Jack Redden has quietly been one of the disappointments of the fantasy season so far. Those coaches who were looking for a bargain in draft leagues might have looked at the state of the West Coast club early in 2022 and thought that surely one of their senior midfielders, who had avoided the interrupted preparations of his peers, might have stepped up to a role in the engine room to help carry the team through its COVID-induced travails. However, he has been largely banished to a wing when in the team, a role to which he is obviously unsuited.
Jack Redden has quietly been one of the disappointments of the fantasy season so far. Those coaches who were looking for a bargain in draft leagues might have looked at the state of the West Coast club early in 2022 and thought that surely one of their senior midfielders, who had avoided the interrupted preparations of his peers, might have stepped up to a role in the engine room to help carry the team through its COVID-induced travails. However, he has been largely banished to a wing when in the team, a role to which he is obviously unsuited.
Jack Redden had what looked like being a long and successful career at Brisbane snuffed out by a combination of injury and... what, exactly? His breakout season was followed by two more where he lost his way, and he has missed out on the Lions' last two finals campaigns and now finds himself at West Coast. The Eagles needed a replacement for Lewis Jetta who also fell out of favour slightly mysteriously, so there are no guarantees that Witherden will be best 22 by season's end. His ceiling is so sky high that fantasy coaches have a close eye on him today.
Light fades for Redden
After his game shifted more to the outside in 2018 on the flag run, Jack Redden reverted to a more inside stat line last season with his ratio going from 9:11 to 13:11 and then 10:12 across the past three. Concurrent to that was a drop in metres gained per disposal from 13.4 to a flat ten, plus a slight shift away from marks towards tackles. These are relatively minor fluctuations, nevertheless, and he remains a solid part of the Eagles' B-rotation midfield. Redden has the most to lose with the arrival of Tim Kelly, as the ex-Cat plays much the same sort of game with a higher ceiling. This is his last season before turning 30 and while it is perhaps too early to predict a cliff, there is a lot of downside risk in his fantasy value purely because of the changing midfield mix, much in the manner of Chris Masten's career tailing off. His draft position should fall through middle rounds, making him a solid asset worth looking for if he slides too far..
Jack Redden was sorely missed a few weeks ago when he was injured, in a midfield that is structured so tightly on a few very strong lynchpins that the engine room struggles majorly if they are not there. Along with Yeo and Shuey, Redden takes most of the centre bounce attendances in a team which has little in the way of flexibility, and that's the way they like it. It's not working quite as well this season, and the club will hope that Redden keeps up his fitness and form to lift them back towards premiership glory.
Jack Redden posted his first fantasy ton of 2019 in round 4 last week, a far cry from his heroics in the Eagles' flag run where he was perhaps only a touch behind Luke Shuey in his importance to keeping the West Coast midfield at least breaking even with more highly-rated opposition. A tag by Matthew de Boer in round 2 was one reason, though he didn't play much in the guts in round 3, bringing to mind his old history of being a Mr Fix-it who sometimes concentrated on things other than getting the footy. His fantasy owners watch with trepidation this week.
Redden's rich, Mitch!
For the first time since transferring from Brisbane three years previously, Jack Redden put together a full season of midfield grunt and was rewarded with a richly deserved premiership medal. His disposal ratio has always hovered around parity but it shifted from 9:11 to 13:11 in 2018, with a huge jump in metres gained from 219 to 337. Comparisons with last year's Eagle midfield coach Sam Mitchell are not all that far off the mark, as the ex-Hawk also added outside work late in his career. Perhaps it would be wrong to say that Redden is at the height of his powers, as he put in three better statistical seasons in his Lions stint. He is certainly pleasing his coaches, and there is no thought of Adam Simpson shifting him out to a flank as he had in previous years at West Coast. His current role is the one he wants, and if you think there is upside left you are looking at his younger days and wondering if he can again push beyond a fantasy ton average. Failing that, he's a solid middle-round pick.
Jack Redden has found his best spot on a half back flank for the Eagles, after not really cutting it as a wing or half forward on a consistent basis since arriving in the west. He has filled the shoes of Sharrod Wellingham admirably, using his pace to break lines and enjoying the lack of accountability as those tasks are filled more often by teammates. He is even coming into the frame as a draft league starter despite only having centre eligibility, though perhaps today against Port might be one to bench him.
Jack Redden has returned from injury in the middle of the season as if he was never absent, and most fantasy coaches in salary cap competitions are currently planning to bring him in as the last of their eight midfielders, if they haven't traded him in already. He is one of several outside midfielders to graduate to elite balanced mid status in recent times as congestion around the ball has increased, along with Mitch Duncan and Andrew Gaff. Assuming that he doesn't succumb to injury again, it seems a safe bet that he'll continue to score.
Green means go for Redden
It looked like Jack Redden might be headed for irrelevance half way through 2017 as he was dropped to the WAFL in his second season after transferring from Brisbane, hitting 20 disposals only twice in nine games. He returned to deliver ten 20+ disposal games on the run to finals in a more inside role, lifting his fantasy scoring by 27 points to nearly average a ton. Redden went through a similar trip to the purgatory of a HFF that Michael Barlow did at Fremantle before he was traded. Thankfully for him, Adam Simpson realised before it was too late that he is not suited to the outside stuff and works much better in the engine room. The departure of Matt Priddis and Sam Mitchell helps him most of all, and he merits consideration in early rounds.
