The Brisbane Lions… Marching on to a prelim final after a huge ‘monkey off the back’ performance against the Dees last Friday night! From a fantasy perspective, we had a couple of winners but plenty of losers. Despite earning a spot in prelim final weekend, the Lions did not crack the top-8 for total Fantasy points for…

In these reviews, we will take a closer look at each club’s Fantasy snapshot for season 2022, whilst I nominate players for MVP, best rookie and biggest flop. I will also provide my two cents on what to look out for in 2023!

Most Valuable Player (MVP)

Who else but L.Neale? Probably the biggest no-brainer – available at <$800K at the start of the season… Trust yours truly to not run with one of the most obvious starting selections in living memory! Neale averaged a monster 116 before the Lions bye in R14 and at that point was in the conversation for competition wide MVP! He slowed a bit with opposition teams paying him a bit more respect… The likes of Harmes (79 vs Narrm, R15), Caldwell (67 vs Ess, R17) and Windhager (60 vs STK, R22) did huge jobs on Neale in the back half of the season but this did not stop him from being pick of the bunch in Brisvegas!

Best Rookie

Fages didn’t give us a huge taste of the next wave, with at least a handful of rookies playing less than five games and averaging sub-50. Given Keidean Coleman started the season at $343K, averaged a solid 78 and gained almost $300K on his starting price, he’s my pick for best rookie. While Kiddy was unavailable for the first six rounds due to injury, he came back in and showed us what he is capable of off a half-back flank with his elite kicking and run from behind. They clearly rate him highly internally as he shared kick-in duties with the lethal Daniel Rich! Rich isn’t getting any younger so I’m expecting Kiddy’s stocks to rise in the coming seasons.

Biggest Flop

Plenty of Lions putting their hand up in the flop department… As much as I’d like to give it to big wheels Dayne ‘Spaghetti Strings’ Zorko himself, the overhyped Cam Rayner takes the cake. Heading into season 2022, there was plenty of hype around Cam beginning to realise his potential as an on-baller. Whilst she slowed glimpses, his Fantasy scoring (particularly in the first five rounds when you would have selected him!) was woeful. Over the first five games, Rayner averaged a paltry 52 with a high-score of 62! He eventually got going in a couple of games post-bye, but by then the damage had been done.

2023 Watchlist

As touched on, if Kiddy Coleman assumes more of the kick-in responsibilities in 2023, expect him to be on many a coaches watch lists. His starting price will be interesting given he missed seven games throughout the season! I expect the usual suspects in Neale and McCluggage to again be the heart and soul of the Lions midfield, though they have plenty of young guns waiting in the wings. Guys like Jarrod Berry, Zac Bailey and Cam Rayner all have the attributes to play key roles on-ball. At the ripe old age of 30, I can’t see Jarryd Lyon’s output improving and I imagine will continued to be phased out of the midfield in favour of the next crop.

So there you have it folks, the second of the Fantasy Fanatic’s 2022 Reviews! Stay tuned for more new content, Carltank are up next.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Feedback, comments and banter welcome.

Cheers legends,

Fantasy Fanatic #70