Jack Macrae has built a second chapter in his career at St Kilda post his clearance from the Bulldogs, doing what he has always done: accumulated both inside and outside, with a specialty of finding targets inside 50 with good vision and clean kicking to inside channels from half forward flanks. With Jack Steele and Zak Jones departing the club in the off season, it is Macrae who is the glue holding the midfield together as it is built around the burgeoning talents of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. He can play the same role as Josh Dunkley has at Brisbane, with hopefully similar results.
Jack Macrae has built a second chapter in his career at St Kilda post his clearance from the Bulldogs, doing what he has always done: accumulated both inside and outside, with a specialty of finding targets inside 50 with good vision and clean kicking to inside channels from half forward flanks. With Jack Steele and Zak Jones departing the club in the off season, it is Macrae who is the glue holding the midfield together as it is built around the burgeoning talents of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera. He can play the same role as Josh Dunkley has at Brisbane, with hopefully similar results.
Jack Macrae spent a bit of time at half back in last week's match simulation, striking fear into the heart of his dynasty keeper league owners and casting doubt in the minds of those who were looking to buy him in salary cap leagues as arguably the most reliable conveyance of the modern era. This is an Allen Iverson style example of overthinking practice, however, and can be written off as Bevo doing Bevo things. Macrae's inside 50 delivery has improved a lot in recent seasons, and even Bevo is not silly enough to throw that away when he has other good half backs.
Jack Macrae was the subject of fantasy media speculation this week after his centre bounce attendances suddenly dropped away, making those with long memories think of the days when he used to start on a wing and tend to sheepdog contests. We thought he had put that behind him, but Luke Beveridge has always been a thorn in fantasy coaches' sides and he may have done it again here. Perhaps it's just a one-week freshener and he'll be back to the coalface this week... that's the dice you roll when you go with one of Bevo's boys in fantasy competitions.
Jack Macrae has missed a lot of games this year but the ones he has played have been at a higher level than ever, nearly maintaining his averages from last year in the shortened quarters. He doesn't seem to suffer the fate of other Bulldog mids in being rotated forward, and his role allows him to zone off to get a lot of uncontested possessions on rebounds with superior workrate. If you bought him for a full year's production he was a bust, but picking him up now would be the right thing to do.
Jack Macrae has been a fantasy machine for a few years now, culminating in a second-place finish in fantasy average in 2019 and very high ADP in draft leagues going into 2020. Last week, however, he lined up on a wing or a HFF for most of the game and reverted to some of his old sheepdogging habits, barking on the outside as others pitched in at the coalface. Luke Beveridge has been notorious for stuffing about fantasy coaches with such moves, but how long can it last (or Bevo last) with the Dogs putting such poor performances on the park?
Macrae is a rich delicacy
It was a year to remember for ball-magnet Jack Macrae. Even though he dropped his average by seven points, he was still the competition's highest-scoring midfielder and second-best overall. He collected a stellar 33.5 possessions per game including 38 on the one occasion when he attracted a hard tag, topping the Bulldogs' roster in handballs and uncontested possessions. Post-bye until the elimination final, Macrae averaged 122 and didn't drop below 105 even once. Macrae is in the prime of his career, unaffected by injury and ready to produce another explosive season. With a cluster of improving, similar-aged players around him, there's no reason to expect Macrae to be tagged any more than he was in 2019, and in the form he has been in he is good enough to bust through them anyway. He should be the first midfielder picked as the best of a highly productive ball-sharing midfield playing a lot of lucrative games on the fast Docklands track. Lock and load.
Jack Macrae is one of a surprisingly large number of Bulldog midfielders to have Brownlow buzz around them going into awards season, with Josh Dunkley and Marcus Bontempelli also in the reckoning for what should be a hotly contested team winner, even if they share it around too much for one of them to claim the medal. Both he and Dunkley are capable of massive fantasy scores on the right day, but it's difficult to predict which one of them will explode on a given day, with a seemingly random difference between them of up to fifty points. Good luck picking a fantasy captain!
Jack Macrae has come into a lot of salary cap fantasy teams this week, as he is a strong candidate to back up his stellar 2018 campaign and finish well inside the top eight midfielders. Injury to Tom Liberatore and the dropping of Toby McLean will mean a different look to the Bulldogs engine room this week, but his new owners are betting he will keep on keeping on. In a team where there is always the threat of being left to get cold sitting in the forward line, Macrae is probably too good in the guts to rest him forward. But that's up to Luke Beveridge.
Macrae goes cray-cray
The move by Jack Macrae from wing to central midfield which started last year went all the way in 2018, as the premiership winner dropped below 30 touches just twice in his 18 non-injury affected senior outings with near-top-ten levels of contested possession and clearances. A midseason hamstring injury didn't slow him down at all, and he ended with a season fantasy average bettered only by Tom Mitchell in the past four years. Receiving minimal opposition attention last year, it remains to be seen whether this trend continues. Slowed by a Bailey Banfield tag in round 5, five weeks later Sam Gibson had limited effect in a 36-disposal display. Entering his seventh season at the kennel, Macrae is set for an extended run as a premier ball winner. Following the season-ending injury to Mitchell, this Bulldog should be the first fantasy midfielder selected.
Jack Macrae is very much on the way to earning the title of the most prolific fantasy player of 2018, playing every game so far and leading all the scoring averages. He has copped two hard tags so far: the worst by Bailey Banfield in round 5 where he just about scored fantasy tons anyway, and he destroyed Sam Gibson in round 9. His game has moved more inside with a lot less time resting forward, which is the recipe for a very tasty treat for his owners, a group which is rising steadily. The red hot Demon midfield will be an interesting test.
Crazy not to take Macrae
While he maintained his disposal average at the same level of 27 as the previous three years, Jack Macrae managed the neat trick of increasing his contested rate by six points while maintaining his kick-to-handball ratio, as he got more of his footy in clearance situations by attending more centre bounces. Impressively for a wingman, he improved his ranking for tackles from 100th to just outside the top 25. While most other Bulldogs had off years or trod water in 2017, the previous premiership season was actually Macrae's worst since before his breakout 2014 campaign, and he returned to that plateau. His hurt factor is less than another wing who has also upped his inside game recently in Mitch Duncan, as his metres gained stat is far inferior, which means he is unlikely to be tagged. He deserves an early-round pick.
