Mabior Chol had one of the least impressive finals series of anyone in 2024, visibly out of form at the end of a long campaign carrying a big forward and ruck load for Hawthorn due to injury elsewhere in the team's spine. 2025 has been a much brighter time for him, even though he has again had to shoulder more responsibility than he should with Mitch Lewis and Calsher Dear in the injury room. Like Hayden McLean and Harry McKay in similar roles, he is a confidence player who wears his heart on his sleeve, and can lift his real and fantasy teams to victory in the right mood.
Mabior Chol had one of the least impressive finals series of anyone in 2024, visibly out of form at the end of a long campaign carrying a big forward and ruck load for Hawthorn due to injury elsewhere in the team's spine. 2025 has been a much brighter time for him, even though he has again had to shoulder more responsibility than he should with Mitch Lewis and Calsher Dear in the injury room. Like Hayden McLean and Harry McKay in similar roles, he is a confidence player who wears his heart on his sleeve, and can lift his real and fantasy teams to victory in the right mood.
Mabior Chol may not have any direct fantasy relevance by himself save for the deepest of draft leagues, but his presence at centre half forward and pinch-hitting in ruck for Hawthorn could release other, more important players to play their best roles.
Mabior Chol is not the sort of player who would normally attract the interest of fantasy coaches, playing a forward/ruck role which under usual circumstances is not fantasy-relevant no matter how good you are due to a very low scoring floor. Chol has had a good run recently though, being best on ground in a big win over the Dockers three weeks ago and filling his boots again in a thrashing of the young Hawks last round. Today he comes up against North Melbourne, and he looms as a still-underpriced option in daily fantasy formats to kick another bag.
Waiting for Chol era
Apart from one big game against the Saints, Mabior Chol was not able to recreate his strong VFL form in nine senior games as a forward interchanging in ruck. He was dropped after two goalless weeks and missed the senior finals run, though he made it to the VFL grand final where he was also scoreless. Chol is strictly a back up at this point with an evidently short fuse on his job security in the ones, with Ivan Soldo now the preferred option. Even though Richmond have changed their gameplan to free up a spot that he could fill, there are multiple other bodies in front of him in the depth chart.
Maybe Chol, or not
After a move to defence halfway through 2017, Mabior Chol reverted to his old forward/ruck role last season and built up some nice VFL form before a broken foot derailed his season. Chol will have to fight his way from the rookie list and past a few teammates, hoping that the new rules will mean the Tigers finally play a second ruckman. Too many red crosses to draft him, nevertheless.
Chol era yet to come
After his first senior game in the last round of 2016, Mabior Chol couldn't add to that tally last season as he moved from a ruck/forward role to defence mid-year, in neither role troubling the statisticians all that much. Like fellow Sudanese-Australian Majak Daw, the AFL hasn't quite managed to figure out how to get the best out of Chol despite his strong physical attributes. He does not look like becoming a fantasy player, at any rate.
