SuperCoach Draft: TOP 30 MIDFIELDER RANKINGS | Drafted

Good day everyone, and welcome back to Drafted, the official Super Coach Draft show right here on the official Super Coach podcast feed. It is your boy Dossie here alongside super Coach Draft enthusiast Patch. Welcome back, Patch.

Gooday, happy to be back. Very keen for some more draft chat.

Episode two. We are going to be talking all things midfielders and we're getting into ranking season and to help us with our ranks, we have draft expert and former member of the world famous Jock Reynolds community. It is Lecdog. Welcome back, Lecdog.

Thank you mate, self proclaimed draft expert. Happy to be here, happy to deliver the official Super Coach Draft rankings, and everything we see in this podcast will stand and is not to be argued with. These are factual rankings.

We are giving you correct, absolutely no challenges between now and whenever you're draft.

If you pick a player that is suddenly injured, that is on you.

It's on you now. If you do want to read Lekdog's entire top one hundred ranks, including positional tiers, that's available right now on Code Sports. You can go check out the entire list there. But at the moment we're going to go through the top thirty midfield rankings. And just to be clear, this is for Super Coach Draft. If you want to check out our thoughts on midfielders in Super Coach Classic the salary cap format, you can check that out on this very feed. Our previous episode

Yeah, well do you want to go from first to tenth or tenth to first?

We start win number one, number one, I.

Mean number one.

He's not just number one in the midfield, he's number one in the comp he was last year as well. It's Marcus BoNT and Pelli. He's the best player in Super Coach. He might be the best player in the AFL.

Yeah, let's roll through one through ten and then I think we'll discuss each sort of little pick there.

So after the bond, we've got a young gun and Nick dekos in at number two.

Zachi Butters falls at.

Number three, Zach Mister consistent number four, Caleb Sarong fifth, Lockie Neil still a top ten player, number six, Andrew bray Shaw is seventh, Josh Dunky is eighth, Luca Davies a Uniac is ninth, and sitting at tenth.

I have Isaac Keeney.

Okay, Well, I think now we'll just discuss a few of the individual players BoNT and Dekos top two, even Butters third. I think there's no real arguments there. All guys that could potentially go one twenty. Butters already did go one twenty last year. Dekos, I think it was a one seventeen. Maybe talk us through your tiers as well at this point, Lekdog, and then we can discuss sort of further. That's just briefly outline what tiers are. Again.

Yeah, for sure. There's a couple of things to note.

If your defense or mid or rock eligible, you'll be found in those rankings, not in the midfield ranking. We're just talking pure mids right the way I do my tiers. So last year this was highlighted a lot where I'd like, for instance, Zach Merritt ahead of Caleb Sarong, and everyone.

Lost their mind. Calub's wrong better than Zach Merritt.

I just have him slightly ahead, but they're both Tier three players. So to me, the number one on his own stand out Tier one player is Marcus BoNT and Pelli and you do everything you can to get him. Then at your next pick, if you had a Nick Dekos or a Zach Butter's who I have in Tier two available, I essentially have them on equal footing, so you want to grab one of them if they're available with your second pick, or with your first pick, if

It's not just mt of saying this guy's first, these two guys are equal second, and these guys are all like equal third.

Yeah, and so that when you're talking about mid specific Yes, and then I use those positional tiers when I'm putting together the top one hundred, because I might bump ay Tier one Ford above a like a Tier five midfielder, even though he going to score lower, just because he's got a rareer position. So they made him more in

Like, I'm incredibly mad at you disrespecting my boy Zach Merritt like that disrespecting.

I think he's way higher then he actually averaged last year versus some of these guys. Maybe walk us through why you're so keen honor Zach Merritt this season. I think you know Sarong was slightly above him. Locky Neil was certainly averaged higher than him last season. But I'm not arguing against Zach Merritt. He's an absolute gun, we know that. But he's very high in your ranks.

He elect He is so one of the key factors I put into these rankings instant just their average, it's the total points they produce across the season. So Zaki Barrett, he was fifth last year for total points in the midfield and he's basically sits there every single year. And for me, that consistency and that availability is really important. Azak Nick Dakoss is above him just for upside and

Yeah, a couple of other players I want to discuss. I know I'm high on this guy. I think I have him. I have him a touch lower in my ranks. I think I have him at tenth, but still very high. But Andrew Brayshaw at seven as well. From a memory, I think one hundred and nine average last year. So putting him top ten, especially at seventh, just below the likes of Locke Neil who averaged one twenty and just

Yeah, he's another one where I just think there's some upside built into his game. I think there's some extra points maybe available in that Freemantle midfield and you know through where I'm hoping that five stops going anywhere near it. I'm interested to see what Hayden Young Hayden Young's roles in the new year. But I just think there's a slight bit of upside in him. And again he's consistent,

So Isaac Heeney was all the rage last year being a forward and classic people frothed over him, and rightfully so he was playing as a midfielder. Has lost that forward eligibility and you've still got him in the top ten. You think he's still a top ten midfielder standalone. Once you take the forward the forward situation out, you know we've got Mills coming back. This one has lost the

Yeah, it's an interesting question. My assumption perats would be that his role remains pretty similar to last year, So a lot of midfield but also able to push forward and kick goals. Yes, Callum Mills will be back, and he may be back for two three whole games next year or this year. It's going to be really impressive when he does. But I just don't see there being

Yeah, well, you mentioned some of those names from eleven to twenty. Do you want to run through the full list of eleven to twenty four us, let's do that.

So eleven to twenty we've got. So it was Isaacini at ten, Eryl Goulden at eleven, Tom Green at twelve. They're both Tier five, Paddy Cripps at Tier five as well at thirteen. Tier six is made up of two players, Noah Anderson and Kristen Petrarca. That tier is really sort of guys with upside compared work to where I've ranked them, either upside because of age or upside because they missed

All right, I'm keen to jump in here and discuss a few players. I mean I personally, Yeah, I think I'm on board with Patrick. Did you have Tom Green quite a bit higher like I did have him? I've

Yeah, he's a tough one. I actually felt like I had him low to begin with because of potential injury risks. So he was the ninth ranked midfielder last year for total points, had a mammoth year, and I just didn't even when I had him sitting here at what did I have him meant nineteenth? I didn't even think. I thought that was a risk, to be honest, but it was hard to ignore the numbers. But because I was worried about his health, he has proven that his health

It would be.

It'd be tough too when you look at the season on the whole, because you need Adam trelaw on park towards the end of the year when you're pushing for finals, and he is probably going to outscore those guys when he's on the field. The question is can you trust his health and so far notes So he probably drops from nineteen down to twenty nine for me just off the back of that preseason injury, but he is going to outperform that on an average basis. It's just how often is he going to be on the park.

I had him that far down even before the injury, basically just because I was pre empty an injury because he you know, last year was just a massive outlier in his career that I didn't think that it was something that Wood or could really continue because it's just, you know, it's an outlier and maybe maybe shouldn't be counted before him.

Oh sorry, Patchricon.

Yeah, I'd like there's no doubt that these scuse points when he's fit, But how many years has he been fit and played that full season? No, especially his age and the club that he's at, who knows. The Bevo factor also scares me. Sorry, Dussie, you were saying.

No, I was just saying, on the back of that, what are you thinking?

Like?

Adjustment wise, we can talk about forwards in the Forward Pod. There's probably a few relevant names there, but a name like Ed Richards, you know, starting to become a name in classic circles, even as a potential option. But I really like him as a player that could maybe go one hundred and five plus. Where do you see him now that with this injury? Like I thought he could perform pretty well regardless of the trilaw factor. But does

Imagine depends on how Luke Beverage is feeling that particular Saturday afternoon Maravel, Like, it's I hate predicting the dog so much because Bebo does throw guys around. Richard's proved that he was a good center abounds midfielder and a good midfielder. But does he get moved to half back? Does he move kind of forward? He's versatile enough that that worries me a little bit, so I probably wouldn't be jumping on him before twenty maybe a little bit

I think Libb is another one that is Probably he's a guy that I struggled to fit in because I was like, is he gonna keep doing what he did last year? Was very good last year when he was playing and scored a lot of points. Maybe he gets a bit of a bump. You'd hope it's Riley Sanders is the one that gets the bump. But literally, as you said, Patch, who knows.

Who knows where?

You can talk about them in the Fords Pod. Looking forward to that. But there's a couple of other injury guys here. Sam Walsh of your Blues you're a big Blues man. Was this factoring in before his hamstring setback or was this including no, this.

Was assuming he would have a preseason injury. When I made this, I'm mentally prepared as a Carton supporter to get the Samwash notification every year. It's a hamstring, it's not his backs broken, so it's a step up from last year. Again, I think on an average basis he'll outperform that, but at some point he's going to miss time during the regular season and as a result he gets bumped down to eighteen.

I think he.

Is he going to be our I was going to say Carton's highest averaging midfielder when he plays, I might say that. I think he'll be Carton's highest averaging midfield where he plays. I think he'll perform crips and error. I just don't know how many games he's going to play. He's going to miss time at some point. You just don't want it to be during your Super Coach Finals.

The Jaggers Smith slander from you is outrage.

JACKA.

Smith's going to be playing off half back, so he'll probably have a decent eighty five to ninety average year.

One the latest on Petraca today from Melbourne was that he's getting towards full contact trainings. We're still not there yet. For those wondering what the update is, there's the full yarn up on Code Sports and Harold Son if you're intrigued for more. But basically, he's still not in full contact, still wearing the no contact hat. So, yeah, do you feel like you might move him up if you see

Yeah, I'd need to say see him in the preseason games because who's he might jump? Noah Anderson, who I've got in the same tier. But is he going to outperform a Paddy Cripps to Tom Green or an Errol Goulden. Maybe, but probably not. I'm pretty comfortable with where he sits given the question marks over him, and he's not the same type of midfielder that a lot of these guys are ahead of him. He's more of an impact guy

Yeah, just on Lair the journo's working over here and you can hear them on the Phantoms Lair podcast. But Sime and Thomas Wilson mentioned just on the show in the Midfielder is classic show that, Yeah, he sees Laird as he has literally not been training midfield at all this preseason, that he's expecting to just be playing as a pure defender. So is your ranks kind of yeah, him at seventeen, he just scores wherever he plays, is

Yeah, there's a little bit of that sort of planning ahead if you get him, and as the seventeenth midfielder taken in the in the draft, meaning you've probably got one or two ahead of him, you're gonna end up with it. And he does play defense a defensive role, you're gonna end up with the best defender available, so

But he's just going to score. He's just going to score.

They want the ball in his hands wherever he is, and he's done it before, which is a big factor for me. So yeah, he might not average what he has averaged in terms of those high midfield ceiling numbers again, but he could go one hundred and five as a defender and that'd be a real win.

Yeah, that's probably one of the big ones for me that I've differentiated quite a bit. Like I've got him. I think he'll average in the nineties still, he always seems to do that, but I've kind of factored in him playing defense. I still think he'll be a valuable pick given that he will get likely defensive status, but I sort of dropped him down a fair bit because I think there's just a lot more mouths to feed at Adelaide this year and it's kind of a different

Absolutely, I mean you look at his history and you know that couple of years run of averages for the season of one O nine, twenty three, one, twenty seven, one twenty before his eighty four last year, Like he I've got him ranked nine, and I was worried that was a little bit low. Like if he's back to his best, then he's a top five supercatch midfielder in

I think he's going to be one of the great talking points because he's locked into everyone's classic team or most you know, he's in fifty percent of classic teams. But in draft, where does he go is a great question. I feel like in some drafts he'll be a really valuable pick if he does deliver you know what we think he will, And I'm probably on the board of thinking, you know, he's going to push that one ten sort

So if yeah, I mean part of it is as well, if you're taking him on the turn, if you're pick ten, you can get you know, Clayton Olive a ten and then get someone really reliable next to him. If you've got like a you know, you want to lean in and go with it. You say, elder U's there or he Ne's there, or you know, someone said Dunky slip a little bit. You can take someone really reliable on

All of these questions of why got him sitting in Tier eight next to Sam Walsh who question mark over his body, Adam Trelaw who before we mate, before I made this list, question mark over his body, and then Chad Warner, and my question mark over Warner is like, I don't know are you are you playing for Freeman or are you really good?

Are you inconsistent? I'm not sure.

So Claytonova very squarely falls in my I don't know tier and I think all the players ahead of him in the tiers above him are a little bit safer for various reasons. But he's locked into my classic team. I hope he scores one hundred and twenty points every every single week, and I wouldn't be totally surprised if he did.

But it is a risk.

Let's go through the twenty one, sorry, patch.

Were Oh, I was gonna say the exact same thing.

Yeah, let's get through the twenty one to thirty in your midfield ranks here, so we know Chad Warner is at twenty one, who's at twenty two?

So twenty two kicks off Tier nine, which consists of Darcy Parish, Matt Rowel, Hayden Young, Jian Newcombe, Hugh mcluggage, Jordan Dawson and Connor Rosie. And then Tier ten begins. It starts with Tuck Miller and James Peeling to close out the top thirty. Tier ten goes on for a little while longer. But so to read those names again, Warner, Parish, Raw, Hayden, Young, Newcombe, McCluggage, Dawson, Rosie, Miller and Peteling.

All right, where to start with this? I reckon Jordan Dawson and Connor Rose. Potentially we could start there, I don't. I think I'd probably have Jordan Dawson in my ranks quite a bit higher. Came off the one P thirteen average the year before, dropped off last year, had a bit of a stinker for his standards. I think the Crows skipper talk us through the twenty seven rank for Jordan Dawson.

Is that just because he traded me to him, traded him to me in a in a keeper league? Is that? Is that what this is?

I mean that that might be part of it. I did predict the drop off last year slightly again, Jordan Dawson, It's that whole Crows midfield setup. Is Jordan Dawson more outside than he is inside? Are they using him as a link up player? Is he the guy winning the ball. There's just enough question marks for me that I was I dropped him down again. If you had him as your third midfielder in your team, you're going to be really happy if you'd probably be happy if you had

They the outliers or were the one oh one.

In twenty twenty one and one o two and twenty twenty four the outliers? I'm not sure I have the answers to that in the Crows midfield and as a result, he just drops a little bit lower.

Guessing that Connor ROSEI borderline disrespect is due to the injury risk as well, given you do factor that in quite heavily.

Yeah, that's that's part of it.

Rosie was one of my first picked, not last year, but the year before and that real breakout year where he played consistent midfield minutes and scored. I'm just pulling up his average. He averaged eight in that year, then last year dropped to ninety eight across twenty games. Again, he's a very versatile player for the for the port Adelaide Power. I don't know why I called him the port Adelaide Power, but he's very versatile. So all the guys in that midfield Olie Wines had a bounce back

You know, I don't want to knock him. He's slight.

He's a bit more slight quite a few midfields I seem to be beefing up and bulking up a bit the last year or two. So yeah, there's just enough question marks over him for him to drop down there. Also, like, I really like him and he's good, but I don't want him in my M one or M two. I could probably deal with him as an M three in my draft.

Lake You're always trying to give me potato, trying to give me Darty Parish. What is it with you? Why? Why is Darcy Parish so high? What is Lake? You get him at twenty two, which is extraordinarily high for a guy that's also under an injury cloud in his preseason. What are you doing?

I just think he's really neat a Dusty Parish, He's to me, he's very He's in that. I look at him in a Clayton Oliver in a similar way, and it probably helps it. I've got them both in my classic team. Darcy Parish's ceiling games are so high. He's averaged one eight and twenty twenty three across eighteen games. The asterisk is obviously in his availability one hundred and eleven and twenty twenty two, one hundred and fourteen and twenty in twenty twenty one, so he has a scoring ceiling.

This is it up.

I'd play for me, and I'm happy to argue that he should be lower. But I really like him, and I just think I do think he's got another year of going one ten in him.

I just don't know when it is. I hope it's this year.

Yeah. Working through a back issue at the moment, Darcy Parish is not going to be playing in the practice match next week, but they are hopeful that he's going to be able to play.

Who else plays in the midfield for Essendon Zach Merritt, who.

Else Sammy Durham. The larger sadis.

Moving moving right along.

Okay, here's the thing right about a larger status and guys like Ben Hobbs and stuff, is that if Parish is available and those guys are available, the coaches are always going to back in the senior guy to play that important midfield roles.

It's just what coaches do.

So when I went through Essendon's sort of midfield depths, yeah, the assumption is for this the Parish is available, he's the one who has to score points because Zach Merrick can't score any more points than he does.

Yeah, there is a world where Parish does go back to being one ten. I just I just lost total faith in Essendon as a football club in an organization, and that's spilled over into fantasy football.

If he was a Carton player, he'd probably be fortieth. Because I can't be objective on Carlton.

So yeah, we'll agree to be non unable to be objective.

I want to talk about a few other players now, and one I think he's your highest ranked player from Hawthorn, I believe, and he comes in at twenty five Giant Nucombe. I've gone bullish on him this year. I've got him super high in my rankings. I've got him eleventh, so I'm going really hard. I've brought this stat out on a couple of different podcasts, one hundred and fifteen super coach average when the Hawks won last season, I just think they'll win more game and I think he's generally

It does so dry Nukham.

I think he's going to be really good as well. I don't necessarily agree that Hawthorne A is going to win a lot more games. I think he'll be the highest averaging midfielder for Hawthorne this year. I just don't know. I think he's a bit up and down right, So he'll score games in the sixties, he'll score games in the one sixties, and I'm not sure that his game has a really consistent base within it with how he plays, so I'm happy to have that inconsistency a bit lower.

Twenty twenty three.

I traded him in and used him as a loophole and a game he had to buy, and then he averaged one hundred and ten or whatever after that. But anyway, twenty twenty three, he averaged ninety seven. Last year across six ams he averaged the ninety one. I just I think he's a very nice looking player. I just don't know that he's actually that good in terms of super coach. Very similar to Bailey Smith when he's mid only he's actually never done anything worth a note.

Huge huge call there by Lecdog might have to clip that, as you say, left.

You just clip me saying he's never done anything of note. That'll get him listening.

Yeah, I understand he's had a few elite patches though, and yeah, I suppose it's probably the more promise that he can keep delivering on that and avoid injury concerns which have sort of hampered that consistency as well. Any final players you want to discuss, Patch, and then I think we'll each pick a sleeper and then we'll round out this pod. Of course, as I've said, you can check out the full top one hundred of Leftdog, including positional tiers on Code Sports. Go check that out. We'll

My final question is about the I'm going to sneak outside the thirty we're only talking about the thirty on this pod, but I do want to question that we've got access to legs top fifty here. Tim Taranto at thirty one intrigues me lack as a little little teaser for the audience to give. You give him an extra pick?

In twenty twenty three he was the sixteenth best player in Super Coach and last year was the two hundred and thirteenth best player in Super Coach.

The duality you tell me where to put him?

Yeah, there's if he's on the park and he's playing, he's going to be good because someone has to score points at Richmond. Is there going to be any incentive towards the end of the year if he does have a niggle to play him again? Him in this tier of guys, that's kind of like high ceiling. How many games are they going to play? It's your Matt Crouch's your Tim Taranto's and I've got James Peetling and Tuck Miller at the top of that tier ten, just above

Do you want to do your Petling spiel? I know you love James Peteling. Do you want to go on?

Just give I'm keen to hear it.

Get the soapbox out, Give us a minute of James Petling love.

Look, everyone who.

Is a draft player has been watching Peteling flounder in the doldrons of GWS, playing a sub, coming on for minutes at a time, getting subbed off. But at the games when he did get unleashed, and in the VFL or the equivalent, I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's been the VFL the whole time he's been at GWS. He just dominated as just a midfield beast. He's been sent to Adelaide. He's going to be unlocked. He's pushed Rory Laird out of the midfield. Laird one of the

Crack triple digits.

And I'll let the mathematicians tell you how he did when he wasn't subbed, but I can tell you as an owner in several super coach draft leagues last year, he was really bloody good.

WELLI that was a good take. Love that from James Petling. I'm looking forward to having him in, having a lot of stock in him around the place, so it'd be interesting to see where he does land in draft. Another player that's got a lot of buzz in classic circles. So will that mean that he goes higher in draft than you'd be willing to take him. It'll be interesting to see where that lands on draft day. Let's go

Yeah, I was struggling to split them. I'm going to do a sneaky and give you two, but I'll give you my really. So these are two Carton players. I have him in my top fifty. Midfield. One's Adam Cherer, who I think is going to have his best season for Carlton, but I do think there's going to be hype about him with Sam Walsh's injury and stuff, so

I think it just.

Enhances his opportunity to do that, takes an intercept, marks distribute from the back line, and last year you wouldn't know it, but he averaged ninety three points a game last year eighty eight the year before. I think he's just going to be a really solid back end sort of guy that gives you value in your midfield.

That is a big old sleeper. Blake Cakes loved Thatchy. Who have you got for us?

I'm struggling. I'm also struggling to split because I like talking about lots of different players, and sleepers are where it's really fun to talk about. These players you can talk about, you know, your Tom Greens and he Isaac Handy. Still the cows come home. But geez, I love sinking my teeth into guys that are just completely irrelevant to ninety percent of the people that play fantasy football. And

Oh and you flamed me for Darcy Parrish.

Well, I'm not paying. I'm not taking Dylan Shield at twenty two. I'm taking him at two hundred and twenty two in the draft. Yeah, all of these guys are kind of playing in the back line. Jays Bergoing, I think is a really really good player, and you know they should look at dragging him back and using him a fair bit out of the back line. Dylan Shield, for some ungodly reason, has been given the keys to the half back line and I hate it. But it'll

Maybe he's just need he's currently as of right now, if your start of the season, he's currently Nick Newman's replacement. So yeah, I suspect that might shift one time the season stars, but right now and Jays Bergan is a great shout. I actually thought he was going to be I was looking for him in the rankings when I was making this, I was actually looking him for him in the defense. Didn't realize he was going to be mid only he was a favorite of the Waiver Wire

Yeah, interesting, you're gonna, yeah, you're willing to sort of, I guess it's not draft capital. We're talking about sleepers, but guys that don't actually have the status that you probably want to play them in though that you're.

Willing to as bench of pickers they get.

Yeah, for sure. I loved by the way. I do love jays Berger and I think even if he plays just midfield as a wing, he could put up some big numbers as a wingman. He's just class. I've got a player that is midfield only but was actually a forward eligible player last year. Certainly under the radar from what I've seen, but there's been a bit of buzz coming from the club socials. If anything, Tom Powell at North Melbourne, George Wardlow has gone down with that Hammy.

I think I think you'd hope if you're running North Melbourne that Luke Parker is playing twenty eighty percent forward and Tom Powell's playing the inverse of that. I would hope as a North Melbourne fan that they those are the two that are sort of flipping with each other. But then again, coaches like to play their veterans in the positions of value. But yes, I think that's a decent shot.

Yeah, I think you're right. But as someone that's invested significant draft capital in keeper leagues and in redraft leagues into Tom Powell and being burnt flat fifty is how I describe me checking his score most weeks whenever I had him as opposed to his midfield split, it's I want him to be good. I love him. He's got great Union numbers. He'll be a good midfielder if they let him loose. But it just have been burnt so many times before by Tom Powell.

Yeah, it's a midfield that has a lot of depth now, which I'll concede as well. He could he could simply just not you know, be in the midfield and be playing bit part roles around the ground, which would certainly not make me interested. But he's a preseason watch He might rise, he might fall on my on my watch list.