Fantasy Draft primer: Must-read tips, sleepers, strategy

IT'S AFL Fantasy Draft season and it's one of the best days on the calendar!

This weekend before round one has traditionally been the best time for leagues to host their AFL Fantasy Draft. If you don't have a league, get your mates together and join in the fun today!

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To have a successful drafting experience, participating coaches have a few boxes to tick in the lead-up to the important day.

You should start by downloading the Draft Kit to help you with your preparation.

Injury news

Before starting your draft, make sure you are up to date with the draftable players who are missing some, or all, of the 2026 season. The last thing you want to do is draft an injured player who is missing the entire season. Not only will you be the laughing stock of your mates, but more importantly... you've also wasted a pick!

Know the draft depth

In a league consisting of 12 coaches, using a 3-4-1-3 (4) structure, a total of 180 players will need to be selected.

FANTASY DRAFT KIT Click here to download your draft bible

Whether it's a small league with under 150 picks, or a deep league with over 250 players drafted (good luck), you'll need to know the depth of players available across each position.

The table below demonstrates the number of players and where they sit in their respective positions based on their 2025 averages.

The midfielders always offer the most depth on draft day, but as we have found over the last few seasons, so do the defenders.

Late in the draft you'll be able to find a good defender. There are 55 defenders available who averaged 70-plus and when you compare this to the 32 forwards available, you can quickly see which positions run thin as the draft goes on.

Mock drafts

Leading into your draft day, preparation is the key.

Mock drafts are now available where you can participate against others and experiment with selecting players using different picks. This is important as your strategy with pick No.1 is going to be very different compared to a mid-round pick or a selection towards the very end.

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

Top picks based on ADP

The ADP is the average draft pick. This ADP data has been made up of the thousands of drafts that have already been completed this pre-season, and you can use this information to your advantage.

So far this season we have seen the top 12 players picked in this order.

Pick No.1 – Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (DEF)
Pick No.2 – Harry Sheezel (MID/FWD)
Pick No.3 – Nick Daicos (MID)
Pick No.4 – Bailey Smith (MID)
Pick No.5 – Max Gawn (RUCK)
Pick No.6 – Marcus Bontempelli (MID)
Pick No.7 – Tristan Xerri (RUCK)
Pick No.8 – Tim English (RUCK)
Pick No.9 – Lachie Whitfield (DEF)
Pick No.10 – Josh Dunkley (MID)
Pick No.11 – Zak Butters (MID)
Pick No.12 – Brodie Grundy (RUCK)

See that? Four rucks feature on the list. Rucks are hard to come by in draft and slide off the table very quickly as you can see. Grabbing a ruck early is vital. The top-tier rucks can average 110-plus and if you miss one of the big boys early... good luck finding another capable of averaging 90-plus. This can – and will – be a gamechanger!

Value picks based on ADP

Sorting your draft rankings using the ADP is a great indicator of who you could be picking next. But the true value of ADP is finding the hidden gems (or sleepers) later in the draft.

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Here are some players that have been taken from outside the top 100 picks that you should consider, based on their potential upside and pre-season scores.

DEFENDERS
106 – Sam Banks
145 – Lawson Humphries
174 – Caleb Windsor
202 – Wil Powell
207 – Lachlan Blakiston

MIDFIELDERS
100 – Marcus Windhager
101 – Jagga Smith
124 – Harley Reid
197 – Stephen Coniglio
236 – Harry Rowston

RUCKS
107 – Sam Draper
173 – Mark Blicavs
179 – Lachlan McAndrew

FORWARDS
102 – Joel Freijah
114 – Mattaes Phillipou
121 – Jordan De Goey
130 – Murphy Reid
220 – Connor Budarick

Make sure you have your pre-draft rankings set and place these players in your rankings based on where you would be happy to take them. However, if you are someone who likes to do things at the last minute, Warnie has his rankings in there to assist you along the way.

Good luck, have fun and ... happy drafting!

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