Jared Polec has had a quiet preseason but he is one of the unheralded journeymen who have to lift in 2020 if North Melbourne is to gel into a successful team, having been smooshed together with scraps off the free agent pool for many years now and finally landing a few big fish in the last two off seasons. Like Trent Dumont, he's probably not worthy of the A-rotation in a good side, but the Kangaroos could become one of those and uplift his fantasy output along with them.
Jared Polec has had a quiet preseason but he is one of the unheralded journeymen who have to lift in 2020 if North Melbourne is to gel into a successful team, having been smooshed together with scraps off the free agent pool for many years now and finally landing a few big fish in the last two off seasons. Like Trent Dumont, he's probably not worthy of the A-rotation in a good side, but the Kangaroos could become one of those and uplift his fantasy output along with them.
Polec trek boogaloo
In his first season after crossing from Port Adelaide, Jared Polec largely recreated his stat line from his eighth season in teal, with a few less disposals and a tad more hurt factor on the scoreboard, though his metres gained stat dropped by 50 to lower his ranking from top 10 to top 30. North got what they paid for, in other words, and they had sorely been needing his brand of tireless outside run. He was tagged once against GWS, producing his worst score of the season. We have now seen a full season out of Polec at the peak of his powers either side of the 141st meridian, and it is worth a middle round pick. The only minor question would be how he fits in when Aaron Hall is fit, though the answer is highly likely that they will be able to wave at each other from opposite wings, and would probably wax the footy on many happy occasions. He is a known quantity who would fill in the bottom end of your starting draft league midfield with aplomb.
Polec vaults east
Coming off a career-best year averaging 25 disposals, Jared Polec has moved to North Melbourne on a lucrative, long-term deal. No longer alongside the likes of Gray and Wingard, the scoring potential of Polec may depend on who opposition coaches target with taggers out of him and Shaun Higgins. As a mostly outside player, if he is regularly clamped down he could experience a drop in scoring. Conversely, he is still relatively young and has been a steady improver over the years, so the possibility of further development still exists. Despite the potential for a dip in scoring, Polec is a quality player and should still be an early-to-middle round selection.
Pleasing run from Polec
After being on a statistical plateau for three years, Jared Polec made a little jump in 2017 by adding a couple of kicks and a mark per game, with all but one of his six fantasy tons coming against non-finalists. His highlight was 29 touches in the close loss to Geelong, in the middle of a May purple patch. Port's fixture won't be nearly as easy in 2018, and Polec won't have as many opportunities to fill his boots. If you pick him late in your draft, it is a gamble on the Power fulfilling the promise of its off-season spending spree to becoming the consistently dominant top four team it is striving for.
