last one out of the way this weekend and then put our full teams back together – and sit back and watch the big scores roll in. Hopefully you still have somewhere around 10 trades left, and your team is in pretty good shape for a tilt at either the $50,000 or your league premiership – or both if you’re very lucky.
Selected in 13% of SC teams, the Blues onballer came off second-best in a somewhat controversial collision with Hawk hard nut Luke HODGE, resulting in a fractured cheekbone and a trip in the ambulance to hospital. MURPHY looks like missing at least 3 weeks with the injury, which is
tempered slightly by the fact that Carlton have a bye this weekend. Still, if you have the trades my advice would be to move him on. Best options look to be Kangaroo Daniel WELLS (Av 97) or,
ironically, the man that put MURPHY out of the action, Hawk Luke HODGE (Av 96). If you have a little extra cash, perhaps Tom ROCKLIFF (Av 101) could be the answer.
Travis BOAK (Av 105) is also another popular midfielder who has succumbed to an injury this week,
damaging his finger at looking at missing two to three weeks. The 3.5% of SC teams who have him may try to ride that out, but if you need the win then you probably need to trade him out, particularly on a bye week with so many other midfield stars already missing. The pick of the replacements seem to be Chris MASTEN (Av 98), James KELLY (Av 91), Daniel WELLS (Av 97) or Luke HODGE (Av 96). As with MURPHY above, if you can find an extra bit of cash to stretch BOAK up to ROCKLIFF (Av 101), you could be in luck.
The other controversial omission from this week’s round of matches is polarizing Saint goalsneak Stephen MILNE (Av 58). Offically stated as having a “leave of absence” after being charged as a result of a now much-publicized incident from 2004, MILNE will be sidelined for at least two matches – however there is the possibility he will not be seen on the football field again. Selected in 1.5% of SC teams, my advice would be to move the little fella on – and the best move, even this
week, would be to grab Joe DANIHER (Av 76), using the $140,000 you pocket from that transaction to upgrade somewhere else on your field.
Others players to sustain serious injuries last weekend were Gold Coast duo Tom LYNCH (knee injury) and Michael RISCHITELLI (elbow injury), however they are in less than 1% of teams so miss the cut.
Remember the re-emergence of last weekend bye teams and the many stars within. If you are looking to bolster your side this weekend, some of those to consider are Joel SELWOOD,
Steve JOHNSON, Brent HARVEY, Leigh MONTAGNA, Nick RIEWOLDT, Dan HANNEBERRY,
Ryan O’KEEFE, both Josh KENNEDYs, Matt PRIDDIS and Dean COX.
Good luck and we all look forward to some sanity come round 13, with full squads and hopefully plenty of bench cover leading to some huge scores.