Chad Wingard can do things on a football field that others can only dream of doing. When at his peak Wingard is one of the most spectacular players in the league. He has speed, XFactor, remarkable goal sense, a more than useless overhead mark and can win his own ball when released into the midfield. On multiple occasions he’s been the difference in his team winning a game of football, something Hawks fans will have great anticipation about.
Despite having some highly scrutinised short comings as a footballer (most notably around his consistency) when he’s on, he’s an almost impossible matchup. In the past 5 years he’s made the All-Australian side, won Port’s Best and Fairest, won a showdown medal and been the Powers leading goal kicker for multiple seasons.
When given time to move up the field outside 50 this is when his fantasy numbers sky rocket, this was most evident this year. Prior to the bye Chad had only one score over 90, but from round 12 onwards he averaged 103 in SuperCoach including 8 hundreds and 96 in AFLFantasy with 5 tons. As crafty and damaging a footballer he is inside 50, his fantasy relevance booms when he’s given large chunks of game time as a midfielder.
What role will he play at his new club? While we’ll need to wait until the JLT community series to be certain, I believe he’s been recruited (in part) to fill the void of the retired club legend Cyril Rioli. Whom while spending some time in the middle was largely left to create headaches for defenders inside the hawks. Keep him on your watch-list, but don’t be surprised if his fantasy numbers continue to deviate like at Port.