The bye rounds are done, thank God! We battled through them and now we can resume normality with full fixtures and the gift of having to sit through West Coast and North Melbourne games weekly… But let's turn our attention back to fantasy footy for a second and identify some risers in form and some others who should be falling out of favour with all fantasy coaches. Let us know your thoughts on who we have down below on all of our socials - twitter, facebook, instagram, discord.
RISERS
Harry Himmelberg
It would be rude to not start with Harry Himmelberg this week. I got some feedback after not including him last week, but I just wanted one more week to see if it wasn’t just a flash-in-the-pan outing against North Melbourne… It wasn’t. His role has completely changed, now coming off half-back, becoming a sling-shot type operator for new head coach Mark McVeigh (who has done wonders for fantasy btw). His last 3 game GDS fantasy average of 141 points bodes well for what Himmelberg could produce going into the pointy end of the season.
Karl Amon
Since Port Adelaide’s round 12 bye Karl Amon has been tremendous for fantasy football and Port. Scores of 146 and 137 against some quality opponents in Richmond and Sydney will fill some confidence in Karl Amon coaches going forward in the season. I myself own a diamond Amon card and with some tasty matches coming up, I would be a fool to sit him. He’s also currently an unrestricted free agent, we’ve seen in other codes how athletes can ‘magically’ take their game to another level in a contract year. It will be interesting to see how the rest of his season plays out.
Toby Greene
Unpopular opinion – I really like Toby Greene! Yes, he can be a bit of a flog, but there’s no doubt his ability to win games off his own boot in both fantasy footy and real-life for GWS. I know it’s a tall order to ask Greene to score 7 goals every week though, since the GWS bye he’s been spending 95% of time on the ground, working up the field and impacting the scoreboard, much like his old self. He’s averaging 127 GDS fantasy points in his last 3 games and should be on the radar of all GameDay Squad coaches out there.
FALLERS
Alex Witherden
This is less to say about Alex Witherden’s form in fantasy and more to say about the selection panel over at the West Coast Eagles HQ. Witherden has been valuable for fantasy, especially in GameDay Squad scoring as his kick/mark game styles compliments GDS scoring to a tee. However, he’s struggling to make the starting 22, which to me is slightly baffling – but I’m here writing a blog, not selecting Eagle’s sides weekly. He still has great dynasty value for me, let’s just hope he either comes back into favour or alternatively gets traded to a side willing to play him.
Brandon Ellis
Brandon Ellis came into fantasy relevancy a few weeks ago as he strung a few good games together, those good games however went away as quick as they came along. Against some teams you would expect someone like Ellis to score well against in North Melbourne and Adelaide, he only managed to score 75 and 76 GDS fantasy points respectively. Here’s to hoping he returns to some form; I would just be wary going forward.
Jake Lloyd
Going into season 2022 you would not have been silly for considering Jake Lloyd a set and forget D1 or D2 option, boy were we wrong. It’s not that he’s been garbage, but when you’re locking and loading in a player like Lloyd you expect consistency, which is lightyears away from what we’ve been getting. This round's matchup against Port Adelaide was a new low for him, totalling a measly 58 GDS fantasy points. If you own a diamond or platinum I think you still have to start him due to his ceiling, but the bronze, silver and gold Lloyd’s out there might find themselves out of favour for some coaches.
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