Tom Blamires Is Printing Money and Nobody's Watching

There's a bloke at North Melbourne averaging 78 from a $176,900 buy-in with a breakeven of 26, and your league probably isn't talking about him.

That's the Tom Blamires situation. No hype. No speculation. Just the highest value score in the entire SuperCoach 2026 signal board — 10.995 — and a cash generation rate of $19,450 per round that no other MID in the competition can match right now.

The Cash Cow Maths

Run the numbers and there's nowhere to hide.

• Buy at $176,900
• Averaging 78 against a breakeven of 26
• That's a 52-point surplus every single round
• Cash generation rate: $19,450/round
• Three-week price projection: $286,149
• Profit from buy-in: $109,249 in three rounds

His season average of 74.5 is being dragged down by his opening rounds. The rolling 3 of 78.0 is where he's at right now — and it's trending upward. His price hasn't caught up yet. That's the window.

The Consistency Story Is the Real Argument

Most coaches focus on ceiling. Blamires is the floor argument.

His scoring standard deviation is 6.16. His floor is 70. His ceiling is 85. His consistency index is 0.917.

That last number is the one that matters. A 0.917 consistency index means in almost any given round, you can expect Blamires to land between 70 and 85. He's not going to post 53 against Sydney when the conditions turn greasy. He's not going to disappear when North Melbourne's midfield gets crowded late in a game.

For context: the FWD cash cows getting all the attention right now have consistency indices in the 0.77 range and floors in the 50s. Blamires's floor is 70.

At a $176,900 entry point — effectively a DEF-priced MID — that combination of price, cash gen, and consistency is the rarest thing in the game this season. You're not making a trade-off. You're picking the best of every column.

How He Compares to the Other MID Options

The honest comparison, using current data:

Willem Duursma (West Coast, MID — $270,000, rolling 3 avg: 89.3, BE 40, cash gen $13,300/round): Averaging more and the ceiling is higher at 104, but he costs $93k more to buy. His breakeven is 40, meaning he needs more production just to stay in the green. Cash gen rate is $6,150/round lower. For pure value per dollar invested, Blamires wins by a margin.

Jagga Smith (Carlton, MID — $206,600, rolling 3 avg: 88.7, BE 30, cash gen $9,633/round): Smith is clearly more than a cash cow — ceiling is 113, averaging nearly 89. But his SD is 19.6 and floor is 65. You're paying $30k more for a player whose cash gen rate is barely half of Blamires's. Smith is a keeper play, not a cash cow play.

The conclusion is the same from every angle: for pure cash generation per dollar invested, Blamires is the best option on the MID board right now.

Round 4: North Melbourne vs Carlton at Home

Blamires has a home game in Round 4 — North Melbourne host Carlton on Thursday afternoon. It's not a holiday fixture. Carlton are improved and their midfield has bite. But this isn't a shutdown defensive structure, and playing at home for a mid-table rebuilding side means Blamires gets his usage.

His average is trending up. His price is still catching up. You want to own him before Round 4 lockout, not after.

What Holding Him Actually Opens Up

The $109k gain over three weeks is the headline. But what it opens up is the real story.

If your other cash cows are maturing at the same time — even modestly — a combined cash injection of $200k+ before the bye rounds is what funds the premium upgrades that actually win competitions. You're not buying Blamires for his ceiling. You're buying him because his cash generation is what makes the premium slot possible.

At $286k in Round 6, you've got a clean sell into a genuine mid-tier upgrade. Or you let him keep running — at a 26-point breakeven, there's no structural pressure to force the trade at a bad time.

Either path works. That's what good cash cows do: they give you options, not obligations.

The Call

Blamires is a lock before Round 4 if you have the MID spot.

He's not going to post 110. He won't be screenshot material on BigFooty after a monster game. But three rounds from now, the coaches holding him will have $110k more to spend than the coaches who glanced at the name, didn't recognise it, and moved on.

That money goes somewhere that wins points.

Data current as of Round 3 analytics. Price projections are estimates based on current rolling averages. Always check official AFL team sheets before lockout.