Dream Team builder: Grant Birchall

2012 position: defender
2012 price: $443,500
Bye: round 13

Last year's average: 89.7
Last year's high score: 129 (round 10)

Four reasons to have him in your team

1) Spend your hard-earned on Birchall, and you're buying a defender you want to be able to lock into the top line of your Toyota Dream Team and worry about no more. Why is Birchall that man? Last year, following a disappointing 2010, Birch hit his straps. A prolific ball winner whose consistency often outstripped his flashier teammates, he finished third in the Hawks' best and fairest as they came within a magpie's beak of the grand final. His excellent DT season reaped seven tons, after a start to the year that gave little sign of what was to come.  

2) He's like a reliable Heath Shaw. Birchall, who turns 24 this month, offers the Hawks drive from defence and, like Shaw (def, $454,000), is efficient by hand and foot. Although Shaw's Dream Team average is slightly higher, Birchall has played more games than Shaw in each of the last four seasons, and he is a consistent scorer. His 2011 lows of 58, 62 and 63 compare favourably with, say, Corey Enright (def, $454,600) who also dipped below 65 three times last season. Shaw did so four times in the 14 games he managed for the Magpies before getting himself suspended for the final eight rounds. Andrew Carrazzo (def/mid, $454,800), who was in 2400 more Dream Teams than Birchall at the end of last season, returned scores of 37 and 62 and missed six of Carlton's final eight games – his second truncated season in three years.

3) Birchall, along with Matt Suckling (def, $448,900), is one of the beneficiaries of Alastair Clarkson's belief that the best way to beat the forward press is to chip the ball around until you can kick your way through it. His high proportion of kicks to handballs is DT gold, as are his uncontested marks. His 173 grabs in 2011 ranked third in the league behind Travis Cloke and Bryce Gibbs.

4) Clarkson's footy works, and the Hawks are on the rise. Plenty of pundits are tipping them for this year's flag and if that comes to pass Birchall will have been a key ingredient. Few things are sweeter for Dream Team coaches than gun defenders in teams who play in front of their opponents and rarely counter-attack before allowing their backline to rack up fantasy points.

The downside?

While Shaun Burgoyne's silk and Suckling's laser-guided boot drew much of the attention among Hawthorn's running backs, it was Birchall's cool head that ensured the defenders remained a cohesive unit. Should opponents cotton on, he is at risk of being targeted in a way veteran Dream Teamers know and fear. Heath Shaw owners still wake up in the night, pyjamas soaked in sweat as they remember the forward tags which regularly crippled Shaw's output, especially in the 2010 season.

Risk rating: Birchall has enjoyed a full pre-season except for a lighter load before Christmas, and he should provide value for his 2012 price. Two Alan Didaks.

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