CHAMPION/DATA/ISSUE 23 Hi and welcome to the 23rd and final edition of the Fantasy Freako’s rave for 2011. In what promises to be a ripper final round of the year, a lot of team’s fortunes will depend on what happens at the selection table on Thursday night, as I’m sure there will be a few surprises among the ins and outs. Enjoy this week’s final rave and good luck to all coaches participating in Grand Finals, as well as the select few that are in the race for the FJ Cruiser. I’m sure you’ll have a few sleepless nights heading into the final lockout of the year. ROUND 24 CAPTAINS LEADING SCORERS SINCE ROUND 20 Only one of my captain selections let me down last week, with Stevie J the If you currently don’t have Dane Swan and are looking at upgrading one only player scoring below 80 points after he was well contained by young of your midfielders, then he is an absolute must! He leads all scorers Swan Nick Smith. Collectively the group averaged 105 points per match across the past month with an impressive average of 134 points per between them, but that figure doesn’t include Sam Mitchell’s donut after game. Not too far behind is Swan’s clone in Tom Rockliff, who averages he was a late withdrawal against the Western Bulldogs. His no-show was a 131 points per match since Round 20, which includes scoring a round- savage blow for over 50,000 coaches, but thankfully he was only rested and high 151 points last week against West Coast. If we look at his past 10 he’ll definitely return this week against Gold Coast. performances, he has cracked the ton on each occasion, with the only Looking ahead to Grand Final week, there are three clear standouts, with other player in the league to achieve this feat being Swan himself. The Dane Swan, Gary Ablett and Matthew Boyd all sound selections. As I similarities between the two players are indeed remarkable. outlined in the last rave, there’s no reason to take the arm band off Swan, who’s currently unstoppable, averaging 133 points per match since returning If you already have Swan and Rockliff, then Sam Mitchell looks to from his Arizona sabbatical in Round 14. His last three games against this be the next best bet. He’ll be refreshed after the week off, and more week’s opponent Geelong have also been exceptional, returning scores of importantly he comes up against Gold Coast, a team which has given up 127, 141 and most recently 115 points in Round 8. the most points of any side this year. He racked up 38 disposals when he last came up against them in Round 13, which included scoring 132 If you’re looking for that point of difference, then perhaps Matthew Boyd points – his second-best effort for the year. The extractor is currently in could get you over the line. He has been a consistent scorer since Round 16, recording at least 100 points in each match since, for an average of 116 per career-best form averaging 113 points per match – up by 13 points on game – ranked eighth in the competition. Also, if we look at the last time he last season. fronted Fremantle he had a day out, racking up a career-high 45 disposals and 162 points in Round 5. Below I have included the best scorers across the past month, however this doesn’t include Brent Stanton who ranks eighth among all players in The other option is Gary Ablett, who comes into this match with a subpar 96 this period, as Essendon has the final round bye. points against Melbourne. He returns home to Metricon Stadium this week, a venue he’s averaged 119 points per match (doesn’t include the 23 injury LEADING SCORERS SINCE ROUND 20 affected points in Round 16). His recent record against Hawthorn is also impressive, returning a pair of 135’s from his past two appearances, with his Player Club Position D M T G DT most recent coming in Round 13 this year. We need to be wary of a possible hard tag though, with Hawthorn likely to use more than one player on him to Dane Swan COLL Mid 34.7 6 3.2 2.2 134 quell his influence, similar to the tactics it used on Chris Judd a few rounds back. Tom Rockliff BRIS Mid 32 5.5 6.2 1.2 131 Considering the importance of this round, I would only look at Swan or Boyd as captain options, despite the potential for the Gold Coast ace to score well. Nathan van Berlo ADEL Mid 30 5.8 6.2 1.2 127 LAST 3 GAMES VS THIS WEEK’S OPPONENT Dayne Beams COLL Mid 29.5 6.8 4 2 122.5 Player Club Opp Venue 1 2 3 Avg Scott Thompson ADEL Mid 36.8 3.8 4.8 0.2 119.5 Dane Swan COLL GEE MCG 127 141 115 128 Gary Ablett GCS HAW Metricon 109 135 135 126 Bryce Gibbs CAR Def/Mid 26.7 9 3 1 118 Matthew Boyd WB FRE Etihad 84 117 162 121 Nick Riewoldt STK CAR MCG 121 122 95 113 Sam Mitchell HAW Mid 29.7 4 5.7 0.7 117.7 Scott Thompson ADEL WCE Patersons 127 93 110 110 Andrew Swallow NM RICH Etihad 91 125 109 108 Scott Pendlebury COLL Mid 30.7 4 5.5 1 116.5 Leigh Montagna STK CAR MCG 137 75 109 107 Matthew Boyd WB Mid 36.7 2 3.7 1 115.3 Joel Selwood GEE COLL MCG 96 100 121 106 Steve Johnson GEE COLL MCG 76 101 127 101 Jack Redden BRIS Mid 25.8 7.2 6.2 0.2 114.8 Scott Pendlebury COLL GEE MCG 101 113 89 101 ADELAIDE CROWS FREAKO SAYS: AFL DREAM TEAM AVERAGE Chris Knights had hip surgery on Monday and will subsequently miss the 1533 final round of the season. What a disappointment he has been this year! (Ranked 9th) Adelaide AFL Dream Team Points Player Position Price Change Games TOG% Pts Per Min Ave. BE L4 20 21 22 23 Scott Thompson Mid $415,800 $17,500 21 87% 1.01 108 88 120 138 89 151 100 Scott Stevens Def/Fwd $300,400 $0 2 100% 0.81 98 50 Nathan van Berlo Mid $405,900 $69,100 21 90% 0.85 93 62 127 137 102 126 143 Sam Jacobs Ruck $361,700 $72,400 18 80% 0.91 89 73 101 118 65 146 76 Rory Sloane Mid $360,300 $97,200 17 81% 0.87 87 112 99 76 137 94 88 Tony Armstrong Def/Mid $287,600 $25,500 4 86% 0.80 85 66 85 90 82 83 85 Bernie Vince Mid $296,000 -$60,600 16 85% 0.80 82 56 82 57 84 41 144 Brent Reilly Mid $273,500 -$58,500 20 84% 0.77 79 52 81 80 72 70 101 Richard Douglas Mid $289,600 -$76,600 16 80% 0.79 77 72 82 97 67 Ian Callinan Fwd/Mid $80,400 $0 2 80% 0.80 77 -87 Chris Knights Fwd $266,700 $44,800 16 81% 0.76 76 94 62 23 100 Michael Doughty Def/Mid $309,400 -$900 18 91% 0.66 73 53 96 89 105 94 Kurt Tippett Fwd/Ruck $296,300 $35,800 17 89% 0.66 72 11 116 127 104 Patrick Dangerfield Fwd/Mid $282,500 $5,600 21 81% 0.72 71 52 77 50 79 79 99 Andy Otten Def $264,600 $122,200 15 92% 0.64 70 71 72 60 81 72 73 Graham Johncock Def $256,500 -$102,600 21 87% 0.66 70 86 70 72 83 55 68 Brad Symes Def $276,800 -$77,300 11 68% 0.83 69 119 Jared Petrenko Def $299,200 $88,500 14 74% 0.77 69 61 76 50 72 100 83 Matthew Jaensch Fwd $258,900 $14,600 13 86% 0.65 68 66 Matthew Wright Mid $272,300 $179,800 18 79% 0.70 68 106 77 75 118 31 85 Jack Gunston Fwd $234,000 $70,000 12 79% 0.64 61 13 71 79 28 73 105 David Mackay Mid $261,600 -$6,000 7 81% 0.63 61 47 83 108 58 Taylor Walker Fwd $249,300 -$9,800 12 87% 0.56 60 54 72 79 60 108 41 Ivan Maric Ruck $218,500 -$21,800 6 68% 0.72 59 43 68 67 68 Ben Rutten Def $191,200 -$66,300 20 100% 0.47 58 37 61 63 57 62 Richard Tambling Mid $190,900 -$46,400 9 76% 0.63 58 33 Ricky Henderson Def/Fwd $202,300 -$68,700 17 78% 0.58 55 70 48 36 59 Daniel Talia Def/Fwd $192,300 $94,700 8 92% 0.49 55 50 55 32 80 62 45 Luke Thompson Def $188,500 $96,000 11 94% 0.46 54 61 Brodie Smith Def $179,800 $71,300 14 67% 0.65 53 92 28 42 13 James Sellar Ruck $151,500 $21,700 5 98% 0.38 47 28 Shaun McKernan Def/Fwd $152,400 $54,800 15 78% 0.48 46 42 50 67 44 38 Phil Davis Def $201,000 -$10,000 3 46% 0.81 46 124 Chris Schmidt Def $208,800 -$76,800 5 62% 0.58 45 107 Myke Cook Mid $214,600 $0 2 73% 0.41 37 102 Brad Moran Ruck $115,500 $17,900 4 70% 0.42 35 0 Brodie Martin Mid $168,300 -$64,300 5 54% 0.53 35 101 8 8 Aidan Riley Mid $107,600 $15,100 5 53% 0.48 31 40 34 56 31 16 32 Jason Porplyzia Fwd $284,100 $0 1 4% 3.20 16 BRISBANE LIONS FREAKO SAYS: AFL DREAM TEAM AVERAGE The DT game had clearly gone past Luke Power, and he’s recognised 1491 that and retired accordingly.