- Thu 15/4, 7.20STK
RIC48
134 - Fri 16/4, 8.10WCE
COL103
76 - Sat 17/4, 4.35WBD
GC118
56 - Sat 17/4, 4.35SYD
GWS69
71 - Sat 17/4, 7.25CAR
PTA68
96 - Sat 17/4, 7.25BRI
ESS102
45 - Sun 18/4, 1.10ADE
FRE72
84 - Sun 18/4, 3.20HAW
MEL54
104 - Sun 18/4, 4.40GEE
NM77
47 - Fri 23/4, 7.20GWS
WBD
- Sat 24/4, 1.45GEE
WCE
- Sat 24/4, 1.45GC
SYD
- Sat 24/4, 4.35CAR
BRI
- Sat 24/4, 7.25MEL
RIC
- Sat 24/4, 8.10FRE
NM
- Sun 25/4, 12.30HAW
ADE
- Sun 25/4, 3.20COL
ESS
- Sun 25/4, 6.40PTA
STK
Early 2009 fantasy preview: Western Bulldogs
- Updated: October 4, 2008
This has to be the most disappointing team of 2008 for me. Flying at 15 and 1 or something ridiculous when they played the Cats, then copped one bad quarter in that game and didn’t give a yelp for the rest of the season. Serious issues in their leadership group, I think. All that crap with rebuking Aker for being Aker, that didn’t sit right with me. It was amazing how they all dropped their heads after that one quarter and gave up on the season, just about.
Obviously they need tall forwards, which is why the hype around Jarrad Grant (0/0) is going to be huge (or at least huge in the context of the Dogs), especially if he has a good game or two in the NAB. Assuming the Dogs don’t go crazy at trading time and get another Welsh type, Grant is the Great White Hope for that team. I’d need to see some pretty good things out of him to believe he’d live up to the expectations though.
Elsewhere, it’s becoming a little bit of a problem how easy it is to sit on Lindsay Gilbee (77/21). Like the Saints with NDS, teams are learning that you can ignore a lot of other players and concentrate the tagging efforts on Gilbee and shut down a lot of the Dogs’ rebounding. Contrast that with Birchall, who did get some tags in the middle of this year but that fell away as Hodge attracted a lot more attention. The Dogs really need Andrejs Everitt (49/9) and Tom Williams (47/6) to get fit and strong to take the load off Gilbee and free up Ryan Hargrave (72/22) next year. I like Everitt more from a fantasy perspective but probably not enough to buy him due to his ceiling not being of Mattner/Symes proportions.
I am going to be fascinated to see what the fantasy coach consensus on Daniel Cross (96/22) is next year. Does that last two-month stretch scare everyone away? Does the fact that Cross only scored 7 tons mean he’s no longer captaincy material? Thoughts, please. π
Also, as I said in the Geelong entry, I think Brad Johnson (87/22) is no longer reliable as a fantasy premium. Yes, he was injured for most of the year yet played every game, but that’s what happens when you’re 47 years old. Give me Stevie J every time.
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