The players you pick and the structure you settle on with the forward line loom as one of the big decisions of the 2024 preseason. New Kangaroo Zac Fisher might hold the key that unlocks a successful start to the season. Here’s next up in our 50 most relevant.
WHY IS HE RELEVANT?
One of the great things about fantasy football is that a player can move from obscurity to relevancy in the shape of a moment with the change of just one or two variables. When it comes to Zac Fisher, he’s had two things take place towards the end of 2024 that have ensured we must consider him relevant in classic and draft versions of all formats of the game.
The first of these variables landed in August, where, out of necessity, Carlton was forced to play him across half-back. The second was when he was traded from the Blues to North Melbourne. From the moment Zac Fisher got his opportunity to play as a defender for Carlton, it became apparent to the Blues and, ultimately, his new club, North Melbourne, that finally, he might have found a permanent home for the much-maligned player.
In his defensive debut against the Saints in round 21, he picked up 32 disposals, four rebound 50s, and four clearances and scored a season-high 108 in AFLFantasy/DreamTeam and 126 in SuperCoach. The following fortnight, he played exclusively off half-back and scored 63 and 103 in AFLFantasy/DreamTeam and 53 and 96 for SuperCoach. In this role, his kicking skills and ability to run and carry the footy up the field were displayed and greatly impacted his team.
Zac played 12 games at the AFL level last year; between rounds 1-12, he played eight matches, where he played exclusively across half forward. He averaged 60.5 in AFL Fantasy/DreamTeam and 59.6 in SuperCoach. While he did play half of the game in round 24 across half-back, he was thrown forward during the third quarter, so there is some variable impact on reading too much into the scoring data of that game.
That means between rounds 21-23, he has a three-round sample size of data in the role. He averaged a rolled-up 91.3 in AFLFantasy/DreamTeam in these games and 91.6 for SuperCoach. That’s an increase in scoring in this role of 30.8 in AFLFantasy/DreamTeam and 32 in SuperCoach when contrasting his first eight matches against what he did during these three games. It’s a small sample size of games, but it’s an encouraging trend for us to hold onto this preseason as we await matches in February.
Embed from Getty ImagesMY TAKE
Some players are just born to be strong scorers in fantasy football. Regardless of the role, they find a way to score and be relevant no matter where they are on the ground. Nick Daicos strikes me as someone who could still be a premium playing as a crumbling forward pocket. For others, they’ll only be relevant and worth consideration if the correct role is within their side. This is one of the central considerations to watch with interest in the preseason.
What role does Zac Fisher play inside the new-look North Melbourne Kangaroos? If he returns to the forwardline, where much of his career at Carlton? Or now, at his new club, will he pick up some of the defensive line vacancies left by the retirements of Aaron Hall and Jack Ziebell?
North Melbourne’s general manager of football, Todd Viney, spoke highly of Zac’s skill set when they landed him via a trade. He said, ‘His speed and decision-making with the ball in hand will be a great addition to our club.’ He added, ‘Zac has shown the versatility to play several roles across his 107 games, including as a small forward, off halfback and through the midfield.’
While versatility and flexibility to play multiple roles for your team are important in modern-day football, for us within the fantasy community, there’s only one role we want to see Zac in. Over the past three seasons, the fantasy community have lent heavily to select defenders at North Melbourne. A combination of game style and a high volume of ball inside their defensive fifty has meant that since 2021, we’ve seen multiple players deliver premium-level outputs.
Between 2021 and 2023, Aaron Hall played 37 games across half-back. He averaged 100.5 in AFLFantasy/DreamTeam and 96.8 in SuperCoach, with a career-best season in 2021, where he averaged 108.9 in AFLFantasy/DreamTeam and 105.2 for SuperCoach.
Former club captain Jack Ziebell was also a staple of the Roos defensive unit in both 2021 & 2023. In those seasons, he averaged 100 & 89.6 for AFLFantasy/DreamTeam. It was even stronger in SuperCoach, with averages of 107.6 and 89.5. And then, of course, there’s the outstanding debut year Harry Sheezel when last year he averaged 97.3 AFLFantasy/DreamTeam and 99.5 in SuperCoach.
The most encouraging thing is that neither of these players held down a monopoly of scoring that prevented others around them from scoring. So, should Harry maintain the role he forged across 2023, there’s enough encouragement to suggest that he and Fisher could still score plenty of fantasy points without overly impacting the scoring outputs of the other.
Will North Melbourne continue this trend both in style and team structure? Or, as they continue a rebuild, will we see a development away from what we’ve seen over the past few years? It’s yet another variable to watch and consider over February as intra-club, practice, and preseason matches get underway.
It’s early days in the preseason, but a popular thread of team structural ideology is to spend more salary caps heavily on premium midfielders and then hunt for more value in the forwards. Understandably so. A combination of the following is the primary reason for it.
We’ve got potentially lower top-end ‘must have’ premium options, a potentially low-scoring threshold to be a topline forward this year and a plethora of breakout, fallen premiums and value selections. With these elements together, a player like Zac and many others in his range is so appealing in our start squads. And because of the many options in this range, you can easily move to the midprice forward that does pop if desired. We discussed the idea of asset trading in more depth when we kicked off the 50 most relevant with Connor Macdonald.
North Melbourne holds the round 12 by round, allowing you to have Zac help you through the critical multiple-byes rounds when you might need him the most. Even more helpful would be for him to be a prime candidate for gaining dual position status and become a DEF/FWD at this first allocation after round six.
Zac Fisher is someone that deserves consideration in your starting squad. Should he not hold down a core role across halfback, or we see North Melbourne evolve their style of play during the preseason, he can become someone you can easily fade interest in and turn your attention elsewhere.
Embed from Getty ImagesDRAFT DECISION
One of the greatest variables that can change player rankings quickly in a draft is the timing of when you hold your draft. Do you do it early in February, before any preseason practice matches? Or is it done in the days before the start of the AFL season with all that game data banked? It can see a player who’d be ranked deep into the draft as an option to take inside the top 100 selections suddenly.
This variable could well decide the range of Zac Fisher in 2024. Should he maintain the role and scoring trend from those few games he played in defence at Carlton, he could easily deliver scoring that would place him in contention for the season’s top 10-15 forwards. Equally, should some variables change, he might end up unrosterable and drop into the player pool.
Given the projected low-scoring threshold at the top end of forwards, I can see community members jumping on early and selecting him as highly as their F2. If someone wants him there, that’s fine. That feels high for me, and I’d be more comfortable taking him at an F3 spot at best, treating the forwards with a little more speculation, and picking some flyers later on draft day.
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