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Why New Club Targeted Him:
General Manager – List & Strategy Craig Cameron said the SUNS were thrilled to secure Ellis. “Brandon has proven his ability at the elite level over the past eight seasons, and we’re excited by the opportunity to add a dual premiership player to our midfield group,” Cameron said. “In line with our strategy, we’re keen to target players who will complement our young group and are committed to helping drive our club forward, Brandon fits that perfectly.”
Impact on the new club:
The Gold Coast wrongly, in my opinion, gets destroyed wrongfully for the current makeup of the list. It’s undoubtedly young and devloping, but they have the core nucleus of a strong midfield, something than Ellis’ outside work will add too significantly. Already they have David Swallow, Anthony Miles, Bayden Fiorini and Touk Miller who currently take the majority of the workload. However, it’s the next generation of players where the real excitement starts.
For example, Will Brodie is a bully who’s developing. Jack Bowes will be a superstar of the competition by the end of 2021. Izak Rankine and Ben Ainsworth will pair as a dynamic 1-2 punch who can hurt you both inside 50 and play a role on the ball. Lachie Weller is a classy user who should get more midfield responsibility.
And that’s before we talk about them securing Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson the clear best two kids available in the draft! While it’s far from all roses at the Suns, things are looking up. As a great runner whether it be getting back to help out defensively, being a link man across the wings or driving the ball inside the Suns forward 50 Brandon will be a great addition on and also off the field for the club.
Impact on the old club:
To be honest, not much! The Tigers are bursting at the seams for talent, and the departure of Ellis means Jack Graham or Sydney Stack role straight into the premiers’ side and possibly a role adjustment for Kane Lambert or Marlion Pickett to play more outside the contest. The latter will be priced as a cash cow and be the most selected player of 2020 after his dominant debut performance on Grand Final day.
Fantasy Summary:
The significant variable here is about if Brandon holds onto his defensive eligibility. If he does, then he looms as a potential premium target we need to place seriously on our watchlists across all formats and platforms of the game. In 2014 and across the full season of 2015 we saw that when Ellis is played as a wingman, he can score well. During those two seasons, he played every game, averaged 99.3 and posted 23 tons in AFLFantasy. While during that same time in SuperCoach he averaged 98 and scored 22 hundred plus scores. Some of those 100+ scores were monsters too, with multiple games going well north of 130.
His scoring deviation for Richmond this year was extreme, with almost 100 points differential between his best and worst. Usually, that might be a concern, but given the multiple roles he played for Richmond (and the fact he’s now moved clubs) mean I’m not too concerned. He walks into Gold Coast as one of the most senior and experienced players on the list and in my opinion, will command a clearly defined outside midfield role.
If he plays wing for Gold Coast and is defensive eligible in fantasy footy, then he’s a serious preseason watchlist. However, as a midfielder, he’d need to elevate his current average (the mid-’80s) into the 100 range to make his selection just scraping worthwhile in the salary cap formats of the game.
It’s dangerous to rule him out of relevancy as we’ve seen historically an ability to score well both in consistency and ceiling. However, right now he’d need to have a compelling preseason to place him on the radar in SuperCoach or AFLFantasy. At this stage, he’s draft relevant only for me.
