AFL FANTASY ANALYSIS
The contentious trade for Jaeger O’Meara started to pay dividends in 2018 for the Hawks, as for fantasy coaches we started to see that he was relevant again. O’Meara averaged 97.0pts from his opening 16 games of the 2018 H&A season, he averaged 86.4pts from his final 5 games & missed the Semi Final loss to Melbourne through injury.
O’Meara scored 100pts or more in 33.3% of games & 120pts or more from 14.3% of games in 2018, this was a significant improvement compared to 2017.
The injury background for O’Meara will always be a concern for fantasy coaches, after playing in 27.3% of games in 2017 he managed to play in 87.5% of games last season.
The addition of Chad Wingard during the Trade Period may hinder the opportunity growth for O’Meara next season, at the least the Midfield depth increases slightly at the Hawks.
Hawthorn averaged 378.8 Disposals in the 2018 H&A season (Rank 9), the Hawks averaged 393.7 Disposals in the 2017 H&A season (Rank 6).
AFL Fantasy Analysis: Tom Mitchell
Considering O’Meara in season long fantasy comes with a significant amount of risk, he did start to show promise with a few ceiling games last season and with another full pre-season under his belt 2019 may become a career season high fantasy average.
Ownership will likely be low for O’Meara at Round 1 next season, it’s worth keeping an eye on him during the JLT Series because a decent start to the H&A season could be possible & quite unique.
Be prepared for a trade at any stage if you are considering heading down this path.
