HAWTHORN’s Tom Mitchell has returned to top of the AFL fantasy leader board after injury and a bye hampered his nearest rivals.
Mitchell scored 120 points in the Hawks’ big win over Adelaide, reeling off a game-high 40 disposals, four marks and three tackles.
He has regained $16,000 of the value he has lost in recent weeks and remains by far the most popular player in the competition with AFL fantasy coaches, now appearing in 98,705 teams – or 71.5% of them.
Mitchell was fortunate that Western Bulldog Jack Macrae scored just 44 points because of a hamstring injury that could sideline him for a month.
Macrae failed to play out his side’s loss to Port Adelaide, while last week’s surprise leader Brodie Grundy has dropped to third overall because of Collingwood’s bye.
Six Port Adelaide players managed to pass 100 fantasy points in the win over the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night, with Ollie Wines’ 137 the highest of them.
That saw him become the Power’s second-highest scorer overall, but another 105 points from Justin Westhoff kept him at the top of the club’s overall leaderboard.
Justin Westhoff (mid/fwd - $659,000)
Westhoff regained the $5,000 in value he lost last week and again surpassed his 101.4-point season average.
He remains the only Port Adelaide player averaging 100 points or more in 2018 and is ranked a respectable 22nd in the competition.
Westhoff had 19 disposals, seven marks, eleven hit-outs, five tackles and two goals to continue his solid form in 2018.
He is now in 26544 teams – around 20% of the competition.
Ollie Wines (mid - $643,000)
Wines has added a whopping $65,000 to his value after racking up totals of 138 and 137 AFL fantasy points against Richmond and the Western Bulldogs.
His points tally against the Dogs made him the joint highest-scorer for the week with St Kilda’s Sebastian Ross.
He had a game-high 35 disposals, six marks, seven tackles and a goal.
Amongst that total, Wines had season-highs for handballs (18), and marks (six) and his highest career disposal count (35).
In the last five weeks he is averaging 107.4 points, well above his season average of 95.8 points.
Chad Wingard (mid/fwd - $514,000)
For two weeks in a row Wingard has now eclipsed 120 AFL fantasy points and his 124 against the Bulldogs was his highest of the season.
He had 30 disposals, three marks and eight tackles (for the second week in a row) and had his highest tally of kicks (24) for the season.
His 124 points was way above his season average of 74.7 but that number was just 69.8 points last week, signifying his improvement in the last fortnight.
Having added $65,000 value in two games, he represents a good buy at just over $500,000 if he keeps his upwards trajectory.
Sam Powell-Pepper (mid - $534,000)
He only scored 64 points against the Dogs but the 20-year-old’s value still went up.
While it was his third-lowest score of the season, the big bull continues to impress after an early season suspension.
He had 24 disposals on Thursday night to go with a mark and four tackles.
Powell-Pepper has added $42,000 to his overall value since the start of the season and loves the big stage of Friday night football at Adelaide Oval.
Tom Rockliff (mid – $570,000)
Averaging 100 per game in his last five, Rockliff blew that total away with 128 on Thursday night.
He started slowly but finished with 25 disposals, five marks, six tackles and three goals.
That saw his value jump by $30,000 overall but he’s still $155,000 down on his pre-season price, making him a worthwhile pick-up.
He’s slowly regaining the faith of the AFL fantasy coaching fraternity, and he now appears in around a quarter of all teams.
Port Adelaide’s best for Round 13
137 - Ollie Wines
128 - Tom Rockliff
124 - Chad Wingard
105 - Robbie Gray
105 - Justin Westhoff
Port Adelaide top 5 for 2018
1217 - Justin Westhoff
1149 - Ollie Wines
1126 - Jared Polec
1104 - Brad Ebert
1048 - Robbie Gray
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