DREW Petrie has been rightly elevated to the Toyota AFL Dream Team Hall of Fame after his score of 106 last week against Port Adelaide marked a stunning stretch of form. For anyone who doubted Petrie as a premium Dream Team player, they need only look at his last six games. Petrie has scored 125, 109, 101, 100, 94 and 106, and lifted his average to 93 for the year. Given his dual position status, Petrie can float between the ruck and our forward lines and be just as imposing and effective in either position. Well deserved, Drew.
Hall of Shame
It's not his fault that he keeps pinging his hamstring, but Cyril Rioli's injury troubles have caused a lot of distress for Dream Teamers. Rioli is still averaging 86, despite leaving the field last Friday against Essendon with a score of 67, but his season has been extremely frustrating for anyone who has kept the faith in the brilliant forward through his injury setbacks. Since round two, Rioli has scored over 100 only once, but this is an injury-induced Shame induction, not based purely on form.
Keep
I'm keeping Essendon's Michael Hibberd. He scored only 51 last week against Hawthorn (his lowest score of his seven games), however, he has been invaluable this year as a dual position player capable of covering players missing with byes. I realise a lot of Dream Teamers would see Hibberd's score and think he has reached his price ceiling and is set to drop, but I disagree. Hibberd's average of 72 suggest that 51 points against the Hawks was just an ugly blip on the radar.
Trade
It hasn't been a great season for Michael Hurley at Essendon. The talented key position player has been playing mainly up forward for the Bombers in 2011 but has struggled to find his mojo, save for an excellent performance against North Melbourne in round 13 when he scored 103 points. Last week against Hawthorn, the 21-year-old scored only 40 points. His value has dropped to $237,100, and I'd be downgrading him and cutting your losses because his consistency isn't quite there as a DT option just yet.
Invest
Ryan Griffen has had an outstanding season and deserves to be in a lot more teams than only 7646, which accounts for less than three per cent of the competition. This year, the dynamic Western Bulldogs on-baller has surpassed the 100-point barrier in 10 of his 13 games. His most recent outing (126 against the Gold Coast last week) was his second highest score of the year, but Griffen just keeps on delivering excellent scores, despite playing in a less successful team this year than in the previous three seasons. The best thing about Griffen is his cheap price - only $369,600. With Jobe Watson injured with another hamstring strain, Griffen could be the ideal replacement.
New kid on the block
With many ruck departments savaged for this week through injury (Aaron Sandilands), the bye (Dean Cox) or just plain rubbish form (Patrick Ryder), a young, cheap rucking option is on the cards for a lot of us. That man could be Port Adelaide's Matthew Lobbe who picked up 14 possessions, six marks, 24 hit-outs and laid five tackles to score 95 points in his first game this season last week against North Melbourne. It's always dangerous to buy a player off of just one game, but Lobbe could fill an immediate hole in your team.
That hurts
Coaches were hurt badly by Fremantle ruckman Aaron Sandilands and his recurring toe injury, but the fact is you should have traded him out when he got injured last time. With Jobe Watson, though, the Essendon skipper was always only going to miss two Bombers games with his first hamstring injury (and another round when Essendon had the bye.) Nobody thought that Watson would be able to return immediately to his best, but nobody believed he would strain his other hamstring in his third game back and score only 33 points against Hawthorn. That, as the title suggests, really hurt.
Last word
How good was Corey Enright on the weekend? The Geelong defender had 101 points to half-time against Adelaide on Sunday and finished with 153 next to his name. He, and Fremantle's Greg Broughton, who scored 138 points on the weekend, have been fairly priced defenders for weeks and were primed to come through with a big score each soon enough. They both delivered in round 14.
