Round 4 Preview

Finally, after a long off-season, the league matches begin this weekend and I'm sure many of you are out to improve on last seasons effort, unless you are the reigning premiers from your league.

Anyway, onto business. After the first price changes last week, many other players are expected to have big changes this week, both rookies and premiums. You can all log onto the Dream Team site and look at the biggest rises and fallers, namely Daniel Rich, Mitch Robinson, Brendan Whitecross in the risers and David Hale, Adam Cooney, and Brent Harvey in the fallers. Both of these lists should be of vital importance to any DTer, perhaps more importantly the fallers list. As all of the rookies begin to peak in price, the fallen premiums should be your target.

Brisbane v Collingwood
After the exploits of Daniel Rich last week, ending in a price rise of almost $60,000, he comes up against this weeks new bubble-boy, Dayne Beams. Depite looking more like a character off Underbelly than an AFL footballer, Beams has gone about his business in awesome fashion, racking up scores of 94 and 84. Be prepared for possibly an $80,000 rise. Get on. With his early form, Josh Fraser has a big chance to continue his giant scoring this week, against only Jamie Charman. In the past Fraser has struggled for game-time, resulting in lower scores, but with no Cameron Wood he is reaping the benefits. Again, will be a solid Captain choice.

Pick-Up: Josh Drummond; perhaps a bit risky given his injury history, but with a new high possession Brisbane game-plan, and his role as the quarterback, he appears to be a steal at only $321,900. As well as his low break-even of 29, he could be one-of the better finds of '09.

Watch: Simon Black; missed round one and hes not hit his strides yet, meaning a giant price drop over the next two weeks. Could be a very tempting upgrade at the midway point of the season.


Sydney v Carlton
Sydney really struggles to gather points. Sticking with my advice last week, there really should be no Sydney players in your teams. Even with Darren Jolly's form, it is going to drop when he comes up against decent opponents. As for Carlton, a disappointing performance last week by Bryce Gibbs ruined my Captains tips but I expect him to bounce back. With all the talk of the new Fab Four, it is good to see them all doing well, especially Chris Judd who appears to be back to career best DT form.

Pick-Up: Simon Wiggins; has finally come good. Although many may have missed his best price-rise, he is capable to continue this form all year and have a respectable 85 average. Handy for a 6th/7th forward.

Drop: Barry Hall; If for some reason you still have him after last weeks advice, then sell now. A probable late withdrawal and if he plays, will lose money.


Hawthorn v Port Adelaide
Finally, the Hawks got their first win for the season last weekend but it was at a cost, with Birchall, Ellis and Gilham all missing this week. It continues to be tough draw for the Hawks, with Carlton in a few week, so I'd still advise against picking any Hawthorn players. The form of Luke Hodge has seen him drop almost $40,000 in price and with more to follow, Hodge could very well be my first premium pick-up. As for the Power, the Cornes boys are hot. Either will be a good captain choice, with Chad averaging 112 and Kane on 130. This year Hawthorn having been giving up many easy 100's so they are two of the safest bets.

Pick-Up: Nathan Krakouer; with Peter Burgoyne out for the next two weeks, Krakouer will take up his role. At the low price he is, and his potential, he could become a very handy cash-cow, if not an eventual keeper.

Drop: Warren Tredrea; I may have jumped the gun by a week, but unless he starts pulling these games every week, there's better players around.



St Kilda v Fremantle
Wow. Beware Fremantle supporters. After the Saints were merciless in their destruction last week, expect similar this week. Brendon Goddard, Nick Riewoldt, Nick Dal Santo and Leigh Montagna will look to improve on their domination last week, and against a pretty poor Fremantle, they probably will. As for the Dockers, sigh. When your leading points scorer is a second year player, something is wrong. After three years of carrying 21 other players, Matthew Pavlich still hasn't hit his straps. All the better for those that don't have him.

Pick-Up: Clinton Jones; With Robert Harvey now gone from the Saints midfield, Jonesy is stepping up into Bangers role, scoring a mighty 140 last week. Will be a big riser in the next two weeks.

Drop: Chris Tarrant; All the talk of role-change in the pre-season, to a more DT-orientated half-back role have come to naught. Still as useless as he was up forward.


Adelaide v Geelong
Oh oh, here's trouble. Perma-captain Gary Ablett does not like the Crows. In fact he struggles against them. If you feel he can battle through as he usually does, the hit him with the C but I'm looking elsewhere. In fact, I'm going about 20 metres up the ground from Jesus, to his fellow bald-nut. After being hampered by injuries the last few years, Paul Chapman proved last week he was back, racking up a round-high 154. Big numbers! As for the Crows, Tex Walker proved he was more than a one quarter wonder scoring a solid 85. About this times last year, calls were going for a fellow Crow (Hittet or something, can't really remember) who has since fallen off the radar and Walker is the way of the future.

Pick-Up: Patrick Dangerfield; with a name like that he has to be awesome, and the round 3 rising star nominee has huge potential. Having had a year in the system already he could be a smart pick-up for some.

Watch: Andrew Mackie; he's starting the season slowly, as he is called upon to defend more with the absence of Harley, Hunt, Egan etc. However as the defenders come back he will be freed up. Upgrade then.


North Melbourne v Essendon
As Daniel Wells leaves the team for "injury", we get the introduction to football for Benjamin Warren. Not to be confused with Warren Benjamin, his team-mate. Confused? Good. But what will be of most introduce in this game will be the performances of Dizzee and Boomer, or David Zaharakis and Brent Harvey. One rookie playing like a Gun, the other a gun playing like a rookie. Boomer really needs to get going as he's hurting me and many will be hoping Dizzee will keep going.

Pick-Up: David Zaharakis; Dizzee is looking at being the second highest earner this week, behind Beams. With his spot looking safe for a few weeks, get on board the Dizzee-train.

Drop: Daniel Wells; It's hard not to put David Hille or Brent Harvey here, but they will come good. As for Wells, the great hope for this year has flopped and appears to be the same as in the past.


Richmond v Melbourne
Who'd have thought that 15th v 16th would be the most anticipated game this weekend? For Richmond, the form of Richo and N. G. Brown is impressive and are both awesome to have in your forwardlines, as both are capable captains. On the other side of the coin, Melbourne are terrible. Aaron Davey apart, most of the team are young and won't serve much purpose for DT. With the dropping of Kyle Cheney this weekend, many teams will lose a valuable cash-cow. It will only be a matter of time until players like Blease and Strauss start getting regular games. Until then, avoid.

Pick-Up: Aaron Davey; from before, Davey is one of the fewer shining lights in the Demons side. With a relatively cheap price and the promise of a further rise in cash, he is finally realising his potential.

Drop: Colin Sylvia; I expected big things from him this year, but playing for a team that is getting beaten every week means very little ball into the forward. Look into him next year.


West Coast v Western Bulldogs
If this game was in Melbourne I'd be preparing for a blow-out and locking in Daniel Cross as captain. But seeing as it's in Perth, the Eagles might be able to keep it within 60 points, even with the Dogs 6 day break. Apart from Cox and a few Rookies, West Coast have not offered much yet this season and have scored fewer tonnes than any other team, with 5, 2 of which were by Cox. The Bulldogs, on the otherhand, are undefeated and with guns like Gia, Cross, Boyd, Gilbee, Lake and Higgins, this could be a big scoring game.

Watch: Ryan Griffen; after a solid first few games, many expected his to finally turn into a DT gun. But after a weaker round 3, many eyes will watch how he goes about it this week.

Drop: Sam Butler; looks unlikely to get a game for a couple of weeks, which is disappointing considering his pre-season form.



Captains for Round 4
1. C. Cornes
2. K. Cornes
3. P. Chapman
4. J. Fraser
5. Richo

My captain average = 104