AFL Supercoach 2023 – Meet the team

While the Bont was snatched away before I even had a chance to hand him a uniform, we did alright on draft day for AFL Supercoach. And while there’s a few familiar faces on the team list this year, I’m banking on a lot more unknowns (well at least to me) to get me across the line this year…

Farewell to last years Captain

Last year as a Richmond fan, I had my hopes pinned on Dustin Martin from Richmond to be the unstoppable goal kicking machine he’d always been. Only injured for the first few rounds, his return fell quite a few steps short of spectacular status.

Not to worry, Lance Buddy Franklin would fill the gap nicely I thought…only Buddy failed to fire for most of the season (and then pulled a Houdini a few minutes into the Grand Final last year).

What I hadn’t counted on though (my mistake) was how good Bontempelli would be. Solid, dependable and more often than not the player in my former team (The Flavorless Flavs) that would outscore everyone else each and every round. Therefore it wasn’t long before he started to prove he was simply the best of the bunch. And while I promised myself I wouldn’t play favorites in AFL Supercoach 2023, I did look out for The Bont to hopefully jag him before anyone else did.

But as Jim Cornette is fond of saying, ‘Wouldn’t you know who won the pony?’ Frownyjnr swooped in and whisked Bontempelli away before I had a chance to curse him and start a vicious blood feud. So I curse him now, even if he is a fellow Tigers man like yours truly.

Maybe he’s be up for a trade though?

For AFL Supercoach this year it’s time for a new theme

If you’ve followed my ramblings from previous blog Almigo’s Adventures to this one, you’ll know when it comes to my fantasy football, I do love a good (and random) theme. For year one various players were represented by WCW Wrestlers. Last year players were represented by characters right out of the Warhammer 40K universe. This year I’ve decided that the players from my team Feed The Machine will be represented by none other than…bad guys from DC comics.

Why the theme? Because I know a lot more about comics (and WCW and Warhammer 40k) than I do about football and can easily tell a Two Face and a Scarecrow apart than a Hurn and a Scrimshaw in real life. Additionally this will make my updates on my team far more entertaining for anyone who doesn’t follow the AFL (which according to the analytics is a decent chunk of you.) So villains it is then!

And so back for another round..

And in a couple of cases, back for a third round…

Scott Pendlebury MID (Represented by Bane) – Like the Bont, Penders has been stupidly reliable for me time and time again. Players bend down to tie their shoes and somehow do and ACL rubbing them out for 6 weeks? Not Pendlebury. Someone says a nasty word about someone else’s mother, fists are thrown and we’re just a couple of bolts away from having a chair through into the melee? Penders wasn’t involved. While he’s not the highest scoring player in the mix (he’s done alright in a few previous rounds though) he is one of the the most dependable so I’m glad I could grab him again when I saw him.

Shannon Hurn DEF (Represented by Two-Face) – Number 44 (out of hundreds) on the draft, Hurn has as much give as the concrete walls of the Domain tunnel which naturally made him my first pick for DEF. This year in AFL Supercoach I’m hoping he keeps up with his average of 100+ each round because if you’ve been following my journey so far, you’ll know I’m not that great at landing players that can.

Darcy Byrne-Jones DEF (Represented by The Crime Doctor. Yes I have no idea who that is either.) Look cards on the table here, DBJ was one of my last picks to fill the back line before working out who was going to ride the pine bench. By the time I got to his position in the draft (around the 140s) there really wasn’t much jumping out at me at all. And so he’s now part of Feed The Machine on the proviso that he doesn’t fall over a half eaten pie during round one and knock himself out for the next eight rounds. After if he could score some points on occasion, I feel that also would be helpful.

Changjuoth Jiath DEF (bench – represented by ‘Swagman’) – Another of those 3/4 of the way through the year cases of ‘Well half the team has been injured by a freak grass related accident, so I need someone willing and able and I need him last week.’ Jiath was that player who filled that gap. Did he blow my mind with his performance though? Er…I don’t recall. But back again for another season, here’s his chance to show the group what he’s all about!

Oscar McInerney RUC (bench – represented by Airstryke) – My former blog tells me I picked him in the first ever AFL Supercoach draft I was involved in but obviously so much has happened since then, I can’t remember if I dumped him in round two or he somehow lasted the entire year and flew right under my radar (unlikely.) Anyway, he’s back for another round as a backup to Gawn. When Gawn is gone, Oscar steps up. A clever coach always has a plan b you see!

Nick Vlaustin DEF (Bench – represented by someone called Arrokhat)- Once lasted the length of a cup of coffee in my first ever Supercoach squad, getting injured and then subbed out shortly after. Back for another go this year…until he gets injured and subbed out again shortly after.

Introducing the new blood for Feed The Machine!

Max Gawn RUC (Represented by The Joker) – One of the very solid choices in the the top ten and first player picked this year for Feed The Machine when the snake draft finally rolled around to coach ‘me’. While he had his best AFL Supercoach year back in 2020 (based on averages) he has still scored highly in the last couple of years and will hopefully last the year to keep the points from that section coming. And since he’s not the biggest superstar in the team, it’s only fair he’s represented by the King of Villians in the DC world, the one and only Joker.

Jack McCrae MID (Represented by The Penguin) – Interestingly it wasn’t the Forwards top of the draft list for AFL Supercoach season 2023, it was the mids and defense players ranking far higher. So instead of starting off filling up my frontline, I opted to grab some of the higher ranking players…before every other bugger in this league did. Hence McCrae here. Last year he rarely scored less that min 90’s and I’m banking on some big numbers again as part of the mid mob this year.

Isaac Heeney FWD (Represented by Deadshot) – Incredibly Heeney had his best effort in seven years in AFL Supercoach scoring last year, walking away with a solid average of 101.2 across 2022. While that’s not super high compared to some others, it’s a good foundation for a front line I feel (especially when most of the points seem to be coming from the MID’s and DEF players.) Since he’s the first player selected for the front, I’m hoping his prowess rubs off on others there with him…Harmes, I’m looking in your direction. And if he can be half as accurate as Deadshot, well I’ll be a happy Supercoach for sure!

Jack Scrimshaw DEF (Represented by Captain Boomerang)– No not the art of drawing fancy things on Whale Bones, a pretty decent addition to the backline that keeps getting better each and every year he plays. That’s all about the guy I know, apart from the whalebone thing.

Ben Keays MID (Represented by Black Bison) – Does Ben hold the ‘Keays’ to turn the mid line pack into a fighting fury machine? Time will tell. Is this the last time I use a players surname as the basis of a truly terrible joke? Time will tell.

Harry Himmelberg FWD (Represented by Bolphunga the Unrelenting) – What’s worse than my player knowledge in AFL Supercoach? Knowing any players at all from Greater Western Sydney at all, I simply don’t. In fact I know more about the Russian Revolution than I do about GWS and I stopped studying that as a subject back in 1995. Still, in a hilarious turn of events, I now have four from GWS on board and half of them are called Harry. Let’s see how they go!

Harry Perryman MID (Represented by Brimstone) – Unconsciously deciding that one Harry from Greater Western Sydney wasn’t enough, I bagged another for the mid line. Hopefully neither of the Harry’s so far perform a Harry Houdini and disappear right when I need them.

Matthew Kennedy MID (Represented by Brother Grimm) – Mr Kennedy….Kennedy! No wait, that’s a wrestling joke and is so 2009, lets move on. I don’t know much about this Carlton MID (but then again this is me and I don’t know much about most of these players) but as long as he’s helping the midfield to bolster what might just be the score generating part of Feed the Machine then I’ll be happy.

Jesse Hogan FWD (Represented by Charybdis) – Possible distant relation of Hulk Hogan? Possibly not. While I’m not expecting miracles from my part 3 of 4 GWS player acquisition here in AFL Supercoach, I am hoping he stays above an 80 average. Having said that, he might go out and bring in just a single digit score randomly which did happen to me back i in the first round of Supercoach (one of my players went out and returned injured in under 7 minutes. Which was both impressive and incredibly frustrating at the same time!)

James Harmes FWD (Represented by Cicada) – The best of the best (out of the rest that were left). By the time we got to Harmes territory on the rankings, pickings were slim and one players average started to blur into others. Still, he was top of the list when I sorted players by FWD position and by virtue of being up top, he got the nod.

ON THE BENCH

Callan Ward MID Bench (Represented by Cobalt Blue) – There’s a line about cars that have more moving parts having more that can go wrong but I’m not a believer of that because I was a Rx7 driver once and even that engine with just three moving parts had a lot that went haywire when I owned it. Anyway I have five MIDs (actually we all do) and now I have Callan to jump in and fill the gap for anyone that forgers to show.
Hopefully he doesn’t blow an Apex seal my my old rotor was likely to do..

Harry McKay FWD Bench (Represented by Albert Desmond aka Dr Alchemy)– Seriously, anymore players called Harry and we’re going to have to rename the team Feed The Harrys instead. Second last to be picked, he never hit triple figures last year and is here just in case something untoward happens to the front line. Which I sincerely hope doesn’t happen obviously.

And finally..

Jamie Cripps FWD Bench (Represented by the hilariously named Dr No Face) – Last one on the team bus, Jamie had a decidedly average year last year scoring wise. However to his credit he actually showed up when he needed to each and every year and that’s why he’s here – an average player who lasts a season is streets ahead of a superstar who’s leg comes flying off by round five.

So there’s the team, onto round one!

And no starting off easy either – I was hoping to come up against Tip Doggy Dogg who used the auto pick for his team and ended up with 7 injured players because of it. Instead, it’s a big free for all against..

Standby footy fans, update coming soon!