Jake Waterman had a day out with a personal best of six goals in the big win over a severely undermanned Richmond last week. Today he will most likely get a jolt back to reality in the Derby, as he is third tall forward in a team which gets belted in midfield regularly. This fixture can sometimes produce some performances out of the box, but Fremantle are not the pushovers they have often been in their short history. Waterman's role today is to ensure Luke Ryan doesn't carve the Eagles up on the rebound, as he can tend to do if left alone.
Jake Waterman had a day out with a personal best of six goals in the big win over a severely undermanned Richmond last week. Today he will most likely get a jolt back to reality in the Derby, as he is third tall forward in a team which gets belted in midfield regularly. This fixture can sometimes produce some performances out of the box, but Fremantle are not the pushovers they have often been in their short history. Waterman's role today is to ensure Luke Ryan doesn't carve the Eagles up on the rebound, as he can tend to do if left alone.
Jake Waterman has landed in a good spot at the West Coast Eagles, playing third tall forward to the dominant spine of Kennedy and Darling with some days where he can post very startable fantasy scores. Like all players in that position he can get ignored on days when one of the two star forwards is on fire, but he is an interesting play for daily fantasy formats as his ceiling is high enough to warrant a piece of him in your lineups. Today he comes up against Carlton, whose defence can leak goals and probably don't have a great matchup for him.
Jake Waterman had one of his better games for the club last week, and with the spine of Josh J. Kennedy and Jack Darling slowing down with age and injury in recent years, it's time for him and Oscar Allen to start taking more of the scoring load from tall forwards. His role starts more at half forward with a roaming commission, chipping in for a goal or two per game with only the occasional big game. Mark LeCras used to play that role in more prolific fashion, and perhaps that's the template for Waterman to become fantasy relevant.
Waterman on ice for now
While he didn't show it at senior level last year, Jake Waterman turned a corner in the WAFL with an impressive haul of 28.7 from eight games in a key forward role. Half of his games in the ones were startable for fantasy league purposes, though the others were terrible, mostly coming in losses where he struggled for supply. Waterman is probably going to have to wait for the retirement of Josh J. Kennedy to find his true place in the senior Eagles side. Given JJK's injury history that chance might come sooner than you might think, so he is worth a speculator pick at worst as the Eagles can have some parties playing at home and he could be the bloke opening the presents.
Don't go to water, man
There were a host of first-year Eagles who earned a 2018 premiership medal, but Jake Waterman is one of the hard luck stories who missed out. Goalless in three of his first 12 appearances in blue and gold, he booted just six behinds across his last four and was dropped despite the Eagles being desperately undermanned at the time. Waterman is a mark-and-kick merchant, and when he's not working up the ground as hard as he needs to be then his numbers suffer. Perhaps it's not surprising that he tired late in his first season of senior footy, as his role is more physically taxing than most. With Josh J. Kennedy battling to make round 1, he may get a chance to reestablish himself. Avoid for now.
Solid plan for Waterman
After recovering from a stress fracture in a foot in preseason, Jake Waterman resumed in the WAFL to improve from his last junior year at the same level for rates of 14 disposals, six marks and two goals per game for a fantasy average of 76. Adam Simpson nominated him as one of the kids to whom he would give debuts in 2018. Jack Darling should be looking over his shoulder at Waterman because unless he bucks his act up, the younger man could run over the top of him for a spot in the Eagles forward line. He will excite salary cap coaches, though his upside is not quite high enough for a draft league pick.
