OK, SO you have an empty field in front of you and all of this money to fill it … 30 players to select and $11m to spend, but where to start?
Obviously if you jump right in and select all the best players in each position, you will quickly run out of money and have an invalid team. A mix of stars, mid-priced players and rookies who look set to get early games is your best bet to ensure you have a well-rounded team on the park. In an ideal world, we want all of our selected players named in round one to ensure they are not only scoring us points, but increasing their monetary value.
Some factors to keep in mind:
Durability: If you are paying big dollars for a player, you want to know they have a good history of putting games together. If a player has shown an inability to reach 20 games a season over their career, finding a similar priced player who consistently plays 22 is the way to go.
Consistency: As we are faced with a weekly head-to-head match-up in our leagues, a level of consistency is priceless because you don’t want to lose based on one player’s inability to touch the footy on a given week. This is why many coaches put a line through many of the key forwards or defenders that are susceptible to playing ‘lock down’ roles.
Upside: You might see a good player who you think is way under-priced based on what you think they will produce in season 2017. Chances are, you are correct! Players can be priced well under what they are capable due to a number of reasons including injury, form or limited opportunities during the previous season. The ‘banned Bombers’ have all received a discount after missing the full season, so keep an eye on those guys.
Ceiling: If you are picking a player for your leadership group (potential weekly captain) then it is good to know they have the ability to pump out really high scores because the player you select as captain from week to week has their score doubled.
Dual Position Players: Something to keep an eye on is whether a player has more than one position against their name, meaning they are eligible to line up in multiple positions within your team. If a player has ‘DPP’ status they add flexibility to your team, especially when it comes to trading.
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As mentioned earlier a beginner Fantasy coach usually benefits from having a good balance of prices throughout their team, so below I will define each price category and give an example of the type of players to be looking at within each of them.
Premiums: The premiums are the guys that cost you the big bucks and will serve as the rock for your team, keeping your score moving in the right direction each week, so spending up on the right guys is vital. The best example of a safe premium selection is Patrick Dangerfield (MID, $712,000) who played all 22 games for a thumping average of 118. As you can see in my team below, I have taken a risk with a couple of key premiums who have not demonstrated great durability of late by selecting two of my favourite players in Tom Rockliff (MID, $704,000) and Taylor Adams (DEF/MID, $622,000), who I believe will be the two highest averaging players in their respective positions. Max Gawn (RUC, $642,000) is a great premium selection in the ruck department as he demonstrated great durability last season as well as outstanding consistency and ceiling in the second half of the year which equals upside.
Mid-pricers: Selecting too many mid-priced players can be a bit of a trap for young players, but they certainly play a part in most good teams. My favourite option in this category is the Hawks' newly appointed captain Jarryd Roughead (FWD, $373,000) who is enjoying a promising pre-season following a year off. He is a bargain price for a player who has not averaged below 87 in his last four seasons. Isaac Heeney (FWD, $442,000) is another mid-priced player that ticks a lot of boxes. After averaging 73 last season, he looks set to receive more midfield time and has the potential to improve by up to 20 points per game in his traditional breakout year.
Rookies: Picking the really cheap players, whether they are first-gamers or players that have been starved of opportunity for extended periods are vital for your team's cash generation … as well as hopefully producing some decent scores if you have them on your field. The JLT Community Series is a great place to gauge where a young players sits in the pecking order. At this stage I have picked Nathan Freeman (MID, $150,000) who has been in the system for a number of years and is finally enjoying an injury free pre-season, as well as former Roo Aaron Black (FWD, $150,000) who has averaged as high as 76 in the past.
Here is my current team. I have mainly used a ‘Guns and Rookies’ approach, but it means I have been unable to find room for a number of great mid-priced options such as Marc Murphy (MID, $482,000), David Swallow (MID, $355,000) or Michael Hibberd (DEF, $428,000) for example, so find a mix that works for you!
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