The Fantasy Crows take on Port Adelaide this week in the final 'Fantasy Showdown' of 2014 after Adelaide downed West Coast in the latest round of the Official AFL Fan Fantasy league.
While it wasn't Adelaide's day on Saturday against the Eagles, the Fantasy Crows never looked like losing last weekend.
Adelaide scored a league-high 2,222 points for Round 19, which was our second-highest total of the season. The Fantasy Crows finished well above the competition average of 2000 points to notch the team’s 11th win of 2014.
The 19th Man had their say via the Club’s Twitter account following Michael Barlow’s 124-point performance on Thursday night. The fans chose to bank Barlow’s score courtesy of the ‘vice-captains’ loophole rather than throwing the dice on Cats star Steve Johnson.
It was another good call by The 19th Man, as Johnson (67) produced his worst Fantasy performance since Round Nine.
Our own Crows flew in Fantasy pairs last round, with Rory Sloane (108) and Sam Jacobs (108) at the top of the list. Scott Thompson (95) and Matthew Jaensch (95) also matched one another in a solid Fantasy weekend for the Club.
Outside of Stevie-J, it was a magnificent weekend for our Fantasy midfielders. Joel Selwood (137) continued his amazing run of recent form, notching his fourth Fantasy total above 120 from his past five games. Collingwood ball magnet Dayne Beams (136) was also phenomenal with his second ton on the trot against the Power.
The Fantasy Crows had handy contributions down back through Jarrad McVeigh’s (100) third triple-figure total in four games. Pearce Hanley (102) delivered once again following his monster score of 182 the previous round.
Stefan Martin (114), Luke Parker (114) and Jarryd Roughead (106) all exploded in one of the best weeks for our forward line all season.
On the flipside, David Swallow (57) unfortunately injured his leg in Gold Coast’s triumph over St Kilda. The Suns expect the impressive youngster to play this weekend.
Dayne Zorko (57) continued his inconsistent Fantasy season, unable to back up from his 136-point effort in the Round 18 QClash.
The Fantasy Crows must now prepare to tackle Port Adelaide in the final ‘Fan Fantasy Showdown’ of 2014. We have a clean sheet against the Power this season, but all three of our previous encounters have gone down to the wire.
Our starting team looks understandably solid at this late stage of the year, but we could improve our bench cover just in case things turn sour.
Brisbane’s Jack Crisp is the standout cash cow with a break even of -15 after two games with the Lions. Ben Newton and Mitch Honeychurch have failed to live up to Fantasy expectations and could find themselves on the outer.
We could also move on Gold Coast’s Jarrod Harbrow, who has underperformed in recent times, to one of Michael Hurley, Alex Rance or Heritier Lumumba to help prop up our backline.
As always, the all-important captaincy selection requires careful consideration.
Check our winning team below and vote now to continue to have your say in Adelaide’s fan-selected Fantasy team ahead of this weekend’s final Fantasy Showdown.
