Round 16… No better feeling than kissing goodbye to the byes and getting all your premos back on deck! This ultimately culminated in some uuuuuuge scores across the board with many teams pushing 2500+!

As always, plenty of recap on!

16 down 8 to go… Must be time for The Weekend That Was!

Brisbane Lions vs Richmond

Studs

Neale (127) – Colossal, particularly in the second half where Lachie put on an absolute clinic culminating in a 78 point half! Richmond like to go head to head in the midfield and Neale cashed in as a result.

McCluggage (116) – Incredibly, this is only Luggage’s second ton of his 2023 campaign! If you are a long way back, he could be an under-priced option to close the gap on the biggest of the boys.

Ashcroft (95) – For those forced to hold, ya lucky bastards! Ash does love playing at the Gabba so this isn’t all that surprising I suppose.

Wilmot (87) and Fletcher (77) – While neither of these guys should be occupying a spot on your field, they deserve a shoutout for solid showings!

Duds

Taranto (80) –

Dunks (72) – Was headed for another solid ton but unfortunately was put on ice with what looked to be a sore calf… If it does mean time on the side-lines, it’s getting to the point of the season where we don’t want to hold and hope it’s just a week… Fingers crossed just precautionary!

Sydney vs Geelong

Studs

Gulden (128) – Another essential pick not owned by yours truly… He only needed 26 disposals to get to this score! All-round legend.

Stewart (105) – Top scorer for the Cats on the night after a perilously slow start! If he gets a week for that tackle, the game is dead.

Sheldrick (93) – Unbelievable. We have ‘full premo’ squads rolling with countless 70 and 80’s and then those back in the pack (yes, myself included!) running with ‘Rick’ at F6 or M8 pumping out 90’s! Strange world we live in.

Duds

Hickey (75) – More misses than Tiger Woods.

Fox (60) – Speaking of misses… On behalf of all punters who picked the Cats, thank you Foxxy!

Rowbottom (45) –

Crom vs Norf

Studs

Dawson (136) – Beast. The lad does it all. High kick:HB ratio, marks, tackles, can kick a snag… It’s peak fantasy and the fact teams aren’t doing a lot about it is blasphemy but amazing for us coaches!

O’Brien (133) – Massive! Particularly after big Goldy was subbed out, ROB was basically rucking unopposed and didn’t he love it.

Keays (132) –

Sheez (106) – If you held, well done. Top scorer again for Norf roaming the back flank and feasting on cheap +3’s after Ziebell came off in Q4!

Duds

Simpkin (67) – Talk about 2023’s most epic drop off… Jy has two tons to his name and his average has dropped about 25% from 95 to 74. Could he be ‘underpriced’ next season? I wouldn’t be touching him with a 10 foot pole for the rest of the 2023 campaign!

Freo vs Western Bulldogs

Studs

Serong (134) – What a season this little champion is putting together. One score less than 90 with an average >110. Elite!

Darcy (126) – Biiiiiiiiig, both figuratively and literally. Darcy’s size worried English and for a guy carrying somewhere in the vicinity of 120kg, f*ck he moves well!

Cox (122) – Fun fact: Brennan Cox’s scores @ Marvel this season – 141 and 122. Anomalies.

Bont (116) – The Bont just keeps on rolling. Make that eight consecutive tons and the newest member of the $1m club!

Henry (116) – Now then… This guy has had an enormous fortnight posting back to back 30+ disposal games returning scores of 118 and 116. The role on the wing is real and he is being used in the chippy chip Freo game style. At <$600K, coaches needing somewhat of a leveller will be no doubt considering taking a punt!

Johnson (87) – Wow, if you told me before the round that Johnson would outscore Taranto I would have drank my own piss. Those still fielding, please proceed to nearest news agency and get around the Powerball.

Duds

Daniel (74) – Way to join in the scoring fest, chief.

Sm(n)iff (51) – Proper pox Baz. Not getting anywhere near as much mid time and it is hurting for 5% of the competition. More of a liability than I am most Sunday mornings.

Fyfe (46) –

Gold Coast vs Collingwood

Studs

N.Daicos (150) – Prodigy. The kid is a king. In only his second season, Daicos finds himself favourite for the Brownlow 16 rounds in! He’s had another 36 and kicked a goal so I daresay we’ll hear “3 votes Collingwood N.Daicos” on the night of nights.

Anderson (123) – Four tons on the trot for Ando in another great display albeit in a 13 goal loss… 35 touches and 8 marks!

Duds

Cameron (58) – Owners, may you rest in peace.

Humphrey (45) – My word I hope you were able to trade out! The last two weeks the Bear has well and truly hit the rookie wall with an average just surpassing 40… Yikes, but if he is still on your field all it deserved!

Essendon vs Port Adelaide

Studs

Rozee (145) – Lets f*cking go. Incredible to think Benny Mac traded this gun out… Six tons on the trot and living read free in your head Benno!

Parish (125) – The magnet back at it again with 29 possessions and an eye watering 0.4… And here I was saying Tommy Hickey had more misses than Tiger Woods...

Houston (124) –

Merrett (114) – Standard Zach. Fantasy legend and about what we can come to expect from Zach each and every weekend!

Duds

Hobbs (73) – He has been solid for us over the byes but realistically, we need to be making plans to give Hobbsy the ass… At >$700K, it shouldn’t take a lot to make it happen!

Alpha Maretin Martin (64) – After a brilliant five week patch, coaches either saw Alpha as a genuine option or daylight robbery at $840K… Hopefully it was the latter for you!

Horney (39) – You’re just not very good at fantasy, Jase. He could very well get there, but four scores <45 in 15 games makes for woeful reading!

Wines (36) – Seriously, it makes you wonder how Port won when Horney and Wines combine for 23 touches at the coalface! A fantasy has been.

Hawthorn vs Carlton

Studs

Cerra (114) – Another epic game from Cerra! He continues to fly under the radar with <3% ownership… Draft owners would be absolutely cheering.

Doch (113) – Yes sir! The role has always been conducive and that’s all this gun needs to make it happen week in week out!

Duds

Day (79) – Mediocrity. Not something coaches can cop coming out of the byes, particularly with the Sic Dawg out leaving Day with a few minutes behind the ball… It’d be a luxury but you can understand why coaches would be pulling the trigger!

Blanck (2) –

Melbourne vs GWS

Studs

Viney (145) – Wowza how about that for a ceiling?! 40 possies in a losing team in conditions that suited this bull to a tee! Not overly fantasy relevant but you gotta give the bloke some love for this!

Petracca (117) – Speaking of love… An Oliver-less midfield continues to reap benefits for Trac and his owners. This could have been anything if he wasn’t trying to impersonate Sydney all afternoon (he ended with 0.4)!

Duds

Cumming (65) – I was expecting more Cumming back into a side without Whitfield…

Briggsy (58) – Tbf, this was really only a matter of time… Coaches can’t really be too salty about this, just thank your lucky stars for what he has been able to do the past six or so weeks!

West Coast vs St Kilda

Studs

Crouch (137) – Holy faaarrrk this guy has been OP lately! He had 68 points in tackles alone! 68! He didn’t even need to touch the pill to amass well over half a ton. As a Saints man, nice to see the turnover merchant play to his strengths and handball a bit more…

Hurn (133) and Witherden (131) – Hahahaha what a genuine pisstake this was. Not sure why the Sainters were content with allowing bulk uncontested marks given how close the scoreline ended up being… Anyway, if you’ve got any defenders vs St Kilda in the coming eight weeks, here is your evidence as to how large they could go!

Marshall (130) – Speaking of large, this lad has been doing it all year. #setandforget

Sheed (107) – Not sure why anyone would still own Slim Sheedy but this was nice.

Duds

Honestly no one even remotely relevant… Which feels like a surprise until you come to the realisation that West Coast is in the conversation!

The Juggernaut Review

2451.

Sounds stupendous until you realise par was probably in the vicinity of 2500! This number may sound inflated, however, my ranking actually went down about 100 spots (and no I won’t give you the raw number) from last week! Really just illustrates that the biggest of the boys are starting to flex their muscles and pull away from the rest.

With just eight weeks to go, coaches will be scrambling to ‘complete’ their teams (if not yet achieved) with premos only on field! I still have one rookie on field so my strategy will be a cash grab on the bench then upgrade Windhager to a significantly larger dawg. That’s obviously pending Thursday night carnage ensuing or not…

The temptation will be there to sideways flick your underperforming premos but I still side with the strategy of getting all your rooks off the ground then optimising your premos based on match ups and recent form! Trust the process and keep banking the W’s in your leagues as we head toward the finals, the ultimate opportunity to come away with bragging rights over your mates!

So how did we all go in round 16? Flex your score in the comments below!

Best of luck next week legends!

Yours in fantasy,

Fantasy fanatic #70