AROUND THE GROUNDS Round 20

The first week of the Supercoach Finals are in the books, some of you will have the week off in your league sides, while others will be fighting to keep their season alive. Either way, even if you have the week off in your league, you still may be competing for your overall position, so you’ll still want to put up a quality score.

But we’re here to take a quick preview for 2019 and we’re looking at four players that have yet to be drafted and are highly rated youngsters from South Australia who are all tipped to go early in the draft and have been playing league football in the SANFL already. Those four players are Jack Lukosius from Woodsville West-Torrens, who is the potential #1 pick according to a few pundits, Izak Rankine from West Adelaide, who also shot up into the top 5 after a strong U18 Championship and two players who will likely go in the 2^nd half of the first round, the inside midfielder from Centrals Jackson Hately and the outside midfielder from North Adelaide in Connor Rozee.

Jack Lukosius actually debuted for the Eagles league side last year in WWT’s Preliminary Final match against Sturt in which he had a terrific performance with 4 goals and has managed to play 9 league games this year, with the following results

He hasn’t been a massive accumulator, as you’d expect from someone who plays as a key forward, but he has also shown the ability to be a forward line connector and push up and down the wing if needed as well as being a goal kicking threat. Being that he’s projected to go in the top 5, that likely puts his price between $180,000-$200,000 based on this years pricing, but if he were to be drafted to a side like Gold Coast, he could have immediate time on the ground.

Next is the speed machine Izak Rankine, who has shot up the draft charts as the year has progressed and has shown some nice goal scoring ability at SANFL level to go with the 5 goals he scored against Vic Metro in the U18 Championships

He does have some consistency issues at times, and also could start his AFL career as a small forward, which could see him start with a number of sides early in the year, with his hometown Adelaide Crows also very interested in securing his services.

Third might actually be my favourite option of these four which is the inside midfielder Jackson Hately from the Central Districts. He’s projected to go in the 10-20 range (though the latest power rankings on AFL Draft Central has him at #8 on their rankings) in the draft, but I’d say even teams like Sydney, Geelong, North and Essendon could still have use for a tough, inside midfielder.

He’s had some good ball winning games at league level, while also showing the ability to kick the odd goal as well. The fact that he does his best work on the inside as well as averaging 4 tackles a game is a bonus in Supercoach too.

Lastly is the outside midfielder from North Adelaide, Connor Rozee. He’s played the least amount of league football of the four, but has shown some decent goal scoring ability across half forward for the Roosters.

Another like Rankine who might start off his AFL career up forward, but we saw this year how well someone like Jaidyn Stephenson can do being a high pressure, goal kicking forward. Rozee probably has the lowest upside of the four, but due to him likely going later in the draft he’ll also be the cheapest option of them all.

Around the Grounds

Victoria

Carlton

In Round 18 of the VFL season, the Northern Blues had a big 129-38 loss to the Casey Demons. Not much to see here for the Blues, with Angus Schumacher having 11 disposals, 2 marks and 4 tackles and Pat Kerr kicked 2.2 with 10 disposals, 3 marks and 5 tackles.

Collingwood

Collingwood had a narrow 79-72 loss to the Box Hill Hawks. Sam McLarty booted 2.1 with 15 disposals, 5 marks and 5 hitouts and perhaps one to look out for in the draft this year, former Hawk Alex Woodward again continued his strong VFL form with 29 disposals, 3 marks and 2 tackles.

Essendon

In the VFL Essendon lost 82-77 to Port Melbourne. Dylan Clarke had 20 disposals, 5 marks and 9 tackles, Kobe Mutch had 23 disposals, 2 marks and 5 tackles and Trent Mynott had 22 disposals, 6 mark, 4 tackles and a goal.

Geelong

Geelong had a pretty solid 109-57 win over Richmond in their Round 18 VFL match. Charlie Constable led the way with a game high 33 disposals, 8 marks and 2 tackles, Wylie Buzza booted 3 goals with 22 disposals, 9 marks, 5 tackles and 8 hitouts and Gryan Miers kicked 2 goals with 12 disposals, 4 marks and 2 tackles.

Hawthorn

The Box Hill Hawks had a 79-72 win against Collingwood. James Cousins had 23 disposals, 6 marks and 3 tackles, David Mirra had 24 disposals, 8 marks and 8 rebound 50’s and Conor Glass finished with 19 disposals, 4 marks, 2 tackles and a goal.

Melbourne

The Casey Demons had a huge 129-38 win over the Northern Blues. Sam Weideman had 24 disposals, 7 marks, 2 tackles, 7 hitouts and 2 goals while Tim Smith had 21 disposals, 3 marks, 8 tackles and 13 hitouts.

North Melbourne

North Melbourne lost to Williamstown 130-67. Luke Davies-Uniacke had 23 disposals, 2 marks and 4 tackles and Mitchell Hibberd finished with 22 disposals, 6 marks, 3 tackles and 5 rebound 50’s and Nick Larkey kicked 5 goals with 14 disposals, 11 marks, 2 tackles and 4 hitouts.

Richmond

Richmond had a 109-57 loss to Geelong. Callum Coleman-Jones had 18 disposals, 3 marks, 5 tackles, 10 hitouts and a goal, Noah Balta had 18 disposals, 3 marks, 4 tackles and a goal while Patrick Naish finished with 17 disposals, 1 mark and 1 tackle.

St Kilda

The Sandringham Zebras had a bye in the VFL.

Western Bulldogs

Footscray defeated the Frankston Dolphins 92-50. Lewis Young had 21 disposals, 6 marks, 2 tackles and 2 goals, Kieran Collins finished with 16 disposals, 4 marks and 3 rebound 50’s and Tim English had 9 disposals, 6 marks, 3 tackles, 33 hitouts and 2 goals.

South Australia

Adelaide

The Adelaide Reserves had the week off due to the SANFL split round. They will play Woodsville West-Torrens on Sunday.

Port Adelaide

The Port Adelaide Magpies lost to West Adelaide 87-61 in the Round 17 split week in the SANFL. Will Snelling finished with 37 disposals (30 handballs), 5 marks, 7 tackles and 3 goals while Cam Hewett had 28 disposals, 5 marks, 6 tackles and a goal and Dom Barry finished with 27 disposals, 3 marks and 5 tackles.

Western Australia

Fremantle

It was a WAFL showdown with the Peel Thunder defeating East Perth 92-67. Stefan Giro had 27 disposals, 2 marks, 2 tackles and 2 goals, Sam Switkowski had 19 disposals, 3 marks, 7 tackles and a goal and Lloyd Meek had 17 disposals, 1 mark, 4 tackles and 30 hitouts while Luke Strnadica had 11 disposals, 5 tackles and 47 hitouts.

West Coast

East Perth lost the WAFL Showdown to the Peel Thunder 92-67. Brayden Ainsworth had 17 disposals, 2 marks, 5 tackles and a goal, Jake Waterman had 14 disposals, 4 marks, 3 tackles and a goal and Tony Olango had 6 disposals, 4 tackles and 22 hitouts.

New South Wales

GWS

The UWS Giants had the week off with a bye in the NEAFL.

Sydney

Sydney had a big 116-55 loss to the Brisbane Lions in the NEAFL. Darcy Cameron did all the heavy lifting for the Swans, leading them in disposals with 28, marks with 13, goals with 2 and hitouts with 48 while Jake Brown had 23 disposals, 4 tackles and 7 inside 50’s.

Queensland

Brisbane

Brisbane had a big 2^nd half in their NEAFL match against Sydney to win 116-55. Zac Bailey had 24 disposals, 6 marks, 3 tackles and 3 goals and Corey Lyons finished with 23 disposals, 4 marks, 4 tackles and 2 goals.

Gold Coast

Gold Coast had a bye in the NEAFL.

Top 5 under 200K

DEF

1. Alex Johnson – $102,400 – 65 SCPoints
2. Kane Farrell – $117,300 – 56.5 SCPoints
3. Jacob Heron – $180,600 – 42.8 SCPoints
4. Jed Bews – $195,900 – 42.5 SCPoints
5. Cam O’Shea – $174,900 – 37 SCPoints

MID

1. Aiden Bonar – $157,800 – 82 SCPoints
2. Jack Madgen – $102,400 – 66 SCPoints
3. Nathan Freeman – $123,900 – 64 SCPoints
4. Jordan Dawson – $123,900 – 61.5 SCPoints
5. Kane Farrell – $117,300 – 56.5 SCPoints

RUC

1. Ryan Abott – $123,900 – 100 SCPoints

FWD

1. Aiden Bonar – $157,800 – 82 SCPoints
2. Jordan Dawson – $123,900 – 61.5 SCPoints
3. Brandon Starcevich – $126,300 – 55 SCPoints
4. Fergus Greene – $123,900 – 48.5 SCPoints
5. Cameron McCarthy – $182,400 – 48 SCPoints

And that’s it from me this week. As usual, you can either leave a comment in the section below, or hit me up on the Twitter @BarronVonCrow. Seeya next week!