Elliot Yeo has been a dependable and consistent premium for multiple years. However, an injury derailed his 2020 season. Can he bounce back for us in 2021?
PLAYER PROFILE
Name: Elliot Yeo
Age: 27
Club: West Coast Eagles
Position: Midfield
2020 Highest Score:
104 Vs Gold Coast (AFLFantasy)
121 Vs Sydney (SuperCoach)
Career Highest Score:
152 Vs Fremantle | AFLFantasy (2017)
150 Vs Gold Coast | SuperCoach (2018)
2020 Average:
71.2 (AFLFantasy) | 89 (Adjusted Average)
89.9 (SuperCoach)
SuperCoach Price: $483,000
AFLFantasy Price: $679,000
AFLDreamTeam Price: $657,400
WHY IS HE RELEVANT?
2020 was a frustrating season for West Coast and specifically Elliot Yeo. After missing only two games over the previous three seasons having Yeo play just 10 games was a huge disappointment. His absence in the back half of the season was certainly noticed, and the club’s finals campgain could’ve ended differently had he played.
The cause of injury was an ongoing groin complaint that ultimately ended his season despite multiple play attempts. Every game he did play, Elliot was under increasing physical duress as he tried valiantly to play.
In AFLFantasy/DreamTeam he averaged 71.5 (adjusted 89) and scored 1 ton and had 6 additional scores between 67-80. If you want to play the ‘adjusted averages scores’ then that’s a scoring range between 83-100.
SuperCoach was a more positive result. He scored a ton in 5 of his 10 matches, had just 2 scores below 70 and ended the season with an average of 89.9.
As the year went on, it was just obvious that his ongoing groin issue was impacting his ability to get around the ground. The Eagles tried to rest him up for finals, but eventually, they couldn’t get him back and took a long term approach in the hope to get him right for 2021 and beyond.
Before 2020, he’d been a durable and consistent performer. If Yeo can return to his 2019 or his personal best the year of 2018, there are almost 20 points per game available in SuperCoach and 15 in AFLFantasy.
His 2019 season consisted of 21 games, and in SuperCoach he averaged 107. He posted 12 tons, five of them over 120 and only dipped his scoring beneath 80 in just two matches. For AFLFantasy he averaged 102, scored 11 tons and had just 3 scores under 80 all year.
2018 was a similar story, except he played all 22 games that year. In SuperCoach he averaged 107 (again) scored tons in 15 matches, and 7 were over 120. In AFLFantasy, he averaged 106 registered 14 tons with 6 of these above 120.
Over the last three seasons, Elliot Yeo has played 53 home and away games. In that time he’s scored 32 SuperCoach, on average that’s a ton in 60% of games played. While in AFLFantasy he’s scored a ton in 51% of games over the previous 3 seasons. It’s not Tom Mitchell, Lachie Neale or Jack Macrae type frequency, but for what you are paying there aren’t many who can compete with that scoring level.
Embed from Getty ImagesMY TAKE
The return to full health of Elliot Yeo is a key in the Eagles premiership hopes. In the midfield of the Eagles, they have the outside endurance king with Andrew Gaff. They possess dynamic XFactor with Luke Shuey and Tim Kelly, while Dom Sheed and Jack Redden are important role players. But none of them can replicate the importance of Yeo to that midfield unit. His work defensively around the ground, his aerial ability and hulking frame make him the perfect complimentary piece to this midfield core.
Elliot Yeo and potential owners’ biggest concern isn’t his scoring potential or having us receive a great return on investment. The issue is that he’s still not back into full preseason work.
He is still returning from his groin injury (aka OP) and is yet to start participating in the full running drills. With the AAMI community series just weeks away that starts to become concerning if he’s not playing in these games, you need to rule him out as a starting squad candidate.
That doesn’t make him irrelevant for the year, not at all. While Yeo is closer to being a 100-105 midfielder than 110+ his past few years shows us that he’s capable of going on 6-8 week stretches where he averages north of 115. As an in-season trade, if you can time the run correctly, you’ll get a high volume return on a low financial investment.
He’s not the 110+ guy. Rather he’s a seasonal 105 option – However, he does have a ceiling. If he gets off to a hot start, he’ll give you strong value return.
I currently have Yeo on my preseason watchlist. If he can have a faultless rest of the preseason, play in the community series and move freely then he’s got 15-20 points of value in him. And he’s good enough to be a M8 by seasons end. If not, then he’ll on the watchlist as trade target for midseason.
DRAFT DECISION
Where Elliot Yeo goes on your draft day will be determined by 2 things. One when you host it in contrast to the season starting. And secondly, how Yeo is travelling.
I believe this season that if you don’t land some quality forwards in the draft early in 2020, you could be in trouble. This year given the lack of depth in this line, we might prioritize them more than usual.
Because of this, a player of Yeo’s scoring potential regardless of injury concerns, will slide later than he has for the past few seasons.
If you really want to own him, you’ll probably have to use an M3 position on him. However, that’s ‘worst’ case scenario in terms of how early he goes. What’s more likely is he’s an M4 off the board, maybe even 5 if people have low confidence in his body.
Personally, I’d love to take him at M4, and then support this pick by drafting an extra midfield bench depth spot incase he struggles early on.
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