Compare the pair… Same age, same income, same starting balance…

All super advertisement gags aside, they say comparison is futile. What they don’t know is that this is AFL Fantasy so bugger that, it’s the name of the game to compare players and make potentially premiership winning decisions!

In this series of articles, I will put two players of interest head to head to see how they stack up against each other! Inevitably, as Fantasy coaches we are often faced the conundrum of “pick one”, whether that be due to salary cap squeeze, team structure, upcoming fixtures, etc.

For context, I will present multiple quickfire ✅(Pros) and ⌦(Cons) and from there try and split the two to come to a final verdict!

Matchup #3 sees the man with the biggest calves on the planet Jack Sinclair take on Crom’s lethal left footer in Jordan Dawson! A battle of the heavyweights with both well and truly in contention for a top six defender berth!

Jack Sinclair	Player	Jordan Dawson
St Kilda	Club	Adelaide Crom
$911K	Price	$893K
DEF	Position	DEF
22	2022 Games Played	22
102.9	2022 Avg.	100.8
R12	Bye	R14

SINCLAIR

✅ Believe it or not, the mighty Sainters registered the most fantasy points of any club in season 2022… From a fantasy perspective, they must be doing something right!

✅ The Sinclair of 2022 was just about as consistent as they come… He did not post a score <80 for the entire season! Incredible numbers for a guy whose best season prior to 2022 was an average of 79 (2021).

✅ Anyone remember when I coined the term ‘The Marvel Effect’? Fair to say Sinclair lapped up the mark-friendly conditions that defenders particularly enjoy under the roof at Docklands! Sinclair’s top three scores of 2022 came at Marvel (146, 140 and 133). Looking ahead to 2023, the Sainters have no less than 14 fixtures at Marvel, including six in the first eight rounds – juicy stuff!

✅ He has huuuuuuuge calves and a flowing mullet.

⌦ It only took about 20 weeks… But teams finally started to cotton on to Sinclair’s impact off half back for the Sainters. This extra heat culminated in Sinclair failing to ton in the final month of 2022 with the likes of Hawthorn’s Maginness holding him to 96 in R20 and Sydney’s Clarke 99 in R23.

DAWSON

✅ It’s no secret that Crom love the aggot in Dawson’s hands… He took the most kick-ins of any Crom player and added 192 points alone through kick-ins at a average of 9 points per week! As Fantasy coaches, we love to see it!

✅ Dawson top two scores of 2022 came at Adelaide Oval (129 twice!). Four of Crom’s first five fixtures are to be played at the happy hunting ground!

✅ Durability. Dawson has suited up for every game in the past two season and heads into 2023 as a 25 year old in the prime of his career!

⌦ Much like Sinclair, Dawson is a name that you imagine would come up frequently in opposition match committees… As a result, he did cop extra attention throughout the year. Floggy Maginness restricted him to 76 in R17 and the likes of Sydney’s Clarke (R19) and Brisbane’s Berry (R9) put time into Dawson throughout their fixtures in 2022.

⌦ Crom coach Matty Nicks has shown that he is not afraid to shuffle the magnets during games… Multiple times in 2022, Dawson was used a a swingman, almost a Mr Fix it and was taken out of his conducive half-back role to play up the ground. This included a run of three in four weeks between R16-R19 where Dawson was shifted to a less fantasy friendly forward role!

VERDICT

Another face-off difficult to split with two big name defenders who will be knocking on the door of the top six comes seasons end! There may be a bit of bias in this but I’m taking Sinclair and his massive calves. His consistency and the fact the Sainters start the season with six of eight fixtures at Marvel is too hard to ignore! He was still punching out 95+ with extra attention which is a good sign and overall, we didn’t see many clubs employ the forward tag anyway. This is music to the ears of prospective owners and we can take solace in knowing that St Kilda’s Hawthorn and Sydney fixtures are after R10.

So there you have it folks, the third edition of ‘Fantasy Face-off’? What did you make of it – agree? disagree? Who else would you like to see go head-to-head over the preseason? Let me know in the comments! Thoughts, feedback and banter welcome!

Cheers legends,

Fantasy Fanatic #70