It has nearly turn out to be a practice in KFC SuperCoach to fill your group with speculative mid-price picks when the sport opens in January, then discard them as nerves kick in when spherical 1 approaches.
However 2022 proved that backing in these speculative picks can put you on the quick observe to success – coaches who began final season with all of Patrick Cripps, Stephen Coniglio, James Sicily, George Hewett and Will Brodie rocketed to the highest of the rankings, and lots of of them stayed there for your complete season.
Was final season one out of the field or has the KFC SuperCoach panorama modified perpetually?
Both approach discovering worth will all the time be a key to constructing a profitable group, with each greenback saved in a single place liberating up money to spend up someplace else.
So who could possibly be the Brodie, Cripps or Coniglio of 2023?
Listed below are 11 gamers who may massively outperform their beginning worth this season. Keep tuned over pre-season as we replace this listing with the most recent pre-season intel.
Nat Fyfe (Fremantle) $313,600 MID-FWD
Fyfe as a ahead for lower than $320k – do we have to say any extra? Ten seasons with a mean over 100, three over 120 and we are able to decide him within the ahead line. The case towards is simply seven matches final 12 months with a excessive rating of 96 and a mean of 63, persistent hamstring accidents, the very fact he’s now 31 and would possibly play extra as a everlasting ahead as he passes the baton to a brand new era of Dockers midfielders. However the upside is huge.
Verdict: Harm historical past is an enormous pink flag – preserve an ear to the bottom for any discuss of pre-season niggles. However to date, so good. He’s in for me.
Toby McLean (Western Bulldogs) $178,900 MID-FWD
McLean was a unbelievable KFC SuperCoach decide in 2018 when he burst out of the blocks with a 111 common over the primary 10 rounds, and a repeat efficiency in 2023 would have fantasy coaches laughing all the way in which to the financial institution. That’s the highest finish of his potential output however 90-plus scores are usually not an outrageous prediction – he scored 100 factors when he returned in final 12 months’s elimination last after nearly two years within the wilderness.
Verdict: Needs to be nearly your first-picked participant if he cracks the most effective 22 – he was within the B group in current match simulation however seemed in nice nick.
Conor McKenna (Brisbane Lions) $167,500 DEF
We don’t have KFC SuperCoach information for the Gaelic Athletic Affiliation, the place McKenna has performed for the previous two years. However he was a key member of Tyrone’s All-Eire title profitable group in 2021. Having fulfilled that dream, he’s returning to the AFL with Brisbane profitable the race for his signature – an indication the Lions see him taking part in a job of their push for a primary flag since 2003. “We see Conor being a participant who additional improves our listing, notably as he provides each run and pace,” footy supervisor Danny Daly stated. “He confirmed in his time at Essendon that considered one of his strengths is that he can play at each ends of the bottom, and he also can win loads of the ball. We sit up for Conor placing in a stable pre-season and serving to us go that subsequent step in 2023.”
Verdict: McKenna averaged 79 and 74 in his final two full seasons on the Bombers and shapes as a protected on-field starter if he’s picked for spherical 1.
Ben Cunnington (North Melbourne) $419,000 MID-FWD
Some coaches have been hoping for a fair cheaper price ticket after the Kangaroos champ performed simply two matches final season for a 49.5 common. However the KFC SuperCoach bankers have additionally taken into consideration his 2021 season, when he averaged a career-best 108.7. That demonstrates Cunnington’s scoring energy – he additionally averaged 100 plus the 2 earlier seasons and a minimum of 90 in 5 others since 2013 – which makes him nicely underpriced if he can recapture something like this greatest. Can he do this after beating testicular most cancers?
Verdict: If Cunnington is taking part in within the guts it’s exhausting to see him averaging lower than 90, and the upside is far larger. What’s going to Clarko’s plan be for the veteran and the Roos’ younger midfield brigade? Hopefully we’ll discover out within the pre-season.
Jacob Hopper (Richmond) $332,000 MID
This was the decision on Hopper in Champion Knowledge’s 2016 AFL Prospectus: “The comparability we have now drawn him to is Patrick Dangerfield. He wins the ball in a contested scenario as often as the brand new Cat, dominates round stoppages and impacts the scoreboard in an identical approach.” That was after he had averaged 122 KFC SuperCoach factors throughout his junior profession and been chosen at decide 7 within the draft by GWS. After all, now he’s a Tiger – the place we are able to count on that ball-winning means to return to the fore; after sharing midfield time with an extended listing of Giants mids, he’ll be lining up at each centre bounce at Punt Rd.
Verdict: Ignore Hopper’s common of 67 in seven injury-plagued video games final season. He averaged 97 the 12 months earlier than and may a minimum of match that in 2023.
Josh Bruce (Western Bulldogs) $161,200 FWD
Bruce was one of many hardluck tales of the 2021 AFL season, hurting his knee within the last home-and-away spherical because the Canine charged to the grand last. He returned in spherical 18 final 12 months however struggled to search out his contact, averaging simply 36.6 KFC SuperCoach factors in his 5 senior appearances. Bruce needs to be loads higher than that after a full pre-season, and the most effective information out of the kennel is he has been coaching as a defender, the place he began his profession on the Giants.
Verdict: Key forwards are all the time high-risk KFC SuperCoach picks, however intercept defenders are an entire totally different story. If Bruce can safe that position within the Bulldogs’ greatest 22, he’s an on-field choice in our ahead strains.
Ben King (Gold Coast) $176,300 FWD
What have been we simply saying about avoiding key forwards? That evaluation nonetheless applies with King even at his massively discounted worth following a 12 months out of the sport. In his final season earlier than struggling the knee damage he performed 22 video games and produced KFC SuperCoach scores of 11, 12, 18, 21, 22, 24 and 25. However he additionally posted a 117 in a four-goal efficiency towards Hawthorn – and we simply want a recreation or two like that for his worth to go skywards. I’m placing a circle round clashes towards Essendon in spherical 2 and North Melbourne in spherical 6.
Verdict: An affordable ahead assured to play each week he’s out there is an enormous tick to start out with, and King would be the No.1 ahead goal for a quickly enhancing Gold Coast group. It is likely to be most secure to choose him on the bench although, for those who can afford it.
Tarryn Thomas (North Melbourne) $295,700 MID-FWD
One of many AFL’s largest enigmas and most intriguing tales heading into 2023 will probably be what grasp coach Alastair Clarkson can get our of the massively gifted mid/ahead. At his greatest Thomas could be a KFC SuperCoach premium, as he demonstrated when he averaged 103.7 in a scintillating last seven rounds of 2021. Sadly, his 2022 season was a complete write-off, taking part in simply 10 video games with a excessive rating of 76 in KFC SuperCoach. His 53.7 common was even worse than his debut season so count on a bounce-back if he will get his thoughts and physique proper, it’s only a query of how huge that’s.
Verdict: Whispers out of Arden Avenue counsel he’s coaching for a brand new position at half-back, the place he can use his kicking expertise to arrange the Roos’ rebound. Bear in mind what that transfer did for Jack Ziebell and Aaron Corridor.
Will Phillips $158,300 MID
These North Melbourne spies inform us the luckless Phillips can also be having fun with a powerful pre-season, named in the most effective for the ‘blue’ group in current match simulation. Phillips was taken behind Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson at decide 3 within the 2020 draft and the ball-winner will hopefully make up for some misplaced time this 12 months after struggling Covid and two bouts of glandular fever in 2022.
Verdict: A preferred decide for M7 or M8 at this stage of the pre-season.
Nick Coffield $208,800 DEF
Coffield’s return from a knee reconstruction that worn out his 2022 season hit a hurdle when he suffered a hamstring damage earlier than Christmas. However the Saints say he’ll be prepared by the point observe matches roll round, giving us an opportunity to evaluate his health and position below Ross Lyon. If it’s wherever in the most effective 22 he shapes as a possible discount purchase at a massively discounted worth, particularly if he can match or enhance on his career-best 79 common from 2020. A former top-10 draft decide getting into his sixth season needs to be aiming for larger than that.
Verdict: One for the pre-season watch listing however at that worth he needs to be within the dialog.
Sam Flanders $256,300 MID/FWD
Selecting forwards within the mid-$200k worth vary has been the ticket to success in KFC SuperCoach in current seasons. Who can observe the path blazed by the likes of Will Brodie, Stephen Coniglio, Jack Ziebell and Jarman Impey in 2023? The alternatives aren’t leaping off the web page this 12 months however Flanders is one to observe. Taken at decide 11 within the 2019 draft he has battled to cement a spot within the Suns’ line-up, however all of the noise of out of the Suns’ camp over summer season is the explosive midfielder who was likened to Christian Petracca by my good buddy The Phantom after he was drafted is burning up the observe.
Verdict: Cracking the most effective 22 is one factor, entering into the Gold Coast midfield is one other. Jury continues to be out.
Initially printed as KFC SuperCoach 2023: The perfect bargains, worth picks this season
