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WELL, a lot can change over the course of a Fantasy pre-season and that has certainly happened between the release of our first team in January and now.
To think when Fantasy opened, we were quick to select gun defender Beau Waters, who has since retired. It's a testament to how drastically things can change.
Obviously, with the assistance of the NAB Challenge, our bench and rookie priced players have changed dramatically after getting a little insight into where they fit in the scheme of things.
Not only has the pre-season comp assisted with our selection of youngsters, it has also pointed a way to selecting experienced superstar Jimmy Bartel, who demanded a spot in our side after the future Fantasy Hall of Famer spent extended periods in the midfield, as well as roaming the ground racking up points at will.
Underwhelming pre-seasons have also caused some movement with 2013’s leading scorer Steve Johnson now missing from our team after injury caused an interrupted run leading into the start of the season.
Speaking of interrupted pre-seasons, we have held on to Gary Ablett despite not seeing him in the NAB Challenge, as we believe his shoulder injury has not held back his fitness, and combined with his sheer talent we are confident on spending the big bucks to give us a ‘go-to’ captain.
A player that we tentatively named in our first team, who has gone on to consolidate his spot is Heritier Lumumba, who has backed up the excitement of increased opportunity at the Demons with an impressive NAB Challenge campaign, highlighted by his final game against the Dons where he scored 113 from 31 disposals.
Our ruck department still has a few question marks. There is no doubt Zac Smith and Matthew Leuenberger are more than capable of averaging well above what their price tags suggest, but the elephant in the room is that they could be sharing duties with Tom Nicholls and Stefan Martin respectively more often than not, making consistent scoring difficult.
Sam Jacobs has sat in that spot on many occasions, with the ‘set and forget’ ruck strategy tempting with a player of his calibre.
Our forward line is the cornerstone of our team with emerging superstars Dustin Martin and Robbie Gray, teaming up with seasoned ‘all time greats’ Bartel and Dane Swan to ensure the scores keep ticking over.
We have selected break-out contender Marcus Bontempelli after living up to the hype with a huge NAB Challenge performance in his last game where he scored 144.
Mitch Clark and Christian Salem are fighting for the last spot on the ground after both have impressed in the pre-season. Salem currently holds the spot due to an easier game in round one (against Gold Coast while Clark faces Hawthorn).
I wanted to squeeze Tom Rockliff in, but the other boys voted that we needed the extra cash. Fortunately, one thing we did agree on was his replacement in Luke Parker who looks set for a huge year.
THE TRADERS' ROUND ONE FANTASY TEAM (with $67,000 left in the bank)
