- Thu 8/4, 7.20SYD
ESS83
80 - Fri 9/4, 7.50PTA
RIC79
77 - Sat 10/4, 1.35WBD
BRI73
54 - Sat 10/4, 4.35STK
WCE102
82 - Sat 10/4, 7.25GC
CAR59
70 - Sat 10/4, 7.25COL
GWS60
90 - Sun 11/4, 1.10NM
ADE68
109 - Sun 11/4, 3.20MEL
GEE85
60 - Sun 11/4, 4.40FRE
HAW96
81 - Thu 15/4, 7.20STK
RIC
- Fri 16/4, 8.10WCE
COL
- Sat 17/4, 1.45WBD
GC
- Sat 17/4, 4.35SYD
GWS
- Sat 17/4, 7.25CAR
PTA
- Sat 17/4, 7.25BRI
ESS
- Sun 18/4, 1.10ADE
FRE
- Sun 18/4, 3.20HAW
MEL
- Sun 18/4, 4.40GEE
NM
Why Peckin Away won $50,000 last year
- Updated: March 25, 2008
Those of you who bought the NAB Cup ’08 AFL Record would have been interested to see an article about Steve Morfesse, winner of the 2007 AFL Dream Team with his Peckin Away squad. Amongst tales of his derring-do were snippets about how he only made one trade before round 8 due to his travelling in Europe, how much he valued his bench and how much research he did before the season. This year, Steve’s Peckin Away team starts as follows:
Backs: Chad Cornes, Joel Bowden, Heath Shaw, Brett Jones, Martin Mattner, Adam Hartlett, Jake Edwards, Scott D. Thompson, Albert Proud.
Centres: Jimmy Bartel, Kane Cornes, Daniel Cross, Nick Stevens, Ricky Dyson, Kieran Jack, Craig Bird, Cale Morton.
Rucks: Dean Cox, Troy Simmonds, Cameron Wood, Matthew Kreuzer.
Forwards: Matthew Pavlich, Nick Riewoldt, Jonathan Brown, Brett Deledio, Jason Porplyzia, Cyril Rioli, Kurt Tippett, Ryan Gamble, Jarryd Morton.
I like this team a lot, especially from a structural point of view. He’s starting five rookies, which is consistent with the high-risk strategy that wins championships. You could point at Dyson, Deledio and Hartlett as poor picks given their round 1 performances, but that’s not the point – the structure is the thing that gets you there. I particularly like how he has spent big on Kornes and Jimmy, in line with his comments in the AFL Record article about how he likes to buy “the absolute best players in the game”. This is where I differ in thinking from those who are on the bandwagons of both Lenny Hayes and Cross due to their prices being slightly deflated compared to their best previous form, as opposed to spending top dollar to get Kane or Jimmy. I have tried to follow Steve’s lead and not pinched pennies with my premiums.
The one big flaw in Steve’s team based on round 1 scores is that too much faith is being placed in mid-priced younger players and not enough in mid-priced older players whose prices are discounted due to recent long-term injuries. Stuart Dew, Brett Burton, Nathan Thompson, Daniel Bradshaw, Tadhg Kennelly, Mark Nicoski… these names are under-represented in elite teams but they all delivered on the Easter weekend. Then again, it’s a long season and those old bones may start creaking again while the young pups are still jumping around. We shall see!
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