FOOTY is back on Wednesday! This weekend before the action kicks off has traditionally been the most popular time for Toyota AFL Fantasy Draft days (or nights) to occur.

You’ve got your league set up. Check. Everyone has registered and joined. Check. The commissioner has gone into Settings, Manage Teams and clicked ‘finalise participants’ (this is important!!). Check.

Now you’re ready to draft.

FANTASY DRAFT KIT Click here to download your draft bible

(It’s not too late to sign up! Get a crew of mates organised and set up a Fantasy Draft league from as few as four coaches right through to 20 for a fun, live draft experience).

The doyens of Fantasy Draft are the popular Draft Doctors crew who regularly state that you don’t win your draft league on draft day … but you can lose it. Being prepared for the draft and playing it safe can

Tips for commissioners

As the boss of the league, make sure you’ve got the following covered:

Finalise participants (Settings > Manage Teams via the website). In order to have the league start scheduled. If it has moved, once the finalised participants button has been pressed, you are able to change the draft time. If you’re having other tech issues, please hit up support. 

Change draft order (Settings > Manage Draft Order). For a bit of extra fun, many leagues like to add to their drafting experience a draft order determination event. If you are editing this, it must be completed two hours before the draft is scheduled to commence. 

Get everyone organised. Get the group chat fired up and build some anticipation. Get league entry fees paid before the draft if you’ve got a prize pool for your league. Ensure all coaches know what time the draft starts as well as details of settings such as pick times and squad size. Also, you could consider a punishment for the wooden spooner so everyone is taking it seriously. 

Listen to the AFL Fantasy Podcast with The Traders at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Tips for coaches

While your commissioner has a big job to do, the biggest job of all is making sure you’re set for the draft.

Download the Draft Kit. Your bible prior and throughout the draft is The Traders’ Official AFL Fantasy Draft Kit. The free 30-page document includes Roy, Calvin and Warnie’s rankings with stats from prior seasons as well as a mock draft and their sleepers to consider.

FANTASY DRAFT KIT Click here to download your draft bible

Set your pre-draft rankings. Before the draft, you should adjust the rankings so that when it comes to draft day – especially if you’re under the pump of the time limit or under the influence – you are making decisions you’re comfortable with. It saves some panic! Using the Draft Kit rankings, the averages from last year and the ADP are all part of the picture when ranking and drafting your players.

Sort out your technology. Whatever device you’re using, make sure you’re fully charged or have access to power. If you’re drafting on your laptop, having your phone with the app is handy if the internet drops out.

Get your banter on. Be the first to call out "reach" when someone has gone a bit early on one of their pre-season fliers. Throw out some false information about an injury you "heard" about which another coach may research as their clock is ticking down.

Drafting strategy

Every draft is different as there are a range of customisable settings, but quite a few trends have emerged when coaches have discussed their Fantasy Drafts.

The key takeaway is that the Fantasy talent pool in the forward line dries up quickly. If you want a gun or two, you’re going to have to go early as just 13 players available as a FWD this season averaged more than 80 points.

Compare this to the 28 defenders, there’s definitely more depth in the backline. 25 midfielders averaged 100 or more while another 18, brining the total to 43, averaged 90-plus. The moral of the story here is that you’re going to end up getting a quality MID later in the draft than you are in comparison to a DEF or especially a FWD.

FANTASY DRAFT KIT Click here to download your draft bible

If you’ve got captains on, look at grabbing a midfielder to skipper your side in the first round and then look around at the other positions. The ruck is similar in the sense that if you miss one of the big two (Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy), you can potentially wait until the end as the next group, or tier, of rucks will most likely average 85-95.

Understanding the spread of scorers for each position is important. If you’re playing in a 10-coach league with a 3-4-1-3 on-field structure like the one outlined in the Draft Kit, the base average based on 2021 numbers for the last on-field position would have been 80 for defenders, 89 for midfielders, 83 for rucks and 73 for forwards. Keep this in mind when you’re taking a player at a certain pick. Will they perform around others in the same range?

Value picks based on ADP

Thousands of drafts have been completed already with thousands more expected prior to the first bounce of the season. ADP (average draft pick/position) is the average picks of all players who have been drafted so far this pre-season.

Some of the league winning picks come in the back end of the draft. The sleepers that outperform their draft value that can step up, sometimes from the bench, to lead you to premiership glory.

Players being taken from pick 100 on that you could consider based on their potential upside and pre-season scores:

DEFENDERS
100 – Bailey Dale (23rd DEF)
115 – George Hewett (28th DEF)
152 – Justin McInerney (38th DEF)
177 – Bradley Hill (46th DEF)

MIDFIELDERS
119 – Noah Anderson (57th MID)
146 – Jye Caldwell (70th MID)
164 – Jarrod Berry (77th MID)
166 – Patrick Lipinski (78th MID)

RUCKS
110 – Toby Nankervis (11th RUC)
115 – Sam Draper (17th RUC)

FORWARDS
135 – Connor Rozee (28th FWD)
160 – Will Brodie (34th FWD)
199 – Daniel Rioli (45th FWD)

PICK 200+
219 – Brayden Preuss (21st RUC)
229 – Chad Warner (98th MID)
233 – Zac Fisher (57th FWD)
257 – Heath Chapman (65th DEF)
258 – Archie Perkins (66th FWD)

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