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Despite some Sunday afternoon heroics from Nick Dal Santo, Aaron Mullett and Brent Harvey, our Fantasy Team went down to Adelaide’s fan team by just 19 points in the first of the head-to-head fixtures. It was a disappointing result, but we finished with the second highest score of the round and would have beaten any of the other teams, had we played them. As it stands, we have a strong list but are fourth on the ladder.

With five Kangaroos in the starting lineup our team was always going to finish strongly. Our best performers this week were Gary Ablett (292) as captain, Lance Franklin (113) and our five Roos who all managed 93 or better.

Newly traded in Dayne Zorko let us down with a 59, as did a substitute-affected Jay Kennedy-Harris. The Demon youngster hasn’t shown much of the excitement he promised during the pre-season, but we have plenty of cash in the bank so we’re in a position to look at an upgrade.

Round 4 Matchup

This week we play the J-Walkers; Geelong’s fan team. They scored the lowest in the league in Round 3, thanks to five on-field zeroes. Their stars include Mathew Stokes, Corey Enright (who missed last weekend and may not play this week), Heath Shaw and Dustin Martin.

We both have Lance Franklin, Aaron Sandilands, Dale Thomas and Patrick Dangerfield, but our teams are still quite different. Unless the J-Walkers pull off some miracle trades this week, we should have their measure.

Trades

We’re in need of upgrades across our forward line, midfield and backline, but many of our cash cows still have improvement left in them, while we don’t have any really underperforming premiums this week. There is one quality cash cow who has just come into the system: Adelaide’s Matt Crouch. The youngster managed 69 fantasy points in about a half of game time, and is still under $215,000. We should look at getting him in this week. Crouch was a ball magnet in his junior days and could play a full game after impressing in his debut.

One other debutant who was solid last week was Richmond’s Nathan Gordon. Also starting as the substitute in his debut, Gordon played 3 quarters and was impressive. At $144,703 he currently ranks second in the AFL for points scored per dollar.

Finally, with cash reserves flush at around $148,000 we can afford to do one downgrade, and upgrade Jarman Impey to a better forward. Impey has been solid if unspectacular, and may be in danger of losing his place in the senior team this week.