A strong debut season, underpinned by some great initial selections, has seen our fan team finish 2014 in second place. We only lost four games for the season but were never able to reel in the Lions’ Fan Team. They ended with a slightly better head to head record (19-2) and a superior percentage.
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Looking back, it was our initial selections that had us in the mix from the start. Jarrad McVeigh, Jimmy Bartel, Scott Pendlebury, Dayne Beams, Brent Harvey and Jack Gunston were all excellent starting selections, and performed right throughout the season. Gary Ablett was also outstanding up until his injury, while we got on the Tom Rockliff train early too.
In terms of cheap pickups, Stefan Martin crushed the opposition. We traded him in after he’d played one game, and he went on to average 112 fantasy points - first among ruckmen and forwards in this time - and increase $360k in value. What was intended to be a cash-cow downgrade turned into the bargain of the year.
Our most unfortunate trade was Michael Barlow. The Docker star had a great season, but really only came into selection discussion towards the end of the year. We traded him in for Round 21, only for him to miss the following week through injury. He’s someone we’ll look at closely for next season.
NMFC Fan Team MVP: Brent Harvey
We picked Harvey at the start of the year for a bargain at $500k, and he went on to average 100 fantasy points, fourth among forwards. The little champion produced his best fantasy season at 36 years of age, a remarkable feat. He missed a couple of games late in the year, but up until then he was in rare form.
NMFC Fan Team Rookie of the Year: Aaron Sandilands
It's hard to go past Stefan Martin here, but we’ll also tip the hat to Sandilands – he certainly faded in the second half of the season, but he was just $244k at the beginning of the year and held down a starting ruck spot for most of the year. He allowed us to spend our starting cash elsewhere, while topping out at $470k in value.
Highest score: 2498, Round 18
Aided by 380 points from our captain Tom Rockliff, the team produced its finest performance late in the season to knock off Adelaide’s fan team and sew up second spot on the ladder.
Best win: Round 8
With half our team on a bye we came up against an Adelaide team that was breathing down our neck. Amazingly, we managed a 19-point victory, thanks to some defensive heroics from Kade Simpson (145) and Jarrad McVeigh (119). It was a win that gave us some breathing space on the ladder and kept us in touch with the ladder-leading Lions.
The highlight
With little doubt, the highlight of the season was a 10-win streak from Rounds 4-13. We beat every other team twice during this time, and really looked like we could go all the way.
