- Fri 12/8, 7.50STK
BRI66
81 - Sat 13/8, 1.45WBD
GWS62
57 - Sat 13/8, 2.10ADE
NM103
74 - Sat 13/8, 4.35GC
GEE59
119 - Sat 13/8, 7.25MEL
CAR79
74 - Sat 13/8, 7.40FRE
WCE71
47 - Sun 14/8, 1.10RIC
HAW128
67 - Sun 14/8, 3.20SYD
COL77
50 - Sun 14/8, 4.40ESS
PTA62
146 - Fri 19/8, 7.50BRI
MEL
- Sat 20/8, 1.45GWS
FRE
- Sat 20/8, 2.10NM
GC
- Sat 20/8, 4.35GEE
WCE
- Sat 20/8, 7.25ESS
RIC
- Sat 20/8, 7.30PTA
ADE
- Sun 21/8, 1.10HAW
WBD
- Sun 21/8, 3.20CAR
COL
- Sun 21/8, 4.40STK
SYD
Early 2009 fantasy preview: Sydney
- Updated: October 4, 2008
It’s easy to predict a big slide for the Swans, everybody’s doing it. I’m not so bearish on them though, because even if their flooding gamestyle is anathema to the new cluster paradigm, what is the ultimate goal of the cluster? To force turnovers, or at least stoppages. The Swans still have a distinct advantage over most teams when it comes to stoppages – their big loss to the Hawks was about losing the clearances, for instance, not the cluster per se – so I think they’ll do fine, especially at home and against bottom eight teams.
There are two unanswered questions for mine. One, will the Swans effect still hold steady in 09? There were signs of it cracking a little towards the end of this year, e.g. the Lions game where the top three or four Brisbane mids still got tons or thereabouts. It’s certainly true that the AFL is far less prone to matchup trends than, say, the NFL, but I think this is one trend that will hold up to a large extent, at least for this year (injuries to key inside mids notwithstanding). Perhaps the one aspect that will change is that we might start fearing other matchups more for certain player types, like the Richmond and Carlton matchups vs inside mids, as per the Breakdown table.
The other issue is whether Roos is going to continue injecting youth into the 22. That might mean Daniel O’Keefe (0/0) and maybe Daniel Currie (0/0). The Patrick Veszpremi (65/4) train has already left, I’m afraid, unless he gets a 40% discount. Obviously their 08 draftees will be keenly scouted for fantasy value, given what happened this year.
Otherwise it’s all about the injured stars from 2008: Nic Fosdike (58/1), Nick Malceski (67/9), Adam Goodes (81/19) and even Barry Hall (80/13). Lot of debate to happen around those four names in the pre-season, I bet.