Soft tissue injuries delayed Cale Hooker's start to 2018, then he was shifted from his stop-gap attack role to his more natural defensive post. Like most other key position defenders, his fantasy scoring is highly reliant on marks: when he reaches six of those, he's startable. An average of eight implies that he's usually well above the back baseline. Essendon have decided, in their wisdom, to put most of their eggs in the key forward position in the Joe Daniher basket, a gamble that could backfire and mean that they will once again turn their troubled gaze towards Hooker as a suboptimal attacking option. Either way, his floor can let you down sometimes but remains worthy of a late-round pick.
More Cale, more cowbell
Soft tissue injuries delayed Cale Hooker's start to 2018, then he was shifted from his stop-gap attack role to his more natural defensive post. Like most other key position defenders, his fantasy scoring is highly reliant on marks: when he reaches six of those, he's startable. An average of eight implies that he's usually well above the back baseline. Essendon have decided, in their wisdom, to put most of their eggs in the key forward position in the Joe Daniher basket, a gamble that could backfire and mean that they will once again turn their troubled gaze towards Hooker as a suboptimal attacking option. Either way, his floor can let you down sometimes but remains worthy of a late-round pick.
Hooker given the hook
After a season and a half in attack, Cale Hooker was yanked back to defence in round 4 last season to play an intercept role, only to return to the forward line in round 20 after the Dons grew increasingly desperate with their options in a Joe Daniher-less world. His fantasy scores were as variable as his role, typified by two 90+s scores in defence followed by a sub-30 in midseason. His average ended up the worst since 2012. With Daniher no guarantee to play either at the start of or at any time during 2019, Hooker may begin in defence once again then get hoiked around the ground wherever it is deemed he is needed. He's a professional who can deal with such lack of positional continuity, but it does his fantasy owners' heads in as it doesn't result in consistency of statistical output. Try to avoid him when he's left on the board late.
Hooker in league of his own
The switch from defence to attack halfway through 2015 was made permanent for Cale Hooker last season, leading to a very respectable tally of 41.26 as a full forward including five bags of three or more and his only two goalless days coming against the eventual grand finalists. He took more contested grabs per game than anyone other than Matt Taberner. Theoretically, Hooker could still be thrown back by John Worsfold. Why would he? The Dons have more than enough cattle to play key defender, and Hooker has become a very valuable part of an increasingly dangerous attack, similar to how Josh Jenkins spearheads the league-leading Crows. He deserves to be drafted late, though maybe benched against better opponents.
