Phantom’s team reveal version 2.0
• Everything you need to know about SuperCoach
• SuperCoach Draft: Top 50 rankings

The Phantom’s SuperCoach pre-season is here. Today, we look at the top-priced forwards for 2019. Danger is a no-brainer but who comes next? Can we trust the key position players? The Phantom runs the rule over the best premium options.

NO-BRAINER

Patrick Dangerfield

(Geelong $660,500)

The Geelong superstar’s average fell by a significant 14 points last season after he battled a number of small niggles.

But he still averaged 122 points per game.

Yes, that means he averaged 136 in 2017, which followed on from the 132-point mark he set in 2016.

Just. Pick. Him.

The Phantom’s Verdict: See above.

ON THE RISE

Josh Dunkley was the third-highest SuperCoach scorer in the last five rounds of 2018.

Josh Dunkley

(Western Bulldogs $516,300)

Assessing late-season form from the previous year is key to identifying a scoring spike or a full-blown SuperCoach breakout.

And after looking at the Bulldog midfielder’s final nine games of 2018, he’s a prime candidate for the latter.

From Round 15 onwards last year, Dunkley averaged 29 disposals, 11 contested possessions, seven tackles, five marks and 116 SuperCoach points per game.

And, if you narrow it down to the final five rounds, Dunkley’s average of 132 points per game ranked fourth in the competition behind only Brodie Grundy, Jack Macrae and Dangerfield.

The 22-year-old tallied 9.6 disposals per game more than he did the previous season, the biggest jump of any player in the AFL.

Despite an injury-interrupted first two years, Dunkley has always shown his scoring potential.

In the first 16 games of his career, Dunkley posted six scores of 89 or more, including a match-winning 23-disposal, 111-point performance, as a 19-year-old, in the Bulldogs semi-final victory over the Hawks.

The Phantom’s Verdict: Unless Luke Beveridge plays around with the make-up of his midfield — and he has before — then Dunkley is a likely top-six forward in 2019.

Devon Smith

(Essendon $531,300)

While the 25-year-old, who won the best-and-fairest award in his first year at the Bombers, has already risen to an elite level in the SuperCoach world, expect him to push his average past three figures for the first time in his career.

The former Giant averaged 98 points per game in 2018 after scoring 86 or more in 17 of his 22 games, including 11 SuperCoach tons.

And the more the year went on, the better Smith was, averaging 107 points in the final eight games, compared to 93 in the opening 14 rounds.

While the tough midfielder-forward averaged 22 disposals per game, he led the competition for tackles, laying 18 more than the second-ranked Clayton Oliver, even if you include the Demon’s two finals.

Scoring aside, after injury had restricted him in his time at the Giants, the most pleasing part of Smith’s 2018 was the fact he played all 22 games for the first time in his seven-year career.

The Phantom’s Verdict: A reliable SuperCoach selection for the foreseeable — and injury-free — future.

Isaac Heeney during Swans preseason. Picture: Phil Hillyard

DON’T FORGET

Isaac Heeney

(Sydney $529,200)

After adding 18 points to his SuperCoach average in 2017, despite battling glandular fever in the off-season, many expected Heeney to explode in 2018.

While he posted SuperCoach tons in nine of the first 12 rounds of the year, an injury-affected 18 and three scores of 78 or less after the bye, saw Heeney just maintain his average in 2018.

But, don’t worry, the spike will come.

Given how damaging the 22-year-old is forward of centre, Heeney continued to split his time between the forward line and the midfield last season.

And it makes his 11 SuperCoach tons for the year — five of them a score of 120 or more — even more impressive.

The Phantom’s Verdict: Just because the spike we were expecting last summer didn’t come, don’t forget about him this year.

NEW COLOURS

Will see Chad Wingard as a full-time midfielder in 2019?

Chad Wingard

(Hawthorn $481,100)

Wingard is a mercurial forward, there’s no doubt about it.

The left-footer booted 232 goals and directly assisted 111 others in 147 games in his time at the Power.

But he’s also a creative and dangerous midfielder as he’s shown at different stages over his career.

With the season-ending injury to Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell, it’s time for new coach Alastair Clarkson to make the most of this potential and deploy Wingard as a full-time midfielder in 2019.

After a quiet start, Wingard was moved into the midfield in the second half of 2018 with tremendous success.

In the final 12 games of the year, the 25-year-old averaged 24 disposals, 12 contested possessions, five clearances, five inside 50s, five tackles and 103 SuperCoach points per game, while also booting 11 goals.

Over to you, Clarko.

The Phantom’s Verdict: If the midfield role eventuates — and continues — you’ll be kicking yourself for not picking him.

Sam Menegola at Geelong training. Will he become the consistent scorer SuperCoaches are craving? Picture: Alan Barber

THE CATS

Sam Menegola

(Geelong $543,100)

The Geelong ball magnet has averaged 100 points per game in the past two seasons.

Not one point more or one point less. And that’s the frustrating part.

Menegola posted 13 SuperCoach tons in 2018, six of them in excess of 120 as his productive roaming half-forward role continued.

But the 26-year-old failed to score more than 74 points in six matches, including scores of 57 and 59, and it’s this consistency that’s stopping him from become an absolute must-have in SuperCoach.

This is encapsulated in his first seven rounds of 2018 with Menegola scoring 74, 57, 128, 129, 121, 70 and 85.

And it wasn’t just last season.

In his past 52 matches, Menegola has posted 15 scores of 120 or more and 10 of less than 74.

While he doesn’t look to have an average of 110 in him, only four eligible SuperCoach forwards last season finished with a better average.

The Phantom’s Verdict: Menegola’s scoring is unlikely to improve dramatically given his role but he’ll again be among the top-ranked forwards.

Tim Kelly

(Geelong $505,800)

The classy midfielder posted nine scores of 100 or more to finish with an average of 93 in his debut season of 2018

We haven’t seen first-year SuperCoach numbers like that since Michael Barlow exploded on to the scene in 2010.

But with a failed bid to move back home and the potential for more opposition attention, can he build on last season?

At the price, you’d want to be very sure and, at this point anyway, I don’t think you can be.

The Phantom’s Verdict: There’s no doubting Kelly’s star potential but find the extra money and go with Menegola.

Tom Hawkins tries to keep up with team-mate Patrick Dangerfield at Geelong training.

THE KEY FORWARDS

Tom Hawkins (Geelong $552,900), Tom McDonald (Melbourne $529,800), Lance Franklin (Sydney $543,500)

Previously, as like many key forwards in the game, Hawkins has been an unreliable SuperCoach selection, averaging 90 points or more in just one season since 2007.

But in 2018, the star cat, who booted 59 goals, posted 10 SuperCoach tons, four of them in excess of 135, to finish the year as the highest-averaging forward to play more than one game.

Unlike Hawkins, McDonald had shown is worth in SuperCoach, posting a 96-point average in a breakout 2015 season playing in defence.

However, in 2018, he showed he could be even better.

After missing the first five rounds through injury, the 26-year-old set a new career-high, scoring 80 points or more in 15 of his 17 games and recording seven SuperCoach tons as a forward.

When he’s on, Franklin has both Hawkins and McDonald covered in SuperCoach.

In fact, apart from Dangerfield, he’s got every other forward covered, averaging 90 points or more in 10 of his 15 seasons in the game.

But can we trust the star Swan, who has averaged more than 107 points per game for three consecutive seasons between 2010 and 2012, after another limited pre-season?

The Phantom’s Verdict: If you’re brave, it has to be Franklin, who posted three scores of 160 or more last year. Otherwise, it’s Hawkins over McDonald, who won’t have forward-line sidekick Jesse Hogan by his side in 2019.

Originally published as The Phantom’s SuperCoach pre-season: Premium forward analysis