Marc Murphy looked like he was swan diving off the cliff in the first half of the curtailed 2020 season, continuing a graceful decline since his last premium season in 2017. He is of interest only in draft leagues and daily fantasy at the moment, and might have been available in the free agent pool in your league after a string of low scores. His numbers have perked up lately however, and he represents value in daily fantasy where his price is still lower than his ceiling. The Blues are contending for a finals spot, and MM is making one last bid for fantasy relevance.
Marc Murphy looked like he was swan diving off the cliff in the first half of the curtailed 2020 season, continuing a graceful decline since his last premium season in 2017. He is of interest only in draft leagues and daily fantasy at the moment, and might have been available in the free agent pool in your league after a string of low scores. His numbers have perked up lately however, and he represents value in daily fantasy where his price is still lower than his ceiling. The Blues are contending for a finals spot, and MM is making one last bid for fantasy relevance.
Plenty of Cs from MM
A stunted 2018 due to plantar fasciitis was all but forgotten as Marc Murphy clicked straight back into year. Thrust into the guts where he belongs, the veteran pumped out nine 100+ matches. Remove the injury outlier from that nasty Shane Mumford hit to the ribs in round 9, and his average only increases. With vital experience needed to lead a young midfield, Murphy is little chance to forfeit his central role in the manner that Joel Selwood did in 2019. Even though Murphy's best days are behind him, the ancient number one pick will be more than serviceable as a midfielder starting in your draft team.
Marc Murphy has an extremely high ceiling, as evidenced by the near-perfect game he rolled out in a big win over the Lions earlier this year. As a fantasy asset, the problem is that he also has a low floor, not just because of the occasional hard tag that he has trouble with, but also that he can go through entire games without seeming to be interested, which is perhaps understandable given Carlton seems permanently wedged in the bottom ten if not winning the spoon. For him to join the elites, he has to get that out of game to satisfy his owners' expectations.
Marc Murphy has taken his role as a half forward flanker seriously this season, as Carlton seeks to get time into their kids in the engine room. While he's not got the range to turn into a Toby Greene type, players like that can be effective if they commit to the position as Brad Ebert has been showing this season already. His fantasy relevance is really only in keeper draft leagues, where his value has plummeted now that he has moved out of the engine room, but you can probably get low cents in the dollar for him prior to him gaining forward eligibility.
Murphy stuck in footmarks
Plantar fasciitis on the left foot hampered Marc Murphy's 2018 coming off one of his better campaigns, playing one game between rounds 3 and 15. He passed his previous average of 30 touches only three times out of 13, albeit he largely maintained his metres gained average. Murphy's game has drifted outside in the latter part of his career, mirroring the trend of Sam Mitchell. This has been a good thing for his ceiling in basic fantasy scoring, and if fit he should contend for top 10 midfielder once again, even at the age of 32. Draft him in early rounds.
Murphy lays down law
Like his stoppage partner Matthew Kreuzer, Marc Murphy had a career year in 2017 after years of underperformance. He matched or beat most numbers from his previous peak of 2011, adding nine touches per game from the injury-affected previous campaign and not dropping below 90 fantasy points all season. Two out of three of his possessions were uncontested, with a mark average second to Mitch Duncan among the top 30 fantasy scorers. Carlton had three in the top 12 fantasy averages, Murphy just behind Bryce Gibbs, indicating how much they shared it around in Brendon Bolton's new scheme with a focus on ball retention. There appears to be no reason to doubt he can get somewhere near those numbers again, as the departure of Gibbs will be balanced by the maturation of Patrick Cripps and it seems he has grown out of the bad habit of suffering under tags. Draft him early.
Murphy lays down Blue law
The number 1 draft pick in 2005, Murphy has lived up to the hype and is one of the most impressive players in the AFL, regardless of age.
Since his debut in 2006 Murphy has never averaged less than 74 Dream Team points in a season and has not missed a game since an unavoidable broken leg in his first year.
Since the addition of Chris Judd to the Carlton midfield in 2007, he has managed to escape the attention of taggers on a regular basis and rack up huge numbers in both Dream Team and Super Coach.
Whilst 2008 was undoubtedly Murphy’s breakout season when he lifted his average by over 20 ppg, he has continued to improve in 2009 with an impressive average of 104.2 in DT and 115 in SC.
At the mid-season break Murphy sits with a number of players on a tier below the top 6 averaging mids at a fair price that is perhaps slightly below what he is capable of.
