THE MID RANGE WFB?
One mans trash is another man’s treasure is what could be used to describe Nick Meaney’s career trajectory, as he was an average winger and fullback for the bulldogs two years ago but now finds himself as not only the 2nd string fullback for the Melbourne storm and 1st choice goalkicker but also fantasy relevant for a change.
Meaney is priced around 40pts at 576k ,which is a lot to invest in a wfb this early in fantasy and goes against most people’s strategy to start this season. Don’t discount Meaney just yet, with a 6 game sample and a 48pt average at fullback there’s already some value up for grabs here.
With Melbourne’s opening draw of Eels, Bulldogs, Titans and Tigers, it wouldn’t be farfetched to say that Meaney could push into a low 50s average after the first 4 rounds, even then Meaney doesn’t struggle that much against better sides, with an average of 45pts in 3 games against top 4 sides last year, and an average of 50pts in 3 against middle 8 teams.
There’s also mail floating around that Papenhuyzen is set to be sidelined for an extended period and Munster would play fullback in defence switching with Meaney to then play 5/8 in attack and vice versa, some might see this as a red flag but I beg to differ.
| Position | Avg tackles | Avg missed | Avg meter gain | Base split |
| fullback | 3 | 1 | 150m (15pts) | 16pts |
| 5/8 | 20 | 2 | 65m (6pts) | 22pts |
Basically what this tells us is that Meaney is going to get all the attacking advantage of playing out the back that a fullback gets and all the defensive work of a 5/8 defending in the middle of the field, which if we project would look something like this:
| Tackles | Meters gain | goals | negatives | Total base |
| 20 | 100m (10pts) | 3pg (6pts) | 3mts 1 error (-8) | 28pts |
Meany is almost entering must have territory with this type of base, meaning he would only need one measley try to break into the high 40s per game. If Meaney ends up with this role I don’t see anything less then a 50 avg with upside into the mid 50s during this period.
Given the Plethora of wfb cheapies this year, an exit strategy if Papenhauyzen comes back early would be pretty easy to execute but I don’t think you’ll have to think about that for a while, With Melbourne’s first bye not being in till round 9 and the massive upside (mid 50s avg) vs risk (mid 40s avg) here I think Meany (1.5% owned currently) should be seriously considered by more coaches as a cut price keeper or stepping stone to a gun.
BUY.
INTERN AUSTIN
Amateurs Fantasy Sports 