Team reveal: Niko drops his 2023 SC squad

As Rainman mentioned in his team reveal last week, it’s full steam ahead on tinkering and overreacting to intraclub and half-hearted practice matches now in the community. 

I’m trying not to make any drastic changes to my structure during this period (2-4-2-4), and to my credit I’ve stuck with this for a while now.  Whether it’s right or not is another matter. 

Let’s have a look at what I’m running with, for the moment anyway as the finger is getting twitchy…

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Defence

Yes, I’ve gone cheap, and I don’t have an uber premium defender… 

It worries me a little but I don’t believe there’s a standout option which forces me to find the $100k required to upgrade Young or Daicos. 

They’ve all got little question marks and are priced close to their peaks.

Other players I’m heavily considering:  One of James Sicily/Tom Stewart/Sam Docherty/Jordan Dawson, Nick Coffield and Lachie Cowan.

Midfield

I’m happy paying up for Laird as he’ll be my safe Captain every week. 

Hopefully I can hit a massive VC score from someone else each week as I’ll be free to experiment a little. 

I did have Touk in there at M2 before the little hammy niggle, so he now turns to Neale. 

I’m expecting spikes from Bont, Green and Hopper so they go in. 

Callaghan is a little different but I’ve heard nothing but good things coming from GWS. 

The rest are pretty standard.  Having Chesser allows a nice swing with Constable and Ginbey.

Other players I’m heavily considering:  Clayton Oliver, Patrick Cripps, Jack Steele, Darcy Parish and LDU.

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Rucks

The same as Rainman!  Which is a little crazy as I thought picking Sean Darcy was a little out there. 

I do think he will be the main man for Freo and Jackson will only pinch hit and play more as a midfielder and forward. 

Marshall is fit and will be the standalone ruck for the Saints. 

The only other in the comp is Jarrod Witts and I can’t force myself to pay dollar for him.

Other players I’m heavily considering:  Tim English, but he’s a pat on the head away from missing a week.

Forwards

I can’t split the big 4 in the forward line, so they all go in. 

Barring injury and intruders, they really should be in the top 6 in the line come seasons end. 

Big watches on Toby McLean and Ben King as my F5 and F6 but I’m confident they can do the job and earn plenty of cash.

Other players I’m heavily considering:  Esava Ratugolea which will give me ruck cover with Madden and may make me opt for Tim English as a starting pick.  Harry Shezeel.

Let me know what you think in the comments and good luck for the season ahead!