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It came as no surprise that Jake Kelly was one of the first deals finalised from the offseason. The former Crow moved seamlessly into the red and black of Essendon and immediately helps bolster an already potent backline.
Career High SuperCoach Score: 121 vs Hawthorn (2018)
Career High SuperCoach Average: 74.8 (2019)
Career High AFLFantasy Score: 105 vs Melbourne (2019)
Career High AFLFantasy Average: 67 (2019)
Embed from Getty ImagesImpact on New Club
The Essendon football club exceeded many expectations in 2021. And the arrival of Jake Kelly while not a glamorous addition, will round out their defensive unit nicely. He’s not a fashionable player, but defnesively he’s effective. For proof, check out this tweet from Champion data.
The inclusion of Kelly into the Bombers defensive unit will allow Jordan Ridley to move back into a more play making and intercept defensive role. Which as I’ll discuss shortly, is a positive addition for us fantasy coaches.
Impact on Old Club
With Jake Kelly departing the club, it further allows Matthew Nicks’ Crows to embrace the rebuild. As well, it means Adelaide can now look at multiple avenues to fill the gap. I believe the best available replacement for Kelly is Josh Worrell. The former top 30 draft pick boasts a similar skill set to Kelly: the ability to play a lockdown role on either the smaller or taller opposition forwards.
Additionally, Worrell (20) has impressive closing speed and penetrating left foot seen as key strengths. It should be a seamless transition of Worrell for Kelly and allow the Crows the flexibility of playing Doedee as the intercepting specialist.
Fantasy Summary
Beyond a handful of matches across his 100+ game career as a Crow he’s not been a reliable scoring option. That’s including in draft formats. He’s still yet to average 75 across a full season and at Essendon I don’t see that happening with Dyson Heppell, Nic Hind and Jordan Ridley in the side. That said, Kelly is fantasy relevant. Not because of him, but what it does for Jordan Ridley and Josh Worrell.
At Essendon it frees up ridley from needing to play as an accountable tall, and rather allow him to be come the interceptor and playmaker we saw earlier in the season. In the opening 10 games of the season his lowest non injury impacted SuperCoach score was 84 and it included some monster tons including a 136 & 147. While in AFLFantasy during the same stretch he only once fell below 77 (injury game removed) and popped three score 109 or above.
With Kelly playing a lockdown role it enables Ridley to be freed up from playing a more accountable defensive role which he was forced to play towards the seasons end.
The depature of Jake will also mean Josh Worrell will be a viable starting squad cash cow option at Adelaide.
