Is there any premium fantasy back who hasn’t got injured and/or suffered a form slump this year? The latest bad news is that Jake King has what the Tigers told SEN was a “crack in the wrist” with which he is “expected” to play in round 8, after rumours on both One-Eyed Richmond and Punt Road End suggested that the nuggety backman would be out for four to six weeks. Suggestions have been made that King sustained the injury when he pounded the turf in frustration after being beaten in a contest by Stephen Milne in the second quarter of last Saturday night’s game, with Milne going on to bag seven majors.
Despite the Richmond denials, this is poor news for King owners, if only for their sanity. The frustrating thing is that you’ll probably have to hang on training and selection news right up until 2.10pm on Saturday week, as this is the sort of 2007 Nigel Lappin-style injury that could lead to multiple late withdrawals, a la Des Headland in the last few weeks before he got shut down for the season. A lot of coaches bought King last week in exchange for Joel Bowden, and it would be doubly painful if King does miss games and Bowden then takes his spot.
Yep, I’m a glass-half-empty kind of bloke when it comes to fantasy defenders this year…
Yes, Joel Bowden is out, as he didn’t board the plane to Perth. Unless the Tigers booked him a ticket on the Indian Pacific in secret.
Yes, Andrew Embley is out. Mark Nicoski travelled with the team as the first emergency, but the Eagles have also rushed Brad Ebert across to cover. No one knows yet whether Nico or Ebert will replace Embers. Your guess is as good as mine. Dean Cox is likely to play through the broken bone in his foot, though again that is by no means confirmed.
Latest news on the Swans through the iffy source of Brad Seymour on radio SEN is that Heath Grundy and Tadhg Kennelly are doubtful for Saturday night, with Luke Brennan a likely in. No confirmation on this as yet.
Update 1: Angus Monfries is also strongly rumoured to be out this evening for Tayte Pears.
This post will be updated as news comes in.
It’s started already. AFL coaches take an almost orgasmic pleasure in messing with fantasy coaches’ heads, and Geelong coach Mark Thompson is no different. Speaking to local rag the Geelong Advertiser while waiting for the plane to Adelaide, Bomber dropped the bombshell that pre-season fantasy favourites Brent Prismall and Harry Taylor were not going to be named in the Cats team for round 1. Neither player is mentioned in the article at all, but the piece displays a complete lack of acknowledgement that David Wojcinski will miss out with a ruptured finger tendon, which injuryupdate.com.au has as being at least a month-long injury. It was generally thought that Prismall was Wojo’s ready-made replacement. Max Rooke’s injury is discussed but Taylor is not nominated to replace him on the backline, his spot apparently going to Tom Hawkins. Ryan Gamble is allegedly the third of three ins.
I’m quite prepared to believe that the journalist who wrote this was incompetent enough to misquote Thompson and get his or her facts wrong. The end result is that we are going to have to wait to see whether Taylor, Wojo and/or Prismall are named today, and then the countdown begins to those 70 minutes of madness the final teamsheets 45 minutes before the match where we find out how much Bomber is speaking out of his rear end.
Oh, and BTW, I wouldn’t pick up Trent West. If I had Brendon Lade in my team, however, I’d seriously consider making him captain for round 1.
EDIT: Further confirmation from Superfooty: Brad Ottens will miss Geelong’s season-opener
Richmond recruit Troy Simmonds, who has been mooted for some time now as a lock for 2008 fantasy sides of all types, has come down with a clot in his lung which was part of complications surrounding an “energy-sapping virus” that affected his heart. He will not only miss the rest of the season, the nature of this ailment could put into question his status as next year’s bargain-priced equivalent of Ben Hudson.
Poor luck for Simmo and Tiger fans, to be sure, but there is no room for sentiment in the hearts of fantasy coaches. Will you take a punt on a player who shows the ability to find new and fascinating ways to miss games? Or will you shy away from even the hint of susceptibility to injury, and stick to players who have proven themselves to stay fit as an ox for 22 weeks straight?
As if there weren’t enough for fantasy coaches to think about going into round 19, comes unconfirmed news from the North board at BigFooty that Corey Jones limped off at training with a possible left knee injury.
Speaking of Brad Johnson, the denizens of the Bulldogs board on the same site seem to think it’s almost a lock for Andrew McDougall to come in for him, referencing coach Eade’s comments in the very pessimistic Herald-Sun story on the subject.
The happy team at Cat’s Claw seem to have no special insight into whether Paul Chapman or Brad Ottens will play, but consensus is leaning towards no on both counts, with a bit more pessimism about Chappy than Otto.
The long-suffering fans at BomberBlitz are grumbling about Scott Camporeale as usual, but there is also talk of Scott Lucas not fronting up and Adam Ramanauskas being rested.
The TalkingCarlton crew think that a late change of Shaun Hampson in for the still-proppy Setanta O’hAilpin might be on the cards.
Over at Nick’s, the Magpie fans applauded the dropping of Alan Didak but are suspicious of the presence of Brad Dick and newly-promoted rookie Sharrod Wellingham on the emergency list, with both mooted as late changes.
Brad Symes and Steven Salopek are the fan favourites who missed out on selection this week over at The Power From Port. Salopek is returning from injury through the SANFL, and Symes seems to have been squeezed out by the Burgoyne brethren.
Some forceful words about the quality of Clinton Jones‘ game last week stand out in the Saintsational thread about this week’s game against the Swans, Jones having been moved from the bench to the wing in the St Kilda team this week. The other source of angst is the replacement of Matthew Clarke with Michael Rix in the ruck.
We know Ben Cousins is out, that has been confirmed by team doctors. However, it is becoming increasingly prevalent for anonymous forum trolls to post threads casting fear, uncertainty and doubt on the starting status of various hot fantasy footy players.
For instance, here’s one on the BigFooty Geelong sub-forum started by some winner called Prodigal Sons which throws stones at Jimmy Bartel.
Then there’s this one over at ThePowerFromPort which professes that Robert Gray is out with a calf injury.
On a slightly more credible note, the mood at EaglesFlyingHigh is that they would love Chris Judd to play but it’s not looking definite by any means.
Be careful of believing any of these unsubstantiated rumours. Also, don’t believe what you read in the comments to the FanFooty blog… 
UPDATE: Today’s Herald Sun reckons Hall could miss the rest of this season in a worst-case scenario. Not good, not good:
“The next stage may be, if we don’t think he can improve, to play him differently,” Roos said. “Or the next stage after that is maybe he doesn’t play again this year, which hopefully doesn’t happen.
This is one biiiig week for injuries. Barry Hall has been ruled out for this week’s match against Geelong - and the worrying thing is it sounds like it could be longer:
Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos said today that Hall was suffering from groin soreness and hopefully this would only see him missing from action for one week… “Hopefully with the weeks rest we will see him back next week for the Fremantle game.”
“Hopefully”, huh. Heard that before. About Nigel Lappin, earlier this year. I don’t think there’s any clear winners in the Swans squad from Hall’s injury - there’s been no-one step up in his recent run of bad form.
Anyway, Hall is owned by 34,190 DT coaches right now. This means a fair few coaches will venture into Emergency Land this week to cover Chris Judd and Justin Koschitzke’s injuries. God forbid that Matthew Pavlich or The Chad come down with a Windy Hill Virus - it will mean a round of DT survival of the fittest.
At least none of these guys are playing funny buggers with selections. That’s the one positive to come out of all this.
Well folks, there’s a few notable injuries to take into account at the moment.
Firstly, Chris Judd won’t play this week against Adelaide, and a rumour on BigFooty suggests he’ll miss 4 weeks (although that seems far-fetched). Brett Burton will miss another game for the Crows, and as this AAP story says, Simon Goodwin is also highly doubtful:
Burton (knee) has already been ruled out of Adelaide’s side to tackle the reigning premier at AAMI Stadium on Sunday, with influential midfielder Simon Goodwin (knee) also likely to be sidelined.
Brett Peake broke his collarbone for the second time this year in the WAFL last weekend, which means he should be a handy choice in Dream Team ‘08 after a bad start to this year left him with a season average of 47.
And while there’s been some speculation that Barry Hall will be “rested” (ie dropped), this article from Rohan Connolly indicates it’s all a bit of bluff. It was always looking unlikely, since Nick Davis and Michael O’Loughlin are uncertain starters for the Swans in their huge game against Geelong.
Dean Polo’s year is finished - he’ll need a shoulder reconstruction after Friday night’s game.
Elsewhere, Daniel Wells and Lance Franklin are good chances of playing, while Rhyce Shaw, James Clement and Adem Yze won’t. David Neitz is 50-50.
Edit: Justin Koschitzke has done a hamstring at training, and will miss this weekend’s match against Richmond. Will it be one week, or will Kosi’s usual luck with injuries persist, leaving the second-most-popular Dream Team player into fantasy wasteland?
Hmm. After a medial ligament strain that had sideline reporters talking of a 4-6 week layoff last Saturday, Simon Goodwin is apparently a big chance to front up against the Kangaroos on Saturday night:
Goodwin, who has a low grade sprain of a medial ligament in his left knee, has completed some training in the past two days and seems certain to join the rest of the team on Friday morning’s flight to Brisbane. “He’s a real chance to play,” coach Neil Craig said.
After Heath Shaw’s Lazarus job last weekend I’ve given up predicting player health. The clubs are too good at obfuscation to let us mere mortals know wtf is going on. The good news is that the Crows will train at 3.30pm on Friday so if he pulls up lame again that will give fantasy coaches plenty of time to make other plans. Hope you didn’t pull the trade trigger too early!
UPDATE: Crows rule Goodwin out of clash… typical!
Choco Williams and Warren Tredrea gave a press conference today, discussing Wozza’s recent poor form and his future at the club. You can read the report here, but the most interesting point is below:
Tredrea … reiterated the club’s long-held view that he would start to play somewhere nearer his peak in the second half of 2007.
If Tredrea can come good - and not 100-average good, but 80-average good - he’ll be a definite bargain right now at $186k, with further drops likely. (However, at those prices even bad scores don’t take a heap off, so Tredrea probably won’t fall a great deal.)
But even though he’s a cheapie who may well come good, Tredrea is probably too risky for many coaches out there. If you’re in need of a boost, I’d recomment the punt, but otherwise it’s worth steering clear for now.
With Barry Hall at $274k, Aker at $249k, and Ryan O’Keefe at $294k, there’s plenty of other (more reliable) forwards who will do very well for a good price.
