It was another tough year for the Kangaroos in 2021, finishing bottom of the ladder.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a few fantasy-relevant players rising through the ranks. Struggling teams often put more time into developing their younger players, so there could be a few in line for a scoring bump this year.
See who Heff thinks could make an impact from a fantasy perspective in this article.
Take a listen to our latest podcast: Pre-season 2022: Hawthorn, Melbourne and North Melbourne
Jed Anderson
Owners prayers have been answered and Jed Anderson has been given forward status. Now we wait for our next prayer to be answered, and that is for him to get his second COVID jab. The last we heard was he’s still in Darwin and hasn’t returned to training yet, and it looks like he’ll miss the start of the season.
But if he was in Melbourne and had been training all pre-season, I would be all over this guy.
He averaged 104 (BCV) in 2020 after playing every game of the season, which was a first for Jed. Last year, he missed Round 1 through injury but returned in Round 2 scoring a whopping 127 AFL Fantasy points in his first week back. Unfortunately, he injured his ankle the following week after putting up 60 points in less than a half of football. He was out for the next 3 months.
He returned in July and played the last 5 games. Throughout this period he split his time-on-ground between the forward and midfield to average 74.2 in this time, and 79 for the season. He also maintained good points-per-minute numbers throughout the year, going at 0.9 PPM.
There’s a bit of uncertainty about Jed Anderson’s role in 2022. If he plays a permanent midfield role it should be a matter of locking and loading from a fantasy perspective given his forward status. But due to the interrupted pre-season, the signing of Hugh Greenwood, and a raft of talented juniors rising through the ranks, he may have some competition for that spot.
We’ll have to monitor him throughout the pre-season to see what happens. I personally can’t see the juicy midfield role of 2020 returning in the same capacity and will likely play in the forward line at times. He’s also quite injury prone too, having only played more than 20 games once in his 8 years at AFL level.
On paper, he looks good but there are a lot of risk factors here. I own him and will be keeping but I’m wary.
Tom Powell
Tom Powell was the best scorer of the 2020 draft class, averaging 119 AFL Fantasy points in the SANFL U18s in 2020.
He debuted in Round 1 of last year but started the season a little slowly averaging 62.6 from his first three games. He then had a purple patch between Rounds 4 to 7 averaging 92.5 throughout this period, where he tonned up once and had two scores in the 90s. This was the pinnacle of his season and was managed for the rest of the year. After Round 14, he didn’t play another game.
However, he showed a lot of promise when he was given midfield opportunities. He also spent some of the seasons up forward which resulted in his MID/FWD DPP status in 2022.
I can see this MID/FWD status remaining over the next few years as I think they’ll develop a number of younger players, rotating them between the midfield and forward lines. I think Powell will be part of this rotation.
He’s a player you will want to own in his transition year when he becomes a full-time midfielder, but I think this might be a couple of years away. But when he does become a full-time midfielder, I’m confident he’ll be a handy scorer.
He’s a player you’ll want to get your hands on now though because I don’t see many giving him away cheaply.
Luke McDonald
This guy had the juiciest fantasy role in 2020. Essentially. He basically had the role Aaron Hall has now and became a fantasy jet.
He averaged 90.6 (BCV) in that year despite only playing that role in the second half of the season. We expected that role to continue in 2021 but it wasn’t to be. He got injured in the pre-season which lead to Jack Ziebell moving into his role. He got injured again in his return game (Round 4) and then missed until Round 14. By this time Aaron Hall was racking up across half-back and he was forced to play on the wing for the rest of the season.
Whilst playing on the wing, he put up a few good scores but struggled with consistency. It was certainly nothing on what we saw in 2020.
I personally see him continuing on the wing this season. There is some talk that he could return to the half-back line but I don’t think we’ll see the fantasy scoring of 2020 ever again.
He’s probably capable of an 80 average playing on the wing but when he’s listed as a midfielder, he doesn’t offer too much value.
I’d be looking elsewhere.
Will Phillips
Phillips was one of the better midfielders out of the 2020 draft crop, averaging 77 points in the NAB League as a bottom ager. Obviously, he would have averaged more in his draft year if he were able to play, but COVID had other ideas.
He ended up being a top 3 draft pick regardless.
He debuted in Round 3 last year and played up until Round 8. However, he didn’t set the world on fire. The reason for this was he had been recruited as an inside midfielder but found himself up forward – a role he was pretty unfamiliar with.
He was dropped in Round 8 to be the sub, and then played VFL the following week. He put up some big scores in the VFL playing as an inside midfielder, with two separate scores of 114.
He returned to the senior team in Round 15 and lifted his midfield time. He averaged 30% of North Melbourne’s centre bounce attendances from that point onwards (as opposed to 15% up until Round 8). I would expect these midfield minutes to rise again in 2022.
However, I don’t see a breakout happening in 2022 as North Melbourne seems to have an abundance of players who are going to run through the midfield this year. But he’s definitely a player I’d want to be stashing away for a third-year breakout.
Cam Zurhaar
Here’s another player we love here at The Keeper League.
Despite not being the best fantasy scorer he’s a guy we like to watch.
We tipped him for a midfield role last year and he did get small stints there early but it didn’t seem to eventuate. He didn’t have the tank and was subsequently tried in a few positions. He even had a game off half-back which he looked solid in.
However, he eventually returned to the forward line in his natural position and was quite effective. From rounds 7 to 22, he kicked at least one goal in every game. He also had three games where he kicked bags of four goals. His best game of the year came against Gold Coast where he had 12 kicks, 12 handballs, 7 marks, 2 goals, and 101 AFL Fantasy points.
I see his forward role continuing in 2022, perhaps with little stints in the midfield, but I wouldn’t put too much faith in that.
However, I do think he could make a handy F4 or F5 given how consistent he is with his goal kicking.
Stash him away if you can and see what happens.
Aidan Corr
I don’t particularly love this selection given he’s a key defender, but you can make a case for Aidan Corr.
He averaged 64 AFL Fantasy points in two games before getting injured in 2021. The best of his two games was in Round 2 against Gold Coast where he put up 84 AFL Fantasy points. He then suffered a toe injury that ruled him out for the season.
When he was playing he averaged 16 disposals per game which is quite good for a key defender. This puts him in the top 10 disposal getters key defenders in the league. For reference, the best was Luke Ryan with 22 per game. And Dane Rampe was second with 18 per game.
Corr also went at a disposal efficiency at 81% which means he should be trusted to use the ball by foot and maybe even trusted with some kick-ins throughout the 2022 season
With Robbie Tarrant being traded to Richmond, there are only three recognised key defenders on North Melbourne’s list which means he’ll get plenty of opportunities.
He’ll have to do some defensive jobs so he’ll have some pretty low scores from time to time, but he will have weeks where he puts up some decent scores too.
I can see him averaging 70 and being one of the better fantasy key defenders in the future. Pick him up as a D5 or bench cover.
Support the podcast by becoming a member!
