Talking Points: Round 4

By Tom N

A brief introduction: each week, the FanFooty blog will analyse the hits and misses of the weekend, digging beneath the surface to find the trends and subtleties that make all the difference.

Player of the week: Adem Yze. Although he’s up and down like a yo-yo, you’ve got to give the man points for style. When he scores, he does so in highlight-reel mode. Yze wins out due to the relative strength of Freo’s backline; honourable mentions go to Scott West and Adam McPhee, but these other two fellas had less strong opponents to take care of.

Biggest disappointment: Tempting to give it to Tom Hawkins, who scored just 10 points after seemingly having the world at his fingertips last weekend. But I’m going to go for Jed Adcock, who has already been the subject of trade talk despite starting the year with three great games. Those with Adcock (and that’s most good players) would be well advised to keep him; this week with 38 points was an aberration.

Other points of interest:

• Cameron Wood scored a lousy 20, and didn’t play well. Two weeks ago, he scored a lousy 31, and played ok (and was nominated for the Rising Star). Get the picture? He doesn’t win stats. His price may rise a little, but it will start to plateau soon.

• Matthew Stokes did well in his return to AFL, with a fiery 93. Stokes is going fairly cheaply at $260k, and is worth watching closely next week.

• Another Cat, David Wojcinski, again didn’t hit the high numbers despite playing well. He scored 74, and I’ve come to the conclusion he simply doesn’t rack them up like other players do.

• After I anointed him the successor to Nick Stevens in the Blues’ midfield, Andrew Walker misfired with 66 points, most of which came in the last quarter. I’m holding out, however – I think Walker will slowly creep into the midfield without many people noticing. Meanwhile, Fev failed (43 – a drop of more than 100 – ouch!) while Whitnall had his best game for the year to date.

• Warren Tredrea was another failure, with just 39. Tredrea is not worth drafting in at the moment – there are injury and form worries. Until he starts to show something good, hold your cash.

• Jordan Lewis again played well, with 106. He’s really stepped up so far this year. If you were to draft him now, he’s a keeper for the rest of the year (barring injury), and those types are worth their weight in gold. Bear in mind that with Mitchell, Hodge, and Crawford around, Lewis is not likely to attract heavy tagging.

• Interestingly, Clint Bizzell was initially the designated loose man in defence for the Demons, but unfortunately he did very little. Nevertheless, if Neale Daniher wants to keep him in that role, then get Clint in your team. At $127k, he’s bound to go up, and could be (like Lewis) another good scorer for the rest of your season.

Finally, Nigel Lappin infuriated coaches across the country with his late withdrawal. When is this crap going to end? Lappin will be in many coach’s considerations for trading this week. He wasn’t the only one – Jason Winderlich and Brent Moloney were others to pull out. It’s not cool.