SuperCoach Draft: TOP 30 FORWARD RANKINGS feat. The Draft Doctors | Drafted

Welcome back to Drafted, where we talk all things super Coach draft on the Official super Coach Podcast Speed. We're talking defender ranks today and to help do so, we have Left Dog back with us yet again. How are you going, Left Dog?

I'm well mate, Always a pleasure and it's a very special guest today.

Absolutely yeah. We've got rid of patch for this one to bring in the man, the myth, the legend of the draft community, a man who's completely sold out. And come on the Official super Coach Podcast Stevie Phizz from the Draft Doctors. Welcome Stevie.

Yeah, no, good a Darsie. Thanks thanks for having me. The check cleared so it's all good, mate, it's all good.

Thanks very much for jumping on, Stevie. We know you love your super coach, so gonna go through Lecdog's ranks on this list on this podcast today. Sorry, but you have let us know in the private group chat just to warn you, LEF Dog before before we do jump into your ranks. Steve has said that he's aiming to tear them to shreds. That is a direct quote, tear them to shred Stevie. What's this all about?

Well, he's a Canton man. You gotta they usually have big preseasons, so you've got to just take them down a peg, just humble them a fraction. So now, Alex a good Man, I'm sure he's all over it.

Yeah, And honestly, I've got another article coming out to walk close to the season where I re rank them, so I'll probably just take all of seeds advice and update them based on that. So it's basically free content for me.

It's win win perfect.

Well, draft is actually open now, so you can go make your league get ready for draft day. Obviously, you don't necessarily want to be drafting now, it's a pretty distance off. Still, we want to see some practice matches, We want to see some some certain games and performances and roles from our players before drafting. So but you can jump in now and set up those legs. And we're actually doing right now a bit of a mock draft to get you ready for that season. We'll have Lecdog.

No, nothing really going strange. He probably more rucks gone at this stage than I thought there would. So we had Cherry and Gorne go early in the first round, and then there's been You kicked it off actually in round two, a bit of a run with Tom Deconnie in round two.

It was a bit early for the big fella. But look, I'm high on TDK. Wanted to throw. Yeah, I wanted to get the ruck run going nice and early. But Steve, have you got any thoughts on just the early part of the mock draft at the moment, As I said, it's very early. It's only heading into the fifth at the moment.

All right, Yeah, i'd probably echo Lex thoughts. One thing you see as a rule in the expert quote unquote drafts is people will sit back on the rucks aside from the early guys, so probably to see that big run happen when there's maybe a few question marks. I know I took Gorn myself, but beyond that, may be a little bit surprised seeing how deep at bats and maybe some questions being asked if guys like Darcy and Marshall.

Yeah, well, that's a nice little teaser for the upcoming. You know, I don't know what sort of content we're going to do. Might be an article, might be a little bit of a pod. We'll wait and see for that, but keep an eye out for that mock draft coming your way soon. Let's get into our defender ranks. The way the show has been working, we've been going through Lectdog's rankings and then talking about them as we go.

Yeah, well, we'll run through them first and then we can dive into a bit of detail. So in tier one, for me, I've got three guys, Harry Sheezel, Jackson Claire, and Luke Ryan. Tier two is Jordan Clark and Lockie Whitfield. That's your top five, and then you're remaining five. I've got Sam Flanders sitting in tier three on his own, and we'll talk about him. I'm sure Tier four is Wanganeen Malerra, Max Holmes, Nick Martin, and Dan Houston. And if I'm not mistaken, that's ten.

That's ten. There you go, that's your top ten.

Correct. Well, I mean I've got a few players I want to talk about, but to hand it over to the man who wants to tear him to shreds, I'd better get it over to Stevie Fizz and see if you've got any specific players you want to talk about in this top ten.

It's probably Luke Ryan is the player who I'm down on this season as opposed probably if you're basing your ranks sort of around last year's averages, sort of can't see that first half especially repeat for Ryan. I think he's disposals will come down. He's still obviously a great interceptor and still worthy of a top ten pick. I think I have him at D six, so I was still still like him. But for me, he's actually just not that top tier defender. I'm not projecting him that way.

Yeah, that's an interesting one. I mean, just to put some numbers to it. I know people have talked about it. He talked about the hot start, a bit of a slow finish, one hundred and thirty average from rounds one to twelve and then one hundred and two super coach average from rounds thirteen to twenty four. But leckdog, Yeah, just talk us through this third ranking for lu Grin.

Yeah, I know it was a season of two halves last year. I do think there will be a regression there. I think we're probably going to expect something closer to his twenty twenty three numbers, which was about one hundred and ten from memory, which is still pretty decent for super Coach. Yeah, there'll be a bit of a drop off, but I also know that mate fantasy Freco has been tweeting about him, and that is always a good signed preseason.

Yeah, I'm not as hot on him, but I still think, you know, again, very worthy of a top ten pick, Sinclair. I'm not off that at all, like the way he finished last season, and I mean the more injuries that mount as well at Saint Kilda, the more high I'm getting on him because he's probably going to have plenty of the Sharon back there as well or wherever he plays.

Yeah, I've got him at four at the minute and I'm not you know, the back thing. He probably needs an adjustment. He probably needs an adjustment to come down a few spots, So I don't know. I'm where Leck has him. I love the player obviously, but yeah, he would be okay, all right, you should be fine playing through the midfield for Gold Coast.

I did actually have him at six before the injury news, so just to fan those flames. But for me, there's just it was just a question mark on where exactly I think he's going to score. Well, I don't think he's going to score on hundred and twenty points a game. I just I don't know the suns in the same way you do, mate.

I just I don't know.

I don't know where he plays, and that's enough for me to drop him down the ranks.

A couple of picks, fair enough, Was there any other players you wanted to touch on, Steve before we move to the next sort of ten of ranks.

I've actually got Houston at D three, so he's a player I'm far more comfortable selecting than Leck. You probably get him at a better value than that. I think he's got a lot of room for improvement at Collingwood. You know, he never had the kick in Chare at Port Adelaide. There should be plenty of intercepts for him at Collingwood. So I actually, I think he's got a lot of upside. Really, he's someone who I could take as a Tier one defender who you don't necessarily have

He did go very early in the in the mock, I've actually I mean, I won't bore you with all the details, but I do track super coach averages like of by position of players when they move clubs over the years, and generally defenders do, like particularly in the Dan Houston role, do see an uptick, especially in that first year that they move across. So I think there's

I think we can move on to the next batch of plais your ranks eleven through to twenty.

All right, let's pull it up eleven through twenty. Okay, so Tier five we have my boy Bailey Dale and Jayden Short. Tiers six, these are the old blokes Dane Zorco, Tom Stewart, James Cicily, Jeremy McGovern. We're going to call

I want to specifically talk about a guy who finished last year incredibly hot, and I'll then I'll get your takes cebe fizzed. But I really like Matt Roberts a fair bit higher than nineteen this year. Came home firing last year, averaging over one hundred towards the back half of the season. He's got a ridiculously high kicking percentage.

I mean, Matt Roberts I find tricky because it's not a huge sample size. New coach too, I will say, James Cecily, I can't have a bar of it. Man, I can't have it. I've got him at D thirty. Oh wow, just start on him. Well, I mean you think about it like this, is he going to play forward? I tend to over the years, I've tended to if I'm down on someone, I don't move them down five spots, like I'll move them down a dozen spots. So I can't have it with the uncertainty.

I am so Cecily, I have what's that? What do I have him at fifteenth for defenders? But I actually have him a lot lower in my overall rankings just the way it panned out, and he dropped like seventy or eighty spots year on year for me in the rankings. So I'm also concerned by him, particularly with that questionable tall forward line at Hawthorne. It's not specifically the fear that he'll go forward for me, but there is uncertainty there and they've added in, you know, two big elements

There's a couple of fossils in the list, as you did mention Lek, that you've been, you know, potentially harsh on if you look at just their average of last year. But you're really kind of, you know, factoring in the age you've mentioned in like a couple of previous podcasts that you're not you certainly give a bigger hit to players with an injury history as well, So these guys

Man, I love Zorko, like I find the injury narrative around Zora kind of puzzling. He's basically played twenty plus games every year, so I don't know. Man's I mean, if you're playing twenty games, I'm pretty happy with that. So I've got him far higher than then Lack. I understand dropping guys like that, and Jeremy McGovern's I've got him at twenty four, and it's not because he's old. It's just because he, you know, spends more time in the medical tent than Alan Alder. There's an old man

Yeah, Like zork he had twenty three last year, had seventeen nineteen twenty one, like their acceptable game amounts. It's just it's when those games happen, and I just if I'm given the choice between someone who like I just don't want that injury to happen in the game where I need to win to make finals, or that first week of finals or whatever, so I bump those guys down. McGovern's the same, like yeah, had a very good year, but how often does he do it well?

He doesn't do it, So it's this is a Bill Simmons line.

But I like my footy players to play footy and Jimmy McGovern doesn't do that. Tom Stewart, I'll just touch on. His isn't an age thing. His is more of a role thing. We saw him move sort of from back line to the wing to sort of outside. He inside midtime last year, and I carried him in Classic for most of last year, and he was fine towards the end of the year. But I just there was enough uncertainty and they've acquired enough talent that I'm just just happy to push him down a little bit.

Just want one. I want to talk about one more players that the Hat bros As you like to call him, Stevie Fizz, are getting around a bit. Jaden Short up at twelve, So the Classic community is getting quite a bit around Jaden Short as a player that you could return to some great heights, given I think his average was only in the eighties low eighties last year. He's done ninety plus in the past, and the Tigers, obviously it's presumably going to be in their back line quite a bit.

Yeah, I'm not as hot on short. I've got him at seventeen, and I'll probably end up moving him down. I'm just not sure he's very good at this point. Like I know that's harsh, Like he's obviously a good player, but I don't know if maybe the best has passed him. And I don't really want many parts of that Richmond team to be perfectly.

Fair, absolutely fair. Can we talk.

About Max Holmes? Because I know people like Max Holmes and I love the player, but there's a guy, you know, you talk about Tom Stewart getting split around, Like if Max Holmes is playing like let's say forty percent inside midfield and then a lot of the time on the wing, I'm a little bit casual about him.

Yeah.

Look, and I think that's fair enough for me. I'm sort of hoping that they transitioned him back into and again you don't want to hope when you're drafting, but transition him behind the ball a bit more.

I didn't love.

From a super co perspective perspective that when he was on the wing and stuff. But the other thing you have to understand is that if I drafted someone in a Dynasty League, they get bumped up the rankings. And now, admittedly I did trade Max Holmes to try and go for a back to back flag in my main dynasty league, but I did draft him, so I did call it, and that as a result, he does get a bump.

I think he's really a really, really good outside player, which is the problem, right.

I mean, that is a problem. What I want to see. What I want to see is how they use like a Bailey Smith because he's and I don't know if we'll get to the forwards. I don't actually think Bailey Smith is that good in terms of super coach or football, but I understand that everyone else does. So I'm interested to see how that whole side sort of shakes up.

I'm just looking at games at which he attends did like if he's going to be more of an inside mid the games he attended fifty percent plus center bounces and he averaged over one hundred in those It's nine games, like it's not a massive sample. Last year but I don't know. Maybe that's just what people are going off. If he's going to play a bit more inside mid, even if he plays a defender, I don't know. I

Lek al Right, Well, this is where you get into a bit of fun. So I've got Trent Rivers in at twenty one. He's a Tier eight guy alongside John Noble and Carl Aimon and Mitch Hinge who was in the top twenty. Kellum Mills is low. I know he's going to be low compared to what most people think. At tier nine, I've got Kellum Mills, Harry Similberg, Daniel Rioli,

Yeah, So, as you mentioned, you did these ranks, yeah before the last couple of weeks, and that it's a long time in pre seasons sometimes. Yeah, Kitty, you'd imagine you bump that down. He's not going to be coming back until you know, a few rounds into the season at the very earliest. From what we've heard, he's.

Bump up Rory Atkins instead.

Then let's talk Callum Mills. Steve ifi is, what are your thoughts on him this season?

D nine for me? D nine, And I've seen him higher, man, I've seen him higher.

So yeah, I'm pretty I'm pretty high. I think I've got thirteen. I'm just sort of on the edge of I might even bring him higher if I see even more midfield stuff and also seeing Stevie's higher on him, so bump him up. As we've mentioned the draft guru here, Yeah, walk us through why you're not high on him, like twenty fourth overall in your ranks in defender.

Yeah, Yeah, it's the play football factor, it's the new coach factor, it's the angus angus Sheldrick hype factor.

I mean, if Sheldrick's in, you can't have Mills in there as well. But you know, he is a leader.

He is going to want to prove himself after what was he doing wrestling preseason and snapped his arm last year. Like, there's a lot of reasons for him to prove his output. And he's definitely one that, like you look at this list, he's going to get a bump. But my initial reaction to him was just I just didn't trust him essentially fair enough.

Yeah, it's gonna be interesting where he goes and Steve, as you said, I think people got him high. It's going to be fascinating where Calum Mills goes in draft. I think, you know, we talked about a guy like Clayton Oliver last year, are expecting a big bounce back, but his draft range could be wildly different in each draft. I'd imagine the same with Calum Mills, just given his injury history, given his role, given his all these different things.

Trent?

Rivers actually have him in the exact same spot, I believe it or not, So I don't mind Rivers. Obviously, it's a hard midfield to maybe get points in, So I think twenty I wouldn't want him as any higher than my D three, so I'd be Yeah, he's a player I think has limited upside, but I like because he's got a good role.

A couple of sons here and lack your thoughts on I see a lot of like you've got John Noble, You've got Daniel Rioli, you know Will Powell to reveal the bring back the curtain. He's at thirty three as well, so you've sort of are you thinking it's going to be a bit more mouse to feed back there this year and no one person really takes the bulk of points.

I think it is a bit more mouse to feed if Flanders is playing, you know less behind the ball than he did at stages last year. I'm a big John nobleman. I'm not sure why, but I'm just think.

John Steve the audio listener, Steve is shaking his head right now, keen to get his thoughts in a second.

I've always loved John Noble. I don't know why.

Maybe it's because he looks kind of rattish, but I'm supportive of him and Daniel Reol. I just think if you go and acquire two guys who play essentially exclusively off the half back, your intention is to play them there especially. I mean, I know Gold Coast trade with pretend picks and they don't actually value them, so it doesn't matter. But if you're given way assets to get those guys in, I think there's intent there.

Noble similar Rivers is like.

A D four guy D five, but he'll score your eighty five points and he has a cap of above one hundred.

So I've got him in there.

And then, yes, will Power's a little bit lower, just because I think he's when I was doing the depth charts. He's just sort of the one that was slightly unlucky with that acquisition Lens over the team.

I feel like will Power has been a perennial guy in keeper leagues where coaches are just waiting for the role to emerge, and every time it did, he seemingly got injured right as he was about to step into this prime role. And now he's got a couple more people to contend with. Steve, your thoughts on the Suns mix in the defensive defensive line, Yeah, well there's a lot.

To play out. I suspectable Powell plays more lockdown on the medium size forwards. I like dan Uriali enough, he's in the in the twenties. For me, he should be fine. I'm obviously not as hot on Noble as Lack. I don't have some affection for him. I have no affection when the trade went through, why would we do that? But anyway, it was.

A perplexing trait just for the record, and that's why I think he has to have a role because otherwise it doesn't make any sense.

Well, you know, these are AFL recruiters that you know sometimes don't always do what makes sense. There's a lot of mouse, there's a lot of potential in the half back line for the Suns, and the Sons are actually pretty good moving the ball just broke down going forward. So actually there were strange recruitments. To me, I understand Daniello's quality player, so like that, I just I can't trust John Noble. I don't know that he's a very efficient player. I don't know that he's better some of

That's fair, I mean, that's all fair bite. And I guess I guess what I should have probably done is bump them all lower because I had question marks.

Over all of them.

But I think one of them is going to provide that D four maybe D three value.

I think it's going to be John Noble.

Spoiler, you'll work out which person from the Sun's back line I got in a mid season draft in my dynasty league. But I do think in that carl I mean Mills is obviously going to get bumped up, but in that Sad has an opportunity just by role, of course question marks over his body. I think Really and Noble have been brought in to fulfill a role. Carl Amon's role is always very defined. He just doesn't always

Any players on the list Stevie Fizz in this top thirty absent that you you know, surprised and missing.

Probably Liam Duggan. I think Dugan should play midfield straight away for West Coast. With what's going on there, he'd probably be the standout one. I guess you'd say I have lost an in, so probably I'm a little bit down on short compared to consensus, and I'm a little bit happier to draft I've lost and a lot of the players are very similar though. Steve Mayer, I'll have

Liam Duggan's probably a good shout. I had him in my top one hundred last year and he just slipped out, and preseason if he's in the team, he'll probably push his way in. I think that's a good shout. Boston had a had a like a really underrated last couple of years for super Coach. He's a good play and I think he's the perfect sort of draft if he can get of it. I don't know, D four, D five, whatever it is. He'll serve you well.

Before we wrap things up, and I'll give you a bit of time. I'll pad for you, guys, because this is a question I've thrown in there at the last minute. Here, I want your sleeper this season in the defensive line as well, So we'll get to that and I'll mention my guy. I've just got to mention him on every podcast this preseason. But I'm going with Ari Shawan Maker as my sleeper in drafts. I think he's going to step in and just take a massive role in the

Look?

I think so a guy we've sort of mentioned him, A guy of at twentieth. I think Mitch Hinge is really good and I think he probably gets overlooked in a lot of drafts.

I don't know what his ADP is.

I think I've got him at twenty and I reckon you can probably get him as like he'll probably be the thirtieth to fortieth defender that goes off in Super Coach. He still has that tag of injury prone, even though he played it hell of a lot of games last year. Other than that, I said it kind of jokingly. I do think there's a world where your last pick is the rat Rory Atkins, or you pick him up off the wave of wire and he surprises you for at least a few weeks.

Because there's a.

Dan Houston size hole down in Port Adelaide and it's got Rory Atkins name all over.

It was taking kick ins at training the other day when I was having a look. I know it's very early, Caine Farrell was not training. I'm growing higher on Caine Farrell the more I look at that Port defensive line though. You know there's a big hole there. Steve, before you tell us your sleeper, what are your thoughts on how that shakes out at Port Adelaide, Because you know, as you said, you've got Dan Houston so high he was mopping up a lot of points in that defensive line for Port.

Yeah, it's a great point, and I think Kane Farrell's the obvious choice, which is weird because I've sort of suggested he was a good shout all along this preseason. Lek has him higher in his ranks than I do, but I still think it's the it's the right area to be looking, whether you want to look at Bergman or Farrell or someone else. Even that's absolutely a spot where I think drafters should be taking a look late

Awesome thanks Stevie Fizz. Well, you can check out Lekdog's top one hundred ranks and plenty of other great articles through with super Coach and super Coach Draft at Code Sports. Steve Fizz as well, you put together an awesome draft kit every year. You've got a lot of info in there for super coach drafters as well. Why don't you just walk us through what you've got. You've put together this pre season and you've done for the last few years.

Yeah. So the Draft Doctors Draft Kit, it's on the website if you're interested in that. It's fifteen player profiles from each club, draft range where we think they should be selected, projected averages, our the riders picks, all that sort of stuff. So yeah, and all the ranks, which are getting updated this Friday, the fourteenth. Is it fourteenth? So yeah, we update the ranks a few times each year. And yeah, it's a bit of fun as well.

So not all busy Valentine's Day, busy Valentine's Day for you. Miss physically happy with that one, but no, fantastic thanks for joining us. We'll be going through our forward rankings next Thanks again, lect Dog and Steppers from the Draft Doctors. We'll see you again.

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