RANKING season is upon us! While the actual draft day is what most Toyota AFL Fantasy Draft coaches enjoy the most, the preparation can be just as fun.

Fantasy footy is all about making predictions.

Heading into your Fantasy Draft, you compile your pre-draft rankings. This is the list that will help you when your live draft is on. Basically, you’re putting the players in order of when you’d like to pick them.

Sometimes it can be splitting hairs. Who do you pick between Melbourne premiership heroes Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca? Or which Bulldog forward do you take out of Adam Treloar and Josh Dunkley?

Plenty of factors go into draft rankings. Previous scores, such as last year’s average, is a good place to start. However, durability is rated highly by expert Fantasy Draft coaches as you need to be on the park to score. That’s why Jack Crisp, who hasn’t missed a game since 2014, is a safe pick.

You can’t just purely draft on previous averages; you have to project into the future. Which players will increase their output based on opportunity? Who benefits (or suffers) from personnel changes?

And of course, there’s the gut feel … and picking players you like!

Once you’ve set up your league, you can start tinkering with your rankings. It’s a good idea to think about them by position to begin with and then slot them where you think they’d fit overall.

Defenders

I’ve succumbed to Roy and Calvin knocking me and reinstated Aaron Hall as my No.1 defender. I’m bullish on Jake Lloyd retaining the mantle as the best Fantasy defender in the game but you can’t argue with Hall’s 120 average after gaining ‘the role’.

Getting a defender who can average 80-plus with your first three picks down back should be your goal. I’ve got a few players who could get into that territory that will be well down draft boards based on last year’s averages. Darcy Tucker and George Hewett look like having Fantasy-friendly midfield roles this year and should be bumped up your pre-draft order.

Midfielders

I’ll be taking tackling machine Jack Steele if I end up with pick one in any of my Draft leagues. An average of 134 post-bye last year makes him a cracking captain. Touk Miller slips below the ever-reliable Tom Mitchell and Jack Macrae.

You can throw a blanket over the next couple of groups of midfielders. There are usually about 10 or so players who average more than 110 and a further 15 who are in the 100-110 range. I’ve kept that in mind when ranking my players as to where they’ll fit. The top 25 will average triple figures, while the next 15 will produce 90-plus returns.

Rucks

The ruck pig, Brodie Grundy, will go in the first few picks overall and Max Gawn won’t be too far behind. If I don’t get either of those, I’ll just settle on a ruck in the later rounds who will give me 85 points per week. The ‘punt rucks’ strategy has been successful with some players beyond the 10 listed also offering some value to be picked up late; possibly bench options if your late round ruck doesn’t fire.

Forwards

The quality of forwards thin out quicker than any other line. With just 14 players of this year’s FWD eligible players averaging 80 or more, if you don’t target a big gun forward early on, you could end up with a weak line.

Square away a dual-position forward by the third round but don’t be scared to find some value later in the draft. We often see a lot of the top listed forwards play through the midfield and those 70-odd averages become 80-plus quite easily. Isaac Heeney, Zak Butters and Tom Powell are among the players I believe will outperform their 2021 average off the back of increased midfield usage.

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